A Union Viewpoint Glance to Trabajadores Newspaper

They started when they were very young, some of them as workers but others had already labor experiences. Years contributed to their shrewdness and the necessary knowledge to face the new and unknown things.

Tis way, they undertook a sustainable course and, perhaps without noticing, they became members of our union from the pages of our newspaper Trabajadores, which will celebrate next June its 45 anniversary.

It has been an honor, for instance, to Manuel Fernandez Malagon, the only active founder that is still working in this media as artistic director. “Lazaro Pena always wanted that the workers were the protagonists of the pages in this newspaper. His dream was aimed to a paradigmatic publication by the Cuban workers.”

Evelio Telleria Alfaro started working in Trabajadores on October 1978. “As a journalist student I wanted to work in printed press, mainly in this media.

“It has been a privilege to work in this newspaper. I have been able to appreciate the feeling of the working class in different sectors, know them ‘in their workplaces’, learn from them, listen what they think and be conscious and try to be a reporter of such events like the congresses of the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC), its unions and the ANIR (An organization of innovators and rationalizing workers).”

Gabino Manguela Diaz started working in Trabajadores Newspaper 36 years ago. I am 62 and I have lived a bit more than 36 in this media… and that, despite I arrived here with few expectations, because I was very young, I preferred the frozen offices in Prensa Latina (PL) or the images of the Television…

It is an entire life of hustle and bustle in the workers matters, imperfections of the union assembly or the claim of the staff in front of an injustice… From all that I have learned all these years.”

Joaquin Hernandez Mena (Joaquinito) is the oldest photo-reporter working in Trabajadores his first and only workplace.

“This media has helped me become a photo-reporter, a beautiful art, for 32 years. Besides that, I have witnessed the most transcendental events of the Cuban working class and express it in images. I have also worked in Angola, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti.”

There is no greater pride for this media than that expressed by the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz in an interview by the Italian journalist and writer Gianni Mina: “(…) my favorite reading at night is Trabajadores Newspaper, which express very well the problems of the union (…) Information of extraordinary importance. I receive more information by this newspapers than by the official reports.”