Elena Mederos de González (1900-1981)

Pioneer feminist, she founded the Alianza Nacional Feminista in 1920 and the first women’s club, the Lyceum, in 1929, with co-founder Berta Arocena de Martínez Márquez. Her aims were political (female suffrage), intellectual, and social. From 1928-1949 she was Cuban delegate to five Pan-American conferences and president of the Hispanic-Cuban Cultural Institute, The Cuban Foundation for Social Services, The Cuban-American Allied Relief Fund, and the Cuban Good Neighbor Foundation (a social welfare organization).  Founder of the school of social work, she succeeded in having the school incorporated in the University of Havana, where she was instructor and supervisor of case work, and director of theses. She was a member of the board of the National Public Assistance Corporation, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Institute for the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped, and the Foundation for Medical Research.  She was Cuban delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; she worked closely with Cosme de la Torriente as vice-president of the Sociedad de Amigos de la República. Following the Revolution of 1959, she was made minister of social welfare, but, disillusioned with the new regime, she went into exile, working first in Bogotá, Colombia, and later in Washington, D.C. where she died.