Isabel Moya was a disabled, Cuban, feminist whose journalistic work integrated the axes of gender and disability in contemporary news issues.
Moya was born in 1961 in Havana with a disease that impeded her body’s ability to obtain sufficient calcium, which caused her to rely on wheelchairs throughout her life. Moya’s lifelong passion was journalistic writing. In 1984, Isabel Moya received her degree in Journalism, following with a doctorate in Ciencias de la Comunicación (or Communication Sciences) from the University of Havana. Isabel Moya also served as an assistant professor in the Facultad de Comunicación (or the Communications Department) at the University of Havana. Early on, she established herself as an accomplished, intellectual, and gifted journalist.
Referred to as “la más querida feminista cubana” (the most beloved Cuban feminist), Moya held many important and influential positions within journalist and academic spheres. She served on the Academic Committee for the Diploma in Gender and Communication at the University of Havana. Moya was also appointed president of the Chair of Gender and Communication at the Instituto Internacional de Periodismo José Martí (José Martí International Institute of Journalism). In these positions of power and influence, Moya always shed a light on gender relations and provided a critical voice on the intersection of gender and disability.
Moya is most celebrated for her roles as director for both the Editorial de la Mujer (The Woman’s Editorial) and Mujeres (Women Magazine) produced by the Federation of Cuban Women. Her feminist journalism paved the way for more feminist voices in the sector and brought gender into conversations that were previously: 1) between men, 2) not acknowledging the effects of the patriarchy.
It will be a year since Moya’s death this coming March 4th. However, while Cubans write about her physical absence, most choose to emphasize how her mind, her voice, and her love remain forces unmoved. I spent this past fall semester studying in Havana, where the aftermath of her recent passing was clear. I was introduced to Moya’s work through a paper I wrote examining gender, sexuality, and disability in Che Guevara’s “Socialism & Man” text. My Cuban professor gave me a paper by Moya as the first source to begin my research -- “El cuerpo, la construcción de lo femenino y el audiovisual” (or The Body, the Construction of Femininity, and the Media). In the piece, she writes:
“Los fantasmas de la dominación patriarcal se reciclen en el tercer milenio en la envoltura de las nuevas tecnologías y esgrimen el cuerpo como pretexto.”
The ghosts of patriarchal domination are recycled in the third millennium in the packaging of new technologies and employment of the body as pretext.
