Aug 30, 2019
I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY had the honor of talking with Jennifer Marcial Ocasio, Editor of El Sentinel Orlando, about the life of a journalist and how she navigates covering stories where she doesn't agree at all with the narrative of the people she’s interviewing. While she’s learned how to separate herself from her personal feelings making sure to carefully quote her subject matters when what they are saying does not align with her values, she also cannot feel disconnected to the adversity and attacks suffered by the Latino community she belongs to: “We are all about the facts and presenting all sides of stories, because sometimes stories have more than two sides. But the fact that we are unbiased at this time and this era – it’s kind of impossible. I’m a woman. I’m Latina. I’m living in the U.S., and we have all these messages towards women, towards Hispanics. It’s difficult, it’s impossible to talk to families that are literally crying their eyes out in front of you and be like – ‘I don’t care. I’m unbiased’. You’re a human being! It’s a huge discussion that we’ve had at different journalism groups."