Farewell to Daniel Diez, founder of Televisión Serrana

December 4, 2023

The renowned journalist, television director and mentor to generations of audiovisual producers, both within and outside Cuba, Daniel Diez Castrillo, was 77 years old at the time of his death, on Saturday night.

The renowned journalist, television director and mentor to generations of audiovisual producers, both within and outside Cuba, Daniel Diez Castrillo, was 77 years old at the time of his death, on Saturday night.

Winner of the National Television Prize in 2015, this distinguished creator earned respect and admiration in Cuban cultural circles, given his tireless work as a documentarian, sound technician, music composer, and journalist on more than 500 Icaic Latinoamericano newscasts, as well as his work as director and documentarian of news programs, sports shows, dramatized productions, and magazines.

His most beautiful project was the creation, in 1993, of Televisión Serrana, in the town of San Pablo de Yao, in the municipality of Buey Arriba, in the province of Granma.

This unprecedented initiative allowed, for the first time, the inhabitants of the mountains to be protagonists in the production of their own documentaries, and, subsequently, mountain television became a school for several generations of producers, and developer of other important initiatives such as the Center for Studies in Community Communication, the Video-Letter, and the Alternative Groups for Audiovisual Creation.

Because of his achievements, Daniel Diez was promoted to vice president for Artistic Creation at ICRT, from 2002 to 2006, and he also served as a lecturer and jury member in various international events and film festivals, among which those in Guatemala, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, and Havana stand out.

Furthermore, he developed prolific academic work as a professor of sound, editing, directing, and other specialties and teaching tasks, both in Cuba and in other countries.

A member of different institutions such as the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac), the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), and the Latin American Council of Film and Video of Indigenous Peoples (Clapci), Diez was awarded in national and international competitions, and was recipient of several honors such as the Distinction for National Culture, the Juan Marinello Order, and the condition of Artist of Merit of ICRT.