Elisa Godínez Gómez de Batista (née Godínez Gómez; December 2, 1904[1][2] – June 19, 1993) was the First Lady of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 as the first wife of Cuban then-president (later dictator) Fulgencio Batista.
Biography
Godínez was born in a small farmhouse in the village of Vereda Nueva in Havana Province, as one of nine children born to Salustiano Godínez y Córdoba and Concepción Gómez y Acosta.[1]
Godínez, who shared his humble origins, married Fulgencio Batista in 1926.[2][3][4] They had a son, Fulgencio Rubén, and two daughters, Mirta[5] and Elisa Aleida.[4] They divorced in 1945.[2][4][3]
Godínez married her second husband, Máximo Rodríguez, a former member of the Cuban Congress, and they immigrated to the United States in 1959, settling in Miami, Florida.[2][3] Rodríguez died in 1962, and Godínez resided in Miami until her death there on June 19, 1993,[3][4] at age 88.[2]
One of her grandsons (the son of Elisa Aleida Batista) is Raoul G. Cantero III, a Justice of the Florida Supreme Court from 2002 to 2008.
References
- 1.[1.2]Argote-Freyre, Frank (21 April 2006). Fulgencio Batista The Making of a Dictator. Rutgers University Press. p. 29. ISBN 9780813541006. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
- 2.[2.2][2.3][2.4][2.5]"Elisa Godinez Rodriguez". Asbury Park Press. Asbury Park, New Jersey. June 22, 1993. p. 28. Retrieved February 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- 3.[3.2][3.3][3.4]"Elisa Rodriguez, Batista's wife, dies". The Central New Jersey Home News. New Brunswick, New Jersey. June 22, 1993. p. 2. Retrieved February 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- 4.[4.2][4.3][4.4]"Cuba's former first lady dies". The Californian. Salinas, California. June 22, 1993. p. 16. Retrieved February 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- 5.Wysocki, Ronald A. (August 23, 1959). "Batista's Daughter in Hub Thinks Dictator Betrayed. Cuba's Ex-Strongman Good to Own Family". The Boston Globe. p. 55. Retrieved February 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.