I imagine him with his cassette recorder and analog camera, retracing our steps like others. On foot, by bicycle, or by whatever transport he could find along the way. Ulises Espinosa Núñez, one of the founders of the press in Las Tunas, is a son of that generation of reporters who marked the birth of the Volunteer Correspondents Movement in our land, making the province a pioneer in the country in this regard, as this protagonist tells us.
“I came to this profession perhaps because of a premonition from my father, Manuel Aquiles Espinosa. He admired two journalists named Ulises, who wrote from a left-leaning perspective, committed to social justice. I was the firstborn of my parents, and it was because of these colleagues that I received this name. But I only learned the story later, when I graduated from the University of Holguín.
Although Espinosa Núñez didn't have early access to education, he learned as he went along. “I came to the city at age 11, illiterate, he emphasizes, but with the arrival of the Revolution, I completed my military service, and then the Ministry of Labor offered me a job. So, with a slip they gave me from that entity, I was going to work as a political cadre at the Cuba Artesanía company. And something wonderful happened. The head of human resources, when she saw me arrive, before even taking the slip, said: ‘My correspondent has arrived!’”
“That day, I went to Radio Circuito. There I met Lugones, Quesada, Juan Emilio… The following year, I was already head of the Volunteer Correspondents Movement in Las Tunas. Workers, students, farmers… we wrote for the revolutionary press. There was no technology or equipment, but there was plenty of willpower. We did everything with commitment and enthusiasm.”
In Ulises’s words, one can sense his pride in the profession he chose (or perhaps it was the other way around?). I, a child of this era, know —for example— how El Trabajador, a local newspaper, emerged back then, produced under the journalistic aegis of the time and, of course, bearing the mark of those courageous colleagues.
Among those luminous pages, he charted his own course. “In the early 1970s, my status as a contributor was confirmed, I received my membership card from the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), and my work was recognized, earning me a National Vanguard award.” Furthermore, I took on the role of education communicator, joined the El Forjador newspaper, among other media outlets, and even became a professional journalist in charge of the Colombia region, at the request of the Cuban Communist Party and the suggestion of Rossano Zamora Paadín (Gallo).
He confesses that this vocation ran through his veins since childhood, evident in the patriotic compositions he wrote, and that he always carries within him the example of his father, who died during the Bloody Easter. Espinosa Núñez was also a founder of 26; he received the Labor Achievement Medal, among other recognitions. He participated in congresses of the National Union of Cultural Workers (SNTC) and the UPEC (Union of Cuban Journalists).
“Wherever I go, I feel the need to give my best. And since a journalist never abandons the pen, I currently collaborate with Radio Victoria. I have dedicated my life to this profession; my father's premonition has come true. My advice to my colleagues, today, is to write from the truth, always committed to the country,” concluded the 2023 Rossano Zamora Paadín Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
