Martina González García

Martina García, known by the artistic name Martha Velasco, was an actress and announcer primarily in Cuban radio.

From childhood, she had artistic inclinations that led her to participate singing or reciting in radio programs.

On November 1, 1942, by chance, she substituted for a friend in the role of Doña Inés in Don Juan Tenorio by Zorrilla for the Quizá-Seigle station. When she explained to the director that she was doing it to save a situation, but that her family couldn't find out at home, he only wrote in the credits:
"In the role of Doña Inés, Martha Velasco".

From that date on, she called herself Martha Velasco and until her death never abandoned her artistic work in radio, as an actress and announcer, because she almost immediately took an exam at the Ministry of Communications.

She felt a vocation and visited stations to watch rehearsals. Later she was able to graduate in scenic acting and recitation at the School of Fine Arts of the Galician Center of Havana. The knowledge acquired there enabled her to interpret characters with accents from different regions of Spain, performed on stage by companies that presented themselves in theaters in Cuba, among them: Lope de Vega, Eugenia Zuffoli, and Pepita Martín. She also worked with Cuban groups.

She worked in almost all the Havana stations. The only place she never worked was at CMQ. Although she accepted contracts from prominent stations like RHC Cadena Azul, her fundamental workplace that she never abandoned was Radio Progreso, where she was, for decades, a prominent actress, as protagonist of novels, serials, plays, and stories.

At the end of the 1950s, Modesto Vázquez bought the 1060 and came up with the idea of turning it into Radio Hora, a news program but only with female voices. Among those thirteen women was Martha Velasco...
Also in the 1950s, she worked as a commercial announcer at Radio Cadena Habana in a segment called Musical Attractions of Tornillo Soap. It was a program with an audience where the best voices in the country participated and sometimes had a foreign guest.

She participated in television programming when radio broadcasting went until midday. It was on Channel 4 on Sundays in a program called Disneyland. Later one day CMQ Television called her to do commercials for the Crusellas firm, but she had to leave her work as an actress and she did not accept that condition.

She always liked to interpret any character when the script was of quality. But undoubtedly she felt a special love for Teresa Guitarreta "Teté," the character from Alegrías de Sobremesa, which she performed for 40 years. With this program she brought joy to our troops in Angola, integrating the Carlos Moctezuma Brigade of the Juan Marinello Contingent.

In 1964 and for the span of a year she was with her husband, actor and director Abelardo Rodríguez in the Spanish service of Radio Moscow for Latin America. They also worked in the Gorki and Mosfilm film studios, in dubbing and narrations of documentaries. They did voice-over and acting work.

In July 1978, she acted as announcer in various public activities during the XI World Festival of Youth and Students held in Havana.

Awards and Recognition
Alejo Carpentier Medal
Distinction for National Culture
National Radio Prize for Life's Work
Merit Artist of Radio and Television
Pepe Prieto Medal as Founder of the Militias
Majadahonda Medal of the UNEAC
Raúl Gómez García Distinction
August 23 Distinction
September 28 Distinction
Honored Worker of Culture Seal
Medal of Literacy
XL Anniversary Medal of the FAR
Microphone for the LXX Anniversary of Cuban Radio
Coin for the LXXX Anniversary of Radio
Diploma for Artistic Merit of the Superior Institute of Art.

Tribute
In her honor, the ACTUAR Agency and Project 23 of the ICAIC made the documentary "Martha Velasco, the Gift of Changing Your Voice," directed by Ana Vivian Mora, and presented it in Room 4 of the Infanta Multiplex Cinema on April 26, 2017.

In just over 45 minutes, this audiovisual recreates the professional and artistic life of Martha Velasco, an actress of Radio, Television, and Theater, media in which she played a wide range of characters. It also includes testimony from those who knew her, and shows the harvest of awards and recognition received throughout her artistic career.