Cuban Revolutionary Women

Abstract

Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and CamiloCienfuegos, these are the men whose images havealways been associated with the Cuban Guerilla groupwhich brought an end to the tyrannical leadership inCuba. Celia Sánchez Manduley a middle class Cuban biologist woman, distressed about thesocial and economic position of thepeasants under the Fulgencio Batista’sregime, initiated and nurtured guerrillawarfare in Sierra Maestra, determinedto bring an end to Batista, the Mafia andthe US government, who, she believedwas responsible for the rape and robberyof Cuban society. She took refuge in theSierra Mountains where she recruitedpeasants who were willing to put anend to the Batista tyranny. Those whowitnessed her plan, organize, strategizeand fight in the Sierras, believe her establishedrevolutionary movement wasthe foundation of the eventual successof “Castro’s Revolution”. The purposeof this paper is to highlight the work ofwomen in the success of the Cuban Revolution,which is seldom emphasized inhistory books or historical discussions.The time period chosen accounts forthe events that created a foundation fora successful revolution in which womenwere major pioneers.