Mirta de perales biography of williams

• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 05 / 10 / 2011

Mirta de Peralis, one of the first Hispanic women to find success in the U.S. cosmetics industry, dies at 88. BY ARTURO ARIAS-POLO.

Mirta de Perales, one of the first Hispanic women to find success in the cosmetics industry in the United States, died from Alzheimer’s on May 3 in her Miami Beach residence. She was 88.

Rich and famous in Cuba until 1962, when she left her country to come to the United States with her two children and barely $5 in her purse, De Perales resumed her career in Miami by making a living styling hair and doing pedicures, as she had in her younger years.

Eventually, she put her experience to work and, armed with a good business sense and charisma, founded Mirta de Perales, Inc., the emporium that distributes her products in the U.S. domestic market and in Puerto Rico.

“She was a millionaire in Cuba and she multiplied her fortune here,” said Maribel Sotolongo, the firm’s account executive and the person aut