Marta Rojas, prominent Cuban writer and journalist, dies

October 4, 2021

Marta Rojas, Cuban writer and journalist, passed away yesterday Sunday, October 3rd as a result of a heart attack. "Until always, dear Marta," wrote Cubaperiodistas on its Facebook profile.

The 1997 National Journalism Prize winner José Martí and winner of the Alejo Carpentier Novel Prize 2006, said goodbye just as the newspaper Granma was celebrating its 56th anniversary.

Marta was born in Santiago de Cuba on May 17, 1931 and studied Journalism in Havana. To her credit are six novels and several testimonial books. Among them the one that documents the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks and Fidel's trial, The Trial of the Moncada.

Newly graduated, she was an exceptional witness to the events of July 26, 1953, the assault on the Moncada by Fidel Castro. This event and the trial were meticulously documented by the newly graduated Journalism student.

With the triumph of the Revolution, she continued working at Bohemia and shortly after joined the team of journalists at the newspaper Revolución. Later she joined the Granma team from its creation (1965).

The intellectual, National Hero of Labor, "is not only recognized for reporting the events of the Moncada, but also for her work as the first war correspondent, Cuban and Latin American, in the Vietnam War for approximately 10 years," recalls Granma.