The Development and Political Significance of the Cuban Student Movement, 1923‐1933

Abstract

In the decade prior to the establishment of the revolutionary government in 1933, a politically potent student movement emerged in Cuba. The evolution of the Cuban student movement into a prominent political force in the country during the decade spanning the years 1923 to 1933 was marked by three distinct stages and was spurred by three extraordinary events. The first upsurge in Cuban university student activities in 1923 was directly influenced by the University Reform Movement, which emerged in Argentina in 1918. This first stage focused on the institutional reform of the university and this focus characterized the student movement both in the Argentine and Cuban cases. The second stage of the Cuban student movement occurred in 1927. This stage was marked by the university students’ response to President Gerardo Machado’s manipulation of the Cuban constitution. Therefore, the student movement was oriented in a more political direction, focusing on national issues, though maintaining the initiative of the first stage in demanding a university changed to be more responsive to modern Cuban society. In the final stage of this decade of the student movement, which began in 1930, the students openly confronted the increasingly dictatorial regime of President Machado and they participated in revolutionary activities against it including engaging in urban terrorism. By 1933, one wing of the university student movement was closely associated with the progressive government of Ramón Grau San Martín, which hademerged from a student influenced coup d’état arising from a sergeants’ revolt against the officer class in the army.