Lucila Negrín de García-Berry Papers

Dr. Lucila Negrín de García-Berry was a Cuban journalist and educator. She was born in Calimete, Matanzas, Cuba. After the death of her father, she and her family moved to Havana. For her education she studied at la Escuela Normal de Maestros (Teacher’s College) and then earned a Doctorate in Pedagogy from the University of Havana. She also graduated from the Manuel Márquez Sterling School of Journalism.

After the Cuban Revolution, she went into exile with her husband Abelardo García Berry and their two children. They joined a large wave of Cuban exiles who relocated to the East Coast area in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. In New Jersey, García founded the Asociación de Educadores Cubanos (Association of Cuban Educators,) which assisted in the placement of hundreds of Cuban teachers into the Northamerican education system, including in positions in the new bilingual-education programs that were developed to assist immigrant youth adapt to their new language and schools. She worked as a teacher for 45 years.

She was awarded the Lincoln-Martí Prize by the Federal Program for Cuban Refugees for her efforts. She also continued pursuing journalism work, and García and her husband founded the Spanish language newspaper “La Voz” New Jersey, which included special interest pieces, local information, and news for the Cuban community in the United States. They published the paper for more than 50 years and it was later run by their children, Abel and Daniel. In 2018, the paper received a National Journalism Award by the Dean of El Colegio Nacional de Periodistas de Cuba en el Exilio, Dr. Salvador Romaní.

García-Berry was also very close friends with Cuba’s first female aviator, Captain Teresina Del Rey Baxter. Del Rey was a fellow journalist as well as a pioneer for women in her accomplishments as an aviator, as she was the only woman of her era to graduate from la Escuela Militar de Aviación de Cuba (the Military School of Aviation in Cuba.) García and Del Rey met a gathering of journalists and found they shared many things in common. At the end of her life, Del Rey asked García to publish a book about her life. The book, which contained Del Rey’s writings, was completed by García 3 years after Del Rey’s death and published by a Miami press in 2003. The title is Teresina Del Rey Baxter: (primera Aviatriz Cubana): Vida Y Obra. In 2004, García also donated a bust of Del Rey to be featured in the West New York Public Library on 60th Street in her honor.

García moved with her husband to Miami, where she worked as treasurer for the National College of Journalists. On May 11, 2006, García-Berry was awarded the Cuban National Excellence Medal from the San Carlos de Cayo Hueso Institute for her work for the Cuban cause. She passed away later that year (2006).