Modesto Agüero on censorship in Cuban television: "We knew what we could say and what we couldn't"

Modesto Agüero, one of the most significant voices in sports narration in Cuba, who for decades commented on the most important events, recounted how censorship works in state-controlled media and how journalists and commentators must adhere to the rules, lest they risk losing their jobs.

Resident in Spain for seven years, the former member of the Communist Party of Cuba confessed in an interview with the Diario de Cuba portal what would happen if an athlete defected from their delegation.

"I knew what I could say and what I couldn't, just like my colleagues. Indeed, athletes who defected from delegations could not be mentioned. There are still people who write to me to say, 'How come you talk about Cuban baseball players in the Major Leagues now, but you didn't do it when you were in Cuba?' I replied to one of them, 'Because I didn't know you, because if I had known you, I would have talked about them, because I knew that when they kicked me out of ICRT, you were going to support me.' It wasn't talked about, and it can't be talked about," he emphasized.

The veteran narrator recalled that once, during a meeting at the ICRT, he said that he did not understand how in a country where the national sport is baseball, Major League games were not being broadcast but rather international professional soccer matches.

So, it's not a matter of professionalism. And then Major League Baseball, which is the best baseball in the world, is not broadcast in Cuba," he questioned.

"At the meeting where I brought it up, they didn't like it, but nothing happened," he pointed out.

Modesto, who is continuing his professional work in the women's softball league in Spain, referred to what happened last year when Cuban television stopped broadcasting his commentary of the Softball World Cup just because he lives in another country.

"What a surprise and also what a disappointment to find out that in Cuba they took my narration and aired it in Havana. They did not respect my 40 years as a sports narrator-commentator on Cuban TV," he said in a Facebook post.

According to what he told Diario de Cuba now, the excuse they gave him was that if they did not have a narrator in Havana, they could not charge.

Agüero settled in Spain after retiring. He traveled with his wife to reunite with his daughters. He admits to feeling happy and fulfilled, although he acknowledges missing the affection of Cuban fans.

Here I go out in the street and no one knows me. When I meet a Cuban, I am the happiest person in the world, because I can talk about sports with him. The other day, in the subway, someone said to me, 'Hey, Modesto Agüero', I was the happiest person in the world," he said.