National Television Prize for Clara Castillo and Enrique Bonne on TeleRebelde's 50th Anniversary

August 6, 2018

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of the provincial channel Tele Rebelde (TR), Clara Inocencia Castillo Alcántara and Enrique Alberto Bonne Castillo received the National Television Award for their notable contributions and dedication to the medium.

In the Hall of Stained Glass, at the Antonio Maceo Revolution Square, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, the award was presented, recognizing the devotion to television of these two founders of TR, and role models for the new generations that work today at the channel, which has become the Tele Turquino telecentre, a school for hundreds of filmmakers and journalists.

Castillo Alcántara was the first director of programs for news, children's, youth, drama, music, and sports programming, and Bonne Castillo, after taking charge of musical programming, assumed responsibility for the general programming of TR, and directed its choir for almost 20 years.

Considered the father of the pilón rhythm, and founder of the "Tambores de Enrique Bonne", an emblematic Santiago group that carries the conga and other native sounds, Bonne Castillo deserved the National Music Award in 2016.

Founders and current workers of Tele Turquino received the 55th Anniversary Seal of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), while the Small Screen Award was given to Georgina Botta Díaz, Santos Díaz Cominches, Rolando Maseda Dapena, Benigno Cudeiro Guisande, Ángel Pereira Núñez, Antonio Resíllez López and Freddy Moro Bermúdez.

For being the founder of television in eastern Cuba, and particularly in Santiago de Cuba, the ICRT, Cuban Television and Tele Turquino granted a Special Recognition to Jesús "Chucho" Cabrera Acosta, first director of TR, while Ernesto Matos was recognized for being the first and only Delegate of the then ICRT in the eastern region.

Waldo Ramírez, general director of Cuban Television, recalled the significance of July 22, 1968, when the first channel of this massive medium was established outside of Havana, which showed the talent and dedication of men and women who today continue setting standards in different branches of television work.