Margarita Núñez Núñez

The Cuban Florence Nightingale began studying nursing at the first School of Nurses founded in the country under the First American Intervention and occupation, and graduated from the School of Nurses of what was then still Hospital Number One, today Hospital "General Calixto García". She stood out for her organizational skills and social commitment.

A native of Havana, daughter of Manuel and Petronila, she began her studies at the School of Nurses of Hospital "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes" in 1900. Her sister María Luisa also studied there. When the merger of the Schools of Nurses of Hospitals "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes" and "Number One" was proposed in 1903, she graduated from this latter School.

Upon graduation, Margarita was placed at Hospital Number One itself, where she had completed her academic training. She remained there even during the Second American Intervention. The two intervention periods left an important mark, both on the economy and on the country's political and social life. Dependence on American imperialism was consolidated.

On January 28, 1909, when the Republic was reestablished and the new Organic Law of the Executive Power came into effect, following the second interventionist period of Yankee imperialism, the Secretariat of Health and Welfare was founded, the first Ministry of Public Health in Cuba, and in the world, heir to the historical legacy of the School of Cuban Hygienists from the beginning of the century.

This Secretariat would group together not only the existing state institutions, but also the new private Health Centers that would be founded by the initiative of the country's wealthiest classes. Dr. Matías Duque y Perdomo, Colonel of Cuba's Liberating Army under the command of Gómez, assumed the newly constituted Secretariat of Health and Welfare, the first in the world. Among the first provisions taken by the newly inaugurated Secretary of Health and Welfare was the appointment of a group of Cuban nurses to assume the responsibilities that, until that moment, were in the hands of American nurses.

In this promotion stood out: Margarita Núñez Núñez, who was appointed Superintendent of Nurses of Hospital Number One and its School of Nurses, and, just a few months later was promoted to General Inspector of the Schools of Nurses of the Republic; and Martina Guevara Molina, the first Cuban nurse at Hospital Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes in 1902, when the first graduation of nurses took place, who was also appointed Superintendent of Nurses at her Hospital and School of Nurses.

That same year 1909, a dynamite explosion occurred in Pinar del Río, and the Secretary of Welfare commissioned her, along with Martina Guevara Molina and 18 other nurses, to provide care to the injured. Upon their return, the Secretary of Health stated: "This is the first time that Cuban nurses have had to provide assistance in a national disaster and I am satisfied with them."

Shortly thereafter Margarita organized the Nursing Service of the Municipality and, under her competent direction, the Service of the Municipal Emergency Hospital "General Freyre de Andrade" was equipped and organized, as well as the First Aid Centers. Later, she held the position of Superintendent of Freyre de Andrade Hospital and, finally, served as Head of the Nursing Bureau of the Republic of Cuba.

Margarita Núñez and Martina Guevara, barely having begun their work as Superintendents of the two teaching hospitals of the country's capital, began the necessary actions to create a Nurses Association, and that same year 1909 they achieved their goal. That year constituted the takeoff point for Cuban nurses, not only because they assumed positions of greater responsibility, but because they initiated the moment of their independence from American nursing. It is at this date that they organize in the first National Association of Nurses of the Republic of Cuba and capture the attention of the newly created Secretariat of Health and Welfare, the first in the world, by being entrusted with, and successfully carrying out, different important tasks in the field of health administration, epidemiological surveillance, and collaboration with other countries.

As President of the newly founded Association and, therefore, just begun in her position, she traveled to London in that same year 1909 to the Third Congress of the International Council of Nurses, and on that trip she brought with her a mantilla to offer as a gift to Miss Florence Nightingale, founder of professional Nursing, who had been ill for years, bedridden; but still lucid and capable.

That mantilla, a tribute from Cuban nurses to the distinguished Englishwoman, reached her hands barely a year before her death. Thus it was that Margarita Núñez was the link between Cuban nurses and Florence Nightingale, and also with the International Council of Nurses, an organization to which the National Association of Nurses of Cuba would affiliate years later, in 1925, when Margarita Núñez had already ceased to be President of the Association, for health reasons, seven years earlier, and had ceased to exist just two years before; but the strength of her example, her perseverance, her dedication, and her intellectual capacity still endured.

Margarita Núñez died on November 11, 1923, as a result of colon cancer, after five years of illness that forced her to abandon the position of President of the National Association of Nurses of Cuba, which she had promoted, founded, and directed from its founding until 1918.

Her remains were buried in the Pantheon of Nurses in the Cristóbal Colón Necropolis. This Pantheon is a construction that was built in 1912, at a cost of $1,716.27, which was paid for by the contribution of associate nurses, under the Presidency of Margarita herself.

The tribute paid to her memory, organized by the Association, was held at the Academy of Medical, Physical and Natural Sciences of Havana, and the eulogy was delivered by Dr. Federico Torralbas, at that time director of Hospital "General Calixto García". At the event, the then Senator of the Republic, Dr. Manuel Varona Suárez, also spoke.

When one of the great aspirations of Cuban nurses was materialized, to be able to build and furnish, with funds of the National Association of Nurses of the Republic of Cuba (ANERC), a Ward for sick nurses, the Margarita Núñez Núñez Pavilion was inaugurated on August 26, 1928, at Hospital General Calixto García, in honor of the most distinguished nurse of those times, who would become an almost legendary and paradigmatic figure in the years to come.

In 1999, a plaque was placed in front of the Pavilion, remembering Margarita Núñez.

Since that time, the professional identity of Cuban nurses has been formed. In this effort Margarita Núñez, the Cuban Florence Nightingale, left her health and her life. She distinguished herself by the quality of nursing care she provided to her patients and was admired for her organizational and leadership skills, which allowed her to quickly assume positions of responsibility, thanks to her personal merits. She was committed to the gigantic task of organizing Cuban nurses and instilling in them the seal of professional identity and dedicated all the strength of her youth and her health to the profession she loved so much. She was admired and respected by colleagues and other professionals and her values were recognized by the authorities of the country, including public events that were held only with exceptional personalities.