Fernando Javier Rodríguez Sosa

Journalist, literary critic, and cultural promoter. Connected, for almost four decades, to journalism and cultural promotion. He is in charge of several sections of commentary and book criticism in the Cuban written and digital press, radio, and television.

He holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Havana, in the 1971-1974 academic year. He has completed postgraduate studies in his specialty and on topics related to art and literature.

Professional trajectory
He has been a member of UPEC since 1979 and of UNEAC since 1990. He was part of the Circle of Criticism of the ICL and the Carilda Oliver Labra Chair at the Pedagogical Institute of Matanzas.

He has coordinated several cultural programs, such as Invitación entre puentes, since 1999, with monthly frequency, in Matanzas, which he founded, conducts, and directs. He created, with the support of the Cuban Book Institute (ICL) and the Fayad Jamís Bookstore, the literary promotion spaces Libro a la carta (since 2001) and Páginas inéditas (since 2010). Between April 2001 and May 2002, he directed and hosted the program Invitación entre amigos, with the support of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, the José Martí Cultural Society, and the ICL.

Since 2005, he has been Cuba's Delegate to the Iberoamerican Itinerant Chair of Scenic Oral Storytelling (CIINOE), founded and presided over by Francisco Garzón Céspedes.

He has participated as a juror in journalism and literary competitions at the national level, including the National Literature Prize, the Criticism Prize, the David Prize, the Regino Pedroso National Poetry Contest of the National CTC, the Mirta Aguirre Literary Criticism Prize, the La Rosa Blanca Prize of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), the X Anniversary of Cubaliteraria, and the XXII Hermanos Loynaz Contest.

He was part of the Advisory Councils of the Pablo de la Torriente Publishing House of UPEC and of the José Martí National Library Magazine.

He was a member of the Hermanos Saíz Brigade (1980-1986), was part of its National Council, and served as Vice President of the Criticism Section (1982-1984) and President of the aforementioned section (1984-1986), organizing during this last period the V National Colloquium of Artistic and Literary Criticism.

Since 1997, he has been in charge of literary commentary for the program Escriba y Lea, broadcast weekly on the Cubavisión Channel of Cuban Television.

Work as a leader
He has developed, for more than thirty-five years, leadership, editorial, and promotion work in various cultural institutions and in Cuban mass media.

He has served as Head of the Information, Dissemination, and Analysis Department of the University Extension Directorate of the University of Havana (1974-1977); Head of the Press and Publications Section of the Department of Cultural Activities of the University of Havana (1977-1979); Editorial Secretary of the University of Havana magazine (1975-1979); Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editorial Director of the journal Revolución y Cultura (1979-1984); Press Chief of the Ministry of Culture (1984-1988); Deputy Director and Vice President of the Alejo Carpentier Foundation (1988-2009). Since 2009, he has worked at the Cuban Book Institute (ICL).

Between 1974 and 1979, he worked on the promotion and publishing of books awarded in the 13 de Marzo Contest, convened by the University of Havana. He has served as head of dissemination for various international cultural events, including the II and III International Book Fair of Havana (1984 and 1986) and the II Biennial of Havana (1986), as well as Cultural Programming Chief of the IV International Book Fair of Havana (1990).

Teaching
In 1976, he received the rank of Instructor at the University of Havana. Connected since that same year to teaching work, he taught a course in Hispanic American Literature (1976-1977) and another in Theory and Practice of Journalism (1977-1978), both at the School of Journalism of the University of Havana. He has been a member of tribunals, opponent, and tutor of more than ten degree theses from the Faculties of Arts and Letters and Journalism of the University of Havana.

He has given lectures, workshops, and postgraduate courses in educational centers and cultural institutions on journalistic, artistic, and literary topics. He was secretary of the Scientific Council of the Alejo Carpentier Foundation.

Journalistic work
He has collaborated, since 1974, in Cuban periodicals with various journalistic works, commentary, and criticism, fundamentally on literary topics.

Since 1974, and for approximately a decade, he collaborated systematically in the magazine Bohemia. Since the 1980s, and for a similar period, he practiced literary criticism in the newspaper Granma.

He maintained, with weekly frequency, from 2001 to 2006, the column Prólogo in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, with critical commentary on books.

His texts on literary promotion and criticism have also been published in the magazines Cartelera, Correo de Cuba, Diplomáticas, Excelencias del Caribe; as well as in the weekly Granma Internacional.

Throughout these more than three decades of journalistic practice, his texts have been published in the newspaper Trabajadores; as well as in the magazines Casa de las Américas, Conjunto, Tablas, El Caimán Barbudo, En julio como en enero, Revolución y Cultura, Universidad de La Habana, Magazine of the José Martí National Library, Opus Habana, La Letra del Escriba, Pionero, Senderos, and Revista Somos Jóvenes.

Digital collaborations
He collaborated during 2005 with the digital magazine Cubanow, sponsored by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC).

He collaborates with the websites of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) (since 2008), the newspaper Trabajadores (since 2009), and Habana Radio (since 2010).

Publications
He has the following publications:

A corazón abierto (interviews) (Department of Cultural Activities, University of Havana, 1984).
El elogio oportuno (criticism) (Department of Cultural Activities, University of Havana, 1984).
Hoy vamos a leer (commentary on classic works of literature for children and young people) (Ediciones Vigía, 1995).
Co-author, with Rafael Ribot Mendoza, of Amor es... (selection of love poems by Cuban authors of the twentieth century, with prologue by Salvador Bueno) (Ediciones Matanzas, 2000), and of a selection of interviews used as teaching text.
He has written the prologues to the books Sobre la marea de los siglos by Regino Pedroso (Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1987); Para romper esquemas (selection) (Editora Abril, 1989); La palabra y su sombra by Alejo Carpentier (Ediciones Vigía, 1993); Amor por la cuidad by Alejo Carpentier (Ediciones Unión, 2006), and Se hace camino al leer by Alga Marina Elizagaray (Editorial Oriente, 2007).

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Awards and honors
He has received more than a dozen awards and mentions in national journalism and literary contests, including the Interview Prize in the Woman in the Revolution Contest of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) (1980), Prize in the X Anniversary of Lenin Park Contest (1982), Interview and Criticism Prize and Mention in Reporting in the 13 de Marzo Contest (1983), Prize in the National Literary Criticism Contest Mirta Aguirre (1984), Prize in the XVI National Graphic Propaganda Exhibition July 26 (1984), Mention in the National Literary Criticism Contest Mirta Aguirre (1985), and Criticism Prize in the 13 de Marzo Contest (1987). He received in 1990 the Chamán Prize, awarded by the Iberoamerican Itinerant Chair of Scenic Oral Storytelling (CIINOE), for his body of work dedicated to the promotion of this art.

He has received the Outstanding Young Person Diploma, awarded by the National Committee of the Union of Communist Youth (UJC), in 1983, 1984, and 1985, and as a collaborator of the magazines Bohemia and Revolución y Cultura, as well as of the School of Journalism of the University of Havana, in 1978, and for the X anniversary of the Center for Martian Studies, the XX of the Gente Nueva Publishing House, and the X of the Letras Cubanas Publishing House. He was presented with diplomas in 1991 and 1994 from the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), for his collaboration as a juror in the May 1st Journalism Contest, since its founding.

The National Union of Cultural Workers awarded him the Laureate Seal (1991) and the Raúl Gómez García Medal (1999); and the National CTC the 80th Anniversary Seal of Lázaro Peña's Birth (1991) and the 55th Anniversary Seal of the CTC (1994).

The Ministry of Culture delivered to him the Seals for 5 and 10 years in management tasks.

He received the National Culture Distinction (2000), awarded by the Republic of Cuba.

In 2003, he received the Tricentennial Distinction of the Founding of Matanzas.

In 2004, he received a diploma as founder of the Habana Radio station.

In 2005, he received the National Cultural Journalism Prize José Antonio Fernández de Castro, awarded by the Ministry of Culture for lifetime work, and the National Storytelling Prize, awarded by the Iberoamerican Itinerant Chair of Scenic Oral Storytelling (CIINOE), for the cultural program Invitación entre puentes, which he founded, conducts, and directs in Matanzas. He also received the Romance of the Bad Girl Prize, awarded by the Provincial Committee of UNEAC of Sancti Spíritus, for his work in the promotion and dissemination of literature for children and young people.

In 2006, he received the Winter Words Prize, awarded in Matanzas, in recognition of his work as a communicator.

In 2007, he was awarded the Félix Elmuza Distinction, granted by the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), and the National Prize for Promoters of Reading Raúl Ferrer, awarded by the José Martí National Library.

In 2010, he was awarded the Juan Candela Prize at the Barriocuento Festival, the Oral Storytelling Promotion Prize Contarte, and recognition for the XXX anniversary of the staging of El cimarrón.

During the encounter El elogio oportuno, held in December 2022 at the Fayad Jamís Bookstore, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, he was presented with the 100th Anniversary Seal of Cuban Radio.

He receives in January 2024 the status of Radio Master.