What happened to Fernando Guardado, host of ‘Palmas y Cañas’?

MÉRIDA, Mexico -. Fernando Guardado, the emblematic presenter of the Guajiro program on Cuban television Palms and Reedshas stayed out of the spotlight after his retirement.

After almost forty years of work in the program, where he replaced Ramón Veloz in 1975, Guardado became one of the regular faces in Cuban homes and an icon of broadcasting on the Island.

The driver was born in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, in 1947 and graduated from the Enrique José Varona Higher Pedagogical Institute in the specialties of History and Geography.

According to the biographical summary of the site CubaliteAfter graduating, Guardado worked as a teacher at the Higher School of Athletic Improvement (ESPA), where curiously he counted Alberto Juantorena among his students.

After getting married, he moved to Artemisa and began his career as a radio announcer, first as an editor and finally as an announcer.

His success at the Artemisa station took him to Havana where he worked first at the CMBF stations Radio Musical Nacional, Radio Progreso and, later, at the newly founded Radio Cadena Habana.

Then he went to television where he ventured into programs like Escriba y lea and La Revista de la Mañana until he got the opportunity in Palm and Reedsa program that consecrated him and allowed him to share the stage with Cuban culture greats.

In 1983 he was sent by Cuban television to the war in Angola.

His teaching vocation transferred him to broadcasting and, for years, he worked as a teacher and evaluator of broadcasters.

Their social networks are not very active. On its Facebook page, the last public post dates back to 2021.

“The society of a country is made up of men and women with different projections in life and no one has the right to veto anyone because of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their religious belief or their atheism, or their political ideology, I believe that to live in harmony we must respect each other because as Benito Juárez said ‘Respect for the rights of others is peace,'” the driver declared at the time.

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