Portfolio
Data analysis, visualization
and storytelling
Welcome to my data journalism portfolio, a collection of projects that combine data analysis, visualization, and storytelling to unveil compelling insights. Through the use of tools such as data scraping, data structuring, machine learning algorithms, and data visualization tools like interactive gganimate, ggplot, HTML, CSS, and Tableau, I have crafted an assortment of data-driven narratives. Each project delves into a diverse range of topics, from gender trends to environmental impacts, shedding light on some the world’s most pressing issues.
Hassel Fallas
Data driven research
This journalistic investigation unravels, step by step, the way the global financing system for climate change operates. In each report of the series, it reveals how wealthy nations of the Global North, backed by influential banks and multilateral institutions, have created a powerful yet unequal financial architecture. A structure that favors their own interests and profits at the expense of the most vulnerable countries drowning in debt.
Data driven research
«Así te afecta el Cambio Climático» is a data journalism, information visualization, and podcast platform aimed at explaining what Climate Change is and how it impacts people’s lives. We use graphics, voices from the scientific and activist communities to highlight, in a simple yet profound language, the consequences of global warming and how we can address it.
Data driven research
Currently, in Costa Rica, judges are less prone to impose prison as the first option for female offenders. Instead, they tend to offer them the possibility of serving their sentence through alternative penalties that allow them to learn a trade, educate themselves, and stay close to their family.
Including a gender perspective in the prison system implies understanding the reasons why women engage in criminal activities and the vulnerabilities they face, such as poverty, motherhood, violence, disabilities, among others. Two legislative reforms, the creation of the Women’s Care Level and the Women’s Care Model in the Prison System, are some of the milestones that have brought the country closer to fulfilling the rights of the women under their care.
When a woman commits a crime in Costa Rica, it does not necessarily mean that the justice system will send her to jail as punishment. Depending on the type of offense and the circumstances that led her to commit the crime, judges could grant her the benefit of an alternative penalty to be served from her home, a hospital – in case of illness – or by attending an educational center.
Gender data visualization
Publications regarding gender, health, demographics, economy and politics are included in this section. Sources come from open data portals or data scraping.
Girl mothers: The drama of Sexual violence against children under 17 years of age in Costa Rica
«One out of every four mothers who were victims of femicide in Costa Rica gave birth during their adolescence.»
«The world of science needs more vision and female presence.»
«Indigenous Women, Protagonists in Mexico’s Science»
Making violence against women visible in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
In a gender world cup, Latin American countries will not reach the final, why?
«Gender gap may close with your granddaughter’s great-granddaughters.»
Unpaid domestic work consumes twice as much time for women than men
» A trans princess to fight against discrimination in northern Mexico.»
Visual & audio
There was a time in Central America when Hondurans were the second population that emigrated least from the region. Three decades ago, for every 10 thousand inhabitants, only 316 left their land. Now they do it, at least, 780. Why are they being pushed until they leave their country?
Data visualization
The silenced, is a data visualization about femicides in Costa Rica. It visually documents the murder of 337 women, assassinated by their partners, between 2007 and 2018. It was published to create awareness
about women violence.
Data visualization
Every year, dozens of boys, girls, adolescents, and adults experience the incessant pain of their mother’s femicide. They are the adjacent victims – socially and emotionally – of the cruelest and most extreme gender violence that exists: taking a woman’s life out of a desire for control and power over her. They are the survivors of this tragedy. The majority – 7 out of 10 – are minors.
Animated graphics with R
Visual data analysis
Visual investigation
Although at a country level it is expected that the aging will begin after 2040, this analysis, based on population forecasts, shows that senescence will reach between two and 14 years in half of the cantons of the country.
Visual investigation
This project shows how in Costa Rica, there are fewer and fewer mothers under the age of 19. The country has achieved the most significant historical decline thanks to a province in particular, Limón. In it, the number of young people who gave birth between the beginning of this century and last year decreased by almost half.
More data visualization
Publications regarding health, demographics, economy and politics are included in this section. Sources come from open data portals or data scraping.
The everyday weather in Costa Rica
How much should I pay for a dollar?
Raining patterns in Central America
Would you live better in another town?
Gender inequity in the world
One hundred more years of inequality
HIV and access to medicines in Latin America
Twitter analysis on visual communication
Couples give up marriage to have children
Infographic
In Guadalajara, every day there is a good influx of rentiers looking for a bike in the city. Per day, the number of journeys ranges between less than 7,000 ( first quartile ) and more than 11,500 ( third quartile ). Of course, this means of transport is never as indispensable as Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. In those three days there were 1.7 million routes, half of all the events in 2018, according to an analysis of The Data Counts with data from the MiBici public service.
Infographic
In the world of Latin letters, no one like Mexican writers and writers have garnered so many awards in the history of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). Since 1991, when the FIL Prize for Literature in Roman Languages was established and until this year, the work of seven Mexicans has been praised and recognized. The last of them is the poet, essayist and translator David Huerta, who received the award on November 30 in the capital of Jalisco.
Science, a field still restricted for women
Costa Rica’ soccer performance since 1920
Unstoppable dengue epidemic attacks Mexico
What makes us happy?
Sentiment analysis in José José’s songs on Spotify
Fewer people die in traffic accidents in La Ciénega, Jalisco
Costa Rica’ soccer performance since 1920
The most expensive players in football
The sparkling market of wine
Voting patterns and abstentions in Costa Rica
A century of volcanic eruptions
Less tourists arrive to Mexico by plane
Investigative journalism
Team- Projects
These are a selection of my favorite projects, implemented with very talented designers and coders, while I was leading the Data Investigative Unit in daily La Nación, Costa Rica
Stolen Memory
Multimedia data-driven investigation about the cultural heritage trafficking in Costa Rica. It revealed how a network of local art dealers sold precious historical pieces in exchange of thousands of dollars.
Narco-decomisos.
This investigation reveals which is the final destination of the drug shipments that pass through Costa Rica.It describes the mechanisms used to smuggle the drug and the effects of this illicit business.
The hidden costs of gasoline
The investigation brought to light the existence of a hidden subsidy in the price formula to cheapen gas and asphalt and to increase the price of diesel and gasoline, the most used fuels in Costa Rica.
Century birthdays
This interactive reviewed 115 years of the history of births in Costa Rica. It demonstrates that the assertion that September was the month when the most children were born in the country was a myth
Fewer Children in Classrooms
The “Fewer Children in Classrooms” project is the first online application that enables making interactive comparisons in the enrollment in elementary 4.000 schools throughout the country.
Till death do us part?
For almost three decades, divorces have increased in Costa Rica. How many divorces are signed for every 100 weddings held? How much has that ratio changed between 1990 and 2016?