Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado (December 30, 1922 – July 28, 1980) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician, regarded as a heroine in post-revolutionary Cuba. She participated in the assault on

Moncada Barracks The Moncada Barracks were military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba named after General Guillermo Moncada, a hero of the Cuban War of Independence. On 26 July 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutiona ...

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

on July 26, 1953, an action for which she was imprisoned along with

Melba Hernández Melba Hernández Rodríguez del Rey (28 July 1921 – 9 March 2014) was a Cuban politician and diplomat. She served as the Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam and to Cambodia. Life Born in Cruces, Las Villas, Hernández was the only child of mulatto c ...

. She was a founding member of the Central Committee of the

Communist Party of Cuba The Communist Party of Cuba (, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26th of July Movement and Popu ...

and one of the first women to join the PCC. She maintained a high position in its leadership throughout her life. Having participated in the attack on the Moncada Barracks, Haydée Santamaría is among a relatively small group of people who were involved in every phase of the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

, from its inception to its fruition.

Early life

Haydée Santamaría was born to Spanish immigrants Joaquina Cuadrado and Abel Benigno Santamaría on December 30, 1922, in Encrucijada, Cuba, on the Constancia sugar refinery. The eldest of five children, she and her siblings Aida, Abel, Aldo, and Ada were raised in a petit bourgeois family that had emigrated from Galicia,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

in the area formerly known as Las Villas Province. She attended school only until the sixth grade, which was not uncommon owing to poverty and customs regarding gender; however she repeated the sixth grade 3-4 times before leaving school, exhibiting an appreciation of reading and learning.Randall, Margaret. Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression. Duke University Press Books, 2015. At school she was introduced to important writers, among them Jose Martí—an important figure of Cuban literature and a national symbol of independence. After trying to become a nurse and working as a teacher for a short time, Haydée Santamaría was able to leave the trappings of her conservative family behind, joining her brother, Abel Santamaría, in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. It was in Havana at this time that she started meeting Abel's comrades, chief among them

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

. Haydée Santamaría and Melba Hernandez were the only two women to directly participate in the assault on the Moncada Barracks of July 26, 1953. Her roles during, leading up to, and following July 26, 1953 included acquiring and transporting weapons, being involved in the organization of the revolutionary organization of the July 26th Movement, as well as helping to assemble the urban uprising of November 30, 1956 in Santiago de Cuba alongside Frank País and Celia Sánchez.Maclean, Betsy. Haydée Santamaría. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2003. Print.

Revolutionary and post-revolutionary activity

During her imprisonment after the Moncada assault, the guards allegedly brought her the bleeding eye of her brother, Abel Santamaría, and threatened to tear out the other. They also brought her the mangled testicle of her then fiancé, Boris Luis Santa Coloma. Her response was: "If you did that to them and they didn't talk, much less will I." Both Abel and Boris died after the assault of the Moncada Barracks. After her release she helped to found the

26th of July Movement The 26 July Movement (; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, part of an at ...

, joining the guerrilla forces led by

and

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Santamaría was in Miami, Florida for the planning of the 26th of July Movement. The speech

History Will Absolve Me ''History Will Absolve Me'' (Spanish: ''La historia me absolverá'') is the title of a two-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after he le ...

was converted into a written manifesto by Fidel Castro using lemon juice to write between the lines of letters during his imprisonment after the assault on the Moncada Barracks. The manifesto was disseminated by Haydée Santamaría and Melba Hernandez after their release from prison. They assumed responsibility for smuggling out the speech in sections, raising money to print them, and distributing ten thousand copies throughout Cuba with the help of Natalia Revuelta and Lidia Castro, building the mythic reputation and de facto leadership of Fidel Castro. On September 4, 1958, Fidel Castro established the Mariana Grajales Platoon, an all-women's battalion for the rebel army, and Fidel Castro's personal security detail.Puebla, Teté, and Mary-Alice Waters. Marianas in Combat: Teté Puebla & the Mariana Grajales Women's Platoon in Cuba's Revolutionary War, 1956-58. New York: Pathfinder, 2003. Haydée Santamaría was a member of the Marianas during the war, fighting in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra. After the

in 1959 she founded the cultural institute Casa de las Américas and remained its director for two decades. It was a bold institute, which gave voice to the work of Latin American dissidents, and it continues today. As well as literature, the institution brought innovative music, painting and theatre to the Cuban people. Haydée Santamaría's unique role within the Casa de las Americas allowed her to practise internationalism in the face of the

United States embargo against Cuba The United States embargo against Cuba is the only active embargo within the United States which has prevented U.S. businesses from conducting trade or commerce with Cuban interests since 1958. Modern Cuba–United States relations, diplomatic ...

, creating a space for artists and intellectuals from around the world to meet and collaborate in Cuba. Her support of artistry and her dedication to the spirit of revolution helped her foster many intimate relationships with different artists. It was with the exposure at the Casa de las Americas, and support from Santamaría, that Silvio Rodriguez was able to start the Nueva Trova "New Song Movement" (

Nueva canción (European , ; 'new song') is a left-wing social movement and musical genre in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, characterized by folk music, folk-inspired styles and socially committed lyrics. is widely recognized to have played a profou ...

) in post-revolutionary Cuba. In an earlier letter written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara to Haydée Santamaría, he alludes to her cultural achievements and then chooses to recall a specific incident in the mountains of the Sierra Maestra: "I see that you have become a literati with the power of creation, but I will confess that how I most like you is on that day in the New Year, with all your fuses blown and firing cannons on all sides." Her commitment to the cultural development of Cuba allowed her to meet many new and interesting people, but she was to be plagued by the tragic losses of her loved ones to the end of her life.

Personal life and death

Depression ran in her family and it severely affected her to the end of her life. Often she spent days in bed while in depressive episodes. She eventually married Armando Hart and had two children with him, Cuban writer Celia Hart and her brother Abel Hart. They also took in many children and managed their own type of orphanage. After two decades of marriage, Armando and Haydée ended up separating. Haydée Santamaría killed herself at the age of fifty-seven in the home she and her children shared on July 28, 1980, two days after the 27th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks. The fact of her suicide was problematic within Cuba and, some have speculated, the reason she was not mourned in the Plaza de la Revolución, but rather was given the burial of an ordinary citizen in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. The events of the Cuban Revolution left an indelible mark on her, causing her to lose many people to whom she had been close and ultimately contributing to the lifelong depression from which she suffered. In a letter published by Casa de las Americas in 1968, she wrote to

after his death: "Fourteen years ago I saw the most intensely beloved human beings die—I think that I have already lived too much. The sun is not as beautiful, I don't feel pleasure in seeing the palm trees. Sometimes, like now, in spite of enjoying life so much, knowing that it is worth opening one's eyes every morning if only for those two things, I have the desire to keep them closed, like you."

References

* Maclean, Betsy. Haydée Santamaría. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 2003. Print. * Puebla, Teté, and Mary-Alice Waters. Marianas in Combat: Teté Puebla & the Mariana Grajales Women's Platoon in Cuba's Revolutionary War, 1956–58. New York: Pathfinder, 2003. * Randall, Margaret. Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression. Duke University Press Books, 2015. * Shayne, Julie D. The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba. Rutgers University Press, 2004.

External links

Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado
(''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'')
Article on cubanet.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santamaria, Haydee 1922 births 1980 suicides 1980 deaths People from Encrucijada Cuban revolutionaries Female military personnel Women in war in the Caribbean Women in war 1945–1999 Female revolutionaries Military personnel who died by suicide Suicides in Cuba

Early life

Revolutionary and post-revolutionary activity

Personal life and death

References

Further reading

External links