Elisa Godínez Gómez de Batista

Who was Elisa Godínez Gómez de Batista?

Elisa Godinez Gomez de Batista was the First Lady of Cuba from 1940 to 1944. She was the first wife of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista.

Godinez was one of nine children born to Salustiano Godinez y Cordoba and Concepcion Gomez y Acosta. She was born in a small farmhouse in the village of Vereda Nueva in the Havana province. Her family later moved to Wajay, when her father got employment at the psychiatric hospital known as Mazorra until 1921. Her family later moved to Calabazar, where she gave birth to a son, Felix Valdespino y Godinez.

Batista met his wife when he was stationed in Wajay and they married on July 10, 1926. She would bear him three children; Mirta Caridad, Fulgencio Ruben, and Elisa Aleida. Batista would father and legally recognise a daughter, Fermina Lazara Batista y Estevez during this marriage. He started his relationship with his second wife before his divorce from Godinez in 1946. Her grandson Raoul G. Cantero III would become a Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.