| dc.description.abstract | Consistent with the Latin American tradition of student involvement in politics, University of Havana students participated actively in Cuba's political history. Influenced by the Cordoba Reform Movement and the Mexican and Russian Revolutions, Cuban students organized in the early 1920's and began searching for answers to the islands' many problems. Student discontent first found expression in the 1923 university reform movement. By the end of the decade, however, students joined the insurrection against Gerardo Machado's dictatorship. With Machado's overthrow an era of reform ensued. The students saw themselves as continuing the revolution which the U. S. frustrated in 1898, and as the heirs to Marti's legacy. Opposing American supervision, the humiliating Platt Amendment, and the mediation efforts of U. S. Ambassador Benjamin Sumner Welles, this generation of 1930 found inspiration and guidance in Marti's teachings. On September 4, 1933, the students were catapulted into power in a unique, though short-lived, alliance with the military. The U. S. refusal to recognize the student government led by university professor Ramon Grau San Martin, the rising power of military caudillo Fulgencio Batista, and the regime's inner conflict, all led to Grau's downfall. In the following years Batista and the army dominated political life. Desiring to continue fighting for their frustrated revolution, many students who felt disillusioned joined the Autentico Party. Although the Party's nationalistic program, together with Grau's "mystique", captured the imagination of the masses, the Autenticos could not attain power until 1944. In mid-1940's the pattern of urban violence evident During Machado's rule reappeared. Batista's tight political control and the events of World War II prevented the wide-spread growth of terrorist groups. With the end of the war and the coming to power of the Autenticos, organized use of violence increased. Protected by university autonomy, these pistoleros found refuge and allies at the university. Violence became one of the main characteristics of student politics. It was in this environment that Fidel Castro and other leaders received their first schooling in politics. While studying law at the university in the late 1940's, Castro participated in the activities of student gangs, enrolled in an abortive expedition against the Trujillo dictatorship in 1947, attended an anti-imperialist student meeting in Bogota in 1948, and joined the Ortodoxo Party. Castro's university years exposed him to the realism of power politics, to the idealism of Ortodoxo leader Eduardo Chibas' program, and to the authoritarianism of Fascism and Communism. Batista's coup d'etat in 1952 afforded an additional motivation for student activism. Students laid their rivalries aside, directing all efforts against their common enemy, the inability of Cuba's political parties to unite against Batista or to pressure for free elections, and the Dictator's insistence on remaining in power, finally thrust upon the students the role of leading the anti-Batista struggle. Throughout the period 1955-1957, the Communists attempted unsuccessfully to infiltrate, undermine, and dominate the student Federation and the Directorio, the students' insurrectionary organization. The failure of the Directorio's attack on the Presidential Palace, together with a Communist informant's denunciation of several student leaders and their subsequent assassination by Batista's police dealt a death blow to the organization. This denunciation further reduced the Directorio's importance, clearing the road. for Castro's emergence and his eventual conquest of power. Following the anti-Batista struggle, the students lost their prominent power. After violating the university's autonomy, the Castro regime incorporated the university into the country's political system. Today student involvement in politics has reached a low ebb. With the Minister of Education shaping administrative and educational policies and with the Communist Party directing student activities, the university has became an appendage of the State, producing needed brainpower for the developmental process. A total of twenty six interviews were conducted with former University of Havana leaders, student activists, and political figures. Although these interviews provide the main substance of the data obtained, wherever possible documentary evidence was used to supplement these accounts. Since interviews varied in value because of the intense involvement of some and the faulty memory of others, they were used cautiously. | |
