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The Fourth of July and Cuban Women

Elsa Murano

Early life, education and early career

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Elsa Murano

Murano was born as Elsa Alina Casales in 1959 in Havana, Cuba. She fled Cuba with her family in July 1961, when her parents decided to leave during Fidel Castro's communist uprising. Once her parents divorced, she moved with her mother and three siblings into an apartment in Miami, Florida in 1973. Although Murano spoke no English upon her arrival, she enrolled at Miami Coral Park High School. Her mother, who worked as a security guard and a department store clerk, urged the children to graduate high school and attend college. In 1977, Murano graduated from high school, and enrolled at Miami Dade College. After two years, she transferred to Florida International University. She received her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from FIU in 1981. She attended Virginia Tech to receive her master's degree in anaerobic microbiology in 1987, and then her doctorate in food science and technology in 1990.[8]

From 1990 to 1995, Murano served as an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Preventative Medicine at Iowa State University.[9] In 1995, she joined Texas A&M as an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science and as the associate director of the Center for Food Safety within the Institute for Food Science and Engineering.
Elsa’s parents escaped from Cuba when she was 2 years old. President Bush appointed Murano Under Secretary of agriculture for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a position which she held from 2001 to 2004. Under her leadership, food recalls dramatically decreased. In January 2008, Elsa Murano was named the twenty-third president of Texas A&M University, the first Hispanic and the first woman to hold the position. She resigned as president of the university in June 2009.

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Murano testifying at a Senate hearing in 2006.
 
Dr. Elsa Murano is proof that The American Dream is still alive. She became the first woman, first Hispanic-American, and one of the youngest people to be named president of Texas A&M University. She was inducted in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame.
 
After one year of sabbatical, she returned to the university as a professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, in which roles she continues to conduct research and teaching in the area of food safety. She is also a published author with 50 scientific articles and seven book chapters to her name.

Elsa Murano, Ph. D., has been the director of the Norman E Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University since 2012. She joined the ILRI Board in November 2016. Womeninc magazine has named Murano as part of its 2018 Most Influential Corporate Board of Directors. In February 2019 she was inducted in the Meat Industry Hall of fame, due to her contribution to the meat industry.

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In this video Elsa Murano talks about the challenges and opportunities for women as university leaders. During her tenure at the Texas A&M University, she nominated a number of women to positions of leadership in the university.

 
Isabel Toledo
Isabel Toledo - Wikipedia

Personal life

Toledo was born Maria Isabel Izquierdo in Camajuaní, Cuba.[1] Raised in West New York, New Jersey after settling in the United States at the age of eight, she attended Memorial High School, where she met her future husband and collaborator, Ruben Toledo, whom she married in 1984.[1][3] Toledo told CNN that she started sewing at age eight because "I couldn’t find anything I loved."[1] She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (NY) and Parsons School of Design (NY),[1] where she studied painting, ceramics, and fashion design.[citation needed] She left Parsons in 1979, then graduated to become an intern under Diana Vreeland at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]

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Isabel Toledo, was one of the most talented designers in the Fashion industry in the U.S. She was born on April 9, 1960, Camajuaní, Cuba. Her father owned a hardware store. In March 1968, the Castro regime launch the “Revolutionary Offensive” confiscating and eliminating 55,636 small private enterprises, from repair shops to pushcart vendor, among them her father hardware store. After that, Isabel and her family left Cuba as refugees, and settled in West New York, New Jersey. At the age of 14 she met Rubén, son of a Cuban refugee, in the high school, and so began her love story.

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Isabel and Rubén
 
In her autography Roots of Style: Weaving Together Life, Love, and Fashion, she wrote: “"I was born and grew up until 8 years of age in the city of Camajuaní, province of Las Villas, Cuba, near the mountains, and there I learned to 'see the color'", she remembers tenderly about her childhood. "It was a small city, and when the sun reflected on the roofs it creates shades and a mist that, when cleared up, it showed me the color that was behind. I remember perfectly! My father had a hardware store and my mother helped him. We were three sisters, and my mother's family made shoes. I still remember her choosing leather for the boots of the peasants."

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Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out
Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out | Fashion Institute of Technology

Special Exhibitions Gallery
June 17 – September 26, 2009

Online Exhibition

The Cuban-born fashion designer Isabel Toledo is often described as "a designer's designer." Although she is little known to the general public, her work is greatly admired by members of the fashion community. As the late fashion journalist Amy Spindler once wrote, "Only great designers can dispense with themes and theatrics and let the work speak instead. Ms. Toledo does just that, letting fashion itself be the theme."

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Diamond Draped bodice dresses finished and unfinished, fall 2005, white rayon jersey

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Blossom Sleeve bolero and Balloon dress, spring/summer 2005, garnet silk paper taffeta, chiffon

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Hermaphrodite dress, circa 2005, garnet silk taffeta

Isabel's focus on technique, her willingness to experiment, and her strong personal vision make her work stand out. But other aspects of her career—her early rise to fame and subsequent years of struggle, her brush with organized crime, and her rollercoaster ride at a big fashion company will be familiar to many in the modern fashion system.
Click link above for full article.[/QUOTE]
Isabel outstanding exhibition received great accolades from the fashion community. In 2005 she and husband Ruben received the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for their work in fashion. Otis Critics' award named for her at the Los Angeles-based Otis College of Art and Design. In 2008, she received the FIT Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion.

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Isabel Toledo
 
Continuation: Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out
Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out | Fashion Institute of Technology

Isabel Toledo told Dr. Valerie Steele in a 1989 interview, "I really love the technique of sewing more than anything else—the seamstress is the one who knows fashion from the inside! That's the art form really, not fashion design, but the technique of how it's done." Isabel has said that she doesn't "want to be radical," and she insists that "weird is not smart." But her clothes are undeniably different. None of them have traditional construction. Her patterns, silhouettes, use of materials, and methods of draping are all highly experimental.

In 2008, Isabel received the FIT Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion. Her work exemplifies the highest standards of creativity and craftsmanship. "Isabel Toledo is proof that an American designer can do conceptual work of international significance, yet with the kind of humor and pragmatic cheekiness that is distinctively American," says Vogue editor, Sally Singer. "At the heart of her work is a love of American sportswear, but not sportswear in terms of separates that can be mixed and matched. It's sportswear in the sense that these are clothes that function."

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Cigar Rolled gowns, fall/winter 2007-08, emerald green and beige silk jersey

Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out was organized by Dr. Valerie Steele, Director of The Museum at FIT; Patricia Mears, Deputy Director of The Museum at FIT; and Ruben and Isabel Toledo. Support for this exhibition was provided by the Couture Council of the Museum at FIT. Additional support was provided by Nordstrom.
Isabel designed the dress that First Lady Mitchell Obama wore for her husband’s 2009 inauguration ceremony. Many famous women were client of Isabel like Demi Moore, Jennifer López, Madonna, Raquel Welch and Sigourney Weaver among others.

Toledo received a Tony Award nomination in 2014 for the more than one hundred costumes she designed for the musical After Midnight.

Yale University Press published a 25 year retrospective exhibition and catalog of her fashion designs.
 
Isabel Toledo: Fashion From the Inside Out Video

[video][/video]


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Isabel with her husband, one of fashion’s most prolific illustrators, Rubén Toledo
 
Dara Torres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dara_Torres

Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and at age 41, the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.

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Torres waves to the crowd after winning a silver medal in 50-meter freestyle at 2008 Olympics.
Click link above for full article.
Dara Torres was born to Edward Torres, and Marylu Torres in Los Angeles, California, Her father was a real estate developer and casino owner, originally from Cuba of Jewish heritage, and her mother Marylu was a former American model. She was one of six children.
 
By MIKE DOWNEY

AUG. 16, 2008 12 AM

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

BEIJING — Dara Torres was born April 15, 1967, in Los Angeles, two weeks before a blessed event was held in Las Vegas at the Aladdin Hotel: the wedding of Elvis Presley and his bride, Priscilla.

Her father, Eddie Torres, bought the Aladdin (in a partnership with Wayne Newton) 13 years later. By then his daughter the swim prodigy was a fixture in the pools of Beverly Hills, including the one in the Torres family’s sprawling 10-bath home there.

He meant a great deal to Dara way back then. He still does.
Click link for full article.
Her father, Eddie Torres, who was born in Cuba, a former executive officer of the Hotel Riviera, bought the Aladdin in partnership with Wayne Newton in 1979 for S85 million. In 1982, he purchased the Silver Bird Casino and reopened it as the El Rancho Casino. In 1988 he added a 13 story hotel, known then as the El Rancho Hotel and Casino. She said that her father was the most influential person in her life.
 
Dara Torres, the most decorated US female Olympic athlete of all time, after the 2012 Olympic Trials retired from competitive swimming, concluding her Olympic career with 12 medals after 24 years. She was inducted into the United States Olympic Committee’s Hall of Fame in 2019.

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Swimmer Dara Torres at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials- CREDIT JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES
 
After her retirement, she has stayed very busy working in television as a reporter and announcer for TV networks like NBC, ESPN,TNT and Fox News, and hosted the golf show ‘The Clubhouse’ on the Resort Sports Network. She is regularly on CBS Sports’ We Need To Talk, focused on women sports, and has been a spokesperson for many companies. She even competed five times as a driver in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Grand Prix.

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I should start a thread, then post 56 of 62 times in my own thread. You know, to keep it up in the list. Maybe Puerto Rican women and the war of 1812.
 
Torres is an active motivational speaker and fitness instructor. She recently expanded her business activities partnering with a CBD company to become their Chief Lifestyle & Wellness Officer. Dara says “I always remember my father being in business for himself, so I am sure that is where I got the hunger for wanting to be involved with ownership. I love the competition and the passion to succeed so my skills are always getting better, but my desire to make my companies great is always there!” At age 53, she is still very active.

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Dara Torres in 2019
 
Isabel Álvarez
Isabel Álvarez - Wikipedia

Isabel "Lefty" Álvarez (born October 31, 1933) is a Cuban former pitcher and outfielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League between the 1949 and 1954 seasons. She batted and threw left-handed.[1]

Isabel Álvarez was the youngest Cuban player to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a women's circuit born during World War II and made famous in the 1992 film A League of Their Own.

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Isabel Álvarez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1933. She grew up in Havana and played baseball with the boys in the neighborhood of El Cerro (The Hill), and was also involved in other sports like volleyball and soccer. At the age of 13, she played for the Cuban Starts in 1947. That year, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League spring training was held in Havana, and they began to recruit Cuban women to play in the League.

She came to the United States in 1949 to play professionally when she was 15 sponsored by the All American League, encourage by her mother, which thought that baseball was a way for Isabel to live a better life in the United States of America. She faced the challenges of a new environment in a big city without speaking English.
 

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In the All American League, she played pitcher for the Chicago Colleens from 1949 through the 1950 season. When the Chicago Colleens folded, she went on to play for the Fort Wayne Daisies during the 1951 and 1954 seasons, when the League ceased to operate. During her six-year baseball career she also played utility outfielder. As a pitcher she was pretty good. Upon getting her citizenship in 1953 she stayed in the United States.

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Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez
 
At that time the League stopped operating, she only had a sixth grade education and finding a job was difficult. Isabel began working in a number of different jobs. She later found work at a General Electric plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she was an assembler for more than 30 years until she retired. She has lived in the city almost continuously since 1954.

In the early 80s the former players of the All American League started to get together and have their first reunion. She reconnect with her former teammates and become part of the active community of former players.
 
Cubans women helped raise funds for the revolutionary army of George Washington. The "Ladies of Havana" raised 1.2 million tournoise livres, equivalent to $3.1 million, an astounding amount for that time. From 181 to 2018, adjusted by an average inflation rate of 1.44% per year, it would be equivalent to $81 million in 2018. Their contribution made possible the financing of the decisive battle of American Independence.


I'm very skeptical of this

The French were still supporting the American Army no?

The Continental congress was still supporting the war no?
 
Cubans women helped raise funds for the revolutionary army of George Washington. The "Ladies of Havana" raised 1.2 million tournoise livres, equivalent to $3.1 million, an astounding amount for that time. From 181 to 2018, adjusted by an average inflation rate of 1.44% per year, it would be equivalent to $81 million in 2018. Their contribution made possible the financing of the decisive battle of American Independence.
Even if this is true, I see little difference in the war/Battle for Yorktown would have made(There's a time problem)
 
I'm very skeptical of this

The French were still supporting the American Army no?

The Continental congress was still supporting the war no?
Seems that you did not read the article, otherwise you would not be “very skeptical”.

Yes, they were. And yes the Continental congress was still supporting the war.

Even if this is true, I see little difference in the war/Battle for Yorktown would have made(There's a time problem)
Excerpts from the article
According to Washington's aide, Count de Rochambeau [Frenchman], "the Continental troops [are] almost without clothes. The greater number [are] without socks or shoes. These people are at the very end of their resources. Washington will not have at his disposal half the number of troops he counts on having." The story is told by historian Stephen Bonsal in the book When the French Were Here, published in 1945.

In 1781, things did not look good, when General Washington sent French Admiral Francois De Grasse to seek funds in the Caribbean. What happened is told by Charles Lee Lewis, in his Admiral De Grasse and the American Independence, published by the United States Naval Institute.

Unfortunately, as Jean-Jacques Antier writes in Admiral de Grasse: Hero of L’Independence Americaine, when De Grasse got to Havana the Spanish fleet had left for Spain. There was no gold to be had, and the colonial government could not help. The Cubans, however, liked Washington and private contributions flowed in. “Ladies even offering their diamonds. The sum of 1,200,000 livres was delivered on board,” Antier wrote. De Grasse sailed back toward Philadelphia, where Rochambeau took a boat to Chester, Pennsylvania, in September 1781.

“De Rochambeau had scarcely landed,” Jusserand wrote, “when Washington, usually cool and composed, fell into his arms; the great news had arrived, de Grasse had come.” And there was enough money to fund to continue fighting

Stephen Bonsal, winner of the Pulitzer Price for History in 1945, wrote, “The Contribution of Cuban women by way of their jewelry, could very well be the foundation on which is founded, the freedom of the United States.” He also wrote, "The million that was supplied by the ladies of Havana, may, with truth, be regarded as the 'bottom dollars' upon which the edifice of American independence was erected.''
 
Seems that you did not read the article, otherwise you would not be “very skeptical”.

Yes, they were. And yes the Continental congress was still supporting the war.


Excerpts from the article


Stephen Bonsal, winner of the Pulitzer Price for History in 1945, wrote, “The Contribution of Cuban women by way of their jewelry, could very well be the foundation on which is founded, the freedom of the United States.” He also wrote, "The million that was supplied by the ladies of Havana, may, with truth, be regarded as the 'bottom dollars' upon which the edifice of American independence was erected.''
Seems that you did not read the article, otherwise you would not be “very skeptica

I did. I think it's BS
Stephen Bonsal, winner of the Pulitzer Price for History in 1945, wrote, “The Contribution of Cuban women by way of their jewelry,


I want to know 'when' this happened. A timeline

Me thinks it was too late to have any impact on the war
 
I did. I think it's BS



I want to know 'when' this happened. A timeline

Me thinks it was too late to have any impact on the war
 
Álvarez is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York opened in 1988. She also was honored in 2008 with the Bob Parker Memorial Award,[10] as well as with membership in the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association (NEIBA), for her decades of commitment to the sport of baseball.

Isabel said, “I would not be here [at the Hall of Fame] if it wasn't for my mother.”
Pursuing the American Dream is difficult for some, especially a young female baseball player from Cuba. Isabel Alvarez was born October 31, 1933 in Havana. Rafael DeLeon had built a ballpark and Isabel joined the Estrellas Cubanas (Cuban Stars) at probably twelve years old. The girl ball players were very poor and DeLeon provided food and bought Isabel her first glove. She still remembers going to his estate on weekends.
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Isabel "Lefty" Álvarez
 
After nearly 70 years in the U.S., her English is perfect, although she still has a slight accent.

A longtime resident of Fort Wayne, she is still active as a reporter and columnist for Touching Bases, the AAGPBL Players Association newsletter, and as an active AAGPBL and NEIBA member

The 1992 film “A League of Their Own”, tells the story of the women that played in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

(35) A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: MODERN TRAILER - YouTube
 
Daína Chaviano (Spanish: [daˈina tʃaˈβjano]) (born in Havana, Cuba, in 1957)[1] is a Cuban-American writer of French and Asturian descent[2] living in the United States since 1991.
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She is considered one of the three most important female fantasy and science fiction writers in the Spanish language, along with Angélica Gorodischer (Argentina) and Elia Barceló (Spain), forming the so-called “feminine trinity of science fiction in Ibero-America.”[3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daína_Chaviano#cite_note-3
Daína Chaviano was born in Havana, the first of four children, where she grew up and published her first book, a short-story collection Los mundos que amo in 1980; (The Worlds I Love), after winning a literary contest while attending the University of Havana. She acted in films, hosted radio programs, and wrote for television. In 1991 she defected to the U.S, and settled in Miami.
 
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