“For the Dignification of Women”: Cuba and the 1959 Congress of Latin American Women in Santiago de Chile

In 1958, the Women’s International Democratic Federation – an international, Soviet-aligned women’s group – called for a conference of Latin American women to be held in Santiago in November of the following year. The Congreso de Mujeres Latinoamericanas was billed to be the first of its kind, and women’s organizations throughout the region and across the political spectrum agreed to send delegates. The Congress took place at a crucial time for Cuba: Fall of 1959. In the throes of a quickly radicalizing revolution, Cuba sent an enormous delegation of nearly 80 women.

The Congress proved to be an important turning point for the Cuban delegates. By including women representatives of various political currents, especially from the revolutionary movement and the old Communist Party, it facilitated the construction of new alliances within Cuba’s revolutionary coalition just as the Cuban revolution entered a more radical phase. The Congress encouraged engagement with progressive women’s groups throughout Latin America, giving the Cuban delegates a comparative, continental perspective on women’s issues and creating an incipient network of radical women across Latin America. The conflict and controversy surrounding the Congress also sharpened battle lines between Catholic and Communist women activists and between the Cuban Revolution and the United States. This presentation will use the little-known 1959 Congress of Latin American Women as a prism through which to examine the transnational currents of feminism, Communism, Catholicism and radical nationalism that overlapped and clashed in the Cuban Revolution and in Cold War Latin America.