Marta Rojas

Marta Rojas (born 17 May 1928) is a Cuban journalist, historian, historical fiction writer, and revolutionary heroine.[1] A witness to the 26 July 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks, she reported on the subject of censorship to Revista Bohemia.

Marta Rojas
Born	(1928-05-17) 17 May 1928 Santiago de Cuba
Nationality	Cuban
Occupation	Journalist Historian Writer
Years active	1953–present

Early years and education

Marta Rojas, a tailor's daughter, was born in Santiago de Cuba, on 17 May 1928 (other sources state 1931).[2] She studied at the Escuela Normal. Though she thought she wanted to be a physician, she changed her mind once she arrived in Havana, graduating from the Escuela Profesional de Periodismo Manuel Márquez Sterling.[3][4]

Career

Rojas worked for Revista Bohemia magazine, and after the revolution, also for Verde Olivo and Trabajo. She worked for the newspaper Granma since its founding, covering numerous national and international events (including numerous trips by Fidel Castro abroad). She also served as a war correspondent in Vietnam. Rojas wrote several novels dealing with the founding of the Cuban nation and the struggle of the mestizos since the 18th century. Turning to historical fiction,[4] she has published several books, including Moncada, La Generación del Centenario, El juicio del Moncada, Tania la Guerrillera (coauthor) and El que debe vivir (testimonies about Abel Santamaría).[5][6] In 1992 an extract translated by Jean Stubbs and Pedro Perez Sarduy from Rojas's (then unpublished) novel El columpio de Rey Spencer was included in the anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[7]

Rojas has received numerous awards, such as Casa de las Americas Prize (1978),[2] the José Martí National Journalism Award (1997), in recognition of her life's work; and the Premio Nacional de Periodismo (2015).[3]

Selected works

• 1960, Moncada : un juicio insolito
• 1964, La generación del centenario en el Moncada
• 1971, Tania, the unforgettable guerrilla
• 1978, El que debe vivir
• 1996, El columpio de Rey Spencer

References

1. Haney 2005, p. 5.
2. Fister 1995, p. 264.
3. "Marta Rojas, Periodismo, Cuba" (in Spanish). EnCaribe. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
4. Noble 2016, p. 47.
5. "Journalist Marta Rojas an Unrecognized Witness to Cuban History". commondreams.org. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
6. "Marta Rojas". granma.cu (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 December 2016.
7. "From Rey Spencer's Swing", in Margaret Busby (ed.), Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 412–14.

Bibliography

• Fister, Barbara (1995). Third World Women's Literatures: A Dictionary and Guide to Materials in English. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-28988-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Haney, Richard (2005). Celia Sánchez: The Legend of Cuba's Revolutionary Heart. Algora Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87586-397-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Noble, Dennis L. (30 November 2016). Hemingway's Cuba: Finding the Places and People That Influenced the Writer. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2638-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)