Editorial

In the editorial for issue 20 of La Palabra, the poet Jorge Eliécer Ordonez stated that our journal had lived three periods and that the third one had ended. After this, for the last three years and a half, we have been in charge of the journal's editorial process; in 2011, we updated it, releasing four issues which included small innovations in its design as well as the formal parameters demanded by Publindex for indexing. During those times, we experienced a paradox, the magazine had not been released for some time; no one was interested in writing for La Palabra. Thus, we had to look for friends and colleagues to gather articles for the three issues. From the beginning, we received support from the brand new Masters in Literature and its coordinator the professor Hernán Fonseca. The help of the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Doctor Gilberto Forero, was also invaluable in the publication process.

In 2012, after updating La Palabra, we registered for evaluation by Publindex and obtained category C in the ranking. Thanks to this achievement, La Palabra began to be known and disseminated. Consequently, the knowledge emerging from the Masters in Literature and the School of Languages was also recognized.

In 2013, La Palabra redesigned its graphic image completely, a change that produced a positive impact on the readers, authors and members of the editorial committee. In the same year, we registered for a new evaluation in Publindex and obtained category B in the ranking. This achievement demonstrated the growth of the journal and its improvement in terms of editorial and academic processes, leading to inclusion in international academic databases. Presendy, the electronic version of our journal receives regular visits, and has begun to be recognized as a landmark of literary research in Colombia.

As we have mentioned in our last editorials, there is a kind of maze in which our journal has been immersed. The often crude formality of these evaluations, subjects our publication to empty and mercantilistic conceptions of knowledge, where statistics and form are the only important criteria, disregarding the journal's contributions to the academic discipline of literature and to knowledge in other disciplines; as well as to other results that are meaningful for us, but do not classify under a conception of academic rigor exclusively measured in terms of positivist perspectives.

Due to the fact that our journal is in the field of literature, it resents the excess of formal criteria that reduce the creativity of our research to a shallow and fixed idea of how results should be displayed. Once again, we state that if we have decided to participate in the indexing process, it is because the only positive aspect we find, is that La Palabra is disseminating widely, and with our work we open a space for writers who wish to contribute to the advance of literary research. It is sad that the only way for an academic journal to survive is to find institutional support is by means of indexing processes of this type. We will always denounce that behind the indexing of journals there are unnecessary, illegitimate and reductionist situations.

After the previous statements, we present issue 25 of La Palabra, composed by four sections organized according to the articles approved in the evaluation phase. These sections are: Colombian Literature, Argentinean Literature, Literature and Semiotic Analysis, and Research in the Masters in Literature. In relation to the evaluation of articles, it is worthwhile to highlight that the group of peer reviewers has increased, thanks to the circulation of our publication.

As editor of La Palabra for the last three years and a half, I must confess that I have felt satisfied for the job accomplished and the contribution given to this publication, that eventually becomes one's life. I would like to thank, very specially, to the unconditional support of Andrea Maria Numpaque, who worked by my side for a year and a half; she is our editorial assistant and thanks to her, La Palabra has evolved and improved in all its processes.

Due to the fact that from the coming august I will be on academic leave in order to carry out my Doctoral studies, I welcome our new editor, professor Adrian Farid Freja de la Hoz, with whom I am certain our magazine will continue to advance.

Witton Becerra Mayorga
Editor