Inés Segura Bustamante papers

Inés Segura Bustamante (1919-2002) was a clinical psychologist, member of Directorio Estudiantil Universitario, writer, painter, composer, and lyricist. Segura Bustamante graduated from the University of Havana with degrees in psychology, philosophy, and letters and worked as a professor of psychology at the University of Havana. As a student in the 1930’s she was politically active and participated in the 1933 Revolution against the Machado government. During the riots that broke out at the University of Havana, she and fellow students Rafael Trejo and Alberto Espinosa were defended by their professor, Dr. Guerra, who later left the university. Later, Segura Bustamante was held at the Isle of Pines prison along with fellow Directorio members Zoila Mulet, Silvia Shelton, and Calixta Guiteras. During her professional career in Havana, she authored many publications such as her 1947 “¿Es la acción voluntaria realmente voluntaria?” in the Revista Cubana de Filosofía de La Habana, which ran from 1946-1958. This article later was published as a monograph in 1948.

She left Cuba after the Revolution of 1959. In exile in Miami in the 1960’s, she was a leading figure in the Directorio Magisterial Revolutionario (DMR), a non-militant anti-Communist organization of professional teachers formed in November of 1960 that worked to produce and distribute anti-Castro informational materials. Segura Bustamante also continued her work as a psychologist and writer in the U.S, where she studied at Columbia University in New York and received her certification from the Florida State Board of Psychology.

She authored several books including El nuevo Gólgota: Cuba y otros temas, a book of Cuban history published in 1996 by Editora Corripio (República Dominicana). She also published another book of Cuban political history, Cuba siglo XX y la generación de 1930: un documento histórico published by Ediciones Universal (Miami) in 1987. In 1989 she published a book about the Directorio Estudiantil called Cuba: pruebas documentales de nuestra historia published by Editora Corripio in Santo Domingo, R.D. Her published works of psychology include Problemas de conducta en los niños: y su repercusion en la edad adulta published by Caribe in 1973 and translated into English by Carlos de Varona and published in 1988 by Editora Corripio as Behavior problems in children and their aftermath in adult age: A book for professionals and non-professionals.

Segura Bustamante studied music and piano and wrote a significant amount of songs. She also studied painting and some of her pictorial works are held in the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami.