About María Denisse

María Denisse Fanianos de Capriles is a Venezuelan journalist, writer, editor and opinion columnist. And, above all, a wife and the mother of six children.

She was born in Caracas. In 1989 she graduated first in her class from the School of Social Communication at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). Her thesis, «¡Qué caricatura de democracia!» (“What a caricature of democracy!”), received a distinction for excellence and was published. At the UCV she took part in research with professors Marcelino Bisbal, Adolfo Herrera, Gloria Cuenca and Eleazar Díaz Rangel.

Opinion columnist

From January 2011 she wrote a weekly column for the Caracas newspaper El Universal, covering social, civic, educational and family life in Venezuela. She published more than 200 articles there. Her column was dropped, along with those of some thirty other columnists, after the paper changed owners and editorial line.

Her pieces were republished and covered by international outlets and agencies such as ACI Prensa, ACI Digital and El Observador de la Actualidad. She later went on writing from Venezuela as a columnist and reporter for ACI Prensa.

Author

In December 2019 she published her first book, ¿Se puede ser feliz en Venezuela?, a collection of her columns. It is now also available in English as Can You Be Happy in Venezuela? At the publishing house she runs with her husband, the publisher Luis Felipe Capriles, she has worked as an author, compiler and copy editor.

Fundación Entre Líneas

In 1994 she founded, together with her husband, Fundación Entre Líneas, devoted to producing printed educational material for Venezuelans. She directed and produced the monthly bulletin Leer Entre Líneas, which was distributed free of charge across almost the whole country for years.

In 2004 she organized, with nearly a hundred volunteers, the gathering “Builders of the New Participatory Venezuela”, with more than 40 organizations and 600 participants from every social, political and religious background.

Interviews

Over her career she has interviewed, among others, former president Luis Herrera Campins, the poet Ida Gramcko, Brother Ginés, Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, the apostolic nuncio Giacinto Berloco and Bishop Javier Echevarría.

In the media

Her columns and views have been featured by ACI Prensa, Aleteia and other outlets. See all press coverage →