Julio Orlando MArquez Hidalgo is a lay Catholic that was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1962. He graduated from the University of Havana’s School of Architecture and later received diplomas in Social Communication from the Universidad Popular AutOnoma of the State of Puebla, Mexico (1990) and in Conflict Resolution from the Universities of Uppsala, Sweden (2003), and York, United Kingdom (2006). In January of 1991 he began to work for the archdiocese of Havana on a proposal of the then archbishop, Jaime Ortega. He was later appointed director of the Media Department for the Archdiocese, and in April 1992 founded the magazine Palabra Nueva. He has also been a professor of Social Communication at the Seminary San Carlos and San Ambrosio; spokesman for the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba and the Archdiocese of Havana. He was Press Office director for the Catholic Church during three Papal visits to Cuba: Pope John Paul II (1998)), Benedict XVI (2012) and Francisco (2015). In April of 2016 he resigned as director of Palabra Nueva as well as other responsibilities in the diocese of Havana.

PIDO LA PALABRA offers a selection of articles that appeared for over two decades in the Opinion section of the Palabra Nueva magazine of the Archdiocese of Havana (winner of the International Catholic Press Union gold medal in 1998). The author, who founded and directed the magazine for more than twenty years, left his journalistic works, including interviews, reports, and chronicles; however, his opinionated articles on ecclesiastical and social matters were better known. From his experience and commitment as a man of faith, he accepted the challenge of being a practicing journalism in Cuba during the late XX century and the beginning of XXI.