Mariblanca Sabas Alomá

Cuban journalist and writer who defended women's rights through letters and political action. She was the first woman minister —without portfolio— in the country.

She was born in Santiago de Cuba, in a family that had participated in the struggle for national independence. She began her journalistic work in 1918 in her native city, sending articles to El Cubano Libre and Diario de Cuba —to the latter between 1919 and 1923. She collaborated from 1918 to 1923 in the cultural magazine Orto, founded in Manzanillo, a city near her residence. On March 8, 1919, she won two gold medals at the Juegos Florales de Santiago de Cuba.

That year, after her parents' death, she moved to La Habana, where she completed secondary education. She collaborated in the organization of the First National Congress of Women, held in the capital, and participated in its sessions. She participated in the creation of the Universidad Popular José Martí, founded by Julio Antonio Mella. She was a member of the Movimiento de Veteranos y Patriotas, led by Rubén Martínez Villena, and joined the Liga Antimperialista and the Liga Anticlerical.

She practiced cultural and political journalism from El Sol (1924-1925), El Heraldo (1925-1926) —in which she introduced the section "Contestando al lector"— and the magazine Carteles (1928-1933).

Her writing was characterized by a direct, accurate and engaging style, seasoned with poetic tones in both her journalistic and literary work. From a very young age, she put her pen to the service of the struggle for the vindication of women's rights; especially for the right to vote. Her name was among the first to publish feminist reflections in the Cuban press.

Mariblanca Sabas was very popular during the 1920s and 1940s. She was a member of the Club Femenino de Cuba, one of the most prestigious organizations of its kind. Her books and articles achieved great success during that period, especially among women who held avant-garde positions. She became known as "The champion of feminism." She excelled as a polemicist and gained fame for her debates. In 1925 she was again a delegate to the National Congress of Women.

She was among the founders of the Grupo Minorista in 1927, a cultural and progressive organization. Mariblanca Sabas and María Villar Buceta were the only women who signed the Manifesto of the aforementioned group, issued in 1927.

She was a precursor of modern feminism, especially for her book Feminismo, published in 1930, in which she argued that woman's principal enemy was herself, since she reproduced male domination and transmitted the exclusion of her sex from public life. She advocated for generating female emancipation from schools, institutes and workplaces.

She participated in various congresses abroad. She interviewed and had friendships with Gabriela Mistral, Indira Gandhi and Eleonor Rossevelt, among other world personalities.

She cultivated essays and poetry. Some of her avant-garde poems were collected in the anthology La poesía en Cuba in 1936, which appeared in 1937, with a prologue and appendix by Juan Ramón Jiménez. She received courses in art and literature in Mexico; art appreciation —with Federico de Onís— at Columbia University in the United States, and Spanish literature, with Pedro Salinas, at the University of Río Piedras in Puerto Rico.

In 1938 she founded in her home, on the Havana street of Neptuno, the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UEAC), precursor of the current Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC). She served as treasurer of the newly created organization.

In 1940 she participated as a delegate to the Constituent Assembly. In 1944 she received the journalistic aptitude certificate from the Escuela Profesional de Periodismo Manuel Márquez Sterling and joined the Colegio Nacional de Periodistas. In 1950 she obtained the Grand Cross of the Orden Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

From 1948, Mariblanca Sabas was minister —without portfolio— in the government cabinets of Ramón Grau San Martín and Carlos Prío Socarrás. For the first time in national history, a woman held such a high responsibility, which she occupied until the coup d'état of March 10, 1952. During the de facto government of Fulgencio Batista, she expressed her sympathy toward the revolutionary movement, for which she was detained on several occasions and some media outlets closed their doors to her. In 1958 she took retirement.

She embraced the triumph of the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and actively participated in the social and political transformation of her people: she was among the founders of the Milicias Nacionales Revolucionarias, the Comités de Defensa de la Revolución and the Federación de Mujeres Cubanas; she was vice-coordinator, in 1961, of the Frente Revolucionario de Periodismo de La Habana, and attended as a delegate in 1962 the creation of the UNEAC.

In 1966 she received the journalism award given by the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba for the best work on sugar cane harvest.

She worked as an editor in the main publications of her time: Bohemia (1927-1930 and 1938-1942), El País, Excelsior (1938-1940), Revista de Avance (1940-1946) and El Mundo (1961-1968). Additionally, she collaborated in national media such as Prensa Libre, Pueblo, Atuei, Antenas, Grafos, Castalia, Fragua, El Heraldo, Social, Información, Diario de la Marina, Ellas, El Camagüeyano, Selecta, Mujeres and Romances. She was a radio commentator on station CMQ and directed television programs on social topics. She also wrote for El Universal, of Mexico; Prensa Continental, of Spain; V.O.K.S., of the Soviet Union, and O Journal do Brazil. She traveled to Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

Source: EnCaribe.org