Skepticism

Se habla español

Hola everyone! We’ve just started Skepchick En Espanol over at esceptica.org, where women from several Spanish-speaking countries will be sharing their views on local and international skeptical issues.

Why? Because we cannot allow 500 million Spanish speakers in this planet to go through life without Skepchick.

Skeptics in Spanish-speaking communities have very different battles to fight. Some live in industrialized areas, while others are in areas where a large percentage of the population still lives below the poverty line. Some live in countries where people don’t get vaccinated for lack of education and/or means, others live in places where people have chosen to stop vaccinating their kids because they trust Powerpoint presentations with corny music, pictures of puppies, and a lot of misinformation,* more than they trust their doctor. Yet, there are many common fights; pseudo-sciences know no borders. Many woo providers see us as a single market, we should fight back together.

Don’t get me wrong, there are great skeptical blogs and podcasts being produced in Spanish, but they are not evenly spread geographically, women are grossly underrepresented, and there are rarely any synergies between skeptical groups in different countries. Are we trying to fix all these problems through our blog? Yes!

So, who are we? At the moment, 8 women: two Chilean, two Mexican, and four Spaniard. As for me, I was born and raised in Mexico City in a secular family with very strong science influences. My parents must have done something right since 3 out of 3 of their kids turned out skeptics. Yet, my personal road to skepticism was not a straight line. I was never much into woo but, for many more years than I care to admit, I just couldn’t be bothered to think critically. Long story short, I’m not a scientist and only came to skepticism when my brother introduced me to the SGU. I was immediately hooked.

Whether you’re a native Spanish speaker or you just want to brush up on your Spanish, head over to esceptica.org and help us create a more diverse skeptic community.

*I have not seen such a Powerpoint presentation about vaccines, but due to the large volume of nonsense being spread through this medium, it’s bound to exist.

Daniela

Born and raised in Mexico City, Daniela has finally decided to abdicate her post as an armchair skeptic and start doing some skeptical activism. She is currently living in Spain after having lived in the US, Brazil and Italy. You can also find her blogging in Spanish at esceptica.org.

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18 Comments

  1. This is great! I studied abroad in Mexico and did my final project on a few women’s issues and the problem of being a “fracasada” (literally a “failure” used to describe women who decide not to have children and/or get married) in Guadalajara, and Mexico in general. Latin America is largely left out of a lot of skeptical/feminist outreach, so this makes me SO HAPPY :D

  2. Here we are! This is a bit terrifying, to tell the truth, but we’re very excited! I hope we’ll be an asset to the skeptic community. We’ll certainly try our best!

  3. No habla espanol!

    But congratulations anyway. Maybe my daughter can translate for me.

  4. Excellent. Having successfully resisted learning Spanish as a child, I’ve recently decided to pick it up again. I probably won’t be able to comment, but it’ll be something to read so I can hone my skills.

  5. Yea!!! We finally have enough people for a Skepchick vs Esceptica tug of war. Maybe a complete track-and-field contest!

    The more the merrier!

  6. Fantastic. Now I can practice my Spanish at the same time I’m reading Skepchick news and views from around the globe.

  7. Hello skepchick world! I’m really excited to be part of this community. I hope that escéptica help us in the fight against superstition and nonsense in the hispanic world.

    Hasta la vista, amigos.

  8. I live on the Costa del Sol in Southern Spain. Every so often I google around to see if there is anything skeptical going on in my part of the world. So far I´ve only found a few dead blogs and a skeptics in the pub in Madrid. This seems like a positive move and I hope it will be a spur to making things happen in my part of the world.

  9. OMG! Thank you for this! I’m Mexican-American living in L.A., and I’m so happy to see this! Keep it up!

  10. Bienvenidos!

    I will also try to practice my long neglected Spanish. Which I have been trying to do since my daughter decided her senior project was to learn Spanish. Still need to dig up my old Spanish textbook.

  11. Solo conozco unos pocas palabras en español, pero me gusta mucho la oportunidad. Buena suerte!

  12. Felicitaciones a las chicas de Skepchick. Ya hacía falta un espacio como este para la comunidad escéptica hispanohablante.

    Congrats to all skepchik’s community. The Spanish speaking skeptics need it a space like this.

    Greetings from Colombia.

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