A native of Villa Clara, he was the founder and director of the magazine of the Continental Latin American and Caribbean Organization of Students and became involved from a very young age in the revolutionary struggle with the 26th of July Movement.
Martínez Pírez left a mark of professionalism and service to the industry and the Caribbean nation in numerous media outlets of the written press, radio, television, and the Prensa Latina Agency.
After the first years after the triumph of January 1959, he joined revolutionary diplomacy in countries such as Ecuador and Chile, where he began to establish his relationship with the journalistic profession and with the radio station in which he became a professional emblem, Radio Habana Cuba.
This record of service earned him the National Prize for Television Journalism in 1989, the National Prize for Radio Journalism in 1991, the National José Martí Prize for Journalism for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, and the National Prize for Radio in 2006.
His mark was also left on the National Assembly of People’s Power, on Cuban internationalism in Africa as a war correspondent, and he also served as a Full Professor at the University of Havana.
According to the UPEC, colleagues recognized Martínez Pírez as a witness to key episodes of Cuban history after 1959 and a cultivator of brotherhood with relevant personalities and peoples of our region. “His diplomatic and journalistic work would make him very close to figures such as Osvaldo Guayasamín and Salvador Allende, to mention two of those very dear to Cuba,” the union highlighted.
In 1973 he joined the Radio Habana Cuba radio station, where he held the position of editor, reporter, scriptwriter, host, chief editor, information director and deputy general director in charge of editorial policy, a role he held for more than thirty-five years.
His high recognition led him to form part of the jury of the Casa de las Américas magazine Prize, in the testimony category, while for his passionate patriotism he was awarded the Replica of Máximo Gómez’s Machete and the Utility of Virtue award.
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