Mirta Díaz-Balart Gutiérrez's life, who was the first wife of the late dictator Fidel Castro and mother of his eldest son, was closely linked to the opposite poles of Cuban politics in the last 70 years.
The woman, who passed away this Saturday at the age of 95 in Madrid, Spain, was married in the 1950s to Fidel Castro. She was the mother of Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart; but she was also the aunt of Republican congressmen Mario and Lincoln Díaz-Balart, sons of her brother Rafael Díaz-Balart, a prominent Cuban politician who staunchly opposed the Cuban revolution initiated by her ex-husband.
This duality defined the complex history of Mirta Francisca de la Caridad Díaz-Balart Gutiérrez, born in Havana on September 30, 1928, the daughter of a wealthy Cuban politician.
He was studying Philosophy at the University of Havana when he met Fidel, a student at the Law School and student leader.
They got married in 1948, when she was 20 years old and he was 22, despite the bride's family opposing the engagement. However, the wealthy parents of the young woman financed the wedding and the couple was able to spend their honeymoon in Miami and New York.
Fidel Castro Díaz-Balart "Fidelito," the only son of the couple, was born in 1949 and committed suicide in 2018.
However, the Castro-Díaz-Balart marriage did not last. They divorced in 1955, when Fidel was in exile in Mexico.
She was granted sole custody of the child.
Díaz-Balart recounted that the separation occurred not only due to Castro's revolutionary activity, but also because of her husband's infidelity with the renowned Havana aristocrat Naty Revuelta.
With her, who was also married and became his lover, Castro had his daughter Alina Fernández.
"Well, it's the same old story (…) Men, you know how it is," responded Díaz-Balart when discussing the issue in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in 2016, following the death of the Cuban dictator.
"In our separation, there were never any harsh words, we split up in a civil manner. I have never wished any harm upon them," he said.
He then added that he remembered his "marriage to Fidel as something distant, but also as a very beautiful stage of my youth. I always wished him good things."
In 1956, Mirta married the lawyer Emilio Núñez Blanco, from a family loyal to Fulgencio Batista and son of a former Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, Emilio Núñez Portuondo.
The report from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo recounts that when Fidel found out about the wedding, he arranged for his son to be sent to Mexico under the excuse that he wanted to say goodbye to him, just in case he died in his political struggles. However, once there, he held him by force. Finally, Núñez Portuondo himself rescued Fidelito.
After the triumph of the revolution, in 1968, Mirta and her husband, by then parents of two daughters, Mirta and América Silvia, definitively departed for Spain, while Fidelito was sent by his father to study in the Soviet Union.
Emilio, a staunch enemy of Castroism, collaborated with several newspapers in Miami. She, on the other hand, maintained a discreet profile throughout her life and never appeared in the media nor spoke about her past or her relationship with Fidel.
"He never spoke ill or well of Fidel, he never spoke. Even for those of us who knew his past, he was unmentionable, perhaps because he wanted to erase that page of his existence," revealed a close friend to El Mundo.
In Madrid lived two of Mirta's brothers: Waldo, a renowned painter, and Rafael, a former official in Fulgencio Batista's government who vehemently opposed the Cuban revolution and also resided in Miami.
Mirta is the aunt of Republican congressmen Mario and Lincoln Díaz-Balart, sons of her brother Rafael, who went into exile in the United States and founded the Patriotic Union of Cuba, an anti-Castro organization.
Lincoln Díaz-Balart served in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011, and Mario Díaz-Balart has served in Congress since 2003.
Both have been staunch opponents of the Castro regime, which adds an interesting dimension to the family history, considering the direct connection to Fidel Castro through their aunt.
On the other hand, Fidelito and his mother were always very close, he would go see her in Madrid, and she also made occasional visits to Havana, organized by Raúl Castro himself, according to an article in El Nuevo Herald from 2020.
According to a report from the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, in 2006, when it was announced that Fidel Castro was handing over power to his brother Raúl due to his illness, she was in Havana. During her stay there, her husband passed away in Madrid, who had been sick with Alzheimer's for years and was living in a care facility.
Two years later, at 80 years old, she returned to the Island and was with her son at the inauguration of a scientific event. On that occasion, mother and son posed in front of the cameras together for the first time in decades.
She looked radiant, very happy to be next to Fidelito. She is a woman who has aged extremely well,'' a source told El Nuevo Herald.
While in Cuba on those trips organized by Raúl Castro, she stayed at the El Laguito protocol house, and Fidel and Raul would occasionally visit her there to spend time together.
Mirtha Díaz-Balart was the only woman that Fidel Castro married in a church.
After learning about the dictator's death in 2016, she stated that she was affected.
"I have felt sorrow for his death, even though that story happened over 60 years ago. These days I have prayed for his soul, I am Christian," she told El Mundo.
After the suicide of her son Fidelito in Havana on February 2, 2018, following a severe depression, Mirta suffered a lot and in silence, commented her grandson Fidel Antonio Castro Smirnov, son of "Fidelito" with the Russian citizen Olga Smirnova, who this Saturday confirmed on the social network X the death of his grandmother.
Raúl Castro and the Cuban ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel sent floral offerings to the wake, which is taking place in Madrid.
Mirta Díaz-Balart Gutiérrez's life reflects a fascinating paradox: a woman who was married to the leader of the Cuban revolution, while her family stood out in exile as fervent opponents of the same regime. This duality shows the complexity that Cuban history has posed in recent decades and the divisions that the revolution generated within families themselves.
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