Prensa Latina was able to learn more about the life of Ana Betancourt de Mora, who was born in 1832 in what was then the provincial capital of Port-au-Prince, during a tour of the town, which is around 600 kilometers east of Havana.
Her example became a banner for women’s struggles and emancipation in Cuba almost two centuries ago.
The patriarchal society that prevailed in the 19th century and whose repercussions continue to this day prevented women from enjoying a privileged place in both economic and cultural fields.
For this reason, the struggle to leave home and reach a space of greater recognition has been the goal of dozens of women in the history of Cuba’s struggles for independence.
In the fight against Spanish colonialism, many went to the manigua (field) or served as a liaison between the insurgents and the city. Betancourt was in the first group.
In December 1868, just as the region connecting the center with the east of the country was taking up arms, Ana Betancourt shortly afterwards set off into the jungle to support her husband Ignacio Mora.
Laritza Pérez, researcher and leading figure on feminism issues, points to the heroine’s tremendous merits in her text Ana Betancourt, the story of a disrespectful woman.
It was at the Guáimaro Assembly in April 1869 that Betancourt de Mora seized the opportunity to assert the Cuban woman’s claim.
His words were read by Ignacio Agramonte (1841-1873), one of the editors of the first constitution of the Republic of Arms and eventually Major General of the Liberation Army.
She urged lawmakers to give her, with the triumph of the nascent republic, the social place denied to women enslaved and marginalized by domestic work.
His words were heard in meetings prior to the realization of the first constituent of Cuba.
“Citizens, the woman in the dark and silent corner of the house waited patiently and resignedly for that fine hour when a new revolution will break her yoke and loosen her wings. Here everything was a slave; the cradle, the color and the sex. You want to destroy the slavery of the cradle by fighting to the death. You destroyed the slavery of color by emancipating the serfs. The time has come to set the woman free.”
Adjacent to the Civic Museum of Guáimaro, the sculptural complex preserves the remains of one of the bravest warriors known in Cuban history.
A woman who, despite being captured by the troops of metropolitan Spain, did not abandon the principles of her revolutionary cause.
However, she was forced to go into exile, where she learned the news of her husband’s murder.
Bronchopneumonia caught him amidst the US occupation in 1901 after the War of the Insurgency had ended.
After touring Mexico, USA, Jamaica and Spain, his life ended precisely on Iberian soil.
Her remains were transferred to Cuba in 1968 thanks to the initiative of another giant, a symbol of the West Indies woman like Celia Sánchez (1920-1980).
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