June 19, 2007

Vilma Espin

Given what the Cuban revolution has become, sometimes it's hard to remember what it once represented. In the 1950s, the struggle against Batista's oppression mobilized many to action. One of them was Vilma Espin, who later became the wife of Raul Castro. She died Monday:

Born into a wealthy family in eastern Cuba, Espin became a young urban rebel after Fulgencio Batista took power in a coup, and she battled his dictatorship throughout the 1950s.

...

Espin's power also was rooted in the more than four decades she served as president of the Federation of Cuban Women, which she founded in 1960 and fashioned into an important pillar of support for the communist government. Virtually every woman and adolescent girl on the island are listed as members.

...

Born in Santiago on April 7, 1930, and trained as a chemical engineer, Espin participated in early street protests against Batista, and became deeply involved in the revolutionary underground, working with regional leader Frank Pais, who was assassinated in July 1957. Even before Pais died, Espin had assumed leadership of the urban rebel movement in eastern Cuba.

She become part of the machine, but in the early days, she represented the hope that many women had for a new role in Cuban politics and society.

Posted by binky at June 19, 2007 10:43 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Latin America


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