Unlike the People’s Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Vilma Espín Guilloys is the only Cuban woman who has participated in government affairs in Cuba. She has been described as the most powerful woman of the Cuban Revolution. Little information has been published in the international press about her life. Early reports indicated that her health has worsened since 2000.
He was a member of the Cuban aristocracy in the 1940s and 1950s. His father was deputy director of the Bacardi Run Company. He speaks Spanish and English very well. His mother’s French ancestry. Vilma enjoys reading and watching sports. As a member of the Castro family, she lives in luxurious residences. She is famous for being the wife of Raúl Castro, brother of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. Currently Raúl Castro is interim president of Cuba. In addition, he is the first Vice President of the Council of State, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, Vice Secretary of the Politburu and of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.
After completing her education as a chemical engineer in her country, she went to the United States to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the best engineering schools in the United States. During the civil war she returns to Havana. Vilma had met Raúl Castro when she was the leader of the Cuban Women’s Movement. In 1959, guerrilla forces captured the city of Havana, the capital of Cuba. The Batista regime was deposited by Fidel Castro.
During the Cold War, Fidel Alejandro Ruz is as dictatorial as his predecessor. The politics of the country is gradually dominated by the Castro Ruz family. The new dictator maintained control over the population through his secret police organization. The Castro regime became notorious for its human rights violations and anti-American policies. As of 1961, the Island emerges as the first socialist state in Latin America. Later Vilma Espín proclaimed herself President of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and assumed total control of Cuban women.
As Maria Lucia Hiriart de Pinochet (former First Lady of Chile: 1973-1990), Alicia Raquel Hartridge de Videla (former First Lady of Argentina: 1976-1981) and Imelda Remedios Visitacion Romualdez Marcos (former First Lady of the Philippines: 1965 -1986), Vilma Espín cooperated with one of the six worst dictatorships in the world. After Cuba became a Socialist Republic, she increased the Soviet bloc’s economic and military aid to the Cuban Revolution. Ms. Espín immediately began a series of reforms, including human development programs and sports projects. She built many schools, hospitals, museums, libraries, and stadiums. But she supports human rights abuses by the national government.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Cuban intellectuals such as Lezama Lima, Heberto Padilla, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and Reynaldo Arenas called for more freedom of expression, and many women renewed their efforts to gain recognition of human rights. Certainly, a strict control of the life of the families arose. Under his leadership, abortion was declared legal and “Marxist Education” has received emphasis in schools, institutes, academies and universities.
Ms. Espín has carried out important diplomatic missions on behalf of the Cuban dictatorship. She was selected by the Soviet World to become an anti-American activist at the United Nations World Conferences on Women (Mexico-75, Denmark-80 and Kenya-85). After the Cuban government broke diplomatic relations with Chile, Vilma Espín became an outspoken critic. Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Certainly, she gained popularity in the Socialist Universe. From 1960 to 1990, she traveled to the USSR, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and other nations. As First Lady of the Cuban revolution, she established good relations with Third World states.
In 1976 he presented “The Family Code”, a project on social equality between men and women on the Island. Ironically, international reports indicate that Cuba has the lowest proportion of ministers and congressmen in its government, surpassed by Liberia, Seychelles and Mozambique. .
It is an open critic of capitalist society, but prostitution is growing on the island. On many occasions, Cuba has been compared to Thailand. prostitution brings more income to the Cuban economy.
Vilma Espín de Castro has been called “the de facto first lady of the Cuban revolution because she is not Fidel’s wife. Certainly, Dalia Soto del Valle is the true first lady of the Cuban revolution because she has been married to Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz since the 1980s.
REFERENCES:
– Bourne, Peter. Fidel: A Biography of Fidel Castro, Dodd Mcad, New York, 1986.
-Garcia, Magali. “Consuelo Gonzáles de Velasco, in the company of Commander Fidel Castro, visits the Basic Secondary School in the Battlefield of Jique in Havana, Granma, Havana, February 25, 1973
-Gasparini, Juan. Women of Dictators, Peninsula Editions, Barcelona, 2002
-Grandmother. Speech by Vilma Espín: To the Chilean women, sisters in the struggle in the anti-imperialist cause, we reiterate from this combative act of firm and unbreakable solidarity of Cuban women, Havana, September 17, 1973
————“August 23, 17th Anniversary of the Federation of Cuban Women”, Havana, September 4, 1977
———–“Speech by Vilma Espín, President of the Federation of Cuban Women”, Havana, September 23, 1976
– Grogg, Patricia. “Debora”, Cuba International, Havana, December 1988
-Guevara Onofre, Alejandro. History of the Woman of the United States, Cecosami, Lima, 2002
-Form on Human Development 1995: Gender and Human Development, UNDP, New York, 1995
-Rodriguez Calderon, Mirta. “The Family Code will come into force on March 8, International Women’s Day, according to Law 1289 recently issued by the Council of Ministers, Granma, Havana March 2, 1975
