Today we’d like to introduce you to Alfredo Guanchez
Hi Alfredo, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story really began in June 2007 when I opened a profile on Panoramio, which was a social network for uploading photos and tagging them on the map. At that time Facebook barely existed, but MySpace did. Months before, when I turned 15 years old, I had started using my own digital camera, because as I was in high school (or Bachillerato as you call it), camera phones were very fashionable, but there were people who took their digital cameras to share with their classmates.
At that time I liked using Google Earth because it allowed me to see what cities were like and how they were distributed in countries like Venezuela (where I come from), which months later, during a school vacation, I got to know a large part of western Venezuela, including Los Andes, Mérida, Barquisimeto, Punto Fijo, among others. Thanks to this tool I was able to get to know cities like Panama City, Miami and Orlando, among others, better.
A curious fact is that in 2007, Google (already the owner of Panoramio and absorbed by Google Maps almost a decade later) had launched the Street View service, which has become a great tool to know the evolution of our streets. Unfortunately and due to the conditions in Venezuela, it was always deprived of this function, but without measuring the impact that the Internet was playing to promote our streets and our cities, with all the trips made, at the time Panoramio was closed in November 2016, it had posted the modest figure of 16,000 photos (I would say more than anyone else hahaha). A very high figure to see what benefit could be obtained with the rise of social networks like Facebook and Instagram, precisely on Instagram I had started to follow a famous photographer from my country (Donaldo Barros), whose way of narrating his stories through his photos motivated me to replicate his example.
This is how on the morning of April 5, 2017, at the beginning of the protests against the Regime in 2017, I opened a profile on Instagram using my old Panoramio username, with the initials of my name and Venezuela, where my photos are mostly from. The growth has always been “organic”, although once I migrated to Chile, Meta has been modifying the algorithm to reach more people and that growth and promotion has been quite tedious. It is not that I am interested in having many followers but that it becomes a community where people are curious to ask whatever, regardless of the language one wants to communicate in order to get closer. Instagram has that facility to translate posts.
I have only been in the US for almost three years and although it is a constant struggle to be able to integrate into a community where they accept you with your virtues and defects (I have T1 Diabetes for almost a lifetime, in which suddenly the transition has been smooth in this regard). There are many people who deserve to know Venezuela, beyond its problems and what is obvious, and although Meta tries to hinder them with its updates, there are stories that do not go unnoticed.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Knowing the problem that Venezuela has, and that nowadays a multidisciplinary team is required to stand out in the networks, when one emigrates to another country, such as Chile and the United States, it is difficult to be part of a community where they give you the opportunity to prosper as a professional who stands out in their areas. It is law to have to start from scratch, but not to have to sacrifice what has been built to adapt to the market of those countries.
Almost 99.5% of the photos were taken by me, the other 0.5% were the contribution of some friends in order to tell the stories behind that photograph, which is the main basis of the @arvenezuela2007 profile
Nowadays it is difficult to reach more people where a community can be created where they feel the curiosity to comment or express an opinion regarding a topic (the same Meta with its updates, because there are even influencers who are going through hardship with their more than 100k followers not reacting to their posts). Today we are fighting and life goes on.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I graduated in Telecommunications Engineering from a prominent university in my country, and I am currently working as a cook in a restaurant because of how complicated the job market has become in the US where it doesn’t matter if you know basic English, you need fluency to be accepted in a traditional job and that takes time. Well, this is a constant struggle for all migrants who want to make a living and work hard to be accepted.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
To be honest, almost nothing has changed with COVID-19. People are still getting sick and no matter how much care you take, you can’t always be sure that your medications will actually do their job. Online shopping is becoming more popular, but there are some experiences that should preferably continue to be physical.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arvenezuela2007/
Image Credits:
@arvenezuela2007
