Elena Inés Mederos y Cabañas de González (13 January 1900 - 25 September 1981) was a Cuban human rights and women's rights activist, a feminist, and social reformer. She was the first Minister of Social Work in Cuba.
Mederos founded several organizations including the School of Social Services at the
University of Havana; the Foundation for Social Services, which developed programs for children's organizations in Cuba; "Of Human Rights" (
New York City, 1961); and a Cuban exile lobby that worked for the release of political prisoners. A
suffragist, Mederos was a co-founder of the
Alianza Nacional Feminista, a suffragist organization active in Cuba during the 1920s. She was the founding vice president of the
National Association of Cuban American Women (NACAW).
Mederos is "considered the most prominent Cuban woman of the 20th century".
Biography
Mederos was born in
Havana on 13 January 13, 1900. Her father, a well-to-do tobacco merchant, gave Mederos and her sister tobacco estates, which allowed each of the daughters to live a comfortable life without dependence on a husband for financial support. Her education included a Ph.D. in
pharmacology
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
. She married Hilario González Arrieta, a young lawyer, in 1924.
The Sixth
Pan American Union conference was held in 1928 in Havana. Attended by a large assembly of Cuban women led by Mederos, the conference established the
Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM). Representing Cuba, Mederos was a member of the first CIM conference which met in Havana in 1930. In September 1959, Mederos served for five months as first Minister of Social Work in Cuba,
under
Fidel Castro's provisional government. She arrived in the US in 1961 with her daughter
María Elena González Mederos, where she worked for
UNICEF. Mederos died 25 September 1981 in
Washington, DC.
The Elena Mederos Award was established in her honor by the NACAW.
References
Bibliography
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External links
"Elena Mederos, una Figura Histórica del Siglo XX"by Aleida Duran in ''Contacto Magazine'' (in Spanish)
(in Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mederos, Elena
1900 births
1981 deaths
Cuban human rights activists
Cuban women activists
Women human rights activists
Cuban women's rights activists
Cuban feminists
Indian social reformers
UNICEF people
Cuban suffragists
Cuban officials of the United Nations