Melba Hernandez

Melba Hernandez Rodriguez del Rey (28 July 1921) is a Cuban politician and diplomat born in Cruces, Las Villas, Cuba. She served as the Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam and to Cambodia.

Hernandez was the only child of mulatto conservative parents who resided in a modern third-floor apartment on Jovellar Street in El Vedado. She graduated from the University of Havana School of Law in 1943. Hernandez was a Customs attorney for the Carlos Prio government.^[1] She was one of the two women (the other being Haydee Santamaria) involved in the 1953 Moncada Barracks assault. Although she had been practicing law for a decade, during the Moncada trial she chose not to defend herself, as Fidel Castro did, and was instead represented by Jorge Paglieri Cardero. She was sentenced to 7 months in prison. She was later declared "Heroina del Moncada". In the early 1960s she was in charge of women's prisons in Cuba.

She has been a Deputy in the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power since 1993 (she previously served from 1976–1986) representing the municipality of 10 de Octubre. Hernandez has been a member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba since 1986. She has also served as the Secretary General of OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America).

References

• Deltona Beach Morning Journal; Plead In; 30 September 1953
• PBS; American Experience | Fidel Castro | People & Events; 21 December 2004

1. ^ de la Cova, Antonio, "The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution". University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 34

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Name	Hernandez, Melba
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Date of birth	28 July 1921
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