Guido García Inclán

Cuban journalist who devoted his life to radio. Known as the most civic-minded of Cuban journalists for his work in criticism and social assistance through the media.

Guido García Inclán was born in the city of Pinar del Río. He began his journalism career in 1933, directing the financial publication En Mercado and collaborating in the magazine Hora. From then on, his work was directed toward criticism and social assistance, which would make him known to the public as the most civic-minded of Cuban journalists. But radio was the medium in which he fundamentally carried out his professional work. From 1933 to 1934, he administered and served as editorialist for radio station CMAF, where he inaugurated a line of critical journalism toward Fulgencio Batista's military regime, for which the station was shut down on several occasions. In 1934 he directed the Radiodiario of CMAF itself; later he moved as an editor to the CMQ Radio Newscast.

In 1937, he was one of the founders of the newspaper Pueblo, where he maintained the sections "Pueblo Says to Its People," "What a Great Thing It Would Be," and "At the Fair of Current Events." That same year he stopped writing for En Mercado. At the CMQ Radio Newscast he reached the position of subdirector in 1940, a position he held until 1945. On January 14, 1945, he inaugurated the section "In the Trenches of Duty" in Prensa Libre, where he continued, in his articles, civic campaigns against the corruption of public officials.

He obtained in 1943 the certificate of journalism aptitude granted by the Manuel Márquez Sterling Professional School of Journalism. In 1944 he joined the National Association of Journalists.

He had a weekly page in Bohemia magazine—with which he raised resources for low-income Cubans—called "Cheer Up!" Through this phrase, which became a popular call and motto, García Inclán mobilized the solidarity of the magazine's readers. From his page he responded affirmatively, on June 30, 1944, to the proposal of the President of the Santiago de Cuba Rotary Club, Ángel Santos Bosch, to build a mausoleum worthy of the memory of José Martí. García Inclán began a campaign through Bohemia and Prensa Libre, which he also continued in his radio spaces in the following years. Among the most important actions of that campaign was the publication in Bohemia, on February 4, 1945, of an open letter to Congress of the Republic, in which he requested urgent approval of a law granting a credit of one hundred thousand pesos for the monument to the Cuban National Hero. On March 19, 1946, Congress of the Republic approved the bill, and García Inclán received a check for the requested amount. With that sum, to which three thousand pesos collected among the Cuban people were added, the organizers called an inter-American competition for the architectural project of the monument and to finance its construction.

Among the civic campaigns organized by García Inclán, also noteworthy were the effort, in April 1948, to obtain an oxygen chamber for the Emergency Hospital; the crusade, initiated on May 7, 1948, for an adequately supplied ward for tuberculosis patients at La Esperanza sanatorium, and the free delivery of a layette to each child of a family without resources born on the day of the Apostle's birthday.

Guido García Inclán set out to acquire his own radio station, though he failed in his attempts to buy CMW Cadena Roja and Radio Progreso. But on January 23, 1948, the plants of radio stations CMCK and COCO became his property. The COCO station was at that time the third most preferred by the Cuban population.

Both plants were renamed with the epithet "The Newspaper of the Air," an institution of journalists in service of the people, which resumed its broadcasts on January 28, 1948, the date of José Martí's nameday. Under García Inclán's direction, the station acquired a more news-oriented character and brought together prominent intellectuals. "The Newspaper of the Air" always had an editorial, which was repeated three times a day, and a wide variety of journalistic genres. Its director gave priority to breaking news; thus, this was the first newscast that had a mobile unit, to offer the public live information from anywhere in the city of Havana. Moreover, he eliminated the rule of placing advertising between programs, reserving it to introduce it at other times, when it would be striking and surprising.

Since the creation of the Cuban People's Party (Ortodoxos), García Inclán became linked to that organization's political proposal. At first he only maintained personal contacts with its leader, Eduardo Chibás, but later "The Newspaper of the Air" reported on party activities and gave space to the voices of its main leaders, such as Chibás himself, Juan Manuel Márquez, and Fidel Castro. From February 7, 1948, Juan Manuel Márquez inaugurated the program "The Hour of Revolutionary Orthodoxy on COCO" on the station.

Starting in 1949, García Inclán began to actively participate in the activities of the Orthodox Party. On April 30, 1949, he added his voice to the Orthodox campaign against high rates for electric service, at a public act held in Liberty Park, in the city of Matanzas. For these reasons, the government of Carlos Prío Socarrás ordered in May 1949 to shut down "The Newspaper of the Air" for three days.

After more than seven years of campaigning for a worthy monument to hold the mortal remains of José Martí, on June 30, 1951, the mausoleum was inaugurated in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in the city of Santiago de Cuba. García Inclán was not included among the speakers at the ceremony by government order, but other journalists such as Juan Manuel Márquez dedicated notes to him in their journalistic spaces as a show of support.

From the coup d'état of March 10, 1952, which brought Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship to power, "The Newspaper of the Air" was suspended on more than one hundred occasions. On July 26, 1953, following the revolutionary assaults on the Moncada Barracks and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks, the station was taken over by police from early morning. When García Inclán arrived there, he was beaten and taken to the Fourth Police Station, on Dragones Street in the city of Havana. The COCO station remained on the air and broadcast numerous bulletins denouncing the detention of its director. When the then Minister of Interior, Manuel Hermida, learned of it, he ordered the release of the renowned journalist. After the trial of the moncadistas, García Inclán interviewed Fidel Castro at the Modelo Prison on the Isle of Pines and joined the campaign for amnesty in favor of the revolutionaries. He traveled to the Modelo Prison on several occasions to meet with them and provide them with books and documents.

Constant censorship and economic problems forced García Inclán to cede ownership of the station in early 1954, but he remained as an editorialist.

On August 5, 1954, García Inclán conceived a national project: the television newspaper Patria, which would be broadcast on Channel 11, Television of the Caribbean, and the Eastern Radio Network, with national reach. With the motto "Yesterday in the redemptive manigua; today in the Republic," Patria presented daily interviews of a social, political, economic, and cultural character, and maintained the civic struggle that characterized the work of its creator. In the presentation of the program were shown images of the Cuban flag, with the musical background of the Invasor Hymn, the bust of José Martí, and the phrase "in the redemptive manigua," which alluded to the mambí newspaper El cubano libre. Patria represented a new concept and format of television newscast, which opened its microphones to Fidel Castro during the months he was in Havana in 1955, after being released from prison. García Inclán cooperated with the newly created Revolutionary Movement of July 26, with money raised from the sale of statuettes with the image of José Martí, promoted by COCO.

He also participated in contacts of Cuban emigration in the United States with the aim of raising funds for the insurrectional struggle, such as the rally held at the Flagger Theater in the city of Miami in November 1955. Likewise, he arranged asylum for persecuted revolutionaries and hid propaganda of the July 26 Movement in his office at COCO.

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, on January 1, 1959, and until his death, Guido García Inclán remained in charge of radio station COCO which, like all media, passed into the hands of the State. In this new stage, the experienced journalist concentrated on training young communicators, always promoting critical journalism. His work routine was invariable: he wrote his editorial early in the morning, which was broadcast after noon.

Guido García Inclán was awarded the Distinction For National Culture, granted by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.

He retired from professional practice for reasons of health, and died in Havana on May 17, 1983.

Bibliography
Active Bibliography
"No! 'Las Yaguas' Isle of Pines 'Humo Cave' Children"; in Bohemia, February 8, 1953.

"Mockery of a Radio Shutdown"; Bohemia, March 22, 1953.

"From the Muelle de Luz to the Flager Theater"; Bohemia, December 4, 1955.

"José Martí, Citizen of the World"; in Bohemia, February 3, 1957.

Abandoned Teaching. Editorial read on Saturday, August 21, 1948, on the COCO Newscast, Havana, Editorial Cenit, Propaganda Commission for a 40 Percent Salary Increase of the Provincial Executive Committee of Havana of the Association of Teachers of Cuba, 1948.

Passive Bibliography

"Farewell to a Colleague"; in Bohemia, Havana, No. 21, May 27, 1983.

"Centennial of Guido García Inclán"; in Granma, Havana, March 2, 2005.

"Guido García Inclán, journalist and revolutionary combatant, died on May 17, 1983, in Havana"; in Granma, Havana, May 18, 1983.

"Homage Paid on His Seventieth Anniversary to Guido García Inclán"; in Granma, Havana, March 3, 1975.

Pérez Díaz, Juan; Gil Figueredo, Wilfredo: La COCO, Bastion of the Word, Editorial Política, Havana, 2007.

Source: EnCaribe.org