Olga Morgan Goodwin

Olga Morgan Goodwin (April 22, 1936 – April 16, 2024), born Olga María Rodríguez Fariñas, was a Cuban revolutionary who fought in the Cuban Revolution. She married American-born Cuban guerrilla commander William Alexander Morgan, who was a prominent leader in the Second National Front of the Escambray.

After the Cuban Revolution, she and her husband were persecuted by the Castro government. Both were convicted by a military tribunal in 1961, with Morgan executed and Rodríguez sentenced to 30 years in prison. Due to international pressure, Rodríguez was released in 1971, after only 10 years of imprisonment.

Rodríguez fled to the United States in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift. After re-marrying in 1985, she went by Olga Morgan Goodwin.

Early life Rodríguez was born on April 22, 1936 in central Cuba. Rodríguez was the second eldest of six siblings. She was the first woman to be elected to the position.

Her anti-government activities attracted the attention of the secret police, who showed her photograph to neighbors to try to find her. Unable to find Rodríguez, they instead beat her cousin Gilberto and left him on her parents' doorstep. On April 9, 1958, she fled to the mountains and joined the Escambray rebellion, becoming the first woman to join the Second Front. The farm harvested frog legs and skin, which were sold to buyers in the United States.

The Morgans' house was shot at several times, on one occasion killing their pet dog. Their house was always guarded by multiple bodyguards, many of whom lived with the Morgans. The Morgans later learned that some of the guards had been spies for the Castro government. Rodríguez was later imprisoned in Guanajay. In Toledo, she worked as a social worker at the Guadalupe Family Health Clinic. In 2002, Ohio congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and New York congressman Charles Rangel traveled to Cuba to convince Cuban leader Fidel Castro to release Morgan's remains, but Cuban officials claimed they could not be located. In the United States, Goodwin continuously advocated for Morgan's U.S. citizenship to be posthumously restored. In 2002, she began a letter writing campaign to restore his citizenship.