Mónica Baró Sánchez is a Cuban independent journalist and writer, born in Havana in 1988. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Havana University in 2012. In 2015, she co-founded Periodismo de Barrio, an independent digital magazine with an environmental focus, where she served on the Editorial Board and reported on vulnerable communities, natural disasters, housing issues, pollution, agro-ecology, droughts, and lead poisoning. In 2018, Mónica began contributing to the digital magazine El Estornudo and became part of its reporting team in Cuba in 2019. In January 2021, she left Cuba and sought asylum in Spain. She later moved to the United States, where she completed a Master’s degree in Literary Reportage at New York University in 2024. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami.