Meeting: Marina Dos Santos and Nicolás Castellano, Moderator Loreto Silvoso

Marina Dos Santos

was born in Cascavel, Paraná, Brazil. She is the daughter of small farmers and as a teenager decided to go to the Convent as the only way to continue studying. Then, in 1988, when she was doing an internship at the convent, she met the Movimento Sem Terra – MST.

The MST is a Popular Movement that fights for land, Agrarian Reform, and the transformation of society. Today after 37 years of organization, struggle, and resistance, it organizes landless families and occupies unproductive large estates, which do not fulfill their social function, in 24 states of Brazil and organizes, also, settlements, conquered areas, mainly for food production. Its main project is summarized in the Agrarian Program, the result of the last congress held in 2014.

In 1996, she was transferred by the National Directorate of the MST to help organize the Movement in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where she contributed to the consolidation of the Movement.

In 2006, she assumed the coordination of the Movement’s National Office, in Brasilia. She was responsible for the follow-up of the national agenda negotiations with the Federal Government, the systematic follow-up of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI of the MST in the National Congress), and the organizational follow-up of the Via Campesina do Brasil.

Via Campesina is an international movement of coordination and struggle of peasants, small and medium farmers, rural women, indigenous peoples, rural youth, artisanal fisherfolk, afro-descendant peoples, agricultural workers, and rural wage earners. It is an autonomous, plural, multicultural and independent movement with no political, economic, or other affiliation.

At the end of her mandate in Brasilia, she was transferred to Rio Grande do Norte, to manage the organization, formation, and articulation of society in the state, also in neighboring states, and throughout the northeastern region.

In 2012, she returned to the state of Rio de Janeiro, and during this period, in addition to attending university, she worked in the Mass Front sector of the state and the National Direction of the Movement. He was a representative in the International Coordination of Via Campesina for South America until July 2017. She was also responsible for the follow-up of the Latin American Coordination of Field Organizations (CLOC).

Since 1993, Marina has traveled to 33 countries, always with the MST and Via Campesina. For the last six years, together with another comrade, she has been coordinating the MST’s Mass Front Sector, acting in the National Directorate with this responsibility. He is also a member of the Pedagogical Political Commission of the Florestan Fernandes National School for the Mass Front Sector, is part of the National Coordination of Via Campesina do Brasil for the MST, and at the international level accompanies the Via Campesina Working Group: Land, Water and Territory, a group that is also responsible for the campaign for Agrarian Reform and against transnati Since 1993, Marina has traveled to 33 countries, always with the MST and Via Campesina. For the last six years, together with another comrade, she has been coordinating the MST’s Mass Front Sector, acting in the National Directorate with this responsibility. He is also a member of the Pedagogical Political Commission of the Florestan Fernandes National School for the Mass Front Sector, is part of the National Coordination of Via Campesina do Brasil for the MST, and at the international level accompanies the Via Campesina Working Group: Land, Water, and Territory, a group that is also responsible for the campaign for Agrarian Reform and against transnational corporations.

Nicolás Castellano

(Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1977)

He holds a degree in Journalism from the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid. Since 2000 he has developed his professional career in Cadena SER, first in SER Las Palmas, where he was News Director from 2005 to 2007. Since then he has worked in the central newsroom of SER Madrid. During the last 19 years, he has specialized in forced migrations, both on the European shore and on the coasts of the exit, countries of origin, or transit of these migrants..

He has been a special envoy of natural disasters such as the Haiti earthquake in 2010, or the Tsunami in Japan in 2011, as well as humanitarian emergencies; he covered the West Africa Ebola epidemic (2014-16), 1st famine of the 21st century in Somalia in 2011 and 2017. He has reported in more than 50 countries such as Jordan, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, India, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Guinea Conakry, Algeria, Senegal, Mauritania, Tunisia, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Somalia or Democratic Republic of Congo among others. He has covered other forgotten conflicts such as the Central African Republic or South Sudan. In Sicily, Lampedusa, the Greek islands, etc. covering the arrival of migrants and refugees.

He has published articles in newspapers such as Canarias 7 and El País, has written books such as “Me llamo Adou”, Planeta (2017), “Mi nombre es nadie”, “De ida y vuelta”, “Fronteras 3.0” and “Aquí pintamos y contamos todos” etc.

He has been recognized with the IX Human Rights Award of the General Council of the Spanish Bar, the Gold Medal of the Spanish Red Cross, the Journalism Award “Berta Pardal” and the Human Journalism Award 2013, Menina NWW Award 2017 of the Transnational Women’s Network, the Telde Award for cultural merit or the ESPAL Award 2018 of Santa Lucia de Tirajana, CODESPA Award 2019 among others.

Moderator: Loreto Silvoso

(Verín, 1973)

Is a journalist for RadioVoz and La Voz de Galicia, 2nd vice-president of the Press Association of A Coruña, member of the Xornalistas collective and member of the solidarity initiative “A Radio Conta”.

A graduate in Information Sciences (USC) and postgraduate in Business Communication (UDC), Silvoso has almost 30 years in the world of communication, in which she began in Radio Arousa-Cadena Ser, passing through El Correo Gallego, Octo Europa and Europublic.

In March 2021 she was awarded the Albarelo Journalism Prize of the College of Pharmacists of A Coruña for a report on the role of rural pharmacies during the confinement.