Once I finished my internship in the south, I came back to Santiago. As a graduate I started to work in a radio station. I was assigned to a desk with a very noisy typewriter.

I was supposed to write in no more than 200 words each item of news that the radio reporters in the field would call me about. All this in triplicate.

So my most serious concern was to be always prepared between telephone calls with my three sheets of paper, and two carbon sheets in between, properly loaded in the typewriter and ready to go. A reporter would call and start talking. After some days, I managed to listen and instead of taking notes by hand, I just started writing on my typewriter. After very few errors, I managed to present them impeccable. As soon as I had the 200 or less words ready I would ring a bell and a junior would come, pick up the three sheets, without the carbon paper, and take it to the anchor room. Then I would turn the carbon paper up side down and carefully reload it between the new three pages.

After a while, this routine became quite boring and my heart hardened. The first question I heard myself asking on the phone every time an accident was reported was, “how many dead?” No deaths, no news. Just filler stories.

So I presented my credentials to the Public Relations Office at one of the biggest Universities in Chile at that time and I was selected. My assignment was to cover the Science and Architecture Schools and bring news about their activities, researches, and discoveries. It was quite fascinating.

I would get information or an idea for a story, and then I would request an interview, then write a story, bring it to the scientist or doctor who provided the original information to check it, and then distribute it to several newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. When some of my articles, or my fellow PR coworkers articles, made front page or prime time TV or radio news, we would celebrate with avocado and shrimp canapes at tea time at the Public Relations Office. Sometimes we also celebrated with “empanadas” and “pisco sours” .

Pisco Sour recipe

3 cups Pisco
1 cup lime juice, raw
1 Raw egg white (fresh)
1 cup or less powdered sugar
2 cups ice (not always needed)
Angostura bitter
Blend the Pisco, lime juice, egg white, sugar, and ice in a blender for about a minute. Pour into glasses. Top each glass with 1 to 2 dashes of aromatic bitter to serve.