Vilma Espín Guillois
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Vilma Espín Guillois is a former Cuban chemical engineer and revolutionary who is married to Raúl Castro, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, head of the Cuban Armed Forces and brother to Cuban President Fidel Castro. Espin has four children and seven grandchildren. Her daughter, Mariela Castro, currently heads the Cuban National Center for Sex Education. Espin is often described as "Cuba's first lady". [1]
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[edit] Role in the Cuban revolution
Espín, from Santiago de Cuba, was the daughter of a lawyer for the Bacardi family.[2] In the 1950s, she studied chemical engineering at M.I.T. in Boston before meeting revolutionary leader Frank País in Havana, the meeting led Espín to become a leader of the revolutionary movement in Oriente province. Espín acted as a messenger between the movement and Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement who had relocated to Mexico in order to plan a future invasion. It was in Mexico that Espín met Raúl Castro. She then went on to assist the revolutionaries in the Sierra Maestra mountains after the 26th of July Movement's return to Cuba on the Granma yacht. She and Raúl married in January 1959.[3]
[edit] Role in the Cuban government
Espín has been President of the Federation of Cuban Women since its foundation in 1960. The organization is a recognized non-governmental organization which claims a membership of more than three and a half million women. Espin is also a member of the Council of State of Cuba, is a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba.
Espin headed the Cuban Delegation to the First Latin American Congress on Women and Children in Chile in September 1959. She also headed the Cuban delegations to the Conferences on Women held in Mexico, Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing.
[edit] References
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Raul Castro's wife rumored to be seriously ill McClatchy Newspapers. Sep. 15, 2006. Accessed 8th October 2006.
- ^ Richard Gott. Cuba, a new history p160.
- ^ On this day Time Magazine. Feb. 9, 2006. Accessed 8th October 2006.
‡ Ann Louise Bardach. Cuba confidential. p270
