Farewell to Georgina Almanza, Diva of Radio

November 4, 2023

Georgina Almanza, National Radio Prize recipient, passed away last Tuesday, October 31st, at the age of 93.

Although it is the regular listeners of the Radio Progreso soap opera block who treasure in the deepest recesses of their souls the impressive level of performance by Almanza over so many years, in order to learn firsthand about the inner workings of this renowned Diva of Cuban Radio, we approached another member of this select radio group, Caridad Martínez, who was precisely the director of the Cuban Soap Opera for more than three decades.

At the same time that I heard references to Almanza's praised acting abilities, it became evident that we were talking about a person utterly devoted to her work, very disciplined and dutiful in her obligations, essential requirements that allowed her to grow in each soap opera she was called upon to perform in.

Memorable was her performance in 1983, during the radio adaptation directed by Caridad of the work Monte Libre, original by writer Dora Alonso, specifically in that passage in which Almanza plays a seasoned muleteer, a collaborator with the rebels, who goes to the tomb of her son, executed for his crimes as a soldier of the tyranny, to express to him that she never agreed with his conduct, but that she was his mother.

Caridad tells us that the actress managed to convey such a level of identification with her role that, when the recording ended, she burst into tears, commenting to her that she too was the mother of an only son. The same happened with the soap opera When Blood Looks Like Fire, a work by writer Manuel Cofiño, in a radio adaptation by poet and screenwriter Georgina Herrera, in 1992, in which Almanza takes on an unforgettable grandmother, but with such dramatic force in the character that it evoked not only the highest praise from Cofiño himself, but equally from critics.

Whenever I crossed paths with Georgina Almanza in the halls of Radio Progreso, she always gave me a beautiful smile, the kind that comes from the faces of humble people, dedicated body and soul to their profession. I knew that each time she stood before the microphone, a miracle would happen.