50th Anniversary of the PGLA
An infinite meeting
VII meeting of the Latin American Graduate Program
On October 13, 14 and 15 took place in Pamplona the VII International meeting of the PGLA (Latin American Graduate Program), commemorating the 50th Anniversary since its first edition.
This meeting brought together the alumni of the eighteen graduating classes of the PGLA, who visited Pamplona between 1972 and 1989, in order to expand their professional training in the School of Communication of the University of Navarra.
"The PGLA pushed us to dream the world as the field of action of our work. The lives of all PGLA students brought the world to Pamplona".
Charo Sádaba, dean of the School de Comunicación
History of PGLA
1972 | PGLA begins
By Francisco Gómez Antón
Between 1972 and 1990, four hundred communication professionals from thirteen American countries attended this program, financed by the German Aktion Adveniat Foundation of financial aid at development. The program was a spectacular success, despite the fact that: the overload of work was continuous; the amount of the scholarships was very tight; the atmosphere was that of a small town; the cold was relentless almost all the time; the meals were untimely and strange, with no chorizo steaks or beans or chili or colored water or avocado or anything else; and the normal speech with such a harsh accent that it seemed as if everyone was angry.
(...)
As Director of the PGLA I had the good fortune to travel up and down the Americas for sixteen years, and to see how the good progress of the Program forced me to fit in more and more tasks in the diary , which would have been neglected if other professors had not been incorporated into the annual trips of the last four or five years.
But the priority attention of diary was always given to reunions with alumni, whose partnership was and continues to be invaluable several decades later. Such reunions are an important part of the Program's historical report , and were consolidated over the years in dozens of get-togethers with no jet lag or clocks in sight.
Most of those who studied the Program work today, spreading its spirit, in the media in their countries of origin, or scattered around the wide world as befits their nomadic and traveling profession. And not a few of them collaborate in the training of communication professionals in more than fifty universities around the world. Apparently, then, "the future has begun"... with a good start.
Excerpt from the book "Fcom: 50 years preparing the future".
"The PGLA in the history of the School of Communication". Excerpts from the book by Carlos Barrera: Historia de la School de Comunicación de la Universidad de Navarra. Medio siglo de teaching e research 1958-2008 (EUNSA, Pamplona, 2009, 452 pp).
