Talk:Vilma Espín

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Much of this seemed to come straight from the OAS article. Is that copyvio ? I have reordered to group together her long-term role, he leading of delegations and family matters. -- Beardo 21:00, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name

It strikes me - why do we have at her full name. She is much more commonly referred to simply as Vilma Espin. We don't use Fidel Castro Ruz etc, do we ? -- Beardo 02:14, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

I've changed it. There doesn't seem to be much order to the names business. I know that the Spanish wikipedia simply has Fidel Castro as well, but like us, many other pages carry both names. Maybe that is something to consider for the wikiproject!!! I'll see what can be discovered by searching for any Spanish naming conventions chats.--Zleitzen 02:43, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

I think that the second surname is somewhat like middle names - it is part of the legal name, but for most people it is not commonly used - though for some it is. Apart from my son, who regularly denies that he has a second surname ! -- Beardo 04:59, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vilma's role in power struggle between Guevara and Frank Pais

Beardo The article needs balance and to mention the nasty things she did such as Vilma's "accidental" phone call that betrayed Frank Pais [1] [2]. This is also said mentioned in Robert Freeman Smith (The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Aug., 1975), pp. 585-586) but as yet I have not read this. Vilma naturally blames someone else [3]. There is also juicy gossip that she seduced somebody and then yelled rape, to get rid of another rival. This is from memory but I will try to get citations. Jose Espin her father hid some of the Moncada attackers in 1953 (The Cuban Insurrection, 1952-1959. by Ramon Bonachea, Marta San Martin p. 52). However, these survivors were later killed by Batista forces. Nilsa Espin, Vilma's sister, was murdered or commited suicide in Raul Castro's office in 1969 [4]. Vilma is said to be one of the most corrupt among the Castro elite in Cuba and it is alleged that her brother left Cuba to live the life of a millionaire in Ecuador [5]. El Jigue 1-2-07/1-6-06

In Karol, K. S. (Translated from the French by Arnold Pomerans) 1970 Guerrillas in Power. The Course of the Cuban Revolution. Hill & Wang New York. (A review is available in Hispanic American Historical Review, 51, (4) (Nov., 1971) pp. 670-674. This author was educated as a communist and it shows. However, Footnote 113 pp. 173-174 demonstrates the struggle for power between Guevara and Frank País, and can be taken to suggest that the Guevara and Raul used Vilma Espín for their purposes. And this also demonstrates Guevara over weaning ambition in that despite his Argentine accent which would have given him away as soon as he opened his mouth in Santiago de Cuba) he wanted to be Frank País’ s replacement in “El Llano.” Footnote 114 on p. 174 ends with”…On the day of victory the human material was politically immature, even on admission of many veterans, and this explains why so many guerrilleros later defected.” In other words El Llano rebels were not communists nor were most of those in the Sierra; thus by definition sooner or later they would be candidates for purges by Fidel, Guevara and Raul. Jon Anderson (1997 "Che Guevara, Grove Press, New York ISBN 0802116000) mentions some of the other nasty things that happened in the Sierra at that time. In 1957 These purges led to desertions and almost complete cessation of (rebel) military actions see Anderson p. 277 and many other places in the book. These purges continued even during la ofensiva; for instance Anderson notes on page 326 Che Guevara condemns and apparently executes a rebel officer (unnamed) from Crescencio's group. In these cases we only have Guevara's words as to the guilt of the condemned and he is now unlikely to retract his statements (:>). However although they are aging there are still some witness to these events. El Jigue 1-3-06/1-6-06

Vilma according to Anderson p. 406 continued to participate in Che's organizational activities in the early years after victory. El Jigue 1-6-06