Gilda Antonia Guillen

Who is Gilda Antonia Guillen?

Gilda Antonia Guillén was a Cuban writer and poet.

Born in La Habana, in her youth she quit her nursing career, and became an ardent anarchist whom rebelled against communism, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. Her anti-government writings and acts of vandalism against the government led to her conviction in 1978, after which she was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. In 1980, the Mariel Boatlift departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States. Guillén was among the exiles released from Cuba's El Paraíso prison. Upon reaching Florida she gave a false name and date of birth, out of uncertainty over whether her conviction in Cuba would possibly be linked in the United States. Her spirited writings and poetry remain banned in Cuba.