Martina Guevara Molina

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Young woman born in Vueltas, Las Villas, she was one of the first seven graduates of the first School of Nursing founded in Cuba, in 1899, during the First American Intervention and Occupation, by American nurse Mary Agnes O'Donnell.

She began working in the same hospital where she had studied and held the position of Superintendent of the Hospital and its School of Nursing, in 1909, upon the end of the Second American Intervention in the country.

In 1914, by order of the then Secretary of Health and Welfare, Colonel of the Liberation Army, Dr. Enrique Núñez de Villavicencio y Palomino, she organized the Service of Visiting Nurses for Child Health, specialized in Public Health in Havana and later in Matanzas, Cárdenas, Pinar del Río, Cienfuegos and Santa Clara.

Together with Margarita Núñez she organized the creation of the National Association of Nurses of the Republic of Cuba (ANERC), where she held the position of Member of the Board in the first Board of Directors, elected on March 29, 1909 and Treasurer from 1910 to 1913. In the latter year she promoted the construction of the Cottage for tuberculous nurses at the Sanatorium "La Esperanza". From 1913 to 1918 she was the Secretary of ANERC.

In 1922 she was commissioned by the Government to prepare herself in the hospitals of the United States of North America as a Practical Instructor of Nursing and there she received a course in pedagogy adapted to the teaching of nurses, at Columbia University. Upon her return, the following year, she assumed the position of Professor of Practical Instruction in the Hospitals "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes", "General Calixto García" and Mental Hospital "Mazorra". She thus becomes the first Cuban nursing professor.

In the elections of July 7, 1924 she was elected President. On October 21 of that same year, at her proposal, the agreement was made to "Commemorate on November 11 the first anniversary of the death of Margarita Núñez".

On August 26, 1928, still under her presidency, the "Margarita Núñez" Pavilion was inaugurated at General Calixto García Hospital, financed by the National Association of Nurses of the Republic of Cuba, dedicated to the care of ill nurses (located across from the "Emilio Martínez" Pavilion, dedicated to the Otorhinolaryngology Service, and diagonally from the "Borges" Pavilion, the latter built years later by the National Medical College).

In 1928, Martina Guevara was decorated by the Red Cross with the Gold Medal for her 25 years of service. In 1929 she was awarded the Medal of Merit and Perseverance.

The date and place of her death are not specified.

Source: Infomed, Did You Know....