American journalist and writer who lived in Cuba and reported on the political and social life from 1961 to 1998.
ABOUT THIS PAGE
This page is about Lionel Elliot Martin (1927 – 2019), an American journalist who lived in Cuba from March 1961 until his death in June 2019. He worked as a foreign correspondent and freelance journalist for several news agencies, such as Reuters, Prensa Latina (Cuba), ABC (USA), BBC (UK), and CBC (Canada). His feature articles, written and audio reports cover almost half a century of Cuban history following the victory of Fidel Castro’s rebel forces in1959, and are an objective chronicle of the political, economic and social everyday life on the island during those years. Some of the topics include the Literacy Campaign, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the 1962 Missile Crisis, the 1989 Drug Trials of General Ochoa, the Embargo, Cuban –American bilateral relations, several migratory waves including the Marielitos and the 1994 Rafters Crisis, the Cuban participation in the war in Angola, and the impact on Cuba of the end of the USSR and the subsequent “Special Period” during the 1990’s.
A knowledgeable and studious man of many talents, Lionel Martin understood the reality of Cuban life: its identity and culture, the achievements, mistakes and setbacks of the Castro administration and the everyday struggle of the Cuban people.
He met in an up-close and personal way many important personalities involved in the Cuban political and cultural arena, from Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to Alicia Alonso and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Considered by many journalists and academics to be an expert on Cuba, he was consulted by many who visited the country and carried out research.
In this website you will find a complete biography of his life, many of his feature articles and radio reports, as well as some of the books which he wrote. It is a very useful source of information for those interested in these years of Cuban history.
THIS PAGE IS IN PROGRESS AND WILL BE MONTHLY UPDATED.
NEW ON THIS PAGE: List of Reports 1-46 and Reports 1-46 (August 13, 2024)
Biography by AdrienneHunter
Lionel Martin was born in The Bronx, New York City on April 25, 1927. Both his parents were children of Jewish immigrants whose families arrived from Europe in the early 20thcentury, his father’s from Germany and his mother’s from Russia. They had two children, first a daughter, Natalie, and then a son, Lionel. Unfortunately, their father died at a very young age when Lionel was only two and a half years old..
Top: Lionel Martin at Reuters Havana – Bottom right: Lionel with Che Guevara doing voluntary work – Bottom left (upper): Lionel with Fidel Castro (lower): Lionel with Gabriel Garcia Marquez
When someone decides to write the tumultuous history of Reuters in Havana during Communist-era Cuba, one name will feature prominently throughout: Lionel Martin. Andrew Cawthorne, Cuba correspondent, pays tribute to Our Man in Havana …
The only US journalist to remain in Cuba virtually from the start of Fidel Castro´s four-decade rule, Martin saw and covered it all – from The Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to the historic visit of Pope John Paul in 1998 … … .
This book offers the facts about Fidel Castro’s initial contact with radical thought and proves he knew how he wanted to lead the Cuban Revolution before it actually started.
Written in Spanish for a Cuban readership and published 10 years after it was finished under Lionel’s pen name, RichardO’Reilly, a name he chose as he was driving to the publishers along O’Reilly Street in Old Havana
A Spanish translation of The Early Fidel made in Spain and published by Grijalbo.
This tells the story of how Adrienne Hunter met Lionel Martin and became his wife. Lionel’s drawings and Adrienne’s comments reflect the rich complexity of a shared daily life together which will resonate with readers
Unpublished, unfinished work on Castro’s political and economic program for Cuba: its achievements and setbacks, successes and failures within the context of Cuba-US bilateral relations
Unpublished, unfinished autobiographic work written with a nostalgic sense of humor