- Vilma Espín
Vilma Lucila Espín Guillois (
April 7 ,1930 -June 18 ,2007 ) was a formerCuba n chemical engineer and revolutionary who was married toRaúl Castro , the current Cuban President and brother to Former Cuban PresidentFidel Castro . Espín had four children (Deborah - married to Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja -, Mariela, Nilsa and Alejandro Castro Espín) and seven grandchildren. Her daughter,Mariela Castro , currently heads theCuban National Center for Sex Education . Espín was often described as "Cuba's First Lady". [ [http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/nation/15530452.htm Raul Castro's wife rumored to be seriously ill] McClatchy Newspapers. Sep. 15, 2006. Accessed "8th October 2006".]Role in the Cuban revolution
Espín, from
Santiago de Cuba , was the daughter of alawyer for theBacardi family, Jose Espín and wife Margarita Guillois. [ Richard Gott. "Cuba, a new history" p160.] She had four siblings, Nilsa, Iván, Sonia and José. In the 1950s, she studied chemical engineering atMIT inCambridge, Massachutsetts before meeting revolutionary leaderFrank 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's26th of July Movement who had relocated toMexico 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 theSierra Maestra mountains after the 26th of July Movement's return to Cuba on the Granma yacht. She and Raúl married in January 1959. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,892216,00.html On this day] Time Magazine. Feb. 9, 2006. Accessed "8th October 2006".]Role in the Cuban government
Espín was President of the Federation of Cuban Women from its foundation in 1960 until her death. The organization is a recognizedFact|date=June 2007
non-government organization which claims a membership of more than three and a half million women, and is generally recognised as aQuango orGONGO . Espín was also a member of the Council of State of Cuba, as well as a member of theCentral Committee and the Political Bureau of theCommunist Party of Cuba from 1980 to 1991.Espín 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 andBeijing .Death
Espín died in
Havana at 4:14 p.m. EDT onJune 18 2007 , following a long illness. [ [http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2007/06/18/nacional/artic17.html "FALLECIÓ LA HEROÍNA DE LA CLANDESTINIDAD Y COMBATIENTE DESTACADA DEL EJÉRCITO REBELDE VILMA ESPÍN GUILLOIS"] , "Granma", June 18, 2007 es.] An official mourning period was declared from 8 p.m. on June 18 until 10 p.m. on June 19. Her body was cremated, and her remains rest on the "II Frente Frank País" Mausoleum.References
* [http://www.summit-americas.org/Women/biographies.htm Biographies of Spouses of Heads of State and Government of the Americas]
Footnotes
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