Vilma's example is needed today more than ever. She devoted her entire life to the struggle of women, at a time when most faced discrimination as human beings, in Cuba and throughout the world, with honorable revolutionary exceptions…
In our country, women were emerging from one of the most terrible forms of society, a U.S. neo-colony, dominated by imperialism and its system, in which everything human beings are capable of creating becomes a commodity…
Cuban women worked in domestic services, or in luxury shops and bourgeois bars, where they were selected for their bodies and figures. In factories they were given the simplest, most repetitive and worst paid jobs…In many arenas, the presence of women was not even considered…
I have witnessed Vilma's struggles for almost half a century. I have not forgotten her in July 26th Movement meetings in the Sierra Maestra. She was eventually sent by the movement’s leadership on an important mission to the Second Eastern Front. Vilma was not intimidated by any danger…
After the triumph of the Revolution, an inexhaustible battle for Cuban women and children began, led her to found and lead the Federation of Cuban Women. There was no national or international tribune that she did not attend, however long the road to be traveled, in defense of her homeland under siege and the noble and just ideas of the Revolution…
His gentle, firm and always timely voice was heeded with great respect at meetings of the Party, state and mass organizations…
Today, Cuban women are 66 percent of the country’s technical workforce, and the majority in almost all university departments. Before, women were barely noticed in scientific activities, since there was no science or scientists, with a few exceptions. In this field they are also in the majority today…
Her revolutionary duties and vast work never prevented Vilma from fulfilling her responsibilities as a loyal companion and mother of many children…
(Excerpts from the Reflection: Vilma’s Struggles)
