By Ana Milena Varón |
Los Angeles (USA) (EFE).- Colombian journalist Ilia Calderón, the first Afro-Latina to present a national newscast in Spanish in the United States, advocates giving more visibility to femicides both in this country and in Latin America to achieve “a real change” in facing this scourge.
“There are signs and lessons to be learned so that these cases are not repeated, so that another family does not experience it,” he said in a telephone conversation with EFE regarding the launch of his new program, “Signs of Crime with Ilia Calderón.”
The 53-year-old communicator proposes giving more voice to the relatives of the victims, since in her more than 25 years of journalistic experience she has verified that there is a deep need among those affected to count the cases to ensure that “not one more” die.
He perceives that, in their search for justice, the parents, children, other relatives and friends of the victims carry out a conscientious analysis of how these tragedies could have been avoided. “The desire of the families is to make their loved one and their case visible, and it is our task to give them a voice,” he said.
His fight against racism
Calderón, born in Chocó, an impoverished region on Colombia’s Pacific coast, has been a champion in the fight against hate crimes, especially those related to race and gender.
She confesses that in her life she has had to fight to break two barriers: being a woman and being black. “Both have affected me,” she maintained.
In the past, she has given battle to racism, which has accompanied her since she was a child, when a classmate in Colombia told her at the age of ten that “negro ni mi caballo”, and in the United States when her daughter When she was four years old, other girls criticized her at school for the color of her face.
With her work, the journalist has tried to give visibility to this problem. She won an Emmy Award for a 2017 interview with a Ku Klux Klan member in which she sought answers to why people hate the black race, just when white nationalism had gained ground in the United States.
He received threats and insults, such as that he was “a monstrosity” and an “inferior person.” These attacks did not stop her, and on the contrary have strengthened her objective of informing the Spanish-speaking community of this problem.
The Colombian published in 2020 her book “It’s my turn: A journey in search of my voice and my roots”, where she exposes racism as a topic present in society.
“Signs of Crime with Ilia Calderón”
Now he has wanted to put his grain of sand in the fight against hatred of women. “If we see the origin of femicide, it is hate. It begins with hatred, with machismo, with misogyny that ends with the murder of a woman for being a woman, ”she explained.
It is a reality that he has portrayed in 13 chapters of his program with cases in El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico and the United States, a country that, he stresses, is no stranger to this problem and for this reason he has included several cases in his investigation.
The program, which has the voices of experts and activists, is broadcast on the ViX platform, a bet with which Calderón wants to advance his career to reach a larger audience.
Recognize that television news consumption is changing. “Young people consume news and television in a different way; it is a reality that we cannot deny”, maintains the Colombian, who considers that it is necessary to follow the preferences of the public.
“We know. It’s going to change, in a few years people won’t be watching the Univision newscast like they are today at half past six. So we have to find another way to continue doing investigative and in-depth journalism that makes sense and leaves a lesson, ”he emphasized.
It also calls on the public to verify the information they consume “in order to make better decisions.”