Trabajadores Newspaper reaches its 53rd anniversary and 26 takes advantage of the occasion to "extract" some anecdote or other from its correspondent on Las Tunas soil.
Since he was a child, his intuition whispered to him that his existence would be linked, forever, to the smell of the Chaparra sugar mill. He did not know very well why, but there was a certain attraction in the deafening noise of the boilers, in the smell of molasses, and even in the traces of soot that Jorge noticed as omens. One morning, in his homeland, he "derailed" from those rails and got to know the bittersweet honey of Journalism and with such viciousness, that it still hangs on his arm in search of stories.
He assures that he came to the profession by chance, although the advice of a certain colleague and fellow countryman, Julio César Pérez Viera, weighed heavily at the time of getting to know the 26 Newspaper collective, back in 1979. He told him that there was a need for proofreaders and he did not think too much about it. His aspirations of industrial sugar production were left behind, although he confesses that there is no occasion in which the "monster" of some power plant does not take him back to his childhood.
Facing the printing press, Jorge Pérez Cruz realized immediately that this was his path. Then he knew that his addiction to reading and the desire to ask questions and want to know everything had been good for him. "I started as a proofreader, for almost a decade, well into the hustle and bustle of doing a daily edition, revising, researching, being part of something much bigger than yourself.
"At some point, I knew that what I wanted was to write and José Infante Reyes, the director at the time, allowed me to break the ice. I don't forget, my first job was a grassroots committee coverage of some institutions on Turquino Peak. They dressed us up as militiamen, gave us AKMs and we spent the whole night on the road.
When the day broke, I felt the altitude, which has always given me a little fear, but I was already there and doing what I wanted. The beginning is always a big challenge. I had studied the career in a course for workers, at the Universidad de Oriente, and the training as a corrector also helped a lot.
"At that time I was also assisting the volunteer correspondents. It was nice, they would call on the phone and we had to write their notes. I was impressed by the immediacy, the newspaper had to be put together daily and the collective had a vitality, a commitment... there was never any talk of time limits or days off. The youth also..."
UNIONIST FIRST?
He tells me that he made great strides and went from being an editorial assistant to being in charge of the cultural section. "A stimulating load on his back that demanded a lot of coverage to have a presence in each edition and on Sundays a full page.
"At that time I was the leader of the cultural union and the activities came to me twice as much. I didn't feel the work, it was more like an action that kept me motivated and took me out of the house in the mornings with so many motivations that there wasn't enough time to finish dreaming of projects."
Breaking his modesty crust a little, I notice that he not only carried the union movement by the waist, but he also deserved the presidency of the Juan Marinello cultural contingent, an organization of artists and creators, whose work in the communities conspires to steal all the blank sheets of paper.
Jovial, as he always is, he jokes that he snuck into the provincial committee of the Cuban Workers' Federation (CTC) and almost at the same time began to shoot bullets at the sector from the newspaper itself.
"Where to start...? I walked on friendly ground from the beginning. I already knew the branch from the inside and had achieved real empathy with the people. It was a universe that fascinated me from day one and wrenched in me an even greater commitment to be able to show the exceptional conditions of the working class.
"I learned that the simple worker is the richest. He who speaks the least, demands the least, but arrives at dawn and faces difficult conditions, lack of resources, exhausting schedules, and ambitious goals... and yet he receives you happy, noble. I have witnessed such beautiful stories that I never tire of writing about them. There are people, right now, doing prodigies and they are not known.
"Of course I carry dissatisfactions. Especially because I have to deal face to face with those who work and suffer the misinterpretations of many policies that are designed to benefit the sector, but due to lack of knowledge, obstacles, and bureaucracy, they do not land with good results".
FROM 26 TO TRABAJADORES AND ALWAYS VICE VERSA
With that long sword under his arm, it was only a matter of time before he landed at Trabajadores Newspaper, a national press media and the voice and edge of the working class all over Cuba.
"I arrived at the newspaper as a contributor in 1999. It was an inspiration and a challenge because I was writing for the arm, the working tool of the union movement, and the way to social policies and work strategies. I remember that Fidel Castro used to say that he learned about the things he did not know from Trabajadores, imagine the commitment."
For those of us who know him, it is easy to pigeonhole him in his duties because he has an innate talent for union issues that comes from his knowledge of the sector, but also from the passion with which he assumes his day-to-day. "I am lucky to write about what I like the most, that is not little and I have to thank Trabajadores for the opportunity to take the "common" heroes of Las Tunas to other matters, for telling so many worthy stories.
"Since 2008 I have been part of the collective and I have been looking forward to the revitalization of the medium with more issues because I know that the protagonists deserve it. I have an immense challenge because in these times it is necessary to contrast what is not done in favor of the workers because it is not possible or because there is no will. We have to be a weapon of denunciation when things are not going well.
"In these premises, I learned to work as a team, with an excellent collective. We used to see each other once a year after the covid-19 pandemic, but we are a very noble brotherhood, very willing to socialize and help".
"OUTSIDE CUBA THE CHALLENGE IS GREATER"
Back in 2019, he landed in Venezuela and the responsibility of head of the press team was placed on his shoulders. Since then he slept little and wrote a lot, so much so that the visit to 17 states by road, boat, or barge was not enough to finish drawing the country that seemed to him like a piece of the most violent and brutal Cuba.
"It was an enriching experience, although the remoteness hit me hard many times. Let no one think that our collaborators have it easy abroad. They do daily feats, they go where no one goes, they knock on closed doors, and they walk the communities with courage that is not always fully captured on paper.
"The journalist there accumulates debts because he cannot write about everything and everyone deserves it. That is what I treasure most, even though I had my scares and was with my team for a whole night, stranded on a road in the Amazon, where only the ever-closer eyes of wild animals could be glimpsed.
"I had been to Haytí before, as a correspondent for 26, and the feeling was very similar. We should graph the heroism that is neither a slogan nor a motto, nor a superfluous message. In those trips we cry and even the "strongest" find a sensibility they didn't know they had."
OF TODAY AND TOMORROW...
Those who think he is lively, cheerful, and always with some cheerful resource just around the corner, do not know that some time ago Jorge discovered that his blood pressure plays tricks on him because, as he confesses to me, "I am a very stressed guy" and it is difficult not to reply, "You?
And there is a certain gap of absence in his home that has crept into the middle of his chest and moves the maximum above 150 when a sphygmomanometer is on the sidewalk. In the middle of our conversation, he calls Eunice twice, his life partner because she is the one who remembers the dates and charges best.
Three operations of the fibula do not prevent him from being "the best pitcher of the liberating army" or of the softball team of the press, almost the same thing. In the field, he summons, pitches, and demands a lot, a responsibility that, according to him, also revitalizes the spirit.
He repeats that he is a lucky man: the two best children, a confident wife, and the profession of his dreams. And as soon as he says goodbye, he grabs his agenda again, the worn pencil and I hear him agree on an interview for Monday, "Even if it rains, no reporter is made of sugar, we wish..."
...
His endorsement stands out the reiterated condition of the National Vanguard, National Laureate Seal of Culture, Labor Achievement medal, and multiple recognitions and insignias inside and outside the territory.
