Google resigned and set up a cultural magazine in Medellin Colombia
Weather - June 13, 2010
Photo: Daniel Bustamante / TIME - In the next issue of the journal The Arepa, there will be a text on women singing hip hop Medellín.
Robin Finley is currently the director of 'The Arepa', which is written entirely in English.
"You're crazy!" Robin Finley told him when he told his friends that he would leave his job in the advertising area of \u200b\u200bGoogle powerful and world-renowned in San Francisco (United States).
was January 2008 and by then the people close to Robin had no idea that he, who had studied political science at the prestigious University of Berkley, expiring one year after mounting a cultural magazine in Medellín.
"I had my apartment, my girlfriend lived in San Francisco is a spectacular city. But the style, the pace of life was very boring, predictable, monotonous. (...) And also desde siempre, yo tenía la idea de vivir en otro país", cuenta. Tras renunciar a su trabajo Robin viajó a hasta Guatemala para aprender español. Allí estuvo cuatro meses, trabajó en una revista en inglés para turistas y fue DJ en dos discotecas. Cuando se aburrió de Centroamérica, porque "la cultura es muy cerrada" un amigo le habló de Colombia.
Robin salió de Guatemala y llegó a Panamá en moto. Y de ahí hasta Cartagena en barco, para iniciar un viajé por Colombia, que lo llevó a conocer Sincelejo, Montería, Armenia, Bogotá y Medellín.
"Cuando returned to the States, intending to follow a graduate student, I felt bad. In Guatemala he wrote for a magazine, taking pictures (...) I realized I had a lot to offer and things were more interesting than United States, "says Robin.
'The Arepa' magazine
"I returned to Colombia and I realized I did not want to teach English, rather he wanted to make a magazine in English (as in Guatemala), because many people who want to learn the language and visitors who do not speak English, "he says.
The U.S. settled then in the "city of eternal spring." The chosen for its "cultural diversity" and felt that this could work I had in mind. Thus was born, in the first half of last year, the magazine The Arepa.
Bars
new music trends, people, places and texts with words trying to take a picture of culture in Medellín, the details that give color to the city, is what can be known in the pages of the independent magazine created by Robin, which currently employs three people.
"I always had this passion, he says, so I was bored out of my work, is I like to surround myself with artists, musicians, creative people. I like writing, painting. The whole experience of my life got to this point and now I have my dream job. "
The magazine costs 2,000 pesos, Robin originally ran all costs but over the months some have pautantes been joining the project.
Currently, the publication is available at hotels, museums, venues of Colombo and a few American universities.
For Robin is a shame that tourists, some hotels, they still sell the idea of \u200b\u200bthe tour to know the story of Paul Escobar, Medellin or rumbas and women are just beautiful.
"Obviously there are pretty girls, but if you come for Medellin just to know these stories are missing the opportunity to visit a city that has everything: theater, concerts and lots of talent (...) when culture is not promoted Tourism is superficial, "he concludes.
MARIO ALBERTO SUAREZ D.
EDITOR OF TIME
MEDELLIN
