nonfiction writer

alejandra ibarra chaoul

EXPERIENCE

A WRITER FOCUSED ON SOCIAL ISSUES

I’m a Mexican non-fiction writer with a B.A. in Political Science from Mexico’s Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM) and a M.S. in journalism from the University of Columbia. For the past seven years, I’ve focused my work on violence against journalists in Mexico. In 2018, with a Magic Grant from The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, I created the first living archive that preserves and catalogues the work published by slain reporters. Two year later, in 2020, I launched Voces Silenciadas, an investigative long-form podcast series which I host, about the life and death of a local reporter killed in central Mexico in 2019. It was shortlisted for a Gabo Award in 2021. From 2021 to 2024 I worked as the Executive Director of Defensores de la Democracia (DDLD), a nonprofit I founded to continue financing the expansion of the archive and the second season of Voces Silenciadas. As DDLD’s director, I received the Democratic Innovation Award from the Council of Europe in 2023 and the United Kingdom National Archive Safeguarding the Digital Legacy Award in 2024. I’ve also worked for The Washington Post bureau in Mexico City, where I made part of a bi-national team investigating fentanyl trafficking, which was nominated for a 2023 Pulitzer Prize. In 2020, I received a UNESCO grant for investigative reporting and published a series about how Mexican institutions have failed family members of killed and disappeared reporters; it was a Mexico National Journalism Award finalist. I was part of the Doing Things with Stories (DTwS) program, a remote residence in ArtEZ University in the Netherlands and a 2023 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. In 2025, I will receive the Columbia Journalism School First Decade Alumni Award.

my writing

essays on social isssues

• The Delicate Race to Archive the Work of Murdered Journalists—Before It Disappears - Slate

• Periodismo local para qué - Este País

• On Facebook’s Commitment to Human Rights, the Opportunity to Prevent Crimes and the Right for Truth-Seeking and Memory for Murdered Mexican Journalists - OpinioJuris

• Sobre la publicación del video asociado a la muerte de los cinco jóvenes desaparecidos en Lagos de Moreno - Este País

• Tener una postura: sentencia de muerte para periodistas en México - Este País

• Las múltiples aristas de la violencia contra periodistas - Este País

• Periodismo y violencia de género - Este País

• ¿Romper? el techo de cristal - Este País

• La ciudad con posibilidades ilimitadas - Este País

• Lo que la autopsia no dice - Este País

• Un taxista llamado Gabriel - Este País

• El terror del silencio - Pie de Página

personal essays and narrative

• The Borders Between My Mexican and American Identities - Zocalo Public Square

• El embarazo de Ashley Olsen me hizo sentir acompañada - Este País

• El monopolio de la perspectiva - Pie de Página

• Los hombres solo quieren que sea feliz - Pie de Página

• Jugar a la tiendita - Pie de Página

• Otros efectos de la pandemia - Pie de Página

• Es importante hablar del ITAM - Pie de Página

• Llegó en un velero llamado Malizia - Inter Press Service (IPS)

• ‘The Chapo press corps’ - Pie de Página

news coverage and long-form journalism

• Preventing the Murders of Journalists in Mexico, One Mayor at a Time - New Lines Magazine

• Anti-corruption newspaper shuts down after ‘press freedom hero’ jailed - The Washington Post

• Drought in Mexico leads to water rationing, theft as taps run dry - The Washington Post

• Inside the daunting hunt for the ingredients of fentanyl and meth - The Washington Post

• Why do journalists in Mexico keep getting killed? - The Washington Post

• Former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández extradited - The Washington Post

• Mexico's coronavirus baby bust: Women are 'determined' not to have babies - The Washington Post

• Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world’s second-biggest Catholic country - The Washington Post

• Drug cartel leader threatens to kill Mexican TV anchor over ‘biased media coverage’ - The Washington Post

• Series of 7 crónicas about the inner life of one of the first COVID hospitals in Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic - Gatopardo

• How a brand new Mexican digital outlet became President López Obrador’s most fearsome opponent - Rest of World

• García Luna, el oscuro hombre detrás de la guerra contra las drogas - Pie de Página

• CHARLTON’S ‘DIRTY LITTLE SECRET’: The Long Haul for Clean Water - Worcester Magazine

• Trial against Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán [three-month coverage including crónicas, Facebook live columns and breaking-news] - Ríodoce

narrative podcasts

• Un Accidente Mexicano [Director and Host] - Detective & Sonoro (series) // upcoming 2025

• El periodista mediador [Producer and Host] - Así como suena (episode)

• La voz que rompe el silencio, parte I y II [Producer and Host] - Voces Silenciadas, temporada dos (series)

• La historia de Nevith Condés Jaramillo [Director, Producer and Host] - Voces Silenciadas, temporada uno (series)

books and book chapters

• Resistencia ante la pandemia. Historias del Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán - Gatopardo

• Causa de muerte: Cuestionar al poder - Penguin Random House (Aguilar Ideas)

• El Chapo Guzmán. El juicio del siglo - Penguin Random House (Aguilar)

• Capítulo — “¡Fotos, fotos! ¡De este lado están las fotos!” en El servicio invisible. Crónicas sobre trabajo no asalariado en la Ciudad de México - WIEGO

• Capítulo — “Entender lo inentendible” en Diario de la pandemia - Libros UNAM

• Capítulo — “La lista de compras” en No basta con encender una vela - Rayuela

BOOK PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

While considered unusual for a writer, I deeply enjoy public speaking. I’ve participated in panels and conferences as an expert on: freedom of speech, violence against journalists, journalism with a gender perspective, among others. Send me an email if you’re holding an event, panel, conference series or lecture about the topics I’ve worked on.

• Libertad de expresión - Coordinación Ejecutiva del Mecanismo para la ProtecciónIntegral de Periodistas y Personas Defensoras de los Derechos Humanos, Estado de México, México.

• Día Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa - Embajada de Estados Unidos en México, Biblioteca Benjamín Franklin, Ciudad de México, México.

• Mexico: Still No Safety for Journalists - British Mexican Society, online.

• Presentación del libro Causa de muerte: Cuestionar al poder - Feria Internacional del Libro del Palacio de Minería (FILPM), Palacio de Minería, Ciudad de México, México.

• Presentación del libro Causa de muerte: Cuestionar al poder - Feria Internacional del Libro Monterrey (FIL MTY), Parque Fundidora, Nuevo León, México.

• Freedom of expression and information: what is the role of new media? - World Forum for Democrcacy, Council of Europee, Strasbourg, France.

• El Cuarto Poder como Pilar de la Democracia Mexicana - Momento Mexicano, Asociación Harvard de México, Ciudad de México, México.

• Seminario de Perspectivas Políticas 2022 - Instituto Tencológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Ciudad de México, México.

• The Impact of Impunity on Journalism and Democracy - World Forum for Democrcacy, Council of Europee, Strasbourg, France.

• Explaining Murders of Journalists in Mexico, Center for U.S.- University of California San Diego (UCSD), online.

• Un mundo en crisis: ¿El fin de la era de las democracias? - Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, Jalisco, México.

• Los centinelas del espacio público actual: experiencias y prospectivas - Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, virtual.

• Libertad de expresión bajo acecho, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEMEX), Estado de México, México.

• Periodistas asesinados en México y en Brasil: historias contadas en pódcast - 16º Congreso de Periodismo de Investigación de ABRAJI, virtual.

• TEDxCUNNY Ripple Effects - Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York (CUNY), virtual.

• De hojas volantes a podcasts: noticias de América Latina y el Caribe - Seminario sobre la Adquisición de Material Latinoamericano para Bibliotecas (SALALM), virtual.

• Periodismo y derechos humanos en México: cómo preservar las voces de los asesinados - Seminario del Centro de Investigación Global de Diversidades e Inequidades, London Metropolitan College, virtual.

• Narrativas periodísticas femeninas - Fundación Friedrich Naumann México, virtual.

• No News is Not Good News: Combating Pervasive Violence Against Journalists in Mexico - The Dialogue, Washington D.C, United States.   

• Attacks on Press Freedom in Mexico - Photoville, New York, United States.

CONSULTING

Besides writing for a variety of publications, I do consulting work as a freelancer. My services focus on storytelling and communication. I have worked with nonprofits, private companies and universities. If you have a project that needs a storyteller, a reporter or someone to help streamline a message or campaign for a broad audience, do reach out. I can help you produce written products for print, only-online content or a podcast.