GV Board Elections 2017: Gabriela Garcia Calderon

My one and only selfie.

As you've already read on the title of this post, my name is Gabriela Garcia Calderon. I've been nominated as Staff Representative for the Global Voices board elections.

I'm a Peruvian lawyer who one day discovered the unpleasantness of having to fight judicial clerks just to take a look at a file. Can you imagine a doctor fighting nurses just to let him make a physical to a patient?

It was there when Global Voices came to my life. And this discovery really changed everything for me… and I hope for GV also.

I started as volunteer translator into Spanish in November 2007 and in November 2009 was invited by then LatAm editor Eddie Avila to contribute as a volunteer author too. Besides that, I've assisted Eddie, now Rising Voices director, on the Amazonia project.

I've stepped in for Silvia Viñas, our former LatAm regional editor, during her maternity leave between December 2012 and February 2013. A year later, I was appointed acting regional editor when Silvia accepted a job elsewhere. I served there for eight months.

Now, for the past three weeks, I'm Lingua Spanish editor, which is a huge challenge after the long tenure of our previous editor.

As you can all see, I've been and still am around a lot. Besides all that, I think I'm the contributor with more posts published, a little below 8,000 so far… and counting.

A peculiarity of mine: I don't have a Facebook account. And, as you can all see, this is not necessary to have a presence in the online world. Instead, I blog a lot in Spanish for the same time I've been a GVer and take care of my Twitter account. I still practice Law, but as an arbitrator, so no more fights with clerks to take a look at files!

But enough of self-praising. What you want to hear from me is what will I do for you in case I get elected.

Fun conga line during 2015 Cebu GV Summit.

For starters, as someone who has been around a lot, I can understand the different GV positions with an inside perspective. I don't only know how things work here, I've lived through many changes we've been through as a community. So I can get GVers’, volunteer and staff alike, sentiments and can express them because I've probably been there too.

My commitment is to give everybody a voice of their own, with the secrecy some delicate situations may require. If you elect me staff representative, you can be sure I'll do my best to manage myself as I've done for the past nine and a half years: with Global Voices in my heart, with GVers sentiments in mind and with all the dedication this community, so meaningful to me, deserves.

As I love to say, Global Voices rock!

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