Sarita Palacio
Sarita Palacio, black and white portrait, looking straight ahead with crossed arms

Looking for a story… or for someone to tell it?

I am Sarita Palacio. Journalist, storyteller and founder of Duende. For twenty years I have told stories that help people understand complex things, act on them and remember them.

Write to me See what I do
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I tell stories

Journalist since 2006. I write chronicles, columns and letters; on Instagram I tell short stories about what is human while everything changes.

What I tell

I build narratives

I design the story that gives order to a project, a city or an organization, and the strategy to tell it.

My method

I teach

Keynotes, courses and workshops on storytelling, public communication and artificial intelligence, for rooms of twenty or five hundred people.

See topics

I lead Duende

I founded and lead a strategic storytelling agency in Medellín. When a project needs a full team, that is the way in.

Meet Duende
years telling stories20
years leading Duende10
years training the Police10
languages I work in2

About me

Journalist by trade, storyteller by conviction

I started in a newsroom in 2006 and never fully left. I worked at Semana, La República, Teleantioquia and Canal UNE, and wrote columns for years. That is where I learned what still holds my work together: a number only matters when someone can see themselves inside it.

I studied journalism at Universidad de Antioquia and hold a master's degree in Socio-spatial Studies from INER. That mix explains most of what I do. I care about how people live in a territory, how a city makes decisions, and how to tell that to the people who live there so they understand it and make it their own.

Ten years ago I founded Duende, a strategic storytelling agency in Medellín, and I have led it since. What Duende does is done by a large and talented team; my part is the narrative direction: the concept, the point of view and the story that gives order to each project.

For ten years I have trained officers of the Colombian National Police in communication, together with EAFIT University, and I have taught executives, managers, teachers and engineers. I was an advisor to the Pan American Health Organization in Guatemala and worked on clean-vote campaigns for the Government of Antioquia. Today a new question keeps me busy: what happens to human writing when artificial intelligence writes for us.

I live in El Retiro, Antioquia, with my husband and our two daughters, in a house with a vegetable garden.

Portrait of Sarita Palacio in a green jacketJournalist
Sarita Palacio holding freshly picked lettuce in her gardenThe garden, El Retiro
Sarita Palacio sitting on the street at night, among candlesMother of two

Sarita

What I do

What I do on my own: tell, think the narrative, write and teach. When a project needs a full team, we do it with Duende.

Sarita Palacio with her hand raised, at the computer
Writing with judgment, also with artificial intelligence

Keynotes and training

Talks, classes and workshops on strategic storytelling, public communication, narratives for cultural change, and the use of artificial intelligence in communication. From one hour to programs of several weeks.

For conferences, universities, companies and public institutions.

Invite me

Narrative consulting

The concept that gives order to a project, the strategy to tell it, and the analysis of what people say about you in the public conversation. I work with the leadership team until the story is clear to everyone.

For city governments, companies, foundations and social projects.

Let's talk

Commissioned writing

Columns, speeches, letters, analyses and signature texts. Written to measure, with my own research and in your voice, so you can sign them with confidence.

For leaders, spokespeople and media.

Ask for one

Content delivered to your door

Texts, scripts and pieces that arrive ready to publish, as a one-off or on a regular schedule. You set the topic and the pace; I make sure every delivery tells something.

For personal brands, small teams and media.

How it works

Editing and humanizing AI text

I review what you wrote with artificial intelligence and give it back the voice of the person who signs it. I remove the marks that give the machine away, check the facts and leave a text that reads as written by a human.

For communication teams, authors and executives.

Send me the text

With Duende

When a full team of journalists, designers and producers is needed, the project goes to the agency I lead. I stay on as narrative director.

For campaigns, reports and city narratives.

Meet Duende

My method

How I build a story

It is the method I teach in my classes and the one I use when I write. Six steps, always in this order. The most important part happens before anything is designed.

  1. 01

    Listen to the person

    Companies do not listen to stories; people do. First I learn who will hear this, what they live and what hurts.

  2. 02

    Find the tension

    What they face every day and what happens if nothing changes. Where there is pain, a story begins.

  3. 03

    Data, meaning, proof

    Every number is translated into the other person's life and proven with a true micro-story. No proof, no data.

  4. 04

    Tell it

    Tension, conflict and resolution. I read it out loud: if it sounds like a spec sheet, it is not a story yet.

  5. 05

    The second journey

    The real test: can it be told in one minute? Does it survive without me? Can the other person defend it before their committee?

  6. 06

    Design comes last

    With the story tested, and only then, come the slides, the piece or the video.

A story makes two journeys

The first one is with me, in the room. The second one is without me: when the person who heard it repeats it to their boss, their committee or their family. A story is well made when it survives the second journey.

Diagram of a story's two journeys: from the teller to the room, and from the room to the committee, without the teller. The teller The room The committee First journey Second journey
I have told stories, alone or with Duende, for
12November 2026

Next talk

Culture, Identity and the Power of Narrative

Panel at the Horasis Global Summit, Universidad de Medellín, November 12, 7:30 a.m. Moderated by Juliana Mejía, columnist at El Tiempo.

Invite me to the next one

Twenty years turning data into lives people remember.

Journalism, strategy and territory

What I tell

The stories where I have put my voice, my pen or my narrative direction.

Black and white street photograph by Sarita Palacio
My reporter's eye

Journalism

Twenty years of chronicle and column

I started at Semana in 2006 and went on to La República, Teleantioquia and Canal UNE. At Bajo la Manga I wrote columns for three years. That is where my habit of always starting with something concrete comes from.

City of Medellín

The narrative of the land-use plan

With the Duende team I led the narrative of the land-use plan revision: how to tell a whole city, in its own language, the plan that decides where it lives and how it grows.

National Police and EAFIT

Ten years with the Police

I supported the narrative of the new Police Code and since then I have trained officers in communication, in Medellín and Bogotá.

Keynotes

ANDI, Horasis, Comfama

I have spoken about storytelling, cultural change and artificial intelligence to business associations, companies and community journalists. In November 2026 I am a panelist at the Horasis Global Summit in Medellín.

Classes

Executives, managers, engineers

I teach communication and storytelling courses in companies and universities. I like the class people leave writing differently.

Street photograph by Sarita Palacio: a woman on a bicycle in a red coat
Street photo

Instagram

Stories about what is human while everything changes

Letters to my daughters, words we should not forget, the garden and the marks of artificial intelligence on what we write. It is where you can best see how I think.

Cooperation and government

PAHO/WHO Guatemala and Government of Antioquia

I was an advisor to the Pan American Health Organization in Guatemala and worked on clean-vote campaigns for the Government of Antioquia.

What I talk about when I am invited

Four topics I have worked on for years, adapted to each audience, from a board of directors to a room of five hundred people.

Invite me to your event

  • Strategic storytelling

    How an organization finds its story and uses it to decide, not only to communicate.

  • Narratives for cultural change

    What makes a community, a company or a city truly change a behavior.

  • Public communication and territory

    How to tell a plan, a public work or a policy to the people who will live with it.

  • Artificial intelligence and human writing

    What AI can do for a writer, what it takes away, and how to spot its marks in a text.

Sarita Palacio on stage at Claustro Comfama, holding a microphone in front of a projected slide
AI workshop for community journalists
Sarita Palacio walking with a microphone among workshop participants
Among the tables, microphone in hand
Wide view of Claustro Comfama during Sarita Palacio's workshop
Claustro Comfama, Medellín, 2026
I write about what is human while everything changes.
Short stories, every week, on Instagram

Follow @saritapalacio

What I write

Columns, essays and chronicles under my name. All in Spanish.

DuendeJanuary 2025

Historias y humanos: el mismo material

Stories and humans are made of the same material.

Storytelling and brand purpose

Read (Spanish)

DuendeJune 2025

El lugar de enunciación en el storytelling

On the place from which a brand speaks.

Brand narrative

Read (Spanish)

DuendeOctober 2025

El fuego que nos hizo madurar

Eight years after the first spark that brought us together.

Narrative voice and agency culture

Read (Spanish)

Santa Rita de Sinitavé, ItuangoOctober 2014

Cuánto puede aportar un borrador a una sonrisa: el caso Ituango

Educational chronicle

Read (Spanish)

Santa Rita de Sinitavé, ItuangoOctober 2014

Relato breve de una visita a Santa Rita de Ituango

Territorial chronicle

Read (Spanish)

Latest stories

What I recently posted on @saritapalacio (in Spanish).

Instagram

Once again I decided to write a letter to my daughters. This time about the importance of feeling.
See the story

Instagram

For generations we have asked girls to behave.
See the story

Instagram

I am convinced that on the shelf of memory many memories are made of flavors.
See the story

What people ask before hiring me

How long is a keynote or a class?

From a one-hour talk to a program of several weeks. We shape the format with the organizer, according to the audience and what has to happen afterwards.

Which languages do you work in?

Spanish and English.

Do you travel outside Medellín?

Yes. I teach in Bogotá, I have worked in Guatemala, and I also run online sessions.

How do you quote?

By format and scope. Write to me with the date, the audience and the duration, and I will answer with a proposal.

When is it a job for you and when for Duende?

A keynote, a consultancy, a text or an edit I do myself. A campaign, a report or a city narrative that needs a full team is done with Duende, and I stay on as narrative director.

Contact

Tell me what you need to tell

If you have a keynote, a class, a text or a project you still do not know how to explain, write to me here. It goes straight to my inbox and I answer personally.

Or if you prefer: saritapalacio@gmail.com · @saritapalacio

For large projects

Duende, the agency I lead

Campaigns, reports, city narratives and content for large teams. That is Duende's work, done by a large and talented team. I stay on as narrative director.

  • 2017the year I founded it
  • Medellínwhere the team works
Sarita Palacio standing in a cobblestone square of a Colombian town, with mountains behind Go to duende.com.co