Celia Sánchez Manduley was probably the most important woman in the Cuban Revolution – yet outside of Cuba, almost nobody knows her name. The first woman to fire a shot in the revolution, and the brains behind the revolution’s complex logistics, she is known in Cuba as the powerful heart of a movement to “make people’s lives better.” Discover this astonishing story with our guest, Tiffany Sippial. Director of the Honors College and Professor of History at Auburn University, Tiffany Sippial received her Ph.D. in Latin American History with distinction from the University of New Mexico in 2007. Dr. Sippial has completed prestigious fellowships with the Southeastern Conference’s Academic Leadership Development Program, the HERS Leadership Institute, and was the university’s Presidential Administrative Fellow in 2017. She has secured several prestigious research grants and awards, including a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant, a CCWH Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Award, and an American Historical Association Albert J. Beveridge Grant for Research in the History of the Western Hemisphere. A strong advocate for student international experiences, Dr. Sippial leads the Honors College study and travel courses to Cuba. Dr. Sippial published an award-winning book on Cuba in 2013 with the University of North Carolina Press and published a second book on Cuban revolutionary leader Celia Sanchez Manduley with that press in January 2020. Sippial also served as president of the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association in 2018-2019. Music featured in this episode provided by Marc Nelson, Jimmy Fontanez, Doug Maxwell, Rene Touzet, Quincas Moreira and Daniel Henderson and his Big Band. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices