Edda Diz Garcés: National José Martí Prize for a Life's Work 2025

March 6, 2025

The National Journalism Prize José Martí, For a Life's Work, awarded by the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), this year was conferred upon Edda Diz Garcés, who served as director of the Cuban News Agency for more than a decade.

Diz Garcés graduated in Journalism in 1974 and has developed her work in both print media and radio, at the provincial and national levels.

This is the highest individual recognition granted by UPEC to its members for having spent their professional life in Cuban press media, for a contribution of exceptional social significance, to the information of the people, to culture and national consciousness, and as an expression of the ethical legacy of Cuban revolutionary journalism.

This Prize is awarded one each year, on the occasion of Cuban Press Day, March 14, and is only given once, to living individuals.
This Jury, composed of 18 prestigious journalists whose signatures appear at the foot of this document, declares:

A woman who has practiced the profession of journalist for 50 years is chosen for the National Journalism Prize José Martí 2025.

A native of Holguín, she was not satisfied with simply practicing reporting or being a correspondent for a news agency. Her vocation led her to experience the routines of radio in her province, to find the paths of conducting communicative processes, leading social networks and exploring the world with objectivity in order to delve into the possibility of a new management model for the press.

We always say that Prizes are signals, and in the context and complexities of the times that rush by, it is a certainty. This decision of the Jury is one of respect for the profession, for the guild, and for the empowerment of a woman who inspires through her dedication.

In the last 10 years her name has been on the list of proposals for the José Martí Prize for a life's work, a time during which she has been accumulating merits that distinguish her for her work of cohesion and demands on a work team that has been multi-awarded at print press festivals, is a recipient of the status of distinguished collective, and has received the Labor Achievement flag.

Author of several books, an excellent scholar who has attained the title of Doctor in Communication Sciences from the University of Havana, she has left her legacy to the new generations of journalists who have been "trained" by her.

Edda Fe Diz Garcés is no longer the director of the Cuban News Agency, but she is the National Journalism Prize José Martí for a Life's Work 2025. It arrives just as she enters her retirement, and new challenges require continuing to contribute toward a more critical and creative journalism, and more connected to the publics where the stories and narratives of today's Cubans are found.

As March 14 approaches, Cuban Press Day, which is also the day of Martian press, and without injury to her usual modesty, let Edda receive the congratulations and recognition of all her colleagues and of the thousands of readers who have accompanied her throughout that path of efforts, of boundless loyalty and revolutionary commitment.

Congratulations, Edda.

Jury President: Gustavo Robreño Dolz, from the advisory group.

Ciro Bianchi Ross, National Journalism Prize José Martí for a Life's Work

Irma Cáceres Pérez, National Journalism Prize José Martí for a Life's Work

Roberto Cornelio Ferguson, National Journalism Prize José Martí for a Life's Work

Juvenal Balán Neyra, National Journalism Prize José Martí for a Life's Work

Tomas Oliveros, National Journalism Prize José Martí for a Life's Work

Dayron Chang Arranz, journalist, Santiago de Cuba.

Gisela García Rivero, National Committee of UPEC, journalist of the Cuban Television News System.

Ivonne Albelo Medina, from Radio Rebelde

Zenaida Costales Pérez, from Fcom.

Pedro Manuel Otero Vázquez, from Radio Habana Cuba.

Ismael Lema Águila, from Palante

Enrique Lacoste Prince, from Palante

Lázaro Miranda, from Juventud Rebelde.

Roberto Morejón Rodríguez, from JIT.

Angélica Arce Montero, from Ideas Multimedios

Yurisander Guevara Zaila, from Juventud Rebelde

Joel Mayor Lorán, from Artemisa.