Haydée Santamaría

Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado (Villa Clara, December 30, 1923 – Havana, July 28, 1980 ) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician, regarded a heroine in post-revolutionary Cuba. She participated in the assault on Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, an action for which she was imprisoned with Melba Hernández.

During her imprisonment, the guards allegedly brought her the bleeding eye of her brother, Abel Santamaría and threatened to tear out the other. Her response was: “If you tore out an eye and he did not speak, neither will I.”^[1][2]

After her release she helped to found the 26th of July Movement, joining the guerrilla forces led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in the Sierra Maestra mountains. During the war she fought for the women’s battalion for the rebel army: the Mariana Grajales platoon.^[3]

After the Cuban Revolution was won in 1959 she founded the institution la Casa de las Américas, and remained its director for two decades. This was a bold institution that gave audience to the work of Latin American dissidents, and it continues today. As well as literature, the institution brought music, painting and theatre to the Cuban people.

Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado committed suicide in 1980, some months after a severe car accident.^[4]

References

1. Queen of the Neighbourhood (28 October 2010). Revolutionary Women: A Book of Stencils. PM Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-1-60486-464-9.
2. Ernesto Cardenal (1974). In Cuba Translated by Donald D. Walsh. New Directions Publishing. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-0-8112-0538-2.
3. Samuel Farber (13 December 2011). Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment. Haymarket Books. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-1-60846-166-0.
4. Louis A. Pérez (2005). To Die in Cuba: Suicide and Society. UNC Press Books. pp. 351–. ISBN 978-0-8078-2937-0.