Raul and Diaz Canel send wreaths for death of prominent Cuban journalist

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 7 (ACN) To pay tribute to Cuban journalist, critic and intellectual Pedro de la Hoz Gonzalez, who passed away on Wednesday, wreaths were laid at the Villena Hall of the Cuban Writers and Artists Association (Uneac by its Spanish acronym) by Army General Raul Castro Ruz, leader of the Revolution, and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the PCC, and Ines Maria Chapman Waugh, deputy prime minister of the country, attended the honors for this outstanding teacher.

Miguel Barnet Lanza, writer, ethnologist and honorary president of Uneac, in his farewell words recalled his links with De la Hoz journalist in the 70's, recently arrived from Cienfuegos, who "brought a sparkle of radiant light in his eyes and a profession that won his time because he was the architect in Cuba of a critical and committed journalism".

For Pedro, literature and music were his most cherished preferences, however, he was a trained journalist, a shrewd, deep and unrestrained critic, because he bravely imposed his criteria above any academy, any school, he added.

Barnet Lanza noted that De la Hoz was the most cultured, the musician of vocation who did not place his baton with his back to the orchestra on duty and who did not surrender to conventions or circumstantial whims.

The honorary president of Uneac pointed out that De la Hoz also placed his profession in favor of the truth and did not let anyone sully it.

Pedro was always aware that racism was a barbarism to be eradicated, Barnet Lanza asserted, and concluded saying: Dear Pedro, to die is to continue the journey.

The tribute to Pedro de la Hoz was also attended by Alpidio Alonso Grau, Minister of Culture, as well as members of the national presidency of Uneac, the Hermanos Saiz Association (AHS), Casa de las Americas, the Nicolas Guillen Foundation and the Cuban Book Institute, who laid wreaths and honored his memory and legacy.

The renowned journalist and intellectual was a member of the Cultural Editor's Office of the Granma newspaper, where he worked for 36 years.

He was the recipient of notable awards, including the Jose Antonio Fernandez de Castro Cultural Journalism Award (1999), the Jose Marti National Journalism Award (2022), the Replica of the Machete of Maximo Gomez (2022) and the status of Master of Youth of the AHS (2023), among others.