Famous People with Name Mariela

Mariela Castro Espín            Origin/Culture/Country: Jamaican

Mariela Castro Espín: is the director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana and an activist for LGBT rights in Cuba.She is the daughter of Cuban president Raúl Castro Ruz and Vilma Espín Guillois, and the niece of former president Fidel Castro Ruz.

Mariela Griffor            Origin/Culture/Country: South America

Mariela Griffor: is a journalist, poet, short story writer, international activist, columnist, and scholar. In her youth, her family moved to Santiago, Chile. She left for Brazil by herself in 1984 to study journalism at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. She attended the university for one year, then moved to Sweden to escape the regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet. She was a member of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front in Chile at the time. Griffor holds a B.A in journalism from Wayne State University, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from New England College, where she is a Joel Oppenheimer Scholar. She is fluent in Spanish, English, Swedish and Portuguese. She cofounded the Detroit Institute for Creative Writers and has been a community relations developer at Bagely Housing Association, a non-profit organization advocating for affordable housing. In 2004, she was the winner of the Pablo Neruda International Poetry Competition. Griffor is a recipient of the Certificate of Merit from the State of Michigan. She is a graduate student at, and in 2003 was named writer in residence at, Wayne State.

Mariela González Torres            Origin/Culture/Country: Jamaican

Mariela González Torres: is a female marathon runner from Cuba, who won the gold medal in the women's marathon at the 2007 Pan American Games. She represented her native country at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, finishing in 59th place.

Mariela Andrea Antoniska Arrondo            Origin/Culture/Country: South America

Mariela Andrea Antoniska Arrondo: a field hockey goalkeeper from Argentina, who won the silver medal with the national women's hockey team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer