University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review Volume 17 Issue 2 Volume 17 Issue 2 (Spring 2010) Article 6 4-1-2010 Heirs Of Martí: The Story Of Cuban Lawyers Victoria Quintana Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umiclr Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Victoria Quintana, Heirs Of Martí: The Story Of Cuban Lawyers, 17 U. Miami Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 229 (2010) Available at: https://repository.law.miami.edu/umiclr/vol17/iss2/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HEIRS OF MART: THE STORY OF CUBAN LAWYERS Victoria Quintana* I. IN TRO D UCTIO N ............................................................................. 230 II. THE COMMON INHERITANCE ...................................................... 234 A . Cuban N obility ............................................................... 237 B. What Made Cuba Distinct ............................................ 238 C. Case Study: The Cuba Company .................................. 238 III. PLATT AMENDMENT PRESIDENCIES ......................................... 240 A. Cuban Presidentsfrom EstradaPalma to Z ayas A lfonso .......................................................... 241 B. The Machado Years and the Rise of Student Leadership.................................................. 243 C. M achado Continues ................................................... 246 D. The Interim Presidency of Carlos Manuel de C spedes Q uesada ................................................... 248 IV. THE PENTARCHY AND THE END OF THE PLATT A M ENDM ENT ............................................................ 249 A. The Constitutionof 1940 ............................................... 251 B. The FailedRevolution .................................................... 252 V. THE FINAL REVOLUTION AND THE LAWYERS TH AT LIV ED IT ...................................................................... 254 A . The Suprem e Court......................................................... 257 B. How the "Big Three" Were Replaced ........................... 257 C. The Constitution of 1976 ............................................... 258 D . M arti Lives O n ........................................................... 259 Juris Doctor Candidate, University of Miami School of Law, 2010; B.A. Latin American Studies, French & Spanish, University of Miami, 2007. 1 would like to express my gratitude to Yves Dezalay for supervising the writing of this paper. U. MIAMI INT'L & COMP. L. REV. V. 17 1. INTRODUCTION Lawyers that came with the conquistadors to settle in Latin America made the journey to assure that the contracts established between the crown and conquistador were dutifully followed.1 Years later, the same lawyers were at the forefront when the descendents of those who conquered the New World sought to attain independence from the Spanish crown. The lawyers became the "nation-builders" 2 and the writers of constitutions.3 Yet, despite all the hopes that came with independence, not every country reached the ultimate goal. Even today, when so many Latin American nations are in the process of democratization after years of military dictatorships and other 4 forms of undemocratic governance, one country stands apart: Cuba. The island nation of Cuba inherited its early laws from Spain. "The Spanish Code of Commerce and the Spanish Civil Code, introduced in Cuba in 1885 and 1889 respectively, formed the back- bone of Cuban private law ... The Penal Code was somewhat more recent, having been enacted in 1936." 5 Thus, Cuba received the same inheritance as other Latin American countries; however, it has used such inheritance in its own unique way. Part of the reason for Cuba's singular history is the men that forged it. Cuba, like any other nation in the New World, had its own founding fathers, primarily revolutionary war heroes like Carlos Manuel de C~spedes, Mdiximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo, as well as those who were part of the leading Republican elite, including: Juan Gualberto G6mez, Enrique Jos6 Varona, Manuel Sanguily, Enrique ROGELIO PEREZ-PERDOMO, LATIN AMERICAN LAWYERS: A HISTORICAL INTRODUC- TION 14 (2006). 2 Manuel A. Gomez, Greasing the Squeaky Wheel of Justice: Lawlyers, Social Netivorks and Dispute Processing,(Paper submitted to the conference on "Lawyers and the Construction of the Rule of Law: National and Transnational Processes" held at the American Bar Foundation on March 21-22, 2008), at 1. 3 See PEREZ-PERDOMO, supra note 1, at 53. 4 Id. at 100. 5 Michael Bogdan, Thirty Years of Cuban Revolutionary Law,, 15 REV. OF SOCIALIST L. 319, 320 (1989). 2010 HEIRS OF MARTi Collazo, N~stor Carbonell, and Gonzalo de Quesada. 6 However, one man stands apart from the rest. "The birth and evolution of the Cuban Republic has been intimately linked to the memory and political use" 7 of the legacy of one man: Jos6 Marti. He was a lawyer, a poet, a statesman and a revolutionary.8 Unfortunately, he was killed in battle before he was to see his country free from the Spanish colonizers. 9 Yet, Marti's legacy lives on in the Cuban psyche. "[A] study of Cuban political history in reference to Marti's influence shows the presence of his legacy in three important moments of constitutional foundations: 1901, 1940, and 1976."10 Indeed, Marti's legacy has remained relevant and deeply influential throughout Cuba's history. The leaders of the original independence movement and the nationalist political leaders evoked Marti as "a martyr and founding father."1 The students and intellect- uals who brought about political change for a second time in Cuba from the 1910s through the 1930s claimed to be doing so in response to what they thought was the government's "betrayal of Marti's ideals."'12 At the same time, "[plopulist caudillos and dictators such as Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista counteracted by honoring 13 and manipulating the nationalist ideology built around Marti."' Currently, Marti lives on not only as a hero for the Cubans living out a "permanent" Revolution under Fidel Castro on the island, but also as one for the thousands who have fled, or have otherwise been exiled under, the Castro dictatorship. "The leaders, ideologues and intellectuals of the Cuban Revolution have placed Marti at the head of the Cuban pantheon of heroes and zealously 6 Rafael Rojas, "Otro gallo cantaria": Essay on the First Cuban Republicanism, in THE CUBAN REPUBLIC AND JOSE MARTI: RECEPTION AND USE OF A NATIONAL SYMBOL 7, 8 (Mauricio A. Font & Alfonso W. Quiroz eds., 2006). 'Id.at 3. 8 Id.at 2. Marti received his law degree in Spain and went on to lead what would be Cuba's last war for independence against Spain. Id. at 2-3. 9 10Id. at 3. Id. at 12. '' Id.at 3. 12 id. 13Id. U. MIAMI INT'L & COMP. L. REV. V. 17 14 guard his revolutionary image." Meanwhile, " [exiled Cubans also claim Marti and vie to rescue him from what they consider a hijacked and distorted ideal."15 Whatever Marti may mean to those who are in exile and those who are still in Cuba, all who rose up to take his place aimed to live up to the republican ideals he proclaimed as Cuba's most revered revolutionary. However, a look at Cuba's history, and that of the heirs of Marti, shows many frustrations with state legiti- macy and incomplete independence, especially in the early years of the Republic. Since Marti's death in 1898, Cuba has twice been occu- pied by U.S. forces, survived three dictatorships, and throughout, has lacked political and democratic stability, even under democratically elected governments. Would the story have read differently if Marti had lived? "Lamenting Marti's absence has always been a central figure in the discourse of the Cuban republican frustration."' 6 However, rather than dwell on what could have been, this paper will analyze what happened in spite of Marti's absence. How did the "nation-builders" go about creating constitutions for, and governing, the "Queen of the Antilles chain"? This paper will specifically look at the role of Cuban lawyers, the heirs of Marti, throughout Cuban history. If the lawyers were the builders of democracy, what happened when democracy was inter- rupted? What were the forces they were fighting against? How did Cuba's dependence on "King Sugar" and the economic roller coaster it endured, following the price of sugar, affect the profession? Finally, what happened to the lawyers after democracy broke, seemingly decisively, with the military coup of Fulgencio Batista in 1952, whose bloody dictatorship was immediately followed by the Cuban Revolu- tion of 1959 and the inauguration of Fidel Castro Ruz as a new kind of dictator? Was it that all the lawyers left? What happened to those who stayed? Finally, this paper will conclude with projections for the future - what will the role of the lawyer be in Cuba's future? How will Cubans spend the inheritance of the undying legacy of a man whose words are but one of the few things they have left of him? 14 id. 15id. 161d. at8. 2010 HEIRS OF MARTi ...and the good leader in America is not the one that knows how to govern the German or the French, rather, it is the one that knows what his country is made of