Essay Example on Out of a Beating: A Deviation from Conventional Journalism

Conventionally, journalism bears the primary role of informing, or rather, factually reporting actual events. Consequently, it is typical for news articles to be factual, precise, and straightforward. The pieces tend to bare minimal literary figures and are very keen on meeting the demands of conventional journalism. However, reading an article like "Out Of A Beating By " Teresa Toro, one comes across a different representation of news. The format, full of imagery and literary figures, deviates from the routine way journalist report events making her sound like reporter and a literary author at the same time. The piece falls under what is termed as cronica. Cronica is a Latin word for chronicles, meaning a sequential flow of events or activities. It is a format of journalism founded by poet and journalist Rueben Garcia that incorporates the figurative storytelling aspects like imagery, symbolism, suspense, etc. in representing factual news (Castillo, 6). The end-product despite being factual news is often a prose-like writing akin to fictional tale. According to Castillo, the format borrows its ideology from the words of the founder that "truth is the best literary formula a writer can employ" (6)

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The story "Hurricane Maria" and the two texts bare several differences that predominately separate traditional journalism to cronica format. Firstly, the two stories, "The Day Snow Fell On San Juan" and "Out For A Beating," both narrate the actual events of the incidents in prose rather than a reported form. They incorporate the tenet of cronica that emphasizes on the creating a vivid descriptive picture of the events to the reader rather than just represent facts (Out for a Beating 3). For example, in the former story, the author narrates the actual event of awarding the winner of the fight as follows "Juanma is handed his belt, shiny and mirror-like, full of a series of ornaments resembling something between beads and sequins, like a crown designed for the waist" (Toro, Out for a Beating 2). On the other hand, the "Hurricane Maria" story is more of a reflection of what happened. For example, in describing the plight of citizens, she notes that "Different meanings and interpretations were born from this mere act of naming, so Puerto Ricans have lived in political ambiguity" (Toro, Hurricane Maria 1)

In reporting, cronica texts tend to bare the unending, unresolved and incomprehensive elements of daily news. Typically, this is the nature of daily actual occurrences; they tend to be unsolved, continue and sometimes lack a conclusive end since most of times they are current events. Rather than end with a conclusion, they predominantly leave the burden of opinion on the reader (Castillo 4). For example, in the boxing match, the story ends with the several different reaction on who should have won while in the snow falling story, the story end when the author comes to the reality that the event was over (Toro, Out for a Beating 8). In both stories, the author presents the stories and let the reader be the judge of the events. Hurricane Maria, on the other hand, ends with a conclusion highlighting reasons why the author remains patriotic to her country despite the plight she notes that "I stay because the Puerto Rican culture cultivated from the island cannot be extinguished, although our diaspora is glorious and immense, and sustained us during these most violent winds" (Toro, Hurricane Maria 1)

Felix Ruben Garcia Sarmiento was an accomplished and influential Spanish American poet, journalist, and diplomat. According to Krause, He was born on January 18, 1867, in Nicaragua and started writing his set of poems and short stories at the age of 14 while signing them as Ruben Dario (Krause 5). He published his first collection of short stories, verses, and poems in 1888 named Azul (5). His initial works were predominantly objective in the use of language; however, the later publications had much influence from French poets and were somewhat symbolic in style. Together with being a writer, Garcia worked as a journalist and a diplomat in his later years. This explains the presence of poetic and journalistic aspects in his works, like the letter to Roosevelt.

Conclusion

Cronica format carries a lot of symbolism, both an aspect of poetry and literary forms. As mentioned earlier, Garcia's initial jobs were objective, but after he adopted the French stylistic devices, his works become more symbolic. In the poem to Roosevelt, he symbolically describes him as a zealous hunter who will not stop unless entrapped; he asserts, "It is with the voice of the bible, or verse of Whiteman, that we should reach you, hunter" (Garcia 1). Precisely, he was describing the president as likely to clinch to power until probably overthrown. Moreover, the poem flows in a contiguous way giving a chronology of events, a concept akin to journalism. The poem highlights incidences in the past and how they have shaped things. Besides, the theme of the poem bares socio-political issues, which is the focus of cronica format predominantly. The poem addresses the concerns the poet had concerning the violent attacks from Roosevelt on the Latin Americans

Works Cited

Castillo, Rojas, C. "The new Latin American journalistic Cronica, emotions and hidden signs of reality." Global Media Journal: Australian Edition 9.2 (2015): 1-12.

Krause, Nathaniel. "Ruben Dario, American Imperialism and Latin America in the 19 th Century." https://www.sjsu.edu/history/docs/Krause_Nathaniel.pdfSarmiento, Felix Ruben Garcia. "Ruben Dario." Latin American Poets (2012): 40.

Toro, Anna, Teresa. "Hurricane Maria." The New York Times. June 2, 2018, https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/RR_2657.html?nlid=82216049Toro, Anna, Teresa. "Out for a Beating". El Nuevo Dia, March 29, 2014.

Toro, Anna Teresa. "The Day Snow Fell on San Juan." El Nuevo Dia, December 21, 2013.