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The Cuban Institute on Cinematographic Arts and Industry (ICAIC) was the first cultural body created after the Revolution in March 1959. Born in the initial days of the revolutionary changes, the new Cuban cinema was considered "the most powerful and suggestive medium of artistic expression and the most direct and extended vehicle of education”, as stated in the law that gave birth to Cuba’s main film production company. With these two purposes in sight –education and artistic expression– the ICAIC’s Latin American Newsreel was produced weekly between 1960 and 1990, informing the Cuban, but also other Latin American viewers about events in Cuba and in the world. The significance of these newscasts transcends the local sphere because they indeed cover the whole of Latin America, and there are many episodes dealing with world events seen from a Latin American perspective.

Over the years, the "Cinemateca de Cuba" has been a haven not only for the film heritage of Cuba but also for that of Cuba’s fellow countries, since several Latin American films threatened by the dictatorships of the 60s and 70s found shelter in its vault. The "Cinemateca de Cuba" took charge of duplicating the films that it considered important for the region. However, in the 90s, the blackouts produced during the so-called "Special Period" were a blow to film preservation. Film duplication, restoration and revision activities were paralyzed due to lack of resources. The archives of the "Cinemateca de Cuba", which up to that moment had represented a model for the region, stopped being a safe haven. Even important documentaries such as those chronicling Che Guevara's journey to the Republic of Congo were in danger of disappearing.

The nomination of ICAIC’s Latin American News to the Memory of the World Register is both timely and urgent. Urgent, because the suspension of production in 1990, due to the economic crisis, had a negative impact on the "Cinemateca de Cuba", responsible for the preservation of the newsreels. Timely, because incorporating this newsreel to the Memory of the World on the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the creation of ICAIC, in January and March 2009, could be a fundamental step towards preventing the loss of the image and sound records of those five decades and making the experience of its protagonists known within the island and abroad. 

This nomination was inscribed on the Memory of the World International Register in 2009 and on the Regional Register for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2011.