The journalistic guild of Las Tunas is in mourning. In the early hours of this Friday, August 7, colleague Leonardo Mastrapa Androín died in Havana, victim of a sudden illness. Mastrapa served as the main editor and Information Chief at 26 Newspaper, a media in which he worked for 30 years.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- With a degree in Journalism from the University of Oriente (1990) and a master's degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Havana (2010), Mastrapa held various responsibilities in the publication, including that of the editor of the cultural section. One of his great loves was digital publishing, to which he dedicated his enthusiasm and commitment until his last moments. He was also an adjunct professor at the University of Las Tunas, an institution where he taught for several courses.

Possessing a peculiar charisma and an optimistic way of appreciating life, Mastrapa was for various years the first vice president of the Provincial Delegation of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC). His initiatives, ideas and dedication to work made him an important member of that structure, in which he also founded and assumed the editing of the Ecotunero portal, the website that disseminates journalistic events in the territory.

He was 52 years old when he died and had a great desire to live. Among his most notable qualities was his devotion to his family, especially his mother and son, and his transparency as a human being. Those of us who pride ourselves on having shared so many years of work and so many unforgettable experiences with him will always keep him in mind. A person like him suits this phrase from Chilean writer Isabel Allende: "Death does not exist; people only die when they are forgotten." Mastrapa, you will always be among us.