The stories Hector Tobar spoke to us about in relationship to his career as a journalist and the time he spent writing Deep Down Dark were not what I was expecting to hear. One of the first things Tobar said was, “I was shy before I became a journalist.” That was a surprising. Tobar seemed anything but someone who used to be shy. He crinkled up paper and threw it at us to show how frustrated he gets when he can’t figure out what to write, he broke the boundaries of an ordinary conference and put life into the interview. If I were to every write a profile piece on Hector Tobar I would be sure to fit in the immense amount of body language he had. He didn’t sit with a stiff, cold figure. Tobar sat comfortably in his swiveling chair to begin with but adjusted his face, hands and body with every story – if I was unable to hear Tobar, I would know how he was feeling based on his expressions. His hands moved around constantly, especially when he talked about his love for metaphors and imagery.
Tobar to me is a man built up of hard work and compassion because when he discusses his passion for writing, you can also see his concern for who or what he is writing about. “I treat my interviewees like kings,” he said. This quote, to me, goes beyond treating them like kings just to get the information he needs but treating them like kings because they deserve to be. Tobar mentioned his battle with lifelong depression and, although it is a terrible disease to battle, it often comes along with extreme sensibility to mood. I think this trait comes through in Tobar’s work because when he described his interactions with the miners, he knew a whole lot more than just the story of the incident. He took time to examine each miner and understand them as a whole instead of just that one incident. He described talking to the miners’ wives, their daily livers and what lead them to becoming miners.
I thoroughly enjoyed the responses Tobar gave and I think journalists can learn an awful lot from his process and personality.