More or less ten years ago I read a novel by the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa. The book was called "The Speaker" and it told the story of the relationship between the author - at least I assumed it was Vargas Llosa because of the many references to his own life - and a Peruvian friend. This friend was a Jewish student of anthropology who was studying the Indian tribes of the Peruvian Amazon jungle. At the same time that he questioned his existence in the "civilized" world, he was pulled more and more into the Indian way of life during his trips to pursue his studies. Here Vargas Llosa introduces the figure of "The Speaker". His friend is totally fascinated and absorbed by this character to the point that one day he vanishes and the author discovers some time later that he is living among the Indians and has become a Speaker himself.

Who is this mysterious Speaker? The Indian society that populates the Amazon is formed of countless small groups of several families each, that live separated and dispersed in the jungle. The Speaker is a figure of mythic proportions, which in the book has no particular identity, no name. He travels from group to group and stays with each one for a couple of weeks. He tells the particular group with which he is staying what he has seen in his travels in the jungle. Stories of battles and survival. Stories of hunting and gathering. Tales of deaths, births, relationships and also fun stories which the children love. Advice from the elder, solutions to common problems. Stories about animals, about plants, about the weather. Unsolved mysteries and horror stories which, obviously the children also love. And on and on.

At the same time the group tells him about their life, what has changed since his last visit, things that they want others to know, experiences to share. The Speaker is then the voice of the community, he is the thread that joins the different tribes, he preserves and enriches the cultural identity of the Indian society. He is a communications link and in his travels he gathers and distributes information. It should be obvious by now who the Speaker is and the reason for this story. Yes, the Speaker is a journalist.

I think this story expresses, in an elliptical way, what photojournalists are all about. We are visual journalists and we tell the members of our different tribes what the other tribes are doing because we belong to the same global community. I don't want to sound naive: I am aware of cultural and social differences, First and Third Worlds, oppressors and oppressed, fundamentalists of all sorts and the rest of a thousand different versions of organized and disorganized society. But in the end we share the common experiences of humanity, and humanity is our subject matter.