“This In memoriam award to Gustavo Andújar is a recognition to the Cuban laity that has been able to carry forward a Church that at times has been submerged in darkness, and Gustavo was one of those men who was able to keep the flame of faith alive”, assured the president of SIGNIS-Cuba, Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez Yong.
Upon receiving the Communicator of Peace In memoriam Award given to the Cuban communicator Gustavo Andújar, former president of SIGNIS who passed away in 2021, Rodríguez Yong pointed out that this recognition “fills us with pride because many of those who are here knew Gustavo and know his worth as a human being, but also as a Catholic intellectual…. Gustavo was one of the great losses we had as Catholics because of the COVID-19, but his legacy is still present among the members of SIGNIS and within the Cuban laity, because one cannot speak of the most recent history of the Cuban Church without mentioning its laity, and Gustavo was one of those indispensable laymen, who, in complicated moments of the political relationship between Church and State, was present, contributing from his condition as a Christian and intellectual, proposing a culture of peace, encounter and brotherhood.”
The Communicator of Peace In memoriam Award was presented by SIGNIS-ALC Directors Carlos Ferraro and María José Centurión during the closing ceremony of the 6th Latin American and Caribbean Communication Congress, organized by SIGNIS-ALC at the Catholic University Santa María La Antigua in Panama.
Andújar was a member of the Cuban national associate of OCIC-SIGNIS since 1965, president of OCIC-Cuba from 1994 to 2003, led SIGNIS-Cuba from 2003 to 2016, and was elected SIGNIS president from 2005 to 2017.
Among other decorations, he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross, awarded by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, while Pope Francis named him a Knight of the Order of St. Sylvester in 2017.
His life, devoted to the film apostolate and his passion for this form of storytelling, was a constant service of creation, preservation and dialogue to build peace.
He was also director of the Father Félix Varela Cultural Center of the Archdiocese of Havana and a member of the National Communications Commission of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, director of the influential Cuban Catholic magazine Espacio Laical, and of the biannual magazine ECOS, dedicated to audiovisual communication.
Motivated by his love for cinema, Andujar presided international juries in the most important film festivals in the world: Venice, Berlin, Havana, Mar del Plata, Amiens, Quito, Buenos Aires, Santo Domingo, Zanzibar and Washington.
The Communicator of Peace Award is granted by the Board of Directors of the Latin American and Caribbean Catholic Association of Communication as a tribute to those who have dedicated their lives to the service of building a culture of peace through the media.