Lilia Jilma Madera Valiente | |
|---|---|
 Jilma Madera in front of theChrist of Havana statue | |
| Born | September 18, 1915 La Victoria,Pinar del Río,Cuba |
| Died | February 21, 2000(2000-02-21) (aged 84) |
Lilia Jilma Madera Valiente (September 18, 1915 – February 21, 2000) was a well-knownCuban sculptor. Her two most famous works are theChrist of Havana and the bust ofJosé Martí on thePico Turquino, which is the highest peak of Cuba.
Born in La Victoria,Pinar del Río, Cuba, she studied painting and sculpture at theEscuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" under the tutelage ofJuan José Sicre (the sculptor of theJosé Martí Memorial).
HerChrist of Havana statue was a commission she won in 1953 during the government ofFulgencio Batista. It was done inCarrara marble and is 20 metres (66 ft) tall and weighs 320 tons. It is composed of 67 pieces that were brought from Italy, where Madera carved the statue and was blessed there byPope Pius XII. It was inaugurated on December 24, 1958, just two weeks before the fall of the Batista government.
She worked and made some exhibitions at New York's Sculpture Center, in USA, and exhibited other works at the City of Havana Local Council (Ayuntamiento de la Habana), theLyceum and Lawn Tennis Club, and some painting and sculpture national exhibition halls, in Cuba.
Her bust of José Martí was done in 1953 and placed at the Pico Turquino during the centennial celebrations of Martí's birth in 1963 byCelia Sanchez.
The history of why this statue was created was told to be that Batitisa's wife prayed so hard that her husband would not be killed in the violent beginning of the revolution, that she commissioned this monument to show her gratitude for her answered prayers, however this may be an urban legend.
