The radio, from its origins in Cuba, accompanies libertarian ideas. For this reason, it was not surprising that an old radio station in the city, located on Finlay Avenue, was in charge of calling for a strike on April 9th, 1958, which led to the closure of Suarito-Radio Camagüey.

To the revolutionary pep talk that Pepín Bueno amplified from the master control, there was added a feat that not a few people from Camagüey today clearly remember, although 63 years have passed. I am referring to the July 26th flag that flew at the top of the transmission tower in the courtyard of the building; while the heroes of this story escaped from the enemy.

The daring driver, audio operator and many other things within that environment, Héctor Enríquez Izquierdo, was the one who climbed as high as he could and exposing himself to the neighbors, placed the flag of revolutionary honor that from the red and black, called for action.

Many years later, when this story was no longer a secret and his son Rolando was old enough to understand it, Hector would proudly tell it several times. This is how it came to me in a formal way, since I had already known it since I began my life as a radio host about twenty years ago and just today, I could hear it first-hand.

From the eyes of his son

The pride for a father who dedicated his life to Cuban radio and to many missions entrusted by the revolution, excites Rolando, thus the memories begin to surface.

He was very young at that time, he was barely 6 years old; but he remembers very clearly that his home was searched by the Batista police. Thankfully, the truth was not revealed, because in addition to his father’s audacity, a closet kept weapons and supplies for the rebel troops.

His humble origin and his upright character in the face of injustice would soon make him join the urban movement against the dictatorship. He found support for his ideas in his radio group and nothing prevented his recklessness in hanging the July 26 flag before the nose of the Batista army policeman, who with a tobacco in one hand and a rifle in the other, sitting on the portal guarded the station.

Then he left the place and went to a house next to the Main Theater, where a noble lady sympathetic to the cause hid him for several months; until members of the clandestine movement in Camagüey transferred him to a safe place.

The radio man

That Héctor Enríquez, in the prime of his youth, was in charge of scaling the transmission tower to adjust any detail that prevented the airing.

From the nearby neighborhood of La Vigía, his son remembers that he went out to the courtyard of the house and there he saw his father in the heights; but he also remembers him making the sound or repairing some damage to the tape equipment. For him, he was one of those who are still known in the world as a radio man, due to his versatility in the field.

Rolando tells us that he would always remember with pleasure those days of revolution that did not stop with triumph; as he was in charge of leading the mobile unit of Radio Cadena Agramonte, which carried the programs to various places in the capital of Agramonte and its municipalities.

He also served in an international mission in the sister nation of Nicaragua and, together with Daniel Ortega, founded the Sandinista radio station, but that story will be for another chronicle.

Tribute of the radio hosts

We have shared beautiful memories and known radio operator Héctor Enríquez Izquierdo from his family perspective, it is a pleasure for those of us who love radio to bring back so many emotions and be able to make them known.

The current Radio Camagüey, which opened its airwaves on February 2nd, 2004, proudly keeps those memories of its predecessor.

Feats like this that led the revolutionary work to definitive freedom must be told over and over again, so that they are not forgotten with time.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García