Haydée Santamaría, Cuban revolutionary
Subtitle: she led by transgression
By: Margaret Randall
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
ISBN-13: 9780822359425; 9780822359623
Subjects: Revolutionaries; Casa de las Américas; Biography
Description: Taking part in the Cuban Revolution's first armed action in 1953, enduring the torture and killings of her brother and fiancé, assuming a leadership role in the underground movement, and smuggling weapons into Cuba, Haydée Santamaría was the only woman to participate in every phase of the Revolution. Virtually unknown outside of Cuba, Santamaría was a trusted member of Fidel Castro's inner circle and friend of Che Guevara. Following the Revolution's victory Santamaría founded and ran the cultural and arts instituion Casa de las Americas, which attracted cutting-edge artists, exposed Cubans to some of the world's greatest creative minds, and protected queer, black, and feminist artists from state repression. Santamaría's suicide in 1980 caused confusion and discomfort throughout Cuba; despite her commitment to the Revolution, communist orthodoxy's disapproval of suicide prevented the Cuban leadership from mourning and celebrating her in the Plaza of the Revolution. In this impressionistic portrait of her friend Haydée Santamaría, Margaret Randall shows how one woman can help change the course of history. -- Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-219) and index.
Table of contents: title: Before we begin; title: Why Haydée?; title: Early life; title: Moncada; title: War; title: Witnesses; title: Casa de las Américas; title: Two, three, many vietnams: Haydée and Che; title: The woman beneath the myth; title: Impossible possibility: elegy for Haydée Santamaría.