Our friends at Newsbusters take on the Washington Post for their glowing obituary of Vilma Espin:
It wasn’t until the 17th out of the 23-paragraph obit that Post staffer Adam Bernstein noted Raul Castro’s late wife “was reportedly ruthless when it came to ordering the killing of suspected informers.”
Instead, Bernstein chose to view Espin “as a champion of women’s rights” being “the first woman elected to full membership on the Cuban Communist Party’s Politburo.” Something tells me she wasn’t a champion of, oh, I dunno, the right to private property, the right of free speech, the right to free and fair elections, or the right to travel freely outside of Cuba.
Same thing with the New York Times’ obit – same damn thing.
-Anatasio
Cuba had an election? When?
Jose “Pepin” Pujol Soler, a 78-year-old santiaguero who lives in Miami, was reminiscing with me today about his former revolutionary activities in the 1950s and his then friendship with Vilma Espin and her family. He stated that Vilma was very promiscuous. Her daughter Mariela would later emulate her mother’s habits by having numerous affairs, including a fling with entertainer Silvio Rodriguez. Pujol chuckled that none of Vilma’s revolutionary lovers have been mentioned in her obituaries. According to Pujol, Jorge Sotus, who later went into exile, was Vilma’s first lover. She also had an affair with rebel Major Carlos “Nicaragua” Iglesias, who led Column No. 16 in Raul Castro’s Second Front “Frank Pais.” A few days ago, Agustin Pais, Frank’s brother, stated on the TV program “A Mano Limpia” in Miami, that Vilma also had an affair with his brother Frank. Yet, after the rebels seized power, the ambitious Vilma quickly married Raul Castro and became the virtual “First Lady” of Cuba, something that none of her other lovers could have provided.
I love this comment at the end of the article:
“The only Cuban women Vilma Espin de Castro ever empowered are the ones who managed to flee that hideous hell-hole of a despotic dictatorship and are now residing in south Florida.”
That is dead on.
At least publicly, Espin’s chief role was as the head (President-for-Life, of course) of the FMC (Federation of Cuban Women), founded in 1960. Despite all the supposedly feminist packaging, the only woman Vilma Espin ever empowered (or cared to empower) was herself, and that she did extremely well.
The real purpose of the FMC was to recruit, mobilize, persuade and direct Cuban women to follow and serve, without question, the purposes and dictates of the “Macho Grande,” the Comandante-en-Jefe. The FMC concludes all its functions with the slogan “Comandante-en-Jefe, ordene!” (basically, “Fidel, at your orders!”). If that’s feminism, somebody’s got some serious “splaining” to do, as Ricky used to tell Lucy.
In other words, it was all a crock, a brazen farce, but hey, the MSM buys it. Imagine that.