Guerrilla leader in Cuba's revolution; later crucial to the Latin American cultural renaissance of the 1960s Haydee Santamaria led a full and painful life. One of the few female revolutionary leaders, she suffered torture in Batista's prisons. After 1959, she established the world-renowned Latin American literary institution, Casa de las Americas. Its director for 20 years, Haydee provided intellectual and physical refuge for Latin American artists and writers, in exile from dictatorships in their home countries. Haydee Santamaria was closely involved in the Cuban Revolution from its earliest years until her death. One of the few women active in the guerrilla movement, Haydee fought at Moncada and suffered terrible losses when her brother and friends were tortured and killed by Batista's troops. Through the Casa de las Americas magazine and its regular literary and artistic prizes, Haydee helped establish a vibrant creative space for artists from Africa, Asia and Latin America. She married Armando Hart and they had seven children, five of them adopted from other countries.
Haydee's tragic suicide in 1980 poignantly illustrates the price an individual pays for the experiences they live through. To many people in Cuba and overseas, Haydee became a symbol of the courage and achievement of the Cuban Revolution. - A highly respected, revolutionary feminist, who recognised and wielded the weapons of culture as tools for social change; Haydee's name is synonymous with Casa de las Americas, the foremost cultural institution in the whole of Latin America. - Those associated with Casa and Haydee include Hispanic cultural giants such as Pablo Neruda, Jose Saramago, Silvio Rodriguez, Eduardo Galeano and Mario Bennedetti. - A Latin American female role
