Book review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.9.2.0263
• Pages: 263248-265
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017
• Author: Emily J. Kirk

BOOK REVIEWS 263

IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/

Margaret Randall, Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by

Transgression (Durham: Duke University Press, 2015) pb 248pp. ISBN: 978-

0-8223-5962-3

Reviewed by Emily J. Kirk

Part history, part memoir, part poetry, this book offers a truly unique and

impressive look at one of the Cuban Revolution’s most significant leaders –

Haydée Santamaría. A revolutionary force, and one of only two women who

helped to organise the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de

Cuba, Haydée would continue to have an enormous impact on the trajectory of

the Revolution. As noted by the author, ‘Haydée Santamaría was a heroine of

the Cuban Revolution, a brilliant, strong but unassuming woman among power-

ful men’ (Randall 2017: 11). This book expertly explores the complexities of her

life and death.

This book stands out among the extensive studies that explore women, the

Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and the other heroines of the Revolution

for two principal reasons. First, the primary focus of other works has almost

entirely been on the development of the FMC, as well as the evolving role of

women in Cuba (Lewis et al. 1977; Luciak 2007; Espín et al. 2012). By contrast

this is not a story of the FMC or feminism in Cuba, but rather a focused, detailed

and personal examination of a particular revolutionary character and her indi-

vidual contribution. Moreover, while other works have focused on the leading

heroines of the Revolution, including Celia Sánchez, Vilma Espín, Asela de los

Santos, and Yolanda Ferrer, this book focuses specifically on Haydée Santamaría

– a figure which is often ignored in studies regarding women in Cuba, and whose

name is often at best a footnote.

Second, this is not a study conducted at arm’s length from a clinical and

strictly academic perspective on a given topic of interest. Instead, it is conducted

in a very personal way. As the author explains:

I must say upfront that I loved Haydée, loved and admired her as a friend and as

an exceptional twentieth-century woman: an extremely unique spirit, brilliant

intellect, courageous and creative revolutionary, and generous human being.

Even in death, she remains a mentor. (Randall 2017: 13)

The author’s personal experience with Haydée is easily discernible, adding dif-

ferent and compelling dimensions to the complex analysis and portrayal of an

inspiring revolutionary woman. In particular, the discussion by the author as

well as those interviewed regarding Haydée’s suicide in 1980 and its impact on