Camagüey.- The news arrived like good things always do: with a gentle thrill that is recognized before reading it completely. Artisan Luisa Aurora Morell Cabrera, 88 years old, has been awarded the Memoria Viva Award 2025 in the Personality category, granted by the Cuban Institute of Cultural Research Juan Marinello.
She was the only proposal sent from the province of Camagüey, a gesture that also honors the territory where she has woven, stitch by stitch, line by line, a legacy of more than six decades.
The jury—composed of Raymalú Morales Mejías, Caridad Santos Gracia, and Rafael Lara González—chose her candidacy from 68 proposals across the country, recognizing the authenticity of an inherited craft, the strength of its community impact, and the relevance of the knowledge it preserves.
But those of us who know her understand that her story cannot be confined to the words "traditional popular craft." Luisa Aurora is a woman who has traversed her time with the serenity of one who creates, teaches, and accompanies. Her utilitarian works, born from everyday ingenuity, constitute the living memory of a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation, in that invisible line that connects grandmothers with daughters and daughters with granddaughters.
She arrived in Najasa in 1960 as a literacy teacher in the Rodolfo Parrado neighborhood and since then has transformed any space into a workshop, school, or creative refuge. She gathered women farmers to embroider and sew, but also to converse, share, and recognize one another. The cultural history of the municipality would be different without those meetings that over time became great houses: the House of Culture, the children's circle, the school, the maternal home, and community projects that found in her a natural promoter of the arts and hope.
And even though the award's file presents her from the standpoint of craftsmanship, her life is much broader. She is the author of *Gente de circo* (2001), among the first books published by Editorial Ácana; creator of gatherings for the elderly where laughter and reminiscence go hand in hand; and her biography includes her role as a clandestine fighter, a convinced revolutionary, and a woman of profound decisions. All of this also sustains her.
For more than 60 years, her systematic and participatory work has strengthened local identity, fostering creativity, self-management, and the circulation of popular knowledge. Her workshops have been meeting points for children, youth, adults, and grandparents; her teaching methods have nurtured processes for cultural promoters and art instructors; and her alliances with local institutions have accompanied the cultural transformation of public and community spaces.
Her son Omar Francisco Carmenates Morell, a methodologist of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the “Juan Nicolás Guillén Urra” House of Culture in Najasa, is the author of the proposal “Luisa Aurora: the spring of Najasense crafts” presented for the award. He wrote on social media: “November will not go unnoticed either, as Najasense culture is once again recognized in the name of one of its best daughters: Luisa Morell Cabrera. (…) Once again this dedicated artist positions at the highest level, with the work of her entire life, the best of her homeland's identity. Congratulations!”
And yes: Camagüey embraces one of its most beloved creators. At 88 years old, Luisa Aurora continues to be a spring. From her hands have come forth pieces, yes, but also paths. And this Memoria Viva Award 2025 from a municipality confirms that her work—like her—is synonymous with perseverance, beauty, and root
