I met the journalist Hilda Pupo Salazar during my teaching practicum in print journalism when I was just a journalism student. Running around the newsroom of the then-newspaper ¡Ahora! Which was located at the José Miró Argenter Printing Plant on the outskirts of Holguin.
I would go into her office and start talking with her about topics I enjoyed exploring as a fledgling journalist. A profession I adored more than television and radio, until the internet and online journalism came along.
Some jokingly called her the “first lady” because her husband, Rodobaldo Martínez, was the publication’s director. But she never boasted about it or abused her “family power” in the newsroom.
I remember, on one occasion, during a Cuban press conference for March 14th, they honored her for her outstanding career. As a defender of patriotic values, but above all, for her faith in the great journalist José Martí. To whom she dedicated much of her work as a columnist for ¡Ahora!
Once, the mailman delivered the Saturday edition of ¡Ahora! to me, and when I read it, her column on page eight was the most important piece of the day, overflowing with humanism. And indeed, the human element has been the most important journalistic element since the press’s inception.
She was deeply interested in love—family love, love for one’s neighbor. Also which is so often proclaimed but so frequently neglected due to selfishness or indifference to problems that should not be foreign to us.
The truth is, one of her columns was like a therapy session. It lifted my spirits amidst so much human misery caused by a lack of empathy in social relationships. She dedicated her entire professional life to writing about topics related to education and human values, and her column “Trincheras de Ideas” (Trenches of Ideas) overflowed with Martí’s ideals of becoming better Cubans each day. Her column continued in Página 8 (8th page) until her last day.
Although genetics dealt her a cruel blow by inheriting ataxia from her family. So she never stopped writing, finding in it the best balm for happiness while practicing the best profession in the world. As Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez said.
Before departing for eternity on January 5th, she recently wrote these beautiful texts. Which I extracted from her last commentary in Página 8:
“It would be a great contribution to consolidate in our people the values of dignity, patriotism, freedom, social justice, solidarity, kindness, honesty, integrity, and responsibility. And to ensure there are always reasons to smile.”
“We constantly need love and tenderness as a form of resistance in the face of so many challenges. To achieve the desired triumphs to the extent that we are able to change and move closer to our goals for 2026. With the utmost generosity, kindness, flexibility, resilience, and confidence.”
“It is about strengthening solidarity, human dignity, equality, equity, freedom, well-being, and prosperity. Both individually and collectively, every single day.”
“May 2026 be a year of new beginnings and great achievements. My best wishes to you in this new year that is beginning. May every day of 2026 be filled with good news. Happy New Year, may there always be reasons to be happy,” said the great admirer of Martí’s journalistic works.
Thank you, Hildita, as all your colleagues affectionately called you. For your dedication to Journalism, which Cuba so desperately needs to be happy, even when, at times, the only option is to remain strong. In the face of so much hatred for choosing, as a nation and society, a different path.
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