Two important communicators die: journalist José Aurelio Paz and radio broadcaster Franklin Reinoso Rivas

September 15, 2021

José Aurelio Paz, JOPA, as he used to sign, passed away on Tuesday, September 14, due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19, lamented the UPEC.

These are some of the most relevant recognitions of his professional trajectory:
Twice recipient of the National Journalism Prize Juan Gualberto Gómez for Work of the Year in 1995 and 1997.
Enrique Núñez Rodríguez Prize 2006.
National Prize for Cultural Journalism José Antonio Fernández de Castro in 2009.
Awards and mentions in the National Journalism Competition July 26.
National Journalism Prize José Martí 2018 for Life's Work.

In an interview with Taissé del Valle Valdés, published in Cubaperiodistas he said: "I don't have a magic crystal ball. Every journalist is a world and must develop their own strategies. The journalist cannot wait for topics to be given to them, but must go out and find them. A young journalist must be consistent with their time. They must try to seek the truth. It's not that you do what I did, it's that you rethink mine and do it from your perspective. Every journalist must be honest in the search for truth".

Later he added: "The only thing they can take from me is my journalist soul" And so it was. From the isolation center and then from the hospital where he was admitted, he sent medical reports. This is how we knew about his discomforts, improvements, setbacks, all through a fine humor that never dimmed.

Franklin Reinoso Rivas, National Radio Prize 2021 at 75 years of age at the time of his death, due to complications derived from COVID-19, after being hospitalized for several days in the city of Santa Clara, attended by a medical team that worked to save his life.

With deep sorrow, Cuban Radio and Villa Clara radio mourn the death in Santa Clara of the distinguished announcer and program director Franklin Reinoso Rivas, National Radio Prize 2021.

He was 75 years old at the time of his death, due to complications derived from COVID-19, after being hospitalized for several days in the city of Santa Clara, attended by a medical team that worked to save his life.


Franklin Reinoso Rivas, announcer and program director of the CMHW station, died on September 13, 2021.

His entry into Radio was in 1957 when he attended the station in his native Caibarién, alongside his father Feliciano Reinoso, sports commentator. There he trained as a sound operator and later as an announcer.

With the triumph of the Revolution and upon completing a training course, he began working at CMHW Station in Santa Clara, where he officially joined on December 1, 1963.

In his role as program director, he created and directed important programs such as Music and Youth, Success Olympiad and Melodies Forever, as well as the cultural magazine Hablemos, which continues to air, with great acceptance among Villa Clara audiences.

Without abandoning creative work, he directed the instrumental station CMHA during the seventies, the first of its kind in the interior of the country. Additionally, he participated in dozens of special remote broadcasts from historic places in the then province of Las Villas, including the great coffee planting in Escambray, and the 1970 sugar harvest.

In these special programs he worked as a tower operator, as it was necessary to install an 80-foot-high tower at each broadcast location. Additionally, he served as director and announcer for much of the programming.

When the CMHW Drama Group was founded, he worked as music director for stories, theatrical plays and radio dramas. On some occasions, also as narrator.

In announcing work, he ventured into almost all genres of this specialty: news, informational magazines, musicals, dramatic narrations, recitation, which allowed him to achieve First Level Announcer status in 1970 and maintained it until his retirement. He was also awarded multiple times at National Cuban Radio Festivals. Due to his knowledge of the medium, he participated in Artistic Evaluation Courts in the Central Region.

In 1981 he completed an internationalist mission in Nicaragua, where he taught training courses. During his two-year stay in that sister country, he received recognitions from the Sandinista Front and the Cuban embassy. On the other hand, he was part of the radio team that worked on Operation Tribute, with the arrival of the martyrs from Angola, for which he received a special award from Cuban Radio.

During his radio career, his work stands out until 1994 as a recording engineer for prominent musical groups and soloists at CMHW Studio 8, also contributing to the cultural moments of Open Forums calling for the return of the child Elián González.

Franklin Reinoso was founder of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (Uneac) in 1980, President of the Villa Clara Announcing Professorship and member of the National Professorship.

For his merits, he obtained the status of Artist of Merit of Cuban Radio, the Radio Microphone in 2004, the Majadahonda Order as an Internationalist artist, the 85th Anniversary Seal of Cuban Radio, the seal of the Laureate 1993, the Rolando Rodríguez Frenes Prize awarded by the Radio, Film and Television Branch of UNEAC in Villa Clara, the Raúl Gómez García Medal, the Medal of the Struggle against Bandits, the Key to the City of Santa Clara and in 2019 he received the status of Master of Radio Broadcasters.

His retirement in 2007 for health reasons never separated him from CMHW, where he continued to collaborate as a music advisor on several specialized programs and contributed to the preservation of radio's sound heritage.