Guarara
Otros Ruidos
Magazine about cultural and socio-political themes.
Asuncion, Paraguay
Avda Eusebio Ayala 1035 c/ Avda. Gral. Santos
Email: guarara@gmail.com
- Category: Culture, Politic, Social
- Periodicity: Monthly
- Language: Spanish / Guarani
- Format: 210 x 310 mm
- Circulation: 1,500
- Price: Free
- Web: http://guarara.com/
Founded in 2005
Guarara nace en 2005 como una urgente necesidad de intervenir en el podrido ambiente paraguayo, como un humilde medio de denuncia, por un lado, y de promoción de la cultura alternativa y popular del país.
Exclusive Interview
In our country, Paraguay, things are really corrupt. Guarara is a tiny effort to change that situation.
What is your magazine about?
Its about what can we do to make things different. In our country, Paraguay, things are really corrupt. Guarara is a tiny effort to change that situation. That’s why it is a claim instrument, but is also a reflex of what happens in the underground circuit of Asunción, like theater, music bands, etc. always from the humbleness of 8 pages a month.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Guarara is made by a group of former school classmates and neighbors of the same neighborhood, all with the same itch to do something. Most of them are journalism, design and architecture students, within 20 to 23 years old. Some of them are left militants, some of them not; there are people that have religious beliefs. Some of them were making fanzines on their own or collaborated in other publishing. Currently we are 6, 5 men and 1 lady.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
The making of Guaraga is a total chaos. No one has a lot of time, because of work and college. Therefore, Guarara is made in the spare time we all have, usually on weekends and dawns or in our jobs in a clandestine way. We always have a previous editing meeting where we name the topics and points of view, we discus all that and we meet again one week later on someone’s house. There is where the surprises appear: the person we had to interview is gone, a topic that we can’t continue for some reason, what makes that one or two graphics that had already been prepared are useless and we have to make others at the last minute. That’s why it does not always work as we planned it and for us always have failures.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Each number is an important step, because putting a new edition in the streets is a great accomplishment. The idea is get to a point where the edition is assured and our only worry is to improve the content.
Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
The thing is to show another point of view of what the media shows. Whether is good or bad, it is another look, and that is really a necessity in Asuncion, because there are a lot of people who are tired of the same thing, so they gladly await everything we do. But there are other people who are indifferent. Other ones get mad and write us crazy complaints.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
The biggest challenge for us is the money, without question. But there is also the time factor. We have a lot of troubles meeting and we need more time to plan something better. And of course we need time to raise the money, obviously.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
We want the magazine to have more pages, we want to improve the visuals, have more research topics and at least double the printing. And we hope that in the next five years some mafia organization threats us to die, so we know that we make something else besides telling stories. Right now we are starting to grow, and go beyond the magazine and we want to make a cultural centre or something like that, besides graffiti groups or a library.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Mostly people like us, teens of 20 to 25 years old. But, there are also older people and younger people. But our target is the range from 20 to 25 or 28 years old.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Being independent is not A option for us. It is the ONLY way. If we do not work for on it Guarara does not exist. And that is for all the good and valuable projects here in Paraguay, in music, theater or whatever.
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
We have publicity, its true, but not at big level. These are small announcements of small costs, usually of people who we know that supports our project that way. But Guarara will never advertise stuff we don’t agree with.
Which is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
Well, we printed Guarara a few times in a clandestine way at the job of one of us, so we have it for free. But we had also received help from other 2 printers who print the material really cheap and they let us owe them for a very long time. Until this day we still owe one of them. So we thank them. We will pay it.
Which magazines did influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
We had several influences of magazines and newspapers from here like the YAKARE newspaper. Actually, I think that the fanzines had more influence on us than magazines.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
Really bad, but it could be worse. The front page is good.
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
More than a few. Between the ones that I buy, the ones I steel from doctor’s offices or public places and the ones I borrow, I have like 30 a month. I don’t read them all, but I do watch them.
E-mail interview from “19.10.2006”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
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