Programm Bits & Bäume 2018

Journalist and author, official New York Times correspondent in Central America, host of "Quien Es Quien" on Teleceiba, regular contributor to The Guardian, Howler, Forecast24 and Honduran satirical news outlet Metropollo.

Alberto Jimenez Mendoza started his journalism career investigating the social unrest following the 1980 earthquake in Puerto Barrios, Honduras, an event he covered as an intern for El Heraldo and which he still refers to as the most formative mission. A strong advocate of immersion, he has spent several years living with the Kayapo and Wajapi communities in the Amazon forest, an experience he narrates in "The Real Jungle Book", and which led him in the following years to investigate the issues of deforestation, ecosystem management and biopiracy. His second opus, "For Whom The Cell Tolls — A Look Into The Depths Of Gene Editing", is a compilation of stories written for the Guardian between 2008 and 2010 on the effect of bioengineering on heirloom species and the local communities living off them. In 2012 he received the Rock Award for "Fell Swoop Full Swoop", a short fiction accompanying an elderly couple in their struggle to partake in the sharing economy through their neighbour's smartphone, soon followed by "Grudge Of The Ages", an essay on generation gaps and technological divide throughout history. Mendoza is since 2014 the official correspondent to the New York Times in Central America, for which he covers a variety of social and political topics such as corruption, resources management and new social regulation proposals, and he started hosting his own television show "Quien Es Quien" on Teleceiba, during which he present and fact-checks social entrepreneurship initiatives worldwide. Published in 2017, his most recent book "Updated Map Of The Multiverse" sheds light the diversity of world cultures, and explores various alternative timelines resulting in different fictional world orders.