José Juan Zapata Pacheco

born in Mexico, 1984. Is a Mexican journalist and screenwriter who has been working in the printed and online media for over ten years now. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Literature from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (Autonomous University of Nuevo León) in 2007. Since 2002 he has been working as a journalist in different media such as La Opinión Milenio (Torreón) and El Porvenir (Monterrey) newspapers, along with Entretodos, Replicante and Armas y Letras magazines. He has been also involved with a fellow filmmaker, Hector Montaño, in the writing of Montaño’s short films like ¿Tiene usted una pluma? (Do you have a pen?), which earned a Jury’s Special Mention in Riviera Maya Underground Film Festival 2009; he also wrote La beca (The Grant), which obtained a “Cabrito de Plata” award at the VI Monterrey Film Festival 2010. Furthermore he also received a grant from the Centro de Escritores de Nuevo León (Nuevo León Writers’ Centre) due to his writing of a feature film screenplay, which is currently under the pre-production phase. Recently Jose Juan also participated in a New Media workshop run by the Ibero-American New Journalism Foundation (FNPI) as well as a Theater Review workshop at the XXIX Mexican National Theatre Showcase in 2008. José Juan currently lives in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, working as a reporter for the UANL newspaper, Vida Universitaria. In addition to his work at the newspaper he runs his music review-oriented blog Baúl de Long Plays at http://jojuzapalps.wordpress.com/