Irma Armas Fonseca

Distinguished Cuban journalist who worked as a reporter for the Periódico Ahora, in Holguín, and also served as a leading member of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) and as founder-director of the Editorial "Pablo de la Torriente". For her outstanding journalistic work, she was awarded the commemorative medal for the 50th anniversary of UPEC on the eve of the IX Congress of UPEC.

She was born in Gibara, Holguín. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, she quickly integrated into revolutionary tasks and became a teacher at a rural school in her hometown before becoming municipal coordinator of the literacy campaign.

She began her journalistic career as a volunteer correspondent for the Periódico Sierra Maestra. She later became a reporter for the Periódico Ahora, work that she combined with her role as a leader of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) in the north of the former Province of Oriente.

In 1974, she was promoted to the national leadership of UPEC after being elected at the Third Congress of this association to the position of Secretary of Outreach, Publications, Volunteer Correspondents and Collaborators.

During the war in Angola, she was in that country coordinating the work of Cuban journalists who were collaborating on radio and the newspaper Jornal de Angola, as well as the publication Verde Olivo Internacionalista.

In December 1985, she became the first director and founder of the Editorial "Pablo de la Torriente" to guarantee bibliography for journalism professionals and students. She worked there for more than two decades: experiencing its moments of glory and also the moments of limitations that intensified during the Special Period.

Irma Armas Fonseca died on August 13, 2013, at the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery in the Cuban capital, where she was recovering from a heart attack suffered days before.