Yoani Sánchez is a Cuban blogger and human rights defender who has achieved worldwide renown and garnered multiple international awards for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under the Castro regime. She is best known for her blog “Generación Y,” (14ymedio.com) which provides a window into daily life in Cuba outside of the government’s propaganda and has been translated into 17 different languages. Now free to travel abroad—a right previously denied to her by the Cuban regime for nearly a decade—Sánchez is working to raise international awareness of the human rights and journalism crisis in Cuba. She has written two books,” Havana Real: One Woman Fights to Tell the Truth About Cuba Today” and “Word Press: A Blog for Speaking to the World.” She is married to Reinaldo Escobar Casas, editor in chief at Generación Y. In 2012, the two were arrested, and later released, as they were reporting on the suspicious death of dissident leader, Oswaldo Payá. Foreign Policy Magazine named her one of the “10 Most Influential Ibero-American Intellectuals” of the year in 2012. She continues to write about contemporary Cuban life, current news and Cuba’s transition to a democratic society.
