Background
Vilma Espín Guillois was born on April 7, 1930, in Santiago de Cuba the daughter of a lawyer for the Bacardi family, Jose Espín and wife Margarita Guillois.
Vilma Espín Guillois was born on April 7, 1930, in Santiago de Cuba the daughter of a lawyer for the Bacardi family, Jose Espín and wife Margarita Guillois.
In the 1950s, she studied chemical engineering at Universidad de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba (one of the first women in Cuba to study this subject), and post-graduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Espín was often described as "Cuba"s First Lady". She had four siblings, Nilsa, Iván, Sonia and José. Returning home, she became involved with the opposition to the dictator Fulgencio Batista.
A meeting with revolutionary leader Frank País led her to become a leader of the revolutionary movement in Oriente province.
Espín acted as a messenger between the movement and Fidel Castro"s 26th of July Movement, which had been relocated to Mexico in order to plan a future invasion. lieutenant was in Mexico that Espín met Raúl Castro.
She then went on to assist the revolutionaries in the Sierra Maestra mountains after the 26th of July Movement"s return to Cuba on the Granma yacht. Espín was President of the Federation of Cuban Women from its foundation in 1960 until her death.
The organization is a recognized non-government organization which claims a membership of more than three and a half million women, and is generally recognised as a Quango or GONGO. She also headed the Cuban delegations to the Conferences on Women held in Mexico, Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing.
Espín died in Havana at 4:14 p.m. EDT on June 18, 2007, following a long illness. An official mourning-period was declared from 8 p.m. on June 18 until 10 p.m. on June 19.
Her body was cremated, and her remains rest in the "II Frente Frank País" Mausoleum.
Espín was also a member of the Council of State of Cuba, as well as a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1980 to 1991.