Celia Sanchez, Heroine of Cuba

Many of the Cuban Revolution's most devoted and aggressive participants were Cuban women. Many of the women fighters had personal vendettas to be satisfied by Batista's overthrow. They and their families and friends had been abused by Batista's powerful police and army and hooligans from Batista's mafia friends. The most important revolutionary leader was probably Celia Sanchez. She had been raised with her father infusing her mind with a love of freedom and equality. When her friend, 10-year old Marie Ochoa, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a pedophile at a Havana Casino run by mafia gangsters associated with Batista, Celia dedicated her life to making Cuba a better place. She started recruiting fighters and went to the Sierra Maestra mountains and began attacking government outposts and patrols for their weapons and supplies. She soon amassed a small army of fighters equipped with captured American-made weapons. And that was three years earlier than Fidel Castro joined the revolution in the mountains. Celia taught Fidel about the terrain in the Sierra Maestra and how to use it defend their placements against Batista's soldiers, and of course, to use those positions to go on the offensive against the army and win. Over the years she developed a very close relationship with Fidel and she was instrumental in developing the organizations and policies of Fidel's new government.