Dagoberto Valdés Hernández (born August 4, 1955 in Pinar del Río province, Cuba) is a Catholic intellectual and the editor and founder of Vitral and “Convivencia” magazines.
[1] He was sent to work in the field as a member of a squad that used to pick “yaguas” (the scabbard of the palm tree leaves which is used to pack tobacco).
He was appointed to say, on behalf of the Church in Cuba, the “Words of Praise to Father Félix Varela”, at the “Aula Magna” of the University of Havana.
He was founder and first diocesan Responsible for ten years (1977–1987) at the Movement of Laic Ministers of the Word in Pinar del Río.
[2] He participated in the 25th World Congress of the International Movement of Catholic Intellectuals (MIIC-Pax Romana) held in Rome in September 1987.
World Gathering of Catholic Social Week Representatives convened by the Justice and Peace Pontifical Council, held in Rome in 1995.
He received a Bible from the Pope’s hands, in recognition of his work, during the Mass held in the José Martí Square, as well as other 19 prominent laics from all over Cuba did.
He received from the hands of the queen and king Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands the Prince Claus Award for Culture and Development” which was bestowed upon Vitral Magazine during a ceremony on December 8, 1999 in the Amsterdam Royal Palace.
He received the Jan Karski Award, to Courage and Compassion on November 10, 2004 in Washington D.C. (director@polishcenterdc.org) When no one knew how to guide the Cuban society through a change in history, towards the democracy, he was teaching how to proceed with what Cuba got, he was preparing the civic society as the basis for a new country to overcome the damages that have been inflicted in the Cuban society by years of indoctrination by the internal authoritarianism, and how to embrace our reality and make the best out of it with the Strength Of The Small, putting efforts in maintaining alive day by day and editorial after editorial, a Civic Center and a Magazine that for many years gave the government something to worried about across the entire country, -such was the reach of that important magazine-, something to be afraid of, because people were learning, people were starting to understand that their opinion were important too and they also could be heard.
Proof to this page of his selfless passion for Cuba, when his projects were interrupted by the intervention of the government through the Catholic Church hierarchies, he just started over.