Jorge Churba Bircz
Photojournalist, copywriter and editor
City of Buenos Aires (Argentina), 1953
Jorge Churba is an Argentine photojournalist and copywriter who came to Spain in the 80s. A professional who has been able to adapt to technological transformations with a rare naturalness.
“My professional life was a journey through different countries in which I experienced the evolution of communication technologies. I started as a photographer collaborating with a magazine in the Argentinian Patagonia. Those were the times of analogue photography and not only did I develop and enlarge my photos, but I even prepared the developer”.
This is how Jorge Churba, a photojournalist who came to Spain in the early 80s, where he began to collaborate as a correspondent for “Perfil”, a publishing group that produced magazines in Argentina, begins his presentation. It was the time of the World Cup and the Falklands War (Falkand Islands for the British, ten weeks of war between Argentina and the United Kingdom that took place in 1982), and, as he himself tells us, “at the end of this war I was appointed correspondent in London on the condition that, In addition to the photos, you will also send written information.
I had never done it before and I had to learn quickly. A few months later he was already a columnist. At that time, he sent texts by telex – devices similar to typewriters, but much larger and noisier – and reels of undeveloped photos, with the collaboration of passengers and airlines.
Then I used a computer for the first time. It took up an entire room and had a tiny monochrome screen. We worked from texts in English and we had two hours to make the Spanish version of about four news stories for television, which were broadcast throughout America. At a fixed time, our work had to be finished. The screen went black, which meant that the satellite connection had started.”
After this, Jorge returned to Argentina, where he joined the magazine “Libre” as an editor, but for a short time: a year later he was back in Spain and began to work as a photographer and graphic editor for the Associated Press (AP) agency, where he had to process his photos at a dizzying speed, write their information in English and send them by phone. which sometimes could need a full day.
In Jorge’s words “those were times of Felipe González’s government and everything had to be covered: Zarzuela, Moncloa, demonstrations, football, bullfighting, concerts…”. It was what newspapers and other customers from the rest of the world who wanted to know about our country demanded. And, he continues: “although it may seem unbelievable and despite being accredited in so many important places, I did not have legal residence in Spain”.
Seeing that AP was not willing to offer him the contract that would allow him to resolve his situation, he looked for other alternatives. And he found them: first in the magazine “Geo”, where he experienced the change from the typewriter to the personal computer, and then in “Gente y Viajes 16”, whose director, Charo Izquierdo, finally offered him the stability with which he was able to obtain a work permit.
With the new millennium he settled in Murcia, specifically in La Alberca, and there he co-founded, with the graphic designer Ángeles Portillo, a partner in profession and life, the communication agency Churba & Portillo, from which, together, they evolved from paper to the web.
An agency and two professionals who, based on a deep exploration of the topics they were going to address to fulfill their assignments —you only have to look at the library of their studio—, were among the first in Murcia to offer services such as editions on recycled paper, marketing plans with ecological and fair trade merchandising, and a branding and communication consultancy with a strong social and environmental commitment, highly appreciated by its clients, its numerous clients.
It was when he worked for the Internet, a medium that seduced him from the first moment, that he went on, without interruption, to write persuasive texts for advertising, for catalogs and for websites, adopting the role of what we now call a “copywriter”. Between 2006 and 2019 Jorge and Ángeles kept the blog “The secret of growing SMEs” active, from which they gave us technical knowledge (about WordPress, SEO positioning, etc.) and presented us with news about the network of networks and the work of the agency.
The last entry, about the process of creating the website of Juan Pujol, “Garbo”, the spy who defeated Hitler, deserves a careful stop. And another the “Practical Dictionary. Internet for Entrepreneurs”, open and online publication; A complete glossary, useful for those who need to move from analogue to digital.
In a telephone conversation with Jorge Churba, today in La Alpujarra, “a region that I fell in love with many years ago doing one of my travel reports”, retired and involved in care tasks for his partner, he lets me know that, among his current interests, is the good use of generative AI. I know that it is not the best time to ask you anything, but I cannot resist and I leave for the record here that I look forward to your writings on the subject.
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Teresa Jular exchanged messages with Jorge Churba between 2024 and March 2025
Internet Dictionary for Entrepreneurs