![]() ![]() My work in the highest-security archives in Cuba transformed the book. Only a handful of foreign researchers have ever even entered the repository since its founding in 1964. citizen access to the inner chamber of national revolutionary memory is not a decision that authorities took lightly. Approval to access those papers arrived at the last possible moment during my writing process, following a final heartfelt plea to archive officials. The first biography to critically examine her life and legacy, it is the result of over twenty years of struggle with Sánchez’s own aversion to publicity, the vagaries of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations, and the high-level security surrounding her personal papers. This year also marks the release of my new biography of Sánchez- Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary (University of North Carolina Press). Her crypt is marked only with the number “43,” but visitors regularly place mariposa blooms (the Cuban national flower) in the torch-shaped crypt knob. Witnesses claim that this was the only time they ever saw Fidel Castro cry in public. Tens of thousands of Cubans joined her funeral procession as it made its way slowly from Havana’s Revolution Plaza to the Colón cemetery. Sánchez died in Havana on 11 January 1980-just a few months shy of her sixtieth birthday-following a quiet battle with a “fungus” that she knew was really lung cancer. They stop to visit her childhood home, which became a national museum in 1989 and houses the largest single collection of her personal possessions anywhere on the island.Ĭubans will also honor the anniversary of Sánchez’s death this year. She is also the primary draw for the few hundred tourists who pass through town each year, many of whom are traveling with bicycle touring companies. She is more than a local hero she is their most intimate connection to Cuba’s broader revolutionary story. A number of boldly painted billboards posted along Media Luna’s main road proudly claim Sánchez as one of their own. The citizens of Media Luna bristle when recalling that the most famous song composed in Sánchez’s honor links her to nearby Manzanillo. One hundred years ago (), Sánchez was born in a small sugar mill town, Media Luna, on the eastern end of Cuba. This year marks two important anniversaries related to Cuba’s most revered female revolutionary leader. Sánchez was undoubtedly one of the primary architects of the silence surrounding her life, but her story needs telling. Sánchez even threatened to change her name after the revolutionary war ended in order to evade further press scrutiny. One of Sánchez’s long-time colleagues described her to me as “allergic” to cameras. Her legendary aversion to the press meant that few journalists ever interviewed her or captured her on film. citizens have still never even heard of her. ![]() Still today, however, few Cubans can recall the details of her life beyond a few anecdotes published in state-controlled newspapers on the anniversaries of her birth and death. Years later, her image would appear on two Cuban postage stamps, a commemorative one peso coin, and in the watermark of the twenty-peso note. She had earned the status of “first guerrilla of the Sierra Maestra,” as Fidel Castro’s primary confidant, and as the Cuban Revolution’s staunchest loyalist. What Kennedy soon learned was that Sánchez was the highest ranking and most revered woman within the Cuban revolutionary government. Berle reportedly replied: “Sánchez seems to be . . . Kennedy frowned upon seeing the unfamiliar name and asked, “But who is Celia Sánchez?” Ambassador A. A. Kennedy did not recognize the name when it appeared on blue CIA stationery under a red striped top-secret cover at a National Security Council meeting. In April 1965, Andrew St. George began his article for Parade with a rhetorical question: “Who is Celia Sánchez?” St. George went on to claim, “it is a reasonable if regrettable guess that, as this is written, not one American in a thousand knows.” Even President John F. ![]() If the name Celia Sánchez Manduley does not ring a bell, you are not alone. ![]()
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