Women And The Cuban Insurrection

Reveals the centrality of women rebels to Fidel Castro's Cuban insurrection in the 1950s.

The transformation of women's economic and social status in Cuba since the 1959 revolution.

A handful of celebrated photographs show armed female Cuban insurgents alongside their companeros in Cuba's remote mountains during the revolutionary struggle. However, the story of women's part in the struggle's success has only now received comprehensive consideration in Michelle Chase's history of women and gender politics in revolutionary Cuba. Restoring to history women's participation in the all-important urban insurrection, and resisting Fidel Castro's triumphant claim that women's emancipation was handed to them as a "revolution within the revolution," Chase's work demonstrates that women's activism and leadership was critical at every stage of the revolutionary process. Tracing changes in political attitudes alongside evolving gender ideologies in the years leading up to the revolution, Chase describes how insurrectionists mobilized familiar gendered notions, such as masculine honor and maternal sacrifice, in ways that strengthened the coalition against Fulgencio Batista. But, after 1959, the mobilization of women and the societal transformations that brought more women and young people into the political process opened the revolutionary platform to increasingly urgent demands for women's rights. In many cases, Chase shows, the revolutionary government was simply formalizing popular initiatives already in motion on the ground thanks to women with a more radical vision of their rights.

This book is a rare and important study on the people and many of the groups and activist regions involved in the Cuban insurrection of the 1950s. It addresses the insurgent movement, how people were drawn into the struggle, the structure of the movement, including its different activist groups and how rebels operated effectively, and the role women played in this struggle. It sheds light on the localized and social aspects of the struggle, a topic that relatively little has been written on. The cultural, relational, emotional, and experiential factors that affected activists value formation and recruitment are also investigated."

The social revolution that in 1959 brought down the bloody Batista dictatorship began in the streets of cities like Santiago de Cuba and the Rebel Army's liberated mountain zones of eastern Cuba. The unprecedented integration of women in the ranks and leadership of this struggle was a true measure of the revolutionary course it has followed to this day. Here, in firsthand accounts by women who helped make it, is the story of that revolution--and "the revolution within." "A fascinating look into women's rights in Cuba, "Women in Cuba" is a strongly recommended pick for any women's studies collections."--Midwest Book Review "...[W]hat was achieved by and for women during and after the Cuban Revolution was nothing less than remarkable. ... American readers of Women in Cuba are escorted to the "prohibited" land of Cuba without State Department permission or scrutiny. And thus they are given the freedom to arrive at conclusions of their own regarding the island nation and its women."--ForeWord Reviews, Summer 2012 "This well researched book would be of interest to anyone studying Cuban history, Latin American history, the history of the women's liberation movement on a global scale and anyone who enjoys reading about history. Recommended for all libraries and bookstores."--REFORMA, April 2012 Introduction by Mary-Alice Waters. Photo sections, maps, glossary, index.

Latin American women were among those who led the suffrage movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and their opposition to military dictatorships has galvanized more recent political movements throughout the region. But because of the continuous attempts to silence them, activists have struggled to make their voices heard. At the heart of Voices of Resistance are the testimonies of thirteen women who fought for human rights and social justice in their communities. Some played significant roles in the Cuban Revolution of 1959, while others organized grassroots resistance to the seventeen-year Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Though the women share many objectives, they are a diverse group, ranging in age from thirty to eighty and coming from varied ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Cuban and Chilean women Judy Maloof interviewed use the narrative form to reinvent themselves. Maloof includes narratives from a poet, a tobacco worker, a political prisoner, an artist, and a social worker to demonstrate the different faces of their struggle. In the process, these women were able to begin to put together their fragmented lives. Speaking out is both a means for personal liberation and a political act of protest against authoritarian regimes. The bond that these women have is not simply that they have suffered; they share a commitment to resisting violence and confronting inequities at great personal risk.