Feb 28th, 2009
Reporting from Sevilla
I’m a news writer for the Cornell Daily Sun, and when one of the editors contacted me about writing an article regarding Spanish students’ perceptions of the Gaza conflict, I was intrigued; Israel’s retaliatory rocket attacks on Gaza has sparked tremendous discussion and debate on Cornell’s campus, and I knew that I could make an interesting comparison with the decidedly more polarized sentiments at the University of Seville.
However, the fact of this notable ideological difference between the college campuses was not the most exciting thing for me about writing this article, because before I even began I had a pretty good (and accurate) guess of what I would encounter: unequivocal support for the Palestinians and a complete lack of a pro-Israel voice.
While I was eager to share my findings about Spanish students’ opinions with the Cornell community, I found the very process of interviewing people for a news article in Spain – in Spanish – a much more daunting prospect.
From what I can tell, the University of Sevilla does not have a daily campus newspaper (or even a weekly), so students are not used to being accosted by amateur news reporters and asked for their opinions about x, y, or z. Furthermore, the general sentiment about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is so obvious on campus it almost seems hardly worth writing about, so I was a tad nervous about receiving “duh, you stupid American” eye-rolls in response to my questions.
So, as I was sitting with my mini spiral notebook and pen in hand on the grass outside the fábrica, eyeing a group of 12 or so beautiful Spanish students lounging and chatting in the 60 degree sunny weather (oh, how I love Sevilla!), I was more than a little apprehensive about the notion of approaching the group.
Nevertheless, after about ten solid minutes of pretending to write studiously in my notebook, I decided to go for it. With my American backpack and black fleece jacket instantly giving me away as a foreigner, the group fell silent as I walked over to introduce myself. Glancing nervously at the wide circle of students, I said,
“Hi! I’m an American student from a university in New York (Spanish people love New York, so I figured it was a good opener), and I write for my university’s newspaper. Could I perhaps talk with some of you about the conflict in Gaza for an article I’m writing?”
I waited for an interminable pause as the students looked at each other with a mixture of glances like “Who is this crazy girl?,” and “I guess, why not?,” and “Cool, I want to be in the newspaper!” Then they all started talking at once.
Pretty soon, I felt almost like I was back at Cornell, trying to elicit concrete statements from a big group all trying to put forth their opinion and get quoted (only in this case, the students kept shouting in louder and faster Spanish). My carefully prepared and perfectly-phrased questions in Spanish quickly went out the window as I got caught up in the interview, asking grammatically-incorrect follow-up questions and trying my best to follow along to a spirited debate between two members of the group.
Perhaps not surprisingly, I have found in my (albeit limited) experience interviewing students for news articles, Spanish students have far less concern with “political-correctness” as compared with American students. For instance, when I asked the question – “Who is to blame for the current conflict?” – one guy I’ll call “Mr. Sunglasses” quickly responded, “It’s all the Jews’ fault.”
Right.
As a news reporter, I am always careful to refrain from injecting my own subjective stance in interviews and articles. But as a Jew, and as someone who has studied this conflict intensively through both academic coursework and through reading multiple daily news sources, I’ll be honest: it wasn’t easy to keep quiet. Of course, effectively maintaining my journalistic integrity, I did not respond the way I wish I could have, but instead I honestly asked (without a hint of derision): “Is that a joke?” In the end, Mr. Sunglasses conceded that he is, in fact, capable of separating the Jewish people from the State of Israel, and he does not intend to blame Jews in general for the ongoing violence, but he maintains the belief that Israel is completely at fault and does not deserve to exist. As I writer, I have to accept that.
Reflecting on my Sun reporting experience in Spain, I think that it has been the most challenging and most rewarding single news article I’ve written thus far. I successfully approached and interviewed students while talking exclusively in Spanish, I spoke with students whose views are radically different from my own but maintained my distance as an objective reporter, and I translated all of the Spanish quotes to write the article coherently (I hope!) in English. I’m no longer shy about approaching Spanish students to talk with them, because on the whole, they will respond enthusiastically (especially if you start out with a provocative and divisive world issue). It was also good to know that I haven’t completely forgotten how to write in English…Overall: success!
Note: I welcome any and all comments on the article – please let me know what you think!