Polita Grau was a first lady

First Lady

First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...

 of Cuba, a Cuban political prisoner

Political prisoner

According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....

, and the "godmother" of Operation Peter Pan

Operation Peter Pan

Operation Peter Pan , was an operation coordinated by the United States government , the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, and certain Cubans. Between 1960 and 1962, over 14,000 children were sent from Cuba to Miami by their parents...

, a program to help children leave Cuba.

Family life

Grau was the daughter of Paulina Alsina and Francisco Grau-San Martin. Her siblings were Paulina Grau-Alsina, Francisco Grau-Alsina (a Senator of Cuba), and Ramon Grau-Alsina (a Representative of Cuba). Her uncle, Ramon Grau-San Martin

Ramón Grau

Dr. Ramón Grau San Martín was a Cuban physician and the President of Cuba .-Youth:...

, was President of Cuba

President of Cuba

--209.174.31.28 18:43, 22 November 2011 The President of Cuba is the Head of state of Cuba. According to the Cuban Constitution of 1976, the President is the chief executive of the Council of State of Cuba...

 from 1933–1934 and again from 1944-1948. She served as first lady of Cuba during her uncle’s presidencies. She was married twice, first to Roberto Lago-Pereda and then in 1939 to Jose Aguero-Cairo. She had two children, Ramon Francisco and Hilda Maria Aguero-Grau.

Politics

Grau was involved in politics from her adolescence and spent four separate periods in exile. She opposed the Machado regime

Gerardo Machado

Gerardo Machado y Morales was President of Cuba and a general of the Cuban War of Independence...

 and the Batista regimes

Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....

. She later supported the Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

, but then opposed the Castro regime

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

.

In 1961, Grau and her brother Ramon, along with Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh of the Archdiocese of Miami, started Operation Peter Pan. From 1961-1965, they helped more than 14,000 children leave Cuba without their parents, and later assisted with giving out 28,000 visas to those children's parents.

In 1965, Grau and her brother Ramon were accused of being CIA spies because of their work in Operation Peter Pan. She was also accused of involvement in a plot to poison Castro with a milkshake. They were tried, and each was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Grau was released after serving 14 years in prison, and her brother Ramon was released after serving 21 years. She was released during the wider release of political prisoners in 1978, thanks to the assistance of Bernardo Benes

Bernardo Benes

Dr. Bernardo Benes Baikowitz is a prominent Jewish Cuban lawyer, banker, journalist and civic leader, who was responsible for freeing 3,600 Cuban political prisoners in 1978....

.

She died at the Villa Maria Nursing Center located on the grounds of Mercy Hospital

Mercy Hospital (Miami)

Mercy Hospital is a 473-bed acute care U.S. hospital located in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida. It is Miami-Dade County’s only Catholic hospital and is a recipient of the MAGNET award for nursing excellence....

 in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, of congestive heart disease.

In 2008, the City of Miami

City of Miami

This article is about the streamliner. For the city in Florida, see Miami.The City of Miami was a seven-car coach streamliner inaugurated by Illinois Central Railroad on December 18, 1940. Its route was from Chicago to Miami a total distance of ....

named a street after her: "Ramon and Polita Grau-Alsina Avenue".

External links

• The Polita Grau de Agüero Papers are available at the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami. Selected items from these Papers have been digitized and are searchable online at http://merrick.library.miami.edu/cubanHeritage/chc0356/.
• http://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/legistarfiles/Matters/Y2007/073076.pdf
• http://baracuteycubano.blogspot.com/2008/05/polita-grau.html
• http://www.diariolasamericas.com/news.php?nid=54777
• http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2000/0403/milestones.html
• http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=46585