The Radio Habana Cuba collective has the satisfaction of celebrating every year the anniversary of the official inauguration of our transmitters  along with International Workers' Day.

By Roberto Morejón

The Radio Habana Cuba collective has the satisfaction of celebrating every year the anniversary of the official inauguration of our transmitters along with International Workers' Day.

On May 1, 1961, the shortwave station was officially identified as Radio Habana Cuba.

Before that, for an ephemeral stage, it was known as Cuban Experimental Shortwave, which had been set up with the urgent message of the country in Revolution, besieged by the United States and right-wing governments in Latin America.

The historic leader Fidel Castro announced the existence of the international signal at the funeral of the victims of the bombing of several airports, prelude to the Bay of Pigs invasion.

"We are in the era of radio and truths can be carried very far," said Fidel Castro.

The radio station would be baptized with its current name on May 1, 1961, with the honorable and complex mission of confronting misrepresentations and falsehoods about life in the largest of the Antilles.

The radio station denounced the mercenary aggression of the Bay of Pigs, organized by Washington, and spoke of the prowess of the militiamen who repelled and defeated it in less than 72 hours.

After the triumph in that battle and over the years, the radio station extended its message to South and North America and other geographic areas, with transmissions in several languages, as it does today in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Creole and Esperanto.

Fundamentally informative, the messages include cultural, musical, sporting and varied programs, favored by the audience.

Its archives contain authentic cultural gems, such as the programs La Cultura en Cuba y el Mundo (Culture in Cuba and the World), by writer Alejo Carpentier, or Andar La Habana (Walking Havana), narrated by historian Eusebio Leal.

Without neglecting shortwave transmissions, Radio Habana produces podcasts and short videos, in addition to maintaining its website in several languages.

Together with the rest of the Cuban stations, it shows that this medium is still alive, nurtured by the love of producers and technicians.

Together with other colleagues, journalists and other creators of Radio Habana strengthen their interrelation with the needs and criteria of the people, try to reflect the complex and difficult reality in the material order and face the anti-Cuban campaigns, which as in the 60s of the last century, are very active.