Fernando Guardado, the Voice of Cuba’s ‘Palmas y Cañas’ for 39 Years, Dies at 79

September 30, 2026

Cuban television has lost one of its most familiar voices. Fernando Guardado Carballo, the announcer and host who presented Palmas y Cañas for 39 years, died in the early hours of Tuesday, September 29, 2026, at his home in Havana, Cuban Television, Cubadebate, the Cuban News Agency (ACN) and 14ymedio reported. He was 79. No cause of death has been made public, and his family has chosen a private cremation.

Born on July 23, 1947, in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, Guardado trained as a history and geography teacher and taught at an elite athletics school where one of his students was future Olympic champion Alberto Juantorena. He found his calling by accident: while working as a writer at a radio station in Artemisa, he was asked to take over the microphone when the on-air announcer suddenly fell ill. He later worked at CMBF Radio Musical Nacional, Radio Progreso and Cadena Habana, and passed an evaluation before the renowned broadcaster Manolo Ortega.

On television he began on the program Escriba y Lea and went on to host or appear on shows such as ¿Qué dice aquí?, Casos y cosas de casa, Ballet Visión and Revista de la Mañana, sharing the screen with figures such as Germán Pinelli, Dinorah del Real and Consuelo Vidal. In 1975 he succeeded Ramón Veloz as host of Palmas y Cañas, the Sunday showcase for décimas, improvised verse and música guajira that first aired in 1962, and he stayed until 2014. Viewers still remember his domino-themed sign-off: “I play the double seven, I close the game; see you in seven days, at seven in the evening, on Palmas y Cañas.”

In 1983 he produced and directed Spanish-language broadcasts in Angola, and he later served on Cuba’s evaluation board for announcers. He was named an Artist of Merit by the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) and received the Antero Regalado Medal from the National Association of Small Farmers, among other honors. After leaving television in 2014 he kept working as an announcer at events at Havana’s Palacio de las Convenciones. Cuban Television’s management sent its condolences to his family, friends and colleagues, remembering a man who, for generations of viewers, was the face of Sunday nights in the Cuban countryside. Read Fernando Guardado’s full biography.