Pallarols, Kodama attend EFE’s 50th anniversary photo exhibit in Argentina

Posted on by

Pallarols, Kodama attend EFE's 50th anniversary photo exhibit in Argentina 

Maria Kodama (R), widow of writer Jorge Luis Borges, and Argentinian artist Juan Carlos Pallaroll (L) attend the exhibition '50 Años, 50 Fotos' (50 Years, 50 Pictures) to commemorate the 50 years of that news agency in the country, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 01 October 2015. EFE/David Fernandez


Buenos Aires, Oct 2 (EFE).- Acclaimed Argentine silversmith Juan Carlos Pallarols and Jorge Luis Borges' widow, Maria Kodama, were special guests at the inauguration here of the "50 Years, 50 Photos" exhibition, organized by Agencia EFE, Spain's international news agency, to mark a half-century since the opening of its bureau in Buenos Aires.

"We're an agency that's all over Latin America and has the Spanish language as its banner. Agencia EFE is the only one that uses Spanish in all parts of the world and that has the opportunity to interview the Argentine president or Buenos Aires' mayor in Spanish," EFE President Jose Antonio Vera said at Thursday's inauguration of the exhibit, which will be open to the public until Nov. 1 at the Cultural Center of Spain in Buenos Aires.

Sponsored by Telefonica and also backed by Gas Natural Fenosa and Unicef, the exhibit looks back at the last half-century of Argentine history as seen by reporters from the world's leading Spanish-language news agency.

EFE opened its first bureau outside Spain in 1965 in Buenos Aires, a move that reflected the close historical and cultural ties between the Iberian nation and Argentina.

Over the past 50 years, EFE professionals have provided timely reporting on developments in the South American country, including historic events that have been immortalized in images included in the exhibition.

In his speech, Vera recounted EFE's milestones in Argentina, including its first exclusive there, an urgent story on June 28, 1966, with the news of the ouster of President Arturo Illia, and a photo of Ernesto Sabato that accompanied a 1975 interview in which the distinguished Argentine author, who died in 2011, said he would not write any more novels.

"(The exhibit) is fantastic because it's like reality being frozen in climactic moments; it's like a mirror into the historical soul," the writer's son, Mario Sabato, who also attended the inauguration, said.

Spain's ambassador to Argentina, Estanislao de Grandes, hailed the exhibit as "Agencia EFE's homage to Argentine culture," adding that the photos on display are "a tribute to the cooperation between Argentina and Spain."

For his part, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zarco, corporate director of institutional relations and communication for Spanish telecommunications group Telefonica in Argentina, highlighted the "decisive role" EFE has played in "informing citizens and other media outlets" and invited the agency to be a part of the global "digital revolution."

Kodama, meanwhile, said EFE's work "is a little like what Borges describes in (his short story) 'The Aleph,'" in which the entire universe can be seen in "just a few pages."

During the inauguration, attended by diplomats, politicians, journalists and acclaimed personalities from the world of culture and the media, Pallarols presented the staff that Argentina's next president will receive upon taking office in December.

Athletes, artists and members of civil society and government, among them the musical-comedy group Les Luthiers, ballet dancer Julio Bocca, cartoonist Joaquin Salvador Lavado, or "Quino," soccer player Mario Yepes and film director Rodrigo Grande, congratulated EFE on its anniversary in a taped video message that was shown during the event.

EFE, the world's fourth-largest news agency with a 76-year track record, has an extensive network of journalists in 120 countries who produce nearly 3 million news stories annually in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and English.

Leave a Reply