When in June 2007 the whole family went to accompany Vilma to the Second Front, where the eternal battle would begin, all Cubans witnessed a special moment. There his voice was heard, singing a song of love for Raúl, and also the lullabies that he dedicated to each of his children… In the silence of those mountains, his highly refined voice filled the voids and flowed from the eyes of those who deserved his hand. and his affections. Temis Tasende, daughter of the martyr of Moncada José Luis Tasende, gave the urn to Army General Raúl Castro Ruz to place it on the stone. There the sighs, the strength, the flowers… But since Vilma is one of those who are always born, she began her survival.
CLANDESTINE, GUERRILLA AND FEDERATED
Vilma continues to be that slender girl, with long hair, who met love in the mountains, in the midst of the risks that she already shared in the Second Eastern Front Frank País. This letter from Raúl to Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, on April 28, 1958, analyzing issues of the war and the failure of the April 9 strike, denotes the respect that the guerrilla leader already professed towards the combatant from the plain, for his courage and his criteria; she, whom he first admired and then loved:
«I took advantage of the opportunity to discuss with Déborah (one of Vilma’s pseudonyms in hiding) the issue of the strike and more than all the always latent problem between the national leadership and the Sierra Maestra. We begin by making a sincere self-criticism, thoroughly and fully, in a high tone and in frank camaraderie. We exposed the crudest criteria, in addition to the things and reasons that supported them, she accepting, like me, when we believed them to be fair and true, the errors committed. (…) This letter has been shown to colleague Déborah, who in the conversation with me has maintained a sincerity that I hope everyone will maintain in future meetings.
She, for her part, after fighting clandestinely, on November 30, 1956, risking her life in actions, obtaining supplies, going up and down the Sierra to contacts and meetings of the National Directorate of the July 26 Movement , of driving the car for Frank País – his boss and friend – on several occasions, of suffering his murder in July 1957, of having several names such as Mónica, Déborah, Alicia and Mariela… he found in the mountains the freedom that came from fighting the enemy head on, without the fear of being “hunted” in the city. That’s why she felt happy when she definitely stayed in the Second Front, as reflected in this letter to Celia Sánchez, who was with Fidel in the Sierra Maestra, in the First José Martí Front:
«If you saw the things that have been made possible here! You would have to see this ii Front to believe everything that has been achieved. Currently, Peasant Associations are proliferating and a true Revolution is being made on the fly. How are the supplies going? (…) Education here is being organized very well now, there is great enthusiasm among teachers. (…) How I wish you could see this! But, hey, tell Fidel not to think about it, in these moments more than ever we must avoid unnecessary risks for Fidel and Raúl.
For Vilma, the country was always, above all, and she dedicated herself to it until she achieved victory on January 1, 1959, and then she led a revolutionary process from the Federation of Cuban Women. Thanks to her work, always accompanied by a team that shared the same dreams, she managed to help women in Cuba grow in art, engineering, sports, the office, school, the countryside, in the love of family without neglecting love for the country, in the fight to break all barriers…
This is how he was seen and heard at each FMC Congress; in the push for literacy battles and for sixth and ninth grades; in collaboration meetings with ANAP, since Cuban peasant women are essential in the transformations of women in revolution; the creation and work of the Women’s Chairs, the Women and Family Guidance Houses and the international meetings of Creative Women; her struggles to eliminate sexist stereotypes, and to achieve social equality and within her own family; day care centers and education, for the little ones; the development of women away from violence and abuse, their rights to be happy with their decisions; the fight against cultural colonization; its internationalist vocation and the defense of our history.
The impact of each of Vilma’s struggles has its result today in new female achievements in science, culture, sports, and in the Cuban family; and also in the spaces that remain to be covered or that we must recover in the national and international context that forces us, again and again, to go to the person, listen to them and add them. Vilma’s words, from her tenderness and firmness, even though they have been said in another time, are absolutely valid, as lessons to review over and over again. Thus she said, on November 26, 1977:
«There are many issues that need to be resolved for which society requires your effort, enthusiasm and serious work. We must deepen our knowledge of the changes that have occurred in the individual and social psychology of our people as a result of their active participation in the revolutionary process, detect how many lags of capitalist society take the longest to disappear, and develop methods. to combat them, improve the understanding of child development and optimize the comprehensive training of new generations.
That is why the image of the Federation of Cuban Women – which she continues to preside over due to the endearing decision of us Cuban revolutionaries – bears her face. Her ideas accompany us in every area of women’s daily lives, and they are also what transmit strength to face complex moments.
THOSE WHO ARE ALWAYS BORN…
When the 85th anniversary of Vilma’s birth was commemorated in 2015, the Federation of Cuban Women organized a unique and delicate tribute: a group of women from different sectors flew, at dawn on April 7, to Santiago de Cuba, and from there they left. heading to the Second Front. After placing flowers, they sat in front of the Mausoleum of that historic place, to witness the presentation of the book Vilma Espín Guillois. The Fire of Liberty, a beautiful compilation of heroin documents.
There the revolutionaries of a thousand battles, Yolanda Ferrer and Carolina Aguilar, highlighted the values of that young woman who dedicated her fight to unleashing the wings of Cuban women, so that they could be placed in the right place that corresponds to them in socialist society.
Vilma’s thoughts and her example, as Fidel wrote in his reflections after the news of her death, are more necessary today than ever, in a society that maintains high aspirations for social justice. This is why Vilma’s thought must be studied in depth, to continue the emancipation of Cuban women.
Writing about Vilma is difficult, because the lines of a text can do little to show her in all her dimensions, as her family, friends, brothers in struggle knew her… But it is a duty to try, because Vilma founded a family, a struggle, a country, a face for the women of the continent and the world. One of her annotations – cited in the book The Fire of Liberty, undated, although everything indicates that it was written in the days of the fight against Batista’s tyranny – is a political testament that marks forever the decision of a woman in revolution. :
«(…) And there is a moment when you discover that you have to take sides, that if you are in favor of justice, of peace, of the progress of humanity, that if you do not act in favor of them you are acting against them, that There are no neutral positions, the responsibility for what happens in the world falls to each of its inhabitants…”
Vilma’s eternal call is, then, to take sides for the Homeland and for the conquests of the work for which her generation risked their lives, the one that our parents built; and that we have to defend at all costs. That’s why Vilma is one of those who are always born… and it is fresh flowers and the affection of the people that accompanies her there, on the guerrilla front that she loved.
