Cuban Institutions and Groups

Although, like similar organizations in other Communist countries the OPJM was inspired by, and in some of its superficial features derived from, the  Boy Scouts, its primary goal is to train and educate children in the norms and views of a Marxist-Leninist society.  Until 1966 the then Unión de Pioneros de Cuba (UPC) was somewhat selective, but it was […]

During the first United States intervention, the North American Trust Company of New York acted in Cuba as the government’s fiscal agent.  In July 1901, these Cuban operations became the Banco Nacional de Cuba, and normal banking services were added, with branches throughout the island.  Although it did not fulfill all functions of a central Bank, the

The Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank was set up in December 1950 with a capital of $10,000,000 as an autonomous state institution to create and maintain the necessary financial facilities that would provide small farmers and industrialists with credit, mainly medium and long-term loans.  These it apportioned equally between the agricultural and industrial sectors.   BANFAIC

Magazines have been important sources of information and entertainment for the general population in Cuba since the 1830s with (e.g..) the Revista Bimestre Cubana.  The repressive administration of Miguel Tacón was a setback, with the 1840s only notable for the first general women’s’ titles such as El Colibrí (1847-1848), but publishing rebounded in the 1850s.  Later 19th century

From 1956 the Escambray Mountains were the focal point for several guerrilla groups.  Early in 1958 the Directorio Revolucionario launched a guerrilla campaign in the Sierra del Escambray against Batista independent of that of Castro’s Movimiento Veintiseis de Julio in the Sierra Maestra.  However their leaders quarreled and split their forces, those under Faure Chomón choosing to cooperate with a detachment

A December 1955 offshoot of the Federación Estudiantil Universitaria (FEU), the Revolutionary Directorate promoted an insurrectionary response to Batista’s repression, and established contact with other opponents of the regime, including Fidel Castro  Its March 1957 attack on the Presidential Palace failed to kill the president, but cost the life of its leader José A. Echeverría.  Most of its remaining

Cuba’s first organized Students’ Federation, created in late 1922 with Julio Mella as secretary and popular figurehead, in angry response to the corruption and incompetence of many professors at the University of Havana.  Although its first important manifesto on January 10, 1923, concerned only university issues, it was regarded as a challenge to the Zayas government

Created in 1946, by a faction of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Auténtico) that broke with the party, disillusioned with the corruption of the Grau San Martín administration of 1944-1948.  Led by Eduardo Chibás, it adopted a broom as its emblem.  Proclaiming “vergüenza contra dinero” (dignity versus money), the ortodoxos aimed to “clean up” Cuban politics and rescue the revolution of

(1) One of Spain’s two traditional 19th century political parties. (2) Original name of the Partido Liberal Autonimista. (3) Party of the Republic, created in 1903 as the primary opposition to the presidency of Tomás Estrada Palma, whom it overthrew in the Guerrita de Agosto.  One of the Republic’s first parties to organize nationally, it was consolidated as a

After Fulgencio Batista had engineered Grau San Martín’s downfall and the thwarting of the revolution of 1933, the students who had supported Grau were frustrated and disillusioned.  Many desired to continue fighting for their frustrated revolution, and in 1934 they formed the Auténtico party, modeled on Martí’s Partido Revolucionario Cubano of 1892.  Leaders of the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario joined the new party and