Elda Cento Gómez

Distinguished professor and historian from Camagüey. Corresponding Member of the Academy of History of Cuba. Advisor to the General Directorate of the Office of the Historian of the City of Camagüey, National Vice President of the National Union of Historians of Cuba (UNHIC), and also member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). She received, among other honors, the National History Award in 2015, the Distinction for Cuban Culture and the Recognition La Utilidad de la Virtud.

Elda was born in Camagüey and graduated with a degree in History from the University of Havana. She obtained a master's degree in Latin American Culture, and was Auxiliary Researcher and Associate Full Professor at the Institute of Higher Art.

She carried out extensive work as a historian in the city of Camagüey, where she served as Advisor to the General Directorate of the Office of the Historian of that city. She was also vice president of the Union of Historians of Cuba and was a member of UNEAC and the Expert Group of the National History Program (CITMA - Institute of History of Cuba).

She maintained a close relationship with the provincial Camagüey broadcasting station, joining it as historical advisor for the multimedia project "Ignacio Agramonte: diamond with the soul of a kiss", developed in the Digital Newsroom of Radio Cadena Agramonte.

She created and compiled the Cuadernos de historia principeña which began to be published in 2001 under the Editorial Ácana imprint, and were awarded in 2013 and 2014 with the La Puerta de Papel Prize from the Cuban Institute of the Book.

In 2004 she received the Annual Prize for Cultural Research from the Centro Juan Marinello and the José Luciano Franco Prize for Historical Criticism for El camino de la independencia. Joaquín Agüero y el alzamiento de San Francisco de Jucaral Ed. Ácana, 2003, 2009); and a decade later she won the "José Luciano Franco" again for Del látigo y el jornal. Apuntes sobre la esclavitud en el Camagüey (Ed. Ácana, 2013).

Matar al mambí. Documentos de la ofensiva española en el Camagüey (1870), (co-authored with José Abreu Cardet) (Ed. Ácana, 2015) also merited La Puerta de Papel.

She won the Ramiro Guerra Prize for Historical Criticism on two occasions, in 2014 for Nadie puede ser indiferente. Miradas a las guerras 1868-1898* (Ed. Oriente, 2013) and in 2010 for Salvador Cisneros Betancourt. Entre la controversia y la fe (Ed. de Ciencias Sociales, 2010) (co-authored with Ricardo Muñoz).

Her last public appearance was on October 15th at the Ateneo Vietnam bookstore, as a guest at a forum organized by the Provincial Center for Books and Literature, on the occasion of the Day for Cuban Culture. On that occasion she stated: "For me it is an error to disconnect a country's events from its culture. Both complement each other. We build new habits, identity, but we cannot deny our beginnings".

Publications
Creator and compiler of the Cuadernos de historia principeña (Ed. Ácana, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008)
El camino de la independencia. Joaquín de Agüero y el alzamiento de San Francisco de Jucaral (Ed. Ácana, 2003, 2009)
Del látigo y el jornal. Apuntes sobre la esclavitud en el Camagüey, Editorial Ácana, 2013
Para no separarnos nunca más. Cartas de Ignacio Agramonte a Amalia Simoni (Casa Editora Abril, 2009)
Ignacio Agramonte y el combate de Jimagüayú (Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2007, 2nd edition Ed.El Lugareño, 2008)
Máximo Gómez: 100 años (Editorial Ciencias Sociales, 2006)
Cuadernos Cubanos de Historia 4. (Editora Política, 2007)
Visión de la Guerra: Correspondencia de Consuelo Álvarez de la Vega (Editorial Ácana, 2001)
Salvador Cisneros Betancourt: Palabras contra la Enmienda Platt (Editorial Ácana, 2003)
Atlas Biográfico del Mayor General Ignacio Agramonte y Loynaz (ICGC, 1989).

Awards and Recognition
José Luciano Franco Prize (2004)
Annual Prize for Cultural Research from Centro Juan Marinello (2004 - 2005)
Distinction for National Culture
National History Prize 2015[3]
Recognition La Utilidad de la Virtud