The photo that brings me back to Celestino.

July becomes a party for the professionals of the press, although the goals continue to be higher and the dream of serving others continues to be the main grip. July progresses and in the middle of the celebration I find among the books a photo of the First Symposium of Scientific Journalism, organized by the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) in Matanzas, a photo where Celestino was there.

Celestino Garcia Franco, yes, he was there as the snapshot eternalizes, together with the other journalists who were that day in the jury next to Esteban Lazo Hernandez, then first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party.

One of the most brilliant professionals of Matanzas journalism could not miss that event, the first of its kind in the country, which addressed issues such as cultural newsrooms in provincial press media, as recalled by journalist María Elena Bayón, author of the paper.

37 years later, the UPEC still convenes the guild and Celestino García Franco continues to be a reference for all the generations that now make up the organization. His zeal for the exact word, his reporter’s nose and his truthful journalism are a school for those who approach this profession.

A tireless defender of just causes, the underground fighter, Frank Garcel or «Cele», as he would also be recognized after becoming the eternal lover of the Girón newspaper, traced the route to be followed by future graduates.

A 24-hour journalist, dignified and tenacious, willing to defend what he felt with courage and conviction, tireless reader, chronicler par excellence, master of reporters, ingenious headline writer, his colleagues found in him an indisputable paradigm.

In the house of the UPEC Celestino Garcia found the perfect shelter during those endless afternoons of dominoes and right there, by those not so casual coincidences of destiny, every year the prize of a provincial contest that bears his name is awarded.

As his colleague Maritza Tejera, whom Roberto Vázquez called «Celestino’s daughter» confessed: «Cele is one of the best journalists that Matanzas has had in the last decades. He wrote and managed to enchant the reader, so that what you started to read, you finished it. We should all try to imitate his discipline -because he was never late or absent-; to imitate his professionalism, because when he finished something, it was the best; to imitate his dedication, because he lived for journalism».

Remembering him on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Union of Journalists of Cuba is a way to honor his example, the one we should follow every day; but at the same time it is the ideal justification to thank him for how much he bequeathed to this exercise.

The photo came to my hands thanks to José González Rivas, the organizer of that event and president of UPEC Matanzas at the time. Many had already spoken to me about Cele in the numerous interviews that were beginning to give life to my thesis and I admired him immediately. I came to long for the luck of those who shared with him those experiences and those phone calls to ask him any questions.

Now I discover again the photo that brings Celestino back to me, the one that captures the face of good people and wise man that many had already drawn me. I look at it and try to imagine a man I did not know personally, but in whom I will always find an icon of the press, a good friend.

Written by Jeidis Suárez García.