A Lady of Linguistics

The Excelencias Group brings closer to you the story of a peculiar life. She is a modest Santiago-born woman, talkative, pedagogue, linguist, mother, wife… all in all, Eloína Miyares Bermúdez is and will always be an outstanding name in terms of culture in Santiago de Cuba.

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Eloína Miyares was born on December 1, 1928, in a humble and numerous family. Her mother was a housewife and her father worked at the railroad. Both parents raised their twelve children by instilling love and respect. Singing, reading and teaching were elements that characterized her happy childhood despite of the precarious economic situation.

She nostalgically recalls how she used to sing with her sisters and Luis Carbonell’s accompanied by the piano. She was always the second voice, her specialty. She also used to sing at school and was a member of the chorus at Saint Thomas Church, as Catholicism was also part of her education.

When she was a teenager, she joined the Elementary School for Teachers because she respected such an important profession. Teaching came into Eloína’s life to stay forever and give her plenty of joy. She spent four years studying to become an elementary teacher. That was when a young man caught her eye and eventually stole her heart: Julio Vitelio Ruiz Hernández.

Time sealed the love between these two people. After the first kiss at Aguilera Movie Theater and three years of courtship, they got married at the church on November 27, 1952. Eloína and Vitelio: two people that have shared their sentimental and professional life for over six decades.

The first school where she taught was a rural one located in Palma and Contramaestre, named La Güira. Eloína was 18 years old. She carried out everything she had learned at the Elementary School and experienced the multiple levels during the first years after the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

Eloína has taught in different teaching levels: elementary school, junior high, senior high and college. Spanish Language was her favorite subject. The correct use of the language has been her purpose along with Vitelio, the father of her eight sons, as she didn’t have daughters. She gave birth 5 times: the odds were twins and evens were singles.

She taught the sons to read and educated them in the finest manners. Her mother backed her up so she could keep on working. Eloína is presently the grandmother of fourteen grandchildren and there are already six great-grandchildren.

The extensive work developed by Eloína Miyares as a pedagogue has given her the tools to publish, along with Julio Vitelio Ruiz, remarkable books on phonetics, vocabulary and orthography, such as: Technical-practical Orthography, Consonant System in Cuba, VAL-CUBA Vaccine, Active-functional Lexis of Cuban Students, Integral Orthography and the must-have illustrated and basic school dictionaries, which have been enriched in every new edition.

As a result of her research work, she founded Santiago de Cuba’s Applied Linguistics Center, also with the support of Vitelio.

Eloína has been paid tribute with the Honorary Doctor title in Social Sciences at the Eastern University, Lázaro Peña National Order, National Culture distinction, José María Heredia plaque, National Pedagogy Award, Santiago de Cuba City’s coat of arms and the tile of Work Heroine in the Republic of Cuba.