Jilma Madera
1915–2000 · Cuban sculptor, creator of the Christ of Havana
Jilma Madera (Lilia Jilma Madera Valiente, 1915-2000) was a Cuban sculptor best known for the Christ of Havana. Born at the La Victoria estate in San Cristóbal, she trained at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, where she studied under Juan José Sicre. Her work places her among the most prominent Cuban sculptors of the mid-twentieth century.
Her best-known commission was the Christ of Havana, which she won in 1953 during the government of Fulgencio Batista. Carved in Carrara marble in Italy, the statue stands about 20 metres tall and is made of 67 pieces brought from Italy to Cuba. It was inaugurated on 24 December 1958, just two weeks before the fall of the Batista government. Her other works include a bust of José Martí placed on the Pico Turquino during the 1963 centennial of his birth and a sculpture of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
She exhibited in New York and in several halls in Havana. She had lived in the Lawton district since 1940 and, although glaucoma affected her sight from 1961, she kept working until her death in Havana on 21 February 2000, aged 84.