RAMóN GRAU

Dr. 'Ramón Grau San Martin' (September 13, 1887 in La Palma, Pinar del Rio, Cuba - July 28, 1969 in Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban physician and President of Cuba (1933-34, 1944-48).

Contents

Youth

Activism and the Revolution of 1933

Constitution of 1940

Election of 1944

Youth

His father, a rich tobacco grower, wanted him to continue in his footsteps, but he wanted to be a doctor. He studied at the University of Havana and graduated in 1908 with a degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then lived in Europe to expand his medical knowledge and returned to Cuba in 1921 and became a professor of physiology at the University of Havana.

Activism and the Revolution of 1933

In the 1920's he was involved with the student protests against then-president Gerardo Machado, and in 1931 he was jailed. Upon his release he went into exile in the United States.
Though he initially became President, he was eventually marginalized by army chief of staff Fulgencio Batista, who distanced the military from other elements of the revolution and became ''de facto'' leader of Cuba behind the scenes. Batista forced Grau's resignation in 1934. That same year he went on to found the Partido Auténtico.

Constitution of 1940

Grau was instrumental in passing the 1940 Cuban constitution. For much of the Constitutional Convention, he served as the presiding officer (even after his coalition was pushed into the minority after the defection of one of the parties that formed it). He would eventually come to be replaced by Carlos Márquez Sterling.
In 1940 Grau ran in the presidential election and lost to Fulgencio Batista. Most independent observers at the time qualified the 1940 election as free and fair elections.

Election of 1944

In 1944 Grau won the popular vote in the presidential election and served until 1948. Despite his initial popularity in 1933, accusations of corruption tainted his administration's image, and a sizable number of Cubans began to distrust him.
After turning over the presidency to his protégé, Carlos Prío Socarrás, in 1948, Grau virtually withdrew from public life. He emerged again in 1952 to oppose Batista's coup d'etat. Grau ran for president in the 1954 and 1958 Batista-sponsored elections but withdrew just prior to each election day, claiming government fraud. After the Cuban revolution and the rise of Fidel Castro in 1959, Grau retired to his home in Havana, where he died on July 28, 1969.