National Journalism Prize Winner 2023 Héctor Ochoa Passes Away

March 18, 2023

Cuban cameraman and documentalist Héctor Ochoa passed away in Havana in the afternoon of March 15th, at the age of 92. He was a deserving recipient of the National Journalism Prize "José Martí" 2023 for his life's work, whose presentation ceremony, which took place on March 14th, he was unable to attend due to his delicate state of health. He also received the Annual Prize "Juan Gualberto Gómez" for Journalism in 2002, and the National Television Prize in 2008.

Ochoa was born in the Cuban capital on March 6th, 1931. In the last years of the 1940s, he began to involve himself with the world of television and cinema, working as a lighting assistant. He began his career as a cameraman at the National Television Newscast, following its founding in 1961.

With his camera he captured many of the most important moments in Cuban history during those years, such as the declaration of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution, the attack on Playa Girón, or the devastation caused by Hurricane Flora. Among his documentals are El festival de la toronja (1962), El castero (1965), Vanguardias del volante, from the Film Studios of Cuban Television, La verdad del suceso (2014), the latter awarded by the Caribbean Broadcasting Union and by the Caracol festival of the Uneac.

«The file is distinct and different, far from those digitalized in a USB memory, even from the keyboard of a supposedly obsolete typewriter. It is handmade, in his own handwriting. They are his archives and it is a privilege to read it, confront it, go through it. Because it is living history and it makes us follow him in his usual professional conduct», explains the jury statement that granted him the well-deserved José Martí prize, after a life dedicated to journalistic work and the Revolution. «The struggle does not wait and in search of the news and commitment, he still departs swiftly; no one will tell him about it, they will be in his images», concludes the document.