Mirta Díaz–Balart

Mirta Díaz–Balart was born on September 30, 1928, in Cuba, into one of the most esteemed and reputed political families of Cuba: the Díaz–Balart family. She was the daughter of Rafael José Díaz-Balart and América Gutiérrez. Rafael was the mayor of the town of Banes and one of the most influential political figures in Cuba.

Despite her family’s background in politics, Mirta was not interested in politics and opted to study philosophy and literature from the ‘University of Havana’ Instead.

She met Fidel at the university. Her brother, Rafael, was a promising young politician under the Cuban Batista governance and was thoroughly against Mirta’s decision of marrying Fidel. This caused some trouble in the family, but Mirta was not the one to give up easily. Mirta and Fidel got married while they were students and soon went to New York for their honeymoon.

After getting married to Fidel Castro, Mirta Díaz–Balart lived a happy and satisfied life for a while, and after a year of being married to Fidel, she gave birth to their son, Fidelito. That was the time when the Cuban revolution was starting to peak, and Fidel was mostly away from home. Initially, Mirta tried to support her husband, but she soon started doubting his fidelity.

She somehow came to know about Fidel’s womanizing ways, a few years into their marriage. She slowly started getting detached from him, and in 1955, after seven years of marriage, she finally initiated the divorce proceedings. The divorce was granted the same year.

Fidel fought to get the custody of their son. However, his revolutionary and somewhat risky life became a hurdle, and Fidelito’s custody was eventually won by Mirta. Moreover, Fidel was in a government-imposed exile at that time, and the Batista government did not allow him to enter the country.

Within a year of getting divorced, Mirta fell in love with Emilio Núñez Blanco, who also happened to be one of the many political arch-enemies of Fidel Castro. She started living with Emilio and their children at a beach resort in Havana.

When Fidel managed to overthrow the dictatorial Cuban government in 1959, he made himself the prime minister of the Republic of Cuba. Following this, Mirta went to Spain with her husband and settled down in Madrid.

Castro soon came to be known as one of the most notorious figures in the anti-communist European and American political space, and Mirta spent years without letting anybody know about her past marriage with Fidel. Emilio once stunned a journalist when he told him about his wife’s past.

Mirta was very fond of her son and met him at every opportunity she got. She tried visiting him even while he studied at the ‘University of Moscow.’ After completing his studies, he moved back to Cuba. Mirta met him a number of times a year, without letting Fidel know about it. It was a difficult thing to do, considering the fear of Fidel in the Cuban society. However, Fidel’s own brother, Raúl Castro, arranged those meetings. This continued for many years.

At the turn of the century, Emilio fell sick. At one point, both Emilio and Fidel were ill. It was later revealed that when Emilio lay dying in a hospital in Spain, Mirta was in Cuba. Mirta had many reasons to visit her home country, and she would often meet her family and her son. Her daughters from Emilio, América Silvia and Mirta Núñez, stayed in Spain with their respective families. Mirta has a number of grandchildren from both her daughters.