Yoani María Sánchez Cordero is a philologist, digital journalist, and activist. She was born on September 4, 1975, in Havana, Cuba.
Graduated from the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Havana in the year 2000.
Upon completing his higher education, he had a very brief employment relationship with the Gente Nueva publishing house, which he left to teach Spanish to tourists.
In 2002, he traveled to Switzerland. There, in Zurich, he lived until 2004, when he decided to return to the Island and establish his residence there. That same year, he founded, along with other Cubans, the magazine Consenso.
In 2007, she launched her blog Generación Y, which fundamentally serves as a bridge between everyday Cuban reality and the world. With a straightforward, unembellished language and a critical perspective, she documents the numerous issues of daily life in Cuba. From this moment on, her posts began to attract increasing attention, making her a more controversial figure, internationally recognized yet censored and attacked by the media and mechanisms of official power in Cuba.
She has received, like many other Cuban activists, threats, detentions, house arrest, and has been subjected more than once to harsh interrogations by agents of the Cuban state security.
In May 2014, he founded the digital newspaper 14ymedio.com, which operates from the very apartment where he lives in Cuba.
Both the work on her blog, which has the merit of addressing a system from within, and the topics she covers have earned her numerous accolades. Just a year after launching her blog, she received the Ortega y Gasset Award for Digital Journalism (Spain, 2008), and Time Magazine included her in the list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World (United States, 2008).
He has received, among others, the following awards and distinctions:
The 10 Characters of 2008 (Gatopardo, Mexico, 2008)
100 Most Important Hispano-Americans in 2008 (El País, Spain, 2008)
10 Most Influential Intellectuals in Latin America in 2008 (Foreign Policy, United States, 2008)
The BOBs (Deutsche Welle, Germany, 2008)
Global Young Leaders Award (World Economic Forum, Switzerland, 2009)
25 Best Blogs of 2009 (Time Magazine, 2009)
Hemispheric Heroes Award 2009 (Pan American Development Foundation, United States, 2009)
2009 Young Leaders Award (International Foundation of Young Leaders, Argentina, 2009)
María Moors Cabot Award (Columbia University, United States, 2009)
Blog of the Month in December 2009 (The Good Web Guide, United Kingdom, 2009)
World Hero of Press Freedom (International Press Institute, United States, 2010)
Award for Freedom CEPOS (Danish Center for Independent Research, Denmark, 2010)
Jaime Brunet International Award (Public University of Navarra, Spain, 2010)
The bravest woman on earth (Chosen by readers, 20 minutos, Spain, 2010)
Prince Claus Award for Journalism (Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, Netherlands, 2010)
International Women of Courage Award (U.S. Department of State, 2011)
100 Women with Digital Talent (Wellcommunity, Spain, 2011)
The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers (Foreign Policy, United States, 2011)
150 Fearless Women (The Daily Beast, United States, 2012)
