Vilma Espin, Cuban Revolutionary and Wife of Raul Castro,

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Vilma Espin, Cuban Revolutionary and Wife of Raul Castro,

Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit

[beyond the AP's lame headline, Vilma Espin was a lot more than a

"wife of Cuba's acting leader." She was a major figure in the Cuban

revolution, and an important organizer and progressive force for

women's rights in the years since the triumph of the revolution. She

was a founder of the Federation of Cuban Women, and played an important

role in the very unique and creative form of socialism that developed

in Cuba. The Soviets came, they spent lots of rubles, but they never

transformed or controlled the Cuban revolution, anymore than any other

foreigners ever have been able to put the Cubans in ideological or

religious straight-jackets. Vilma Espin and her companera Celia Sanchez

were two reasons why. Vilma was also an inspiration to a younger

generation of women revolutionaries, including Tamara Bunke, the East

German-born Cuban agent who died in Bolivia with Che and his other

companer@s, and the women of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua.

Much more info will be coming about Vilma in the next few days. -NY

Transfer ]

AP - Jun 19, 2007 12:35 am

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_ESPIN?SITE=SCAND&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Wife of Cuba's Acting Leader Dies at 77

By ANITA SNOW

Associated Press Writer

HAVANA (AP) -- Vilma Espin Guillois, the wife of acting President Raul

Castro and one of the communist nation's most politically powerful

women, died Monday, the Cuban government announced. She was 77.

Espin died Monday afternoon after "the long illness she was afflicted

with" worsened in recent weeks, according to Cuban state television.

Authorities did not disclose the illness, but she was said to suffer

from severe circulatory problems in recent years.

Her death was likely to have a profound emotional impact on both Raul

and Fidel Castro at a critical moment in Cuban history. Not only was

she a wife and a sister-in-law, but a fellow guerrilla fighter who was

with the Castro brothers at the start of their revolutionary battle a

half-century ago.

Cuba's top leaders will pay homage to Espin with a solemn gathering

Tuesday night at the Karl Marx theater in Havana, along with leaders of

the Federation of Cuban Women and other representatives of Cuban

society.

An official mourning period was declared from 8 p.m. Monday until 10

p.m. Tuesday, and the Cuban flag will be lowered to half mast at all

public buildings and military bases. Formal gatherings to pay homage to

Espin were scheduled for all day Tuesday across the island of 11.2

million. Her ashes will be scattered during a private ceremony, with

full military honors, at a date to be determined, according to the

statement from Cuba's Communist Party leadership.

"Her name will be linked eternally to the most significant achievements

of Cuban women through the Revolution," the government said, calling

Espin "one of the most relevant fighters for women's emancipation in

our country and in the world."

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.

After the 1959 revolution, she became Cuba's low-key first lady as the

wife of Defense Minister Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's designated

successor, because Fidel Castro was divorced.

Espin maintained that role over more than 45 years, even after Fidel

Castro reportedly married Dalia Soto del Valle, with whom he is said to

have five grown sons. Extremely protective of his private life, Fidel

Castro has never discussed that relationship publicly and his current

marital status is unclear.

Raul Castro, 76, has been Cuba's acting president since 80-year-old

Fidel ceded power in July after the first of several surgeries from

which he is still recovering.

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.

A tall woman with spectacles, her auburn hair twisted into a bun, Espin

was a highly recognized figure across the island. She was regularly

seen at gatherings of the National Assembly and other important

government meetings.

Born in Santiago on April 7, 1930, and trained as a chemical engineer

in Cuba and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 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.

Espin sought refuge in 1958 in the mountains above Santiago, where Raul

and Fidel Castro commanded their uniformed rebel fighters.

Espin and Raul Castro were married in April 1959, four months after

Batista fled the island and rebels marched triumphantly into Santiago,

and later Havana. Pictures in Life magazine showed the bride in an

elegant white gown and pearls in her hair. The groom was clad in his

olive green military uniform, pistol at his side.

Although rumors circulated for years that Espin and Raul Castro had

separated, they were often seen together and there was never any

official word of divorce.

"Vilma and I sometimes argue," Raul Castro said in April 2001, with his

wife at his side. But, he said, "this marriage ... has lasted 42 years,

and we hope to be together longer."

Espin's survivors include the couple's four children, Mariela, Deborah,

Nilsa and Alejandro, as well as numerous grandchildren.