Mauricio Lizama

Communications Specialist

I am a trained journalist with a special motivation for the use of new technologies. Since a young age, I learned graphic design and website building on my own. I am deeply interested in sustainable development, nature conservation, politics and ecotourism.

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Languages

Spanish 100%
English 90%
French 90%
German 65%

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Portfolio

Here you can see some of my works completed throughout my professional career like audiovisual projects, articles, reviews, press releases and photographs.

The Emilia Prieto Project is one that aims to promote and keep the memory alive of an artist, educator, singer and scholar of folklore from Costa Rica. I created a website with bootstrap that collects its most important artistic and intellectual work legacy. At the current moment, I am working to launch and disseminate its content through social media and other communicational means.

A blog-style website created for my father Carlos Lizama Hernández, an expert in tourism policy. He was the National Director of Tourism of the Republic of Chile (1970-1972), during the government of Salvador Allende, and later, during his exile in Costa Rica, he held the position of Director of Development, Resources and Tourist Services of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (1974-1988 ). In this blog, we collected many of his writings that were published in various media. He remains actively in writing new anecdotes, chroniques as well as comments on national and international news.

The OAS Delivers. It was an independent project done with my colleague Kepa Gainza, in Barcelona, Spain. It was prepared for the Press and Communications Department of the Organization of American States and presented at the 47th General Assembly of the OAS “Strengthening Dialogue and Concerted Action for Prosperity” in Cancun, Mexico, on June 19-21, 2017.

OAS Open Government Fellowship. This audiovisual was recorded in a workshop of the fellowship program that took place on May 2016, in Osprey, Maryland, United States. The edition was finished on September of the same year. This is a youth program that promote transparency, access to public information and citizen participation in the political sphere of the Americas. 

MAPP/OAS: Yesterday, today and tomorrow – Committed to Colombia. It was one of my last projects and it was edited using footage of the Audiovisual Archive of the OAS. The Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS) was created in 2004, at the request of the national government, to monitor and accompany peace policies in Colombia.

OAS Judicial Facilitators: More Justice For More People. It was recorded and edited between the end of 2015 and early 2016. The interviews and images were captured in El Salvador and Honduras. The OAS Judicial Facilitators are natural leaders of the communities, with a special vocation for service and a strong social sensitivity. 

OAS Official Repository of Inter-American Treaties. Small video news capsule about the vault that safeguards the main legal instruments of the Americas. The treaties and agreements, either bilateral or multilateral, contained in the safe are key tools in international diplomacy and conflict resolution. They represent the legal memory of the Americas from 1889 until today.

OAS Academic Scholarship Program. Small video news capsule highlighting that the scholarships tripled their beneficiaries from 2005 to 2015. Two interviews were conducted: One with biologist, Irene Guendel, Costa Rica, and other with the lawyer, Constanza Bodini, Argentina.

The Electoral Observation Missions. My first audiovisual project about one of the most important and efficient programs of the OAS. It was recorded in La Paz, Bolivia, during the 2014 general elections. These missions are a cooperation instrument that evaluate the whole electoral processes and offer recommendations for the countries of the Americas.

Combating Political Violence against Women. Project made for the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM). We recorded interviews with outstanding feminine political personalities of the Hemisphere during a roundtable debate in the celebration of Women’s Day of the Americas (February 18) and the International Day of Women (March 8).

Participation of the Secretary General in the opening of the Forum of Civil Society Organizations. Video news about the participation of the OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza in the activities of the Seventh Summit of the Americas, held in Panama City, Panama, on April 8, 2015. It was a valuable experience to cover activities in such ahistorical event where the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the President of Cuba, Raúl Castro, shook hands.

The Assembly of Modernization.  Audiovisual project created with help of the entire OAS Press and Communications Department. It was designed to show the backstage as well as the main meetings of the 45th Regular Session of the General Assembly (June 2015), which took place in Washington, DC, United States. The edition process was done between the intern Laura Rincón and myself. 

The Art of Making Beer. It is an institutional documentary made with my colleagues Luis Montenegro and Dayhan Céspedes. It was our final thesis project to obtain our degree in Audiovisual Production from the Federated University. Our project explains the craft beer manufacturing processes and their differences from industrial beer. Costa Rica Craft Brewing are the pioneers of the craft beer movement in the country. The documentary has so far recorded 12,830 views on YouTube, a significant achievement for us.

The Dome and the passage of time. This audiovisual project with basic edition was a summary of the celebration of the end of the dome’s restauration works (July 2011). The audience was amused by the projections of historic images and animations as well as the presentation of contemporary dance, classical music and opera. The restauration received economic support of the governments of Spain and Germany, Holcim Costa Rica and the Friends of the National Theater Foundation.

Review for the hand program of the exposition Body Landscape of the Costa Rican artist Rodolfo Stanley. The exhibition was held at the Cafe of the National Theater from June to July: “When you enter in the workshop of the painter Rodolfo Stanley (1950), it is like to enter in a world that will inevitably leave you amazed. In his paintings you will discover, the craftiness and cleverness, of an artist who explores with his strokes and colors, the most controversial subjects of the Costa Rican society.”

Investigation and writing of an article about the wooden floor of the Foyer of the National Theater of Costa Rica. Several other articles were published under my supervision in the Proscenio Magazine, a single edition publication in 2010. The objective was to keep alive the historical memory of the Theater and record the visit of Mrs. María del Carmen Sáenz Meza, daughter of the artist in charge of working on the wooden floor of the Foyer, Mr. Humberto Sáenz Matas. He was unable to finish the job due to the Costa Rican Civil War of 1948.

This was an extensive press release to report on the recovery by the National Theater of two medallion paintings by Italian artist Paolo Serra (1860-1900), which disappeared after 1960. The National Theater administration organized two exhibitions at the Enrique Echandi Gallery: Medallions of Paolo Serra: Il retorno and The secrets of its history: National Theater 1897-2010. 

Supplement made for the Chilean Embassy in Costa Rica, for the celebration of the 195th Anniversary of the National Independence of Chile. Two articles were written for this supplement: The Revolution towards Digital Government and Memory of an Unknown and Faceless Friend. The latter was a cultural piece about the remembrance of the Minister of Culture, Guido Sáenz, on his encounter with the famous Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral in 1946 .

A set of photographs taken during the presentation on the Permanent Council of the OAS of the former president of the government of Spain and mediator designed by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, on June 21, 2016. At the occasion, he presented his vision of the dialogue process in the conflict between the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the opposition. To see the full photo gallery on the OAS Flickr, just click on the photo.

Photographs taken for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in the framework of the Human Rights International Day, on December 10, 2015. The Roundtable Towards the closure of Guantánamo , gathered panelists who discussed the need to shutdown the controversial US detention center in Guantánamo, Cuba. To see the full photo gallery on the IACHR’s Flickr, just click on the photo.