Héctor Zumbado

Narrator and journalist. He completed up to the second year of High School at Colegio Baldor. Between 1948 and 1950 he resided in the United States. In that last year he graduated from High School. He traveled to Venezuela and worked as a translator of commercial letters (1950-52). Later he served as an audit assistant in Haiti (1953). He returned to La Habana (1953-1956) and began working as a secretary and employee of an insurance agency. In 1954 he became involved with the Directorio Revolucionario and managed to complete the second year of Journalism at the Universidad de La Habana.

With the Triumph of the Revolution he worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies (1956 and 1961). Subsequently he was Head of Publicity for INIT and market researcher for the Food Industry, in the years 1961-1968, respectively.

In 1963 his first published short story appeared in the magazine Bohemia. Since then he has contributed to Revolución y Cultura and La Gaceta de Cuba. His professional journalistic activity began at Juventud Rebelde between 1968-1970. In the years 1970 and 1971 he held the position of sub-chief of the Northern Zone of Prensa Latina that serves the United States and Canada. In 1971-73 he was Editor-in-Chief of Cuba and the bulletin La Hiena Triste, of UNEAC. He subsequently directed (1986 and 1988) the humor page of Bohemia and collaborated for some time with the radio station Radio Rebelde.

He is a journalist at the magazine Opina and teaches Social Communication at the Instituto Superior de Diseño Industrial. He possesses the Medal "Raúl Gómez García" and the Distinction for National Culture. Since 1988 he has served as Editorial Chief of the tourism magazine Sol y Son.

He has been a jury member of the "Marcos Behemaras" contests and the literary humor contest of UPEC. For work reasons he traveled to the USSR and Angola. As a speaker he participated in the I and II Seminar on Scientific Research of Demand between 1975 and 1978, respectively, and participated in a third similar one but of an international nature, 1980. He also attended as a delegate to the Forum of Cuban Literature.

He has collaborated with publications from Chile, Uruguay, República Dominicana, Algeria, India, Norway, and the GDR, among other countries. His testimony "Compañía, atención" earned an honorable mention in the 26 de Julio contest of the FAR, 1975.

Among his bibliography we can find: "¡Compañía atención!", 1976; "Limonada Joe" (Humor), 1979; "Amor a primer añejo" (Humor), 1980; "Reflexiones" (Humor), 1980-85; "El american way" (Humor), 1981; "¡Esto le zumba!" (Humor), 1981; "Prosas en ajiaco" (Humor), 1984; "La bodeguita del medio" (Divulgación), 1986; "Kitsch, kitsch" (Humor), "¡Bang, bang!", 1988.

Héctor Zumbado (National Prize for Humor 2000) is considered the most authentic cultivator of Cuban social satire after 1959. He is still remembered for the sections "Limonada" and "Reflexiones", which for several years he published every Sunday in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, and which he later turned into respective homonymous books.