Marta Rojas (May 17, 1928 – October 3, 2021) was a Cuban journalist, historian, historical fiction writer, and revolutionary heroine.[1] A witness to the 26 July 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks, she reported on the subject of censorship to Revista Bohemia.
Marta Rojas | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 17, 1928 |
| Died | October 3, 2021 (aged 93) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist Historian Writer |
| Years active | 1953–2021 |
Biography
editMarta Rojas, a tailor's daughter, was born in Santiago de Cuba, on 17 May 1928 (other sources state 1931).[2] She studied at the Escuela Normal. She considered becoming a physician before changing her mind once she arrived in Havana. She graduated from the Escuela Profesional de Periodismo Manuel Márquez Sterling.[3][4]
Rojas worked for Revista Bohemia magazine, and after the revolution, also for Verde Olivo and Trabajo. She worked for the newspaper Granma since its founding, covering numerous national and international events, including numerous overseas trips by Fidel Castro. She also served as a war correspondent in Vietnam. Rojas wrote several novels dealing with the founding of the Cuban nation and the struggle of the mestizos since the 18th century. Turning to historical fiction,[4] she published several books, including Moncada, La Generación del Centenario, El juicio del Moncada, Tania la Guerrillera (coauthor) and El que debe vivir (testimonies about Abel Santamaría).[5][6] In 1992, an extract translated by Jean Stubbs and Pedro Perez Sarduy from Rojas's then unpublished novel, El columpio de Rey Spencer, was included in the anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[7]
She died of a heart attack on 3 October 2021.[8]
Awards and honours
editRojas has received numerous awards, such as Casa de las Americas Prize (1978),[2] the José Martí National Journalism Award (1997), in recognition of her life's work;[9] and the Alejo Carpentier Award (2005).[10]
Selected works
edit- 1960, Moncada : un juicio insolito
- 1964, La generación del centenario en el Moncada
- 1971, Tania, the unforgettable guerrilla
- 1978, El que debe vivir
- 1996, El columpio de Rey Spencer
- 2007: Holy Lust
References
edit- ^ Haney 2005, p. 5.
- ^ a b Fister 1995, p. 264.
- ^ "Marta Rojas, Periodismo, Cuba" (in Spanish). EnCaribe. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b Noble 2016, p. 47.
- ^ "Journalist Marta Rojas an Unrecognized Witness to Cuban History". commondreams.org. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
- ^ "Marta Rojas". granma.cu (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 December 2016.
- ^ "From Rey Spencer's Swing", in Margaret Busby (ed.), Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 412–14.
- ^ "Cuban journalist Marta Rojas – Vietnam's close friend passes away". VietNamNet. Retrieved 2021-10-05.
- ^ "Premio Nacional de Periodismo José Martí". cubaperiodistas.cu (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 November 2023.
- ^ "Premio Alejo Carpentier fue para Marta Rojas". La Nación (in Spanish). 28 December 2005. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
Bibliography
edit- Fister, Barbara (1995). Third World Women's Literatures: A Dictionary and Guide to Materials in English. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-28988-0.
- Haney, Richard (2005). Celia Sánchez: The Legend of Cuba's Revolutionary Heart. Algora Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87586-397-9.
- Noble, Dennis L. (30 November 2016). Hemingway's Cuba: Finding the Places and People That Influenced the Writer. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2638-3.