Asela de los Santos Tamayo

Outstanding Cuban revolutionary and educator. Considered the founder of Cuban revolutionary pedagogy and one of its main protagonists. Close friend of Vilma Espín and Frank País. With the triumph of the revolution, she actively joined the revolutionary process, occupying important positions at the national level, such as Minister of Education. National Pedagogy Prize 2017.

She graduated with a Doctorate in Pedagogy in 1954.

In 1952 she joined the student struggles at the University of Oriente, where she met Vilma Espín and joined her in the revolutionary cause, thus beginning a deep friendship.

She actively participated in the protests against the coup d'état of March 10, 1952 and was detained, along with other combatants, while distributing proclamations about the prevailing situation.

She linked up with Frank País and under his orders became part of the initial nucleus that joined the Movement of July 26. She collaborated with a group of revolutionaries in searching for all possible ways to help the survivors of the attack on the "Moncada Barracks."

She participated in the uprising of November 30, 1956 in Santiago de Cuba. During the entire insurrectional period she fulfilled different responsibilities, including the transfer, together with Vilma Espín, from Santiago de Cuba to Manzanillo of the compañeros who formed the first contingent of men and weapons that joined the guerrillas commanded by Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra.

She permanently worked in supplying weapons, uniforms, and medicines for the I Eastern Front. In 1958 (January-August) she carried out, together with a group of revolutionary women, a series of trips between Miami and Cuba to bring weapons under their skirts, which they introduced through the airports of Havana, Varadero, and Camagüey. In August 1958 she joined the Rebel Army in the II Eastern Front Frank País directed by Commander Raúl Castro Ruz.

Later she participated in the reopening of schools closed by the tyranny and in the first literacy campaign. In the II Eastern Front she was assigned the responsibility of directing the Department of Education; more than 400 schools were put into operation and created for children, and groups were formed for the literacy of combatants in the different camps, until the Triumph of the Revolution when she assumed the responsibility of Provincial Superintendent of Education in Oriente.

In 1960 she participated with Vilma in the creation of the Federation of Cuban Women, joining its National Bureau, first as an Organizer and later as General Secretary, a responsibility she held until 1966 when she moved to the Ministry of the Armed Forces as Head of the Direction of Education and Military Schools "Camilo Cienfuegos" of the General Staff. She was promoted to the rank of Captain.

In 1970 she was appointed General Director of Teacher Personnel Training of the Ministry of Education, being promoted to different responsibilities, including that of Minister.

She is a founder of the Communist Party of Cuba and was a member of its Central Committee for three terms.

She worked as an analyst for the Office of History of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Upon turning 80 years old, she was awarded the Playa Girón Order, one of the highest decorations granted by the Council of State, by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers.

She also received recognition from the Revolutionary Armed Forces with the Replica of the Yacht Granma presented by Corps General Julio Casas Regueiro, former Minister of the FAR, and from the Ministry of the Interior, when she was presented with a portrait of Che by Corps General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra, who was Minister of the Interior. Likewise, the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution recognized the work of this educator.

On January 15, 2018, she received, together with José Ramón Fernández, advisor to the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, the National Pedagogy Prize 2017, awarded by the Association of Educators of Cuba (APC).

On January 24, 2018, the National Academy of Song Mariana de Gonitch and the Russian embassy in Cuba honored her with the Distinction for Cultural Merit.

For many years she was the wife of Jose Ramón Fernández "el Gallego" who was one of the leaders of the Cuban Party and Government. They married on May 1, 1969, and the witnesses to the wedding were Raúl and Vilma. From this union came three children, two girls and one boy, and four grandchildren.