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A week has gone by and I still feel the excitement and energy that characterized the Blogher11Conference at San Diego. I had been counting the days since I bought my ticket as an "Early bird" on December and wanted the event to take place.
I had the chance to participate in the Blogher Bet on March at Silicon Valley, so this was my second BlogHer experience. I couldn´t be happier.
Seeing Elisa, Lisa and Jory was great. I have to confess that I admire their compromise, intelligence and the way in which they, along with their great team, had created and consolidated such a big, vivid and enthusiastic community around this wonderful webpage.
When I went to Silicon Valley at the beginning of the year, I was on the verge of quitting Mujeres Construyendo, the platform for Spanish speaking bloggers I have created and have been supporting for almost three years. I realized after those days that I was not crazy, that I simply was alone in Mexico and that no one else had seen the potential and impact of the women blogger community in my country and in Latinamerica. I created it with my savings because no one supported me considering that this was "my hobby" (BTW, that is what some bureaucrat told me at the Economy Ministry, the equivalent of the Small Business Administration in the US). The page is being remodeled as I write this and it is being paid by a sponsor, which makes me very happy.
I mention this as an introduction, simply to give the context of a reality that is completely different from the reality that I lived at the San Diego Conference center last week. I loved the fact of seeing this huge number of women loving their blogging activity, taking it so seriously and working with compromise and professionalism in their blogs. It didn´t matter if their blog created them some income or if it was simply for personal reasons. It was their word, their view and their own being which was expressed and magnified through them.
Each session helped us think of our own blogs in different terms. Each table was set up on the premise that bloggers are actors of change. I tried to participate in as many sessions as I could and wanted to learn everything I could in order to become not only a better blogger but also a better "blogosphere citizen".
The topics presented, from media literacy, blog content development, peer networking, revolutions online, to being a media marketer, being professional an many more implied a considerable stage in the development of blogging. This is a different reality in many other countries, where -as Yoani Sánchez that couldn´t come- they risk their lives for expressing themselves or they simply don´t realize that blogging can make a difference in their lives and their communities. This is a reality in Mexico, my country, and in many more.
I know the challenge is great, but ironically, it makes me feel more committment to my project and towards working in the consolidation of my blogging community and in supporting women bloggers and womens´ and girls´ digital literacy in Mexico and Latinamerica. Elisa and Lisa told me beautiful words of encouragement and they were very meaningful to me.
On the other hand, the alliance that BlogHer made with Latism is symbolic of what is happening in internet and the blogosphere. Latinas in the US participate more actively in the public sphere and internet that the women from the countries they come from. They are, and should be, role models for their counterparts in their native countries. I want to congratulate Eliane Ramos and Ana Roca Castro for their strength, talent and vision. They are just great. Congratulations for both teams in working this alliance out and am looking forward to the results and outcome of this partnership.
Saludos from the other side of the border.
Visit Mujeres Construyendo, where Spanish speaking women bloggers change the world.
