Journalist and author Marie Arana shares her experience with Girl Rising and what it was like getting to know Senna, the girl in the film’s Peru Chapter. In this video travelogue, Arana recounts meeting the girl with the “”warrior-like core”” in the near-vertical slum of La Rinconada and being moved by her. Born in Lima to a Peruvian father and an American mother, the author, editor and journalist is deeply engaged in both worlds. A writer of fiction and memoir, Arana has dedicated herself to explaining each culture to the other. Her commitment to Peru, and to the struggles of the disadvantaged there, permeates her work.
Read MoreMarie’s video about the film “Girl Rising”
This short clip made just after Marie’s visit to the La Rinconada gold mines in Peru, describes her meeting with 14-year-old Senna, the child laborer, budding poet, and Marie’s subject for the film “Girl Rising.” In 2011, Marie visited the mines, which are situated under a glacier 18,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes. It…
Read MoreOp-Eds in the New York Times
In a series of guest Op-Ed columns for the New York Times, Marie explores a number of timely issues in Latin America, from poverty to Bolivarianism to new reverse-flow economies. THE KIDS LEFT BEHIND THE BOOM: March 20, 2013, Lima, Peru Henrry Ochochoque is a jovial 12-year-old with a report card full of A’s…
Read MoreThe Kids Left Behind by the Boom, The New York Times
Guest Columnist By Marie Arana Henrry Ochochoque is a jovial 12-year-old with a report card full of A’s and hopes pointed straight to the moon. Last year, he moved from the squalid gold-mining town of La Rinconada, Peru — at nearly 17,000 feet above sea level, the highest human habitation in the world — to…
Read More
Girl Rising is a groundbreaking film, written in part by Marie, and directed by Oscar nominee Richard Robbins. The segment on Senna, a little girl who lives in the highest habitation in the world—the Peruvian gold mining town of La Rinconada—was written by Marie after traveling 18,200 feet up into a remote corner of the Andes. The movie tells the stories of 8 more extraordinary girls from different countries, each one written by a celebrated woman writer.
Read MoreMarie visits the highest human habitation in the world
La Rinconada, a gold mine at 18,000 feet in Peru, is the subject of this probing article, titled “Dreaming of El Dorado.” Marie traveled there to meet a young girl, Senna, and write a script for the forthcoming movie “Girl Rising.” The accompanying photographs are by Gina Nemirofsky of The Documentary Group in Los Angeles.…
Read MoreVirginia Quarterly Review
Marie has edited the Fall issue of the VQR (magazine published by UVA). Theme: “The Female Conscience,” featuring work by Jean Bethke Elshtain, Judith Warner, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Earle, Mindy Aloff, Jonathan Yardley, Robin Marantz Henig, Reeve Lindbergh, Manal Al-Sharif, and many others. See more here.
Read More