This is Cami, a French cartoonist who promotes freedom of expression through art

The journalist cartoonist arrived in Ecuador Camille Girard, a woman who speaks French, also studied English and Spanish, but with her talent she makes drawings that are understood all over the world. from school, cami She found herself drawing on the pages of her notebook, scratching on the table and lost in her imaginary world.

When he found out what he wanted to study, his mother told him “you won’t make a living from art”, so he accompanied his artistic career with a job in the commercial sector. By the year 2000 cami He arrives in the city of Bordeaux, which is located in the southwest of France, and finds a newspaper on the way. Nouvelle Vaguesindependent newspaper.

Over time, he was able to practice his professional cartoons there. His first exhibition was held a few years later and he called it “Un p’tit vélo dans la tête” which means “a little bicycle on the head”. cami Little by little, she found her own direction and became an independent cartoonist.

Currently, he felt called to speak about the importance of using art as a means of expression. Part of her job is to inform with drawings, and just like her, there are several talents who are still finding their purpose, so the French woman took time out of her tour of Ecuador to give a lecture to students from Casa Grande University as part of the World Press Freedom Day.

This dynamic, carried out together with the Alliance Françaises network in Ecuador, allowed several young people to interact with Cami and ask her how she found her style and what it’s like to work in the industry. Cami replied that she is not the only one promoting this initiative, as she is part of Cartooning for Peace, an association that brings together different cartoonists around the world and supports the work of cartoonists for the press.

More than 200 artists are involved in this association, including the Ecuadorian Bonil, with whom Cami had the opportunity to talk and exchange ideas at a distance. “In France there is freedom of the press, we can draw anything,” he explained. cami students interested in that field.

“In Japan you can’t draw about the mafia, in Morocco you can’t draw about the royal family,” he continued. This is the reality experienced by her friend and colleague who used her art as a sign of protest and spent several days in prison because of her drawing.

cami He uses the opportunity to hold workshops in prisons for young people and adults, he has also created informative works such as dictionaries and children’s books such as the alphabet “Qui veut la peau du dessin de presse?” with the aim of promoting current political and global topics. Your guide to refugees on the web, translated into four languages ​​for the refugees whose testimonies she illustrated camiis a project carried out by Welcome Bordeaux with the support of Amnesty International.

He believes that a real journalist, a cartoonist for the press, is in the center of current affairs and sensitizes society’s problems through cartoons. Controversy, censorship… Dealing with the problems a journalist faces. Through different types of printing drawings and the construction of stylistic figures, learn to manage crayons and have confidence in their drawing that symbolizes current issues.

sketches of cami they evolved over time, before he created them on paper, and now he admits to carrying his tablet everywhere, motivating others to try the same. Although he knows that in Ecuador the space on the market is much smaller “every newspaper has only one cartoonist”, he believes that local journalists should not lose hope of continuing with their profession and finding their niche.

Santiago PonceThe 19-year-old student of journalism at UCG was inspired by the speech camiwhich did not only contain informative and encouraging words, but also included a workshop where he shared with the attendees in more detail the process of journalistic caricature, from the idea to turning it into a unique expression.

“I liked it because you can always learn, you have to be attentive and distinguish some details that can help us in our professional development. I didn’t think about the artistic side of journalism, that is, about cartoons. It attracts my attention and now I think that it is a point that I could work with and in which I can perform”, he says. ponce about his experience in this workshop, emphasizing what he takes away from the message cami: any drawing or graphic interpretation can communicate. (AND)