Vilma espin biography

Cuban revolutionary and women's activist who was the long-time president of the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas (Federation of Cuban Women). Name variations: Vilma Espín Guillois; Vilma Espín or Espin; Deborah.

Pronunciation: VEEL-mah Ess-PEEN dav KAH-strow. Born Vilma Espín Guillois in in Santiago de Cuba; daughter of a lawyer for the Bacardi Rum Company and a mother of French extraction; spent two years in a secular school and two years in a religious school; earned a degree in chemical engineering at the Universidad de Oriente; attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and studied architecture; married Raúl Castro, on January 26, ; children: four sons.

Was a founding member and leader of the 26th of July Movement in Oriente Province, Cuba (–59); was a founder and president of the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas (Federation of Cuban Women, ); made an alternate member of the Politburo of the Cuban Communist Party () and a full member (); reti