2023-08-07 20:36:47
…so that it would last and have value,
to inspire and strengthen,
history had to be written.
Jose Marti
Letter to Manuel de la Cruz
New York, June 3, 1890
Although it seems unlikely, the truth is that the radio in Cuba, one hundred years after its inauguration, has not yet revealed all the secrets that it treasures, those that deserve to be known and preserved as one of the richest patrimonies of the nation.
Such a statement does not, of course, deny the essential research that radio broadcasting scholars on the island have carried out, over time, to unravel a history of unquestionable scope, transcendence, and perseverance.
“Every new effort that makes it possible to have other books on Cuban radio deserves to be known, and recognized, in its real dimension.”
It is now necessary to remember some of those obligatory reference researchers who, with their searches and findings, have managed to fix moments, facts, events of Cuban radio broadcasting and those who have been its protagonists. It is not possible to forget, in this memory exercise, the actor and director of radio programs Oscar Luis López, who shared his professional performance in the media with the writing of two books of permanent consultation: Radio in Cuba and Alejo Carpentier and the radio.
His work has been continued and enriched by the journalist, broadcaster and radio producer Josefa Bracero Torres, author of an extensive bibliography on the subject, with titles such as Faces that are heard, Other faces that are heard, These faces that are heard and Silence. … is spoken.
Any new effort that makes it possible to have other books on Cuban radio deserves to be known, and recognized, in its real dimension, in order not only to rescue the history of the medium but also to contribute so that the experiences already lived can enrich the daily chore.
Ediciones En Vivo, the publishing label of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, has published two titles that aim to, and succeed, testify to the birth and development of two small radio plants belonging to remote municipalities on the island.
The first of these books is CMKZ: Radio Baraguá, pioneer of Cuban stations (2021, 144 pp.), by Eddy Bolaños Guía, which presents the history of the station known as La voz del Cauto, which begins its broadcasts on April 1934 in Palma Soriano and is currently still on the air.
CMKZ Radio Baraguá Eddy Bolaños. Pie: In this book, Eddy Bolaños reveals and illustrates, in detail, the history of Radio Baraguá. Images: Courtesy of the author
The essential purpose of this installment, as stated by its own author, is “to publicize the history of one of the pioneering stations of Cuban radio that from a municipality in the then province of Oriente, Palma Soriano, crossed the ether in the first years of the 1930s due to the effort and initiative of people who through this medium were interested in bringing culture to this town and the dissemination of customs and other facts of social interest.
Thus, through these pages, the reader will learn how the Spaniard Joaquín Venero Obregón managed to found the plant, the characteristics of the first programs broadcast, the artists —Cuban and foreign— who perform in his studios, the current profile of the station … You will also find other materials of interest in this book, among them some scripts from the most recent programming of the CMKZ, as well as a collection of photographs that, through images, allows illustrating the story told.
Linked to Radio Baraguá since 1969, Eddy Bolaños Guía (Palma Soriano, 1943) has worked, for almost half a century, as an editor-reporter, writer, adviser and director of historical programs, in addition to teaching courses related to the technique radial.
A contributor to other radio stations and various periodicals, awarded in national contests, Bolaños Guía has received, among other recognitions, the Cuban Radio Microphone and the ICRT Artist of Merit status.
In the prologue to CMKZ: Radio Baraguá, a pioneer of Cuban radio stations, Mariana Venero Domínguez, editor of the volume and daughter of the founder of the plant, writes that this work contributes to “that the new generations know part of the history of Cuban Radio ”.
Radio Encrucijada Cuba, a decade on the air (2021, 128 pp.), signed by Amador Hernández, is another of those books that also proposes, through its pages, to rescue, save and promote history —by the way, not fully told—from the radio, in the largest of the Antilles.
Supported by extensive documentary and testimonial research, the author presents the genesis, development and splendor of the CMHE radio station, Radio Encrucijada Cuba, located in a small municipality north of the former province of Las Villas.
Anecdotes, memories, evocations, are interconnected in this testimonial work by Amador Hernández.
Over the course of a decade, between 1948 and 1958, this station, founded and animated by the Díaz Quintanilla family, managed, with ingenuity and tenacity, not only to design, but also to broadcast a radio station that was heard beyond the borders of the island.
Anecdotes, memories, remembrances, are strung together in this work, which allows us to verify how the CMHE, Radio Encrucijada Cuba, makes it possible, thanks to its varied programming, to revive the economic, social and cultural life of the community.
Radio Encrucijada Cuba, a decade on the air, is not the first testimonial book published, both inside and outside the island, by Amador Hernández, narrator and essayist who has been teaching at the Marta Abreu de Las Villas Central University for several years. . In his extensive bibliography, which also includes novels, essays and chronicles, his testimonies, through a suggestive narration, are characterized by being a faithful reflection of those realities and problems that accompany man in the contemporary world.
Perhaps the most significant example is La medianoche del cordero (2005), a book recognized with the Ciudad del Che Scholarship Project Award, 2003; the Uneac Pablo de la Torriente Brau Testimony Award, 2004 and the Critic Award Being in Time from Uneac Villa Clara, 2007.
Perhaps Eddy Bolaños Guía and Amador Hernández do not imagine that, with the publication of these new books, they join the noble aspirations of those who, for decades, have been interested in Cuban radio broadcasting rescuing its centenary history.
Hence the reading of CMKZ: Radio Baraguá, pioneer of Cuban stations and Radio Encrucijada Cuba, a decade on the air, contributes to saving a chapter, a passage, a moment —for some, unknown and for others forgotten— of such memorable story.
Taken from La Jiribilla
#memorable #history #Cuban #Radio