In the year that ended, several Cuban women who made significant contributions to culture, sports, art, literature and the struggle for freedom in Cuba died.
As a tribute, the magazine Alas Tensas dedicated a text to them, recalling the impact of their works in Cuba and the United States, where some of them lived.
The publication did not fail to mention this 86 victims of femicide due to sexist violence which were confirmed by the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory during the year.
The relevant death figures are:
Professor and historian María Dolores Ortiz Díaz
The prominent historian, Professor and intellectual María Dolores Ortiz DíazKnown and loved among Cubans thanks to her participation as a panelist in the Escriba y Lea program for more than 50 years, died on October 27 at the age of 87.
Born in Gibara, Holguín, she was a doctor of philology and professor at the University of Havana. Founder of Escriba y Lea, whose only female panelist was for several decades. There he was loved for his great culture, elegance, kindness and amiability.
Actress Patricia Ramirez
The actress Patricia Ramírez, 32, died June 4 after nine years in a neurovegetative state due to injuries sustained in a traffic accident in 2014.
Patricia is known for her participation in the soap opera “When Love is not enough”, which she was unable to finish recording and which was shown in 2015 with two actresses: her and a replacement actress in the character of Leida.
The actress suffered an accident on April 17, 2014 along with other members of the Dripy theater group. The car he was in was hit by another in Havana. He was 23 years old at the time.
Cuban singer and actress Olga Chorens
singer and actress Olga Chorens died on September 22nd in Miami at the age of 99.
Mother-in-law of the famous singer-songwriter Willy Chirino, she was a legend of Cuban music of the 40s and 50s along with her husband, the late singer Tony Álvarez.
Both developed successful careers in radio and television before the arrival of communism. His popular “Olga and Tony Show” is remembered in this medium. They are the parents of the singers Olga and Lissette, the latter is Chirino's wife.
Volleyball player Raisa O'Farrill Bolaños
The Former volleyball player Raisa O'Farrill Bolaños, a member of the spectacular Morenas del Caribe who dominated world volleyball for more than a decade, died of cancer in Havana on May 30. He was 51 years old.
As a two-time Olympic champion in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, she shared a team with personalities who would later be inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame, such as Mireya Luis, Regla Torres, Mirka Francia, Yumilka Ruiz and Taimaris Agüero.
Juanita Castro
Juanita Castro, younger sister of Fidel and Raúl CastroHe died of natural causes in a Miami hospital on December 4 at the age of 90.
Although she initially identified with her brothers' political cause, she later had ideological differences with them and became a fierce critic of the regime.
In 1964 he went to Mexico and then went into exile in the USA. In Florida, she worked as a businesswoman and political activist and became one of the most visible faces of Cuban dissidence abroad.
Singer Gina Leon
The outstanding one The Cuban singer Gina León, one of the main interpreters of the song and the bolero in the 60s, 70s and 80s he died on July 13th in Havana. She was 86 years old and was virtually forgotten by the island's cultural institutions.
Known as the Lady of Capri, she died on the same day as Olga Guillot, whom she had to replace after her departure from Cuba, leading to her greatest triumph.
The Cuban exiled journalist and activist Cary Roque
The journalist, former political prisoner and political activist Cary Roque died on September 29th in Miami at the age of 82.an illness.
In 1961, when she was barely 19 years old, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her opposition to the Castro regime and spent 16 years in prison. After emigrating to the United States, she worked tirelessly for democracy in Cuba in media such as Radio Television Martí.
Cuban ethnologist and writer Natalia Bolívar
The outstanding writer, Cuban anthropologist, ethnologist and painter Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui He died in Havana on November 19 at the age of 89.
He dedicated most of his professional life to researching the African heritage of Cuban culture, thanks to the interest sparked by the stories his black nanny told him during his childhood.
Although he came from an aristocratic family, he was linked to the revolutionary struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, for which he suffered imprisonment and torture.
Intellectual Rosa Leonor Whitmarsh, great-granddaughter of Calixto García
Professor, historian and writer Rosa Leonor Whitmarsh Dueñas, a major figure in Cuban exile, died on October 18 in Miami at the age of 93.
After emigrating from Cuba in 1961, he went to Mexico, where he taught. In 1994 he settled in Miami, where he taught English at Miami Dade College.
In Florida, she joined several Cuban exile organizations, including Herencia Cultural Cubana, and served as president of the Centennial Committee of the Republic of Cuba.
Ada Bezos, Camagüey poet in exile
The poet Ada Bezos died on October 6th in Miami at the age of 75.
He left Cuba in 1966 and graduated from the University of Maryland. Alas Tensas recalls his achievement in international development in Washington DC.
In 2010 she was awarded the International Poetry Prize “Yo soy mujer” by International Women Poets in the Dominican Republic. Four years later he received the “Décima al Filo” award in Cuba. Among his works, the volumes of poetry Cuba in Verse: The Island Behind Bars and Evoluciones flagrantes stand out.
Artist and academic Yesenia Selier
Yesenia Selier, Cuban researcher, teacher, dancer and actress based in New York He died at age 48 on October 22 when he committed suicide by jumping from the eighth floor of his apartment in West New York, Hudson County, an event that shocked the city's Cuban academic and artistic community.
Yesenia dedicated more than two decades to teaching and performing Afro-Cuban dance. He has led workshops in the United States, Europe and Latin America and has collaborated with artists such as Teresita Fernández, Coco Fusco, the Septeto Nacional de Cuba and Chucho Valdés.
She also wrote and produced the piece Women Orishas for the Cuban Museum of Miami (2013), the show Cuba en Clave for the Cuban Cultural Center of New York (2014), the Epiphany performance procession in Madison Square Park (2015) and additional performances at Washington Square Park, the Queens Museum and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
His scholarly works on Afro-Cuban culture have been published in Cuba, the United States, Colombia and Brazil. She held a master's degree in Latin American and Caribbean Arts and Studies from New York University and was a doctoral candidate in the institution's Department of Media, Culture and Communication.