Ximena Natera is a visual journalist born and raised in México City. She has been a member of the Red de Periodistas de a Pie since 2013, a national journalist network working to raise the quality and safety of journalists in Mexico through training, the exchange of investigative techniques, experiences, and security strategies for journalists working in contexts of violence in the country. This experience has shaped her practice and understanding of storytelling, focusing her work around human rights violations, stories of resilience, and collective memory processes in the region. Ximena is based in New York City, where she attended the one Year Doc Program at the International Center of Photography Documentary Program in 2019. She works as a freelance photographer and producer for both US and Mexican outlets. Her work has been recognized by the Gabriel García Márquez Award of Iberian American Journalism and the Pictures of the Year Latam. As a student, she has been a fellow for journalism programs at the Fundación Nuevo Periodismo in Colombia, the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and is an IWMF alum. "As a reporter, but also as a member of a community of young visual journalists, I have learned that safety goes beyond a bulletproof vest, it involves risk awareness, It is learning about trauma management, communication tools, digital practices, and mental health, it means having access to resources. Above everything else, safety is an issue that has to involve more than the person on the ground, it requires a communal network of support. My goal through this fellowship is to be able to bring practical, straightforward, and reachable security knowledge and training to communities of journalists that don’t usually have access to these resources: freelancers, early practitioners, and local journalists across the country."
En Español
Ximena Natera es una periodista de multimedia basada en la Ciudad de México. Su trabajo se centra en las violaciones de los derechos humanos, los procesos de memoria colectiva y la migración en la región. Natera es parte del equipo editorial de los sitios Pie de Página y En el Camino. Como miembro de estos equipos, participó como reportera y productora en la serie documental "Buscadores en un país de desaparecidos", que recibió el Premio Gabriel García Márquez de Periodismo Iberoamericano en la categoría "Imagen" y recibió el tercer lugar en POY Latam 2017. Desde el 2013, Natera ha sido miembro de Red de Periodistas de a Pie, una red nacional de periodistas que busca empoderar a los periodistas para mejorar la cobertura de los medios y la seguridad personal en el contexto de la violencia extrema. Natera ha estudiado periodismo, fotografía y cine documental. También fue becaria del programa de periodismo en la Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano en Colombia y la Universidad Iberoamericana en la Ciudad de México.
