Marta Rojas
{{Short description|Cuban journalist and novelist (1928–2021)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marta Rojas
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1928|05|17}}
| birth_place = Santiago de Cuba
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|10|03|1928|05|17}}
| death_place = Havana, Cuba
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist
Historian
Writer
| years_active = 1953–2021
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}Marta Rojas (May 17, 1928 – October 3, 2021) was a Cuban journalist, historian, historical fiction writer, and revolutionary heroine.{{sfn|Haney|2005|p=5}} A witness to the 26 July 1953 assault on the Moncada Barracks, she reported on the subject of censorship to Revista Bohemia.
Biography
Marta Rojas, a tailor's daughter, was born in Santiago de Cuba, on 17 May 1928 (other sources state 1931).{{sfn|Fister|1995|p=264}} She studied at the Escuela Normal. She considered becoming a physician before changing her mind once she arrived in Havana. She graduated from the Escuela Profesional de Periodismo Manuel Márquez Sterling.{{cite web|title=Marta Rojas, Periodismo, Cuba|url=http://www.encaribe.org/es/article/marta-rojas/382|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101161302/http://www.encaribe.org/es/article/marta-rojas/382|url-status=usurped|archive-date=January 1, 2017|publisher=EnCaribe|access-date=31 December 2016|language=Spanish}}{{sfn|Noble|2016|p=47}}
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 overseas trips by Fidel Castro. 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,{{sfn|Noble|2016|p=47}} she 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).{{cite web|url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/21/journalist-marta-rojas-unrecognized-witness-cuban-history|title=Journalist Marta Rojas an Unrecognized Witness to Cuban History|work=commondreams.org|access-date=31 December 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.granma.cu/granmad/secciones/vietnam/marta.htm|title=Marta Rojas|work=granma.cu|access-date=31 December 2016|language=es}} 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."From Rey Spencer's Swing", in Margaret Busby (ed.), Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, pp. 412–14.
She died of a heart attack on 3 October 2021.{{Cite web|title=Cuban journalist Marta Rojas – Vietnam's close friend passes away|url=https://vietnamnet.vn/en/vietnam-world/cuban-journalist-marta-rojas-vietnam-s-close-friend-passes-away-780522.html|access-date=2021-10-05|website=VietNamNet|language=en}}
Awards and honours
Rojas has received numerous awards, such as Casa de las Americas Prize (1978),{{sfn|Fister|1995|p=264}} the José Martí National Journalism Award (1997), in recognition of her life's work;{{Cite web|language=es|title=Premio Nacional de Periodismo José Martí|url=https://www.cubaperiodistas.cu/premios-que-otorga-la-union-de-periodistas-de-cuba/premio-jose-marti/|website=cubaperiodistas.cu|access-date=4 November 2023}} and the Alejo Carpentier Award (2005).{{Cite web|language=es|title=Premio Alejo Carpentier fue para Marta Rojas|newspaper=La Nación|date=28 December 2005|issn=|url=https://www.nacion.com/ciencia/premio-alejo-carpentier-fue-para-marta-rojas/FP23FUG2UBGXBG7E6BTHN2PNAE/story/|access-date=27 May 2023}}
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
- 2007: Holy Lust
References
{{reflist|30em}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book|last=Fister|first=Barbara|title=Third World Women's Literatures: A Dictionary and Guide to Materials in English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eRievpkUWQkC&pg=PA264|year=1995|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-28988-0}}
- {{cite book|last=Haney|first=Richard|title=Celia Sánchez: The Legend of Cuba's Revolutionary Heart|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tYtuZj7A940C&pg=PA5|year=2005|publisher=Algora Publishing|isbn=978-0-87586-397-9}}
- {{cite book|last=Noble|first=Dennis L.|title=Hemingway's Cuba: Finding the Places and People That Influenced the Writer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibR5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT47|date=30 November 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2638-3}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rojas, Marta}}
Category:People from Santiago de Cuba
Category:Cuban women journalists
Category:20th-century Cuban novelists
Category:Cuban women novelists
Category:Women historical novelists
Category:20th-century Cuban historians