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The independent Cuban journalist Camila Acosta won the Manuel Márquez Sterling 2026 Non-Fiction Literature Award for her work "Under Siege. Journalism and Resistance in Cuba," as announced by the organizing publishers Ediciones Memoria and Ediciones Homagno.
The award was granted after a deliberation process that evaluated 23 valid manuscripts out of a total of 26 received between April 7 and June 1 of this year.
The jury, composed of writer and editor Rafael Almanza, journalist Yoe Suárez —winner of the previous edition— and editor Mario Ramírez, praised the work with powerful words in the official report.
"Camila Acosta leaves in these journalistic texts an invaluable portrait, written directly and meticulously, of the Cuba that late Castro socialism continues to grind and mutilate. But this book is also a portrait of Camila herself, the most intrepid journalist in Cuba today," the ruling states.
The document also highlights that Acosta "coined terms like Whip Law for the despised Decree-Law 370; or that she covers the protests of July 11 on the streets, spends the night in jail, and recounts the fractures of the body and soul of those who accompany her there."
The award-winning book compiles articles, interviews, reports, and chronicles published primarily in CubaNet Noticias and the Spanish newspaper ABC between 2020 and early 2026, covering events such as the protests on November 27, July 11, and November 15.
The work includes testimonials from dissidents such as Rosa María Payá and Berta Soler, political prisoners like Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and Félix Navarro, and cultural figures such as writer Zoé Valdés and singer Haydee Milanés.
Acosta, born in Isla de la Juventud in 1993, holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Havana and has been working as an independent journalist since August 2019, contributing to The New York Times, CubaNet, and the Spanish newspaper ABC, where she serves as a correspondent in Havana.
Her trajectory has been marked by systematic repression. She was detained on July 12, 2021 while covering the protests of 11J and subjected to more than ten months of house arrest on charges of “public disorder” and “instigation to commit a crime.” Her case was closed in May 2022 with a fine of 1,000 Cuban pesos.
Independent organizations recorded five assaults against her in 2024 and four in the early months of 2025. Days before receiving the award, Acosta published a video publicly exposing a State Security agent who was monitoring her.
The journalist herself reacted to the award with a social media post in which she described her work: "Doing independent journalism in Cuba not only means facing the physical and psychological harassment of the dictatorship, but it is also an act of resistance and survival."
The contest pays tribute to Manuel Márquez Sterling, one of the leading intellectuals and diplomats of the Cuban Republic, whose grandson and scholar Manuel Márquez Sterling Jr. passed away in 2022.
Acosta announced that the book will soon be available on Amazon and concluded his message with a reflection on the historical significance of his work: "When the recent history of Cuba is written, it will be essential to refer to the reports of the independent press."
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