Authentic Party (PA)

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Authentic Party (PA)

After Fulgencio Batista had engineered the downfall of Ramón Grau San Martín and the thwarting of the 1933 revolution, the students who had supported Grau were angry and disillusioned. Many who desired to continue fighting formed the Authentic Party (Auténtico Party—PA) in 1934. Their model was the party of Jose Martí (the Partido Revolucionario Cubano of 1892). Leaders of the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario joined the new party and Grau San Martín was appointed president. The Auténtico program called for economic and political nationalism, social justice, and civil liberties.

Through the mid-1940s the Auténticos consistently opposed Batista and his puppet presidents. In 1944, Grau and the Auténticos were elected, during a period in which organized use of violence to achieve political power increased. To many Cubans in the late 1940s, the Auténticos and Grau had failed to fulfill the aspirations of the anti-Machado revolution, especially with regard to administrative honesty. Eduardo Chibás and others split from the party in 1947, forming the Partido del Pueblo Cubano (Ortodoxo). The failure of the Auténticos to bring profound structural, economic, and political changes to Cuba was perhaps the most important factor contributing to Batista's 1952 coup.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hugh Thomas, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971).

Jaime Suchlicki, Historical Dictionary of Cuba (1988) and Cuba: From Columbus to Castro, 3d ed. (1990).

Additional Bibliography

Vignier, E., and Guillermo Alonso. La corrupción política administrativa en Cuba, 1944–1952. Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1973.

Whitney, Robert. State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920–1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Jaime Suchlicki

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture