Good morning Soledad, is my pleasure to have you here for this interview. We have received very good references from you and as in Zoe in Yourself we hunt talent, here we are, all the way from the USA.
Ready? 3,2,1… As I anticipated, this is the easy section.
SECTION "ZOE IN YOURSELF"
We know that it is not the first time that you help in charities. We know that you have collaborated intensively with the “Universidad para la Cooperación Internacional”, but there is more. Tell us about it!
From a young age I had contact with NGO’s to which I donated my time as a volunteer because this was the only resources that I could provide. During university, I visited hospitalized children in the oncology area of the Carlos Haya Hospital in Malaga. Spending the afternoons playing with them was a gift for the volunteers and a very important disconnection moment for the patients' day-to-day life. To this day I continue helping in whatever way I can with the people who need it most, but also in other areas such as outreach and cultural democratization.
Helping can be tough. Why? Why did you decided to help? What moves you to dedicate your time to this and not to other things?
Each of us has to know the power that they have in order to contribute to the construction of a better world. More fair and supportive. Thinking that it is never enough leads us to inaction and this is very far from reality, because nothing transforms our environment more than offering our help to others, reaching out to others, giving a hand and working to make a better future for the next generations. You can contribute in infinite ways, you just have to find the right actions that aligns with your life purpose.
100% agree when you mentioned the “power to contribute”. In our web page you can read a very similar quote from Buddha.
So far so good Soledad. You successfully passed the first section! Let's go deeper, let's change the section to something more personal.
SECTION "SOLEDAD IN YOURSELF"
Sampedreña. Journalist. Great reader. Director of the Club de Lecturas Maravillas. What an interesting woman! Please tell us more about yourself.
Communication is my passion. In all its forms. Hence, I knew at the age of 14 or 15 that I wanted to become a journalist. The love for books came earlier, thanks to the reading habit my mother instilled in me before I even learned to read. If we add to this that in 2009 I wanted to join a reading club in Madrid and I didn't find any ... There you have it! I founded, together with a couple of friends, the Club de Lecturas Maravillas, an independent club that is still active 11 years after its birth and that in March 2020 became an online club, so that anyone in the world, speaking Spanish, could be part of it. And this, which I do in a totally altruistic way, is also my contribution to make this world a place where a book is never missing.
You encourage theater reading, promote women writers, what else, surprise us. You don’t stop.
I tried drama classes when I was 8 years old and something inside me started to grow! I love the genre and if I hadn't been a journalist I would have loved to become an actress. Now, from the reading club, I realize that the theatrical genre is not widely read, we almost always look for novels or perhaps an essay or poetry, but we rarely look for a play. Aside from the great classics of dramaturgy like Shakespeare, there are people who can’t quote any other theater authors, much less contemporary ones, hence our Dramatized Readings cycle, where we read plays aloud, under the motto 'The theater also can be read'. In addition, the Club has medium-term projects to promote reading at different ages, to bring books to women's prisons, to read aloud to the elderly who lose their faculties, etc. There is a lot of work ahead, as you can see, all in line with the idea of democratizing culture through literature.
Very interesting concept, democratizing culture… Ok, so as a journalist, what would be the headline that you would most like to write in your career?
The creation of a worldwide organization that (really) would ensure the distribution of wealth to eliminate poverty and wars.
Tell us something that you know that we don’t know about you. The theme is free
As the director of the book club, many people think that I write or have aspirations to write a novel. The reality is that what I would like the most is to write children's stories and I have had one in mind for a couple of years that will feature the Margarina Fairy as the main character.
If you could make a wish, and if telling us it came true, what wish would you ask for?
That in every town, village or place where there are readers never miss a book.
And, on the contrary, if you could have the ability to undo something negative that has happened in the history of humanity, you would undo…
The literary censorship, the books that have been forgotten on purpose, that have not been able to see the light for political, economic or social interests.
Wow, this one is good. I would never expect this one. Totally agree. Congratulations.
Ok, lets go to the deeper section. In yourself!
“IN YOURSELF” SECTION
If you could ask yourself a question in this interview? What would you ask yourself?
Do you dare to give an advice or recommendation to make a better world?
Yes, buy a book or look on your shelf for the one you liked the most and give it to someone.
Noted. Very good advice according to the section we are into.
SECTION "OFF YOURSELF"
Who are you nominating for our next interview?
To the illustrator and influencer Marta Piedra.
Ok Marta, so you are next! Get ready.
You can find more info at https://maravillasbookclub.blogspot.com/
Club de Lectura Maravillas