Marta Fernandez Miranda de Batista
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Marta Fernandez Miranda de Batista (1920? – October 2, 2006) was former First Lady of Cuba from 1952 until 1959. Fernandez was the second wife of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, who was overthrown by Fidel Castro in the 1959 Cuban Revolution, which forced the couple to flee permanently into exile.[1]
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[edit] First Lady
Fulgencio Batista had already won and lost the Cuban president once from 1940 to 1944 when he married Marta Fernandez de Batista.[1][2] He had a combined eight children during his two marriages to both his first wife, Elisa Godinez-Gómez, and Marta Fernandez de Batista.[2] She outlived her husband by over thirty three years.[2]
The couple moved to the United States during the 1940s after Batista lost the presidency in 1944.[2] Batista and Marta had originally wanted to live in Palm Beach, Florida.[1] However they were shunned by the Palm Beach community.[1] The Batistas rented a car and began driving north on U.S. Route 1 along the Florida coast.[1] They arrived in Daytona Beach, Florida, at the end of their day.[1] They decided they liked their reception which they received in Daytona Beach. The Batistas hired a real estate agent the next day and purchased a large riverfront house.[1] They lived on and off at their Florida home and continued to influence Cuban politics.[1]
Batista ran for and won a seat in the Cuban Senate in absentia in 1948.[1] On March 10, 1952, Batista staged his second coup and once again became president of Cuba.[1] This made Marta Fernandez de Batista the new First Lady of the country.
Marta Fernandez de Batista became an important matron of the Cuban arts as First Lady.[1] She convinced her husband to build the National Gallery, which is now known as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana).[1] The couple started acquiring colonial era Cuban and modern paintings for the Gallery.[1]
[edit] Exile
Fulgencio and Marta, their children and close friends fled Cuba in three planes on January 1, 1959, to escape Fidel Castro's forces.[2] Critics have accused Marta and Fulgencio have taking as much as $700 million U.S. dollars in fine art and cash with them as they fled into exile.[1][2]
The couple were denied entry into the United States.[2] They went first to the Dominican Republic before moving onto Portugal and eventually Spain.[1] Fulgencio Batista died in Spain of a heart attack in 1973 after fourteen years in exile.[1] He bequeathed his home in Daytona Beach and his art collection there to the city in his will.[1] The Batista home was briefly used as a museum, before being sold by the city in 1971 when it was converted to a church.[1]
[edit] Later life
Marta Fernandez de Batista moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, following her husband's death.[1] She lived a quiet life in her mansion in the Palm Beach area during her later years, often giving to a number of medical charities.[1] Batista was major contributor to the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, even purchasing inscribed bricks at the hospital as part of a fundraiser.[1] Batista's son, Robert, later said in an interview that, "She was very private, almost reclusive, after my father died. She had a gift for charity, but she did it very privately."[2]
[edit] Death
Batista's health began to decline after undergoing hip surgery in 1995.[1] Marta Fernandez Miranda de Batista died of Alzheimer's disease at her home in West Palm Beach on October 2, 2006, at the age of 82.[1] [2]
Batista was survived by four children whom she had with Fulgencio Batista (three sons and one daughter)[2]: Jorge Luis, Roberto Franciso, Fulgencio Jose and Marta Maluf Batista.[1] Another of Batista's sons, Carlos, had died of leukemia.[2]
A Roman Catholic viewing and funeral was held at Quattlebaum Funeral Home and St. Juliana Catholic Church, both in West Palm Beach, Florida. Batista was buried in Madrid, Spain.[1][2]
