Edith García Buchaca
Cuban communist activist (1916–2015) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edith García Buchaca (1916–2015) was one of the highest ranking members of the Communist Party in Cuba from 1935 to 1964. Active in leftist politics and women's issues as a teenager in Cienfuegos, she joined the Communist Party in 1935 and strove to organize the women's wing, which was active in initiatives to improve workers' conditions. She joined and became a leader in the Union of Radical Women and participated in the Third Congress of Cuban Women in 1939. She was a successful candidate in the 1940 general election and served on the Constitutional Convention. García successfully introduced women's rights issues raised by the women's congress for consideration and inclusion in the 1940 Constitution.
Edith García Buchaca | |
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Born | 1916 (1916) |
Died | 9 February 2015(2015-02-09) (aged 98–99) Havana, Cuba |
Occupation(s) | Civil servant, activist |
Years active | 1933–1964 |
Spouse(s) | Carlos Rafael Rodríguez (div. 1950) Joaquín Ordoqui Mesa (1952–1973) |
Supporting anti-fascist measures during World War II, in 1941 García co-founded the National Anti-Fascist Front. She was a co-founder and the first president of the Democratic Federation of Cuban Women, formed in 1948 as an affiliate of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). García was a delegate to the WIDF 1948 Congress in Budapest, the 1949 Conference on Asian Women held in Beijing, and was elected to the 1953 Executive Council of WIDF. She was a leader in the Hands Off Korea campaign of the 1950s, a Cuban protest to the Korean War.
From 1945, García worked at the Institute of Cuban-Soviet Cultural Exchange, encouraging intellectuals to share their knowledge. After Fidel Castro's failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, her husband was arrested along with other leftists who opposed the regime of Fulgencio Batista. Upon his release the couple and their children went into exile, finally settling in Mexico in 1956. From there they were active in Communist initiatives against various dictatorships in Latin America and the Caribbean, but did not support insurrection. When the Cuban Revolution ended in 1959, they returned to Cuba. García worked as the secretary of the National Institute of Culture, until the National Council of Culture was created in 1961, where she was also secretary.
Appointed as the head of cultural initiatives for the Communist Party, from 1961 to 1964, García was instrumental in institutionalizing cultural programs and establishing schools and facilities to promote the arts. Her pamphlet La teoría de la superestructura: la literatura y el arte (The Theory of the Superstructure: Literature and Art, 1961) was influential in the development of policies adapting the arts to meet socialist goals. Debates about whether the purpose of art was aesthetic or utilitarian led to the government's cultural censorship program, although in her era no forms of artistic expression were banned as long as they supported revolutionary ideals. In 1964, García was accused of protecting Marcos Rodríguez Alfonso ("Marquito") who had informed on activists behind the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo, leading to the Humboldt 7 massacre. She denied involvement and was exonerated by Castro. After her husband was accused of being a CIA informant, which she denied, the couple were arrested in 1964. From 1965 until her death in 2015, she lived under house arrest, despite never being tried for a criminal offense.