Founded on August 23, 1960, the Federation of Cuban Women, FMC, is the mass organization that develops policies and programs to achieve the full exercise of women’s equality in all spheres and levels of society.
Nearing its 63rd anniversary, the organization pays tribute to its main creators: Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz and the heroine Vilma Espín Guillois. It also evokes the legacy of all Cuban women who throughout history have raised their voices for women’s rights.
Since its founding, the FMC has counted on the incorporation of women from the province to all spheres of economic, political and cultural life. Many of them have had an outstanding trajectory as leaders at the base and at the municipal level, as workers and housewives. They have demonstrated that Cuban women are conquerors of the impossible, which has undoubtedly made them worthy of social recognition.
One of these federates is Eliza Carvajal Leyva, a woman from Contramaestre who since her beginnings as a member of the Federation of Cuban Women has maintained her active link to the work of the organization.
“I joined the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) at the age of 14. I started as an activist, then as secretary of the delegation and of the bloc. Currently I am a delegate of the Celia Sanchez Manduley block in the town of Guaninao. This women’s organization is of great importance in working with children, young people, with the entire population, not only with women. From the base we do the work of the Federation to achieve the incorporation of one hundred percent of the women, we work with the young people of 13 and 14 years old in terms of prevention. Our block carries out activities in correspondence with the historical dates of the year. Today we are at the eleventh congress of the FMC. We are working to ensure that all the activities are carried out, we have incorporated the young women to the courses and to the political, ideological and recreational activities, to the direct work with the children. We have also accompanied the federates in the most difficult places, both in the block and in the delegation in the production of food as a priority task for us and we contribute to the incorporation of the whole family.
For us today, these are not difficult moments, but guerrilla moments, because the moment demands us to be much more supportive with the federates, with the families, to reach the elderly alone, the disabled, the family where the child has not been able to fulfill his duties as a pioneer, as a student. We work with the continuity of studies of young people. I congratulate all the women of Contramaestre, of Guaninao, the federates of block two Celia Sanchez Manduley, all the leaders of the federation, all the activists, all the federates of the country. We are the organization that will always go forward in defense of the Homeland, the Revolution and Socialism”.
