Cristina Pacheco

Cristina Romo Hernández (13 September 1941 – 21 December 2023), better known as Cristina Pacheco, was a Mexican journalist, writer and television personality. While her journalism career began in 1960, continuing with regular columns in La Jornada, she was best known for her work in television, hosting two shows called Aquí nos tocó vivir and Conversando con Cristina Pacheco, both on Once TV since 1980. With these shows, Pacheco interviewed notable people and profiled popular Mexican culture, which included interviews with common people. She received over forty prizes and other recognitions for her work including Mexico's National Journalism Prize and the first Rosario Castellanos a la Trayectoria Cultural de la Mujer Award for outstanding women in the Spanish-speaking world.

Early life Cristina Pacheco was born Cristina Romo Hernández on 13 September 1941 in San Felipe, Guanajuato. She was youngest one of six children of a family poor enough to know what hunger was. However, her parents taught her not to beg from others nor to cry. The family left Guanajuato to live in San Luis Potosí but only briefly, because there Pacheco hurt herself gravely and the family moved to Mexico City for her medical treatment. Her mother decided that the family should stay in the city as she had family there. Her family all lived in one room with no privacy. Although she did not have money or toys, she did have freedom, as it was easy for her to escape as her mother was always busy. She would stay by the doors of houses and eavesdrop on neighbors. She said she saw and heard many things as no one took notice of her. For this reason she called herself an "insignificant child", not because she thought she was insignificant but because others saw her as such. What she saw was the good and bad in life. She did not like to talk about the details of her relationship with her husband, stating only that it was an ordinary marriage although she admired her husband's work greatly. Despite her successful career in radio and television, she did not encourage her daughters to follow this path because she did not believe these media inform the public as they should. She did not like being famous.

Career as a journalist and writer Her career began in writing and she was an editor, journalist and writer of various genres. She was best known for her work chronicling the popular culture of Mexico, later doing this on radio and television. She considered herself first a journalist and writer, which to her was adventure, imagination and improvisation. In 1977 she joined the staff of Siempre! magazine. She also published interviews and other articles for other publications such as El Sol de México (1976–1977), the Cuadrante de la Soledad section of El Día (1977–1985), and La Jornada from 1986 onwards. For the last, her best known work was a weekly column series entitled Mar de Historias. She edited the Contenido book series, the and Sábado, a supplement of the daily Unomásuno.

In addition to newspaper columns and reports, she also wrote short stories, chronicles, novels, essays and children's literature. She published fifteen novels including Para vivir aquí (1983), Sopita de fideo (1984), Cuarto de azotea (1986), Zona de desastre (1986), La última noche del tigre (1987), El corazón de la noche (1989), Para mirar a lo lejos (1989), Amores y desamores (1996), Los trabajos perdidos (1998), and El oro del desierto (2005). Both covered cultural topics related to Mexico. Her daughter, Laura Emilia Pacheco, revealed the next day that she died of cancer, detected less than a month prior to her death.

Recognition Pacheco received over forty awards and other recognitions over her career. the National Association of Journalist Prize in 1986, the Teponaxtli Prize from Malinalco in 1986 and the Medalla al Mérito Ciudadano.