The ANTHOLOGY, now in Spanish

We did it again and the result is an impressive book: “Antologia de Comunicación para el Cambio Social: Lecturas Históricas y Contemporaneas”. Two years ago the Communication for Social Change Consortium published the book by Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron and Thomas Tufte in English, with 1060 pages and its red cover, the result of three long years of hard work. The world launching was in Rome in October 2006, during the World Congress of Communication for Development (WCCD) organized by the World Bank, FAO and The Communication Initiative, where a couple of thousand communication specialists from the world met.

Two years later, this year, on Friday 10th of October, we launched in México the Spanish edition of the ANTOLOGIA at the IX Congress of the Latin American Association of Communication Research (ALAIC), which is also the most important gathering of communication specialists in the region. It was an important occasion considering that ALAIC celebrated 30 years of existence. Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron and Thomas Tufte were there, as well as other authors included in the book, such as José Marques de Melo, Cicilia Peruzzo, José Cisneros, Gabriel Kaplún, Erick Torrico, Rosa María Alfaro and Jesús Galindo.

The Spanish edition of the book took additional two years. It includes 200 articles and excerpts from 150 authors worldwide. The translation of English texts to Spanish was done by Bertha Pancorvo, from Peru, and Alejandra Adoum from Ecuador took under her responsibility the copy-editing and read the whole ANTOLOGIA several times. Printing was done in La Paz, Bolivia, at Plural Publishers and the result is a beautiful book of 1414 pages, a hard-cover library book, high quality paper, with sewn and sturdy binding and a colorful cover. We can say it with no doubt: there is no other similar book in the world.

The reception of the book at ALAIC was significant; several reviews and interviews in specialized journals are on its way and will began appearing before the end of the year. The book will be launched again in Bolivia, by the end of November, during the international seminar “Local Radio: Policies and Legislation”. Additional national launchings are being organized in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru during the first quarter of 2009.

Communication Schools all over Latin America and Spain have began purchasing the book for their libraries, as well as individuals, both academics and practitioners of the communication for development and social change field, who will use it as a reference book in their daily work. The distribution of the ANTOLOGIA is entirely by order through the Consortium website. The price is unbeatable for a book of such dimensions and content.