Julio Acanda García

Announcer and presenter in various informative spaces, he also has more than two decades of experience in journalistic and documentary production for Cuban Television, as well as in artistic direction and hosting of national and international shows.

Although he graduated as a Bachelor of Journalism in 1984 from the University of Havana, since 1973 he worked in various programs and shows in media for children and young people. A graduate of several announcing technique courses, he is a member of the National Lecturers' Chair since its founding in 1993, as well as of its Evaluation Board.

Bachelor of Education specializing in Spanish-Literature. She conducts the corresponding tests at the Radio Cadena Habana station to begin the Qualification Course for announcers. Evaluated by the national commission. It is at this same Station where she also begins her work as a professional with the live program "La hora del estudiante," intended for young people.

He was an announcer at Radio Reloj station and in Cuban television he performs booth announcing and the billboard segment. He performed announcing in programs such as Hablando de deportes, Aquí la Habana, 7 y 30 Juventud, Curioseando, Entre amigos, Solo el amor and Noches de amor. He frequently records chronicles, commentaries, commemorative dates, mentions and promotions.

He has performed live announcing of special programs, designed to provide information coverage of different events in the country. He was for four years in the hosting of the National Radio News.

He has worked as a dubbing narrator for television and as an announcer for the third broadcast of the National Television News. On occasions he has been part of the evaluation board for young announcers. He has performed acts and shows in different venues and locations throughout the country. He is the presenter of the Habana noticiario program on Habana channel.

Audiovisual Works Produced
1998 / Un paraíso para vivir / Documentary 27 minutes / Islavisión.
1990 / Río Encantado / Documentary 27 minutes / Islavisión
1990 / Vivencias / Documentary 27 minutes / Cuban Television
1992 / Moneda al Aire / Documentary series 8 episodes and 27 minutes / Cuban Television
1995 - 2001 / Tras las huellas de la historia / Documentary series 70 episodes and 3 minutes / Cuban Television
2001- 2006 / Somos Cuba / Documentary series 50 episodes and 27 minutes / Cuban Television.

He has been in charge of directing, writing and hosting countless galas, events and shows.
2000 - 2007 / Adolfo Guzmán Song Contests.
2001 to the present / He serves as host during the nights at the Dos Gardenias Cultural Complex and the El Gato Tuerto Concert Café.
2004-2009 / Opening and closing galas of the International Tourism Fair, FITCUBA as well as the artistic presence of our country at International Tourism Fairs in Mexico
(2004) and Germany (2005).
2005 - 2006 / Awards galas of the National Television Festivals / "Feliz 95," a show in which prominent personalities from the Cuban entertainment and music scene celebrated the 95th birthday of Francisco Repilado (Compay Segundo) / "Las Flores de la Vida," a tribute to Compay on the first anniversary of his passing which was broadcast by Cuban Television and Cubavisión Internacional / National Theater.
2008-2009 / La Descarga Space, at the Comodoro Hotel.

Awards and Recognition
The José Martí National Journalism Prize.
The UNEAC Violeta Casals Announcing Prize
Directing Prize in the UNEAC Caracol Contest and award at the National CTV Festival.

In summary, Julio Acanda has performed live announcing of special programs on different events in the country.
For five years he hosted the Midday News on Cuban television, and for a similar time Orígenes. He has been a dubbing narrator for cinema. He has been part of the evaluation board for young announcers.
Other of his outstanding documentaries (27 minutes) are: Un paraíso para vivir (1998), Río Encantado (1990), Vivencias (1990), Moneda al Aire (series of 8 episodes, 1995-2001).
He worked hosting the TV program La descarga, directed by Julio Pulido.
He has been in charge of directing, writing and presenting countless shows inside and outside Cuba, among them the Adolfo Guzmán Song Contest, the artistic direction of the opening and closing galas of the International Tourism Fair in Cuba, Mexico and Germany; as well as the awards ceremonies of the TV festivals, among many other artistic performances.

He began writing chronicles from the Isle of Youth in order to "qualify in the news broadcasts. He found the formula when he realized that the audience of the big island didn't know the small island (Isle of Youth). With that premise he made his first chronicles about the island of treasure, its fauna, its flora, and its people, with a deep sense of insularity. This is a genre that requires concise language, without redundant adjectives, concentrating interest in the sobriety of the story, about which one must create a certain atmosphere. You must leave the emotions to the viewers."

This creative professional undertakes his narratives using a small and old video camera that always accompanies him. Subsequently, his friend and editor Adrián E. Migueles takes charge of adapting for the brief time of television broadcast the projects designed for NTV, many of which become valuable and complementary lessons about Cuba and its people, our customs and identity; as well as reference to different events and peculiarities of this island and other countries.

He recalls his work related to the links between Rosita Fornés and the symbolic Hotel Nacional, on the occasion of the vedette's 95th birthday; that of the bicentennial Recoleta Cemetery, in the homonymous neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, a "beauty that has inspired death" and where the remains of Evita Perón rest; the visit to the home of Jorge González, a journalist who lives in Cancún, Mexico, and who treasured for more than 40 years the unrevealed negatives of images taken by Uruguayan photographer Nacho Grieco of Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz during his visit to that country; and the tour of the place where the seven medical students were murdered, a story that "needs to be told from generation to generation."

Unsurpassable is the chronicle inspired by popular participation in the funeral of historical leader Fidel Castro Ruz, with videos and photos made by the people "from angles where a professional cameraman could hardly reach," which will allow new generations to be explained "that their grandparents, young then, were part of these days in the history of Cuba that by then will be taught with pride in the classrooms of the future."

Other particularities have been recorded by Acanda's camera during his travels through France, Turkey, Finland and Japan, the most recent—he has visited numerous countries on all continents—to allow us to know the diversity of the world, the feelings and emotions of those with different cultures and customs, but whom we are united with by the humanistic condition of existing.

Julio has said that these reports of his travels abroad are due to his transfers for academic and personal purposes. "It would be extreme selfishness on my part not to share these experiences and it would be an unforgivable professional negligence not to turn them into chronicles that actually group many journalistic genres."

His creations for informative television are luxurious, due to their high investigative level and artistic conception. It is also worth mentioning those he recently made in some places in Mayarí, some of which he accessed by mule. Reports of historical value such as the battle fought against the Spanish by Antonio Maceo in San Ulpiano; the superb wooden houses of Preston, where the oldest hearse in Cuba operates, built by neighbors in 1934; and the area where the image of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre appeared, a National Monument practically destroyed. Moving was his warm encounter with Carilda Oliver Labra, the excellent Matanzas poetess, who ended the meeting with her famous poem Me desordeno, amor, me desordeno.

This tall, mature, friendly man, with completely shaved hair, with agile gait, demanding and excellent storyteller carries in his blood the passion for narrating stories with freshness, relevance and interest, that transcend the audience even after they air. This television appeal is also favored by his good diction—at nine years old he hosted the radio program Cosas de mi escuela, in his hometown—, his presence and his solid cultural training.

After completing his pre-university studies—a period in which he did the program Fiesta estudiantil, on Radio Caribe—he enrolled in the Faculty of Journalism in Havana. Subsequently he returned to the Isle of Youth and began working as an NTV correspondent in that territory. When the Isla Visión media center was inaugurated, he was part of the reporting team at that station around the 1990s. Several years later, he received the offer from NTV to work in the capital; a period during which he remembers the program Al Mediodía con Julio Acanda, which gained popular preference and from which emerged the already famous phrase that identifies him: "Qué bueno que están con nosotros…".

Among his most outstanding investigations are those concerning a segment of José Martí's life broadcast in the television series Tras las huellas de la historia—70 episodes—, where he presented the experiences of Cuba's National Hero during his stay in the United States: "I began filming at the El Abra farm on the Isle of Youth, and then I traveled the Martian world in 10 other countries," he said. This was followed by Somos Cuba—50 episodes—, memories extracted from humble people.

In addition to his respected artistic direction at the Gato Tuerto, Acanda has participated in countless musicals under the direction of the experienced Julio Pulido, from whom, according to him, he "learned a lot about the tactics and techniques that a musical program must observe so that it has everything that attracts the audience."

Acanda's personal resources as a communicator and his way of presenting the news have prompted studies among Journalism students, among which two degree theses have been written about his work. For him, journalists—a profession to which he has devoted his entire life—must "reflect reality with immediacy."