Gerardo Machado

Infobox President
name =Gerardo Machado y Morales

---

caption =
order = 5th
office = President of Cuba
term_start = 20 May 1925
term_end = 24 August 1933
vicepresident =Carlos de la Rosa
predecessor = Alfredo Zayas
successor = Ramón Grau San Martín
birth_date = 28 September 1871
birth_place = Camajuaní, Cuba
death_date = 29 March 1939
death_place = Miami Beach, Florida USA
nationality = flagicon|Cuba Cuban
party = Liberal Party
otherparty =
spouse = Elvira Machado Nodal
relations =
children =Laudelina (Nena) Machado-Machado
Angela Elvira Machado-Machado
Berta Machado-Machado
Leonor Machado
Heriberto Machado
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =


website =
footnotes =

Gerardo Machado y Morales (September 28, 1871, Camajuani – March 29, 1939, Miami Beach, Florida) was a Cuban general of the Cuban War of Independence and the 5th president of Cuba (1925-1933). He was from the central provinces and poor background, he was said to have been a cattle rustler before he joined the fight for independence. A butcher in his youth, he had only three fingers on his left hand.

Family

He married his cousin, Elvira Machado Nodal (1868-1968)and they had three daughters; Laudelina (Nena), Angela Elvira and Berta. [ [http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/machado.htm Gerardo Machado, from The History of Cuba ] at www.historyofcuba.com] Machado also had two children out of wedlock, Leonor and Heriberto Machado.

War experience

He was one of the youngest Cuban generals of the 1895 to 1898 Cuban War of Independence. [ [http://www.cubagenweb.org/mil/mambi/e-generals.htm Generales del Ejército Libertador de Cuba ] at www.cubagenweb.org] Only two other War of Independence generals were younger: Calixto Enamorado (1874-1951) [ [http://www.spanamwar.com/calixtoenamorado.htm Enamorado ] at www.spanamwar.com] and Enrique Loynaz del Castillo (1871-1963), [ [http://www.spanamwar.com/delcastillo.htm Enrique Loynaz del Castillo ] at www.spanamwar.com] . [ [http://loynaz.com/Enrique%20Loynaz%20del%20Castillo.htm Enrique Loynaz del Castillo ] at loynaz.com] Gerardo Machado fought in the middle provinces [ [http://webcutc.org/documentos/notinoticias14.htm Noti-CUTC ] at webcutc.org] along with José Miguel Gómez (1858-1921) who also was president on the Liberal Party ticket and José de Jesus Monteagudo who would later defeat the disorganized black separatist forces of Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet win the 1912 Race War [ [http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org/oaghb115.php LA GUERRA RACIAL DE 1912 ] at www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org] and cruelly crush this rebellion. [ [http://dodgson.ucsd.edu/las/cuba/1912-1929.htm SSHL: Latin American Election Statistics: Cuba: Elections and events 1912-1929 ] at dodgson.ucsd.edu]

Machado, said to the party's War leader in Las Villas province, fought on the defeated Liberal side in the 1917 "Little War of February 1917” La Chambelona (Chambelona War), with José Miguel Gómez, Alfredo Zayas and with Enrique Loynaz del Castillo. Calixto Enamorado fought on the Conservative side. After the initial victories of the Liberals, things turned worse. Yet Machado continued to fight even after the Liberals lost to the machine guns of Colonel Rosendo Collazo at Caicaje [ [http://webcutc.org/documentos/notinoticias14.htm Noti-CUTC ] at webcutc.org] once the hacienda of Santiago Saura Orraque [http://genealogia.hbpomares.com/html/cuba/remedios/diccionario/diccionario_S.htm] and Juan Manuel Perez de la Cruz [http://genealogia.hbpomares.com/html/cuba/remedios/diccionario/diccionario_P.htm] on 8th of March until his cause was unsustainable and surrendered. [http://www.islasi.com/archivo/fuiqui_fuiqui.html]

President Mario García Menocal had clearly won. Technically there was no US intervention in this war [http://www.uchile.cl/facultades/filosofia/Editorial/libros/discurso_cambio/46Fonte.pdf] and Cuban Army Offices notably Julio Sanguilí, in Santiago, [http://xoomer.virgilio.it/giasone4/e-book/CronologiaSantiagoCU100403.pdf] regained control. Since in this war the Liberals were said to be pro-German, US President Woodrow Wilson, worried about Mexico and Pancho Villa, and the loss of able general, Menocal's friend and Cuba hand Frederick Funston had one less distraction on his hands. Menocal declared war on Germany April 7 of that same year. John J. Pershing, less tactful than Funston, in the Cuban circumstance, would be sent first to Mexico and then Europe.

Political life

A political figure, he served in the Liberal Party Administration of José Miguel Gómez. [ [http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/machado.htm Gerardo Machado, from The History of Cuba ] at www.historyofcuba.com] Allied with his predecessor outgoing president Alfredo Zayas and running as a Liberal Party candidate, he defeated Mario García Menocal of the Conservative Party by an overwhelming majority to become Cuba's 5th president. He took office as President of Cuba on May 20, 1925 and left office on August 12, 1933. Elected at the time of a fall in world sugar prices, he was a Cuban industrialist and member of the political elite of the Liberal Party. Machado was an economic reformer who tried to wean Cuba off of its heavy reliance on the sugar industry and resultant dependency on the United States. His presidency saw the passage of the Vejeda Act of 1926, which attempted to raise sugar prices by cutting production, and the Customs-Tariff Law of 1927, which sought to encourage the diversification of Cuban industry.

Machado was determined to modernize Cuba, [http://www.text.net/machado/05Reform.pdf] he constructed the Central Highway. [ [http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/highway.htm Cuba's Central Highway ] at www.historyofcuba.com] Politically he was less adroit, he determined to make Cuba the "Switzerland of the Americas" and became despotic and forced his way into a second term. By this time Machado had become an equal opportunity tyrant as documented by Walker Evans [http://havanajournal.com/culture_comments/A1244_0_3_0_M/] and had made many enemies of the political left (except for a period of truce with the Cuban Communist Party), the center and the right. He also abused and censored the press, [http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=6&cont=show.php&item=32] . [ [http://homepage.mac.com/thorntonstreiff/Patricia_Lee_TGHK.html Patricia_Lee_TGHK ] at homepage.mac.com] The struggles against Machado have influenced both film [ [http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showreview.php3?ID=6990 DOc DVD Review: We Were Strangers (1949) ] at www.digitallyobsessed.com] and literature. However, to place the matter in international context, during Machado’s rule Mussolini controlled Italy, [http://www.nuestramerica.com.ar/noticias.asp] and Hitler was busy in Germany; there was Depression in the US. It was in these turbulent times when Machado ruled that Cuban links to the Stalinist Communist International were made for the first time by Fabio Grobart. [http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro/1987/19870823] . [ [http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/cubaqui/zayas.html Liberales y Comunistas 1920-1933, Zayas y Machado ] at www.angelfire.com]

Although Machado is said to have ordered the murder of defecting communist Julio Antonio Mella in Mexico this murder is generally conceded to have been carried out by the Stalinist faction of the Communist International who were in a death struggle with the followers of Leon Trotsky. The actual assassination was done by an action group that included notorious communist assassin Vittorio Vidali. Trotsky was eventually also murdered in that country by communist assassin Ramón Mercader.

Machado loses power

In Cuba, Machado engaged in a long struggle with diverse insurgent groups which varied from the green shirts of the ABC to Blas Hernandez, to the conservative veterans of the Cuban War of Independence to the radical Antonio Guiteras group, and clung on for several years. As Cuba was hit with severe poverty during the Great Depression, discontent increased which was met by death squad tactics by Machado, swelling the numbers of such insurgents. Thousands were massacred by Machado's government and insurgent groups responded with terrorist campaigns against government officials and buildings. Machado turned almost all Cubans, from the richest to the poorest, into his dedicated enemies. He was finally toppled in the 1933 by US influence, Sumner Welles, [cite journal
last = PHILIP
first = DUR
year = 2002
title = US Diplomacy and the Downfall of a Cuban Dictator: Machado in 1933
journal = Journal of Latin American Studies
volume = 34
issue = 2
pages = 255
doi = 10.1017/S0022216X02006417
format = full text] old Cuban War of Independence Veterans, Army Officers and Civic Leaders in a general strike [ [http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/machado.htm Gerardo Machado, from The History of Cuba ] at www.historyofcuba.com] (Alba, 1968). His regime's collapse was followed by a revolution led by dissident students, labor activists, and non-commissioned military officers, that left the power in the hands of Fulgencio Batista. He died in Miami Beach and is buried in Miami at Woodlawn Park Cemetery and Mausoleum (now Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North Park Cemetery and Mausoleum) . [ [http://www.seesharppress.com/cubananarchism.html Cuban Anarchism Excerpt ] at www.seesharppress.com] [ [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/dolgoff/cubanrevolution/chapter5.html The Cuban Revolution, Chapter 5 ] at dwardmac.pitzer.edu] .

References

Memoirs and papers

Machado y Morales, Gerardo (written in 1936 published in 1957 and later) Ocho años de lucha – memorias. Ediciones Universales, [http://www.ediciones.com/HSP-Cuba-Jueces.php] and Ediciones Historicas Cubanas. Miami ISBN 0-89729-328-2 ISBN 0-89729-328-2

A collection Gerardo Machado’s papers have been digitized by the Cuban Heritage Collection Digitizing Project of the University of Miami [http://digital.library.miami.edu/chcdigital/grants/imls2000_rep2.shtml] .

General references

* Alba, Víctor 1968 Politics and the labor movement in Latin America. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California . ASIN B0006BNYGK
* Duarte Oropesa, José (1989) "Historiología Cubana". Ediciones Universal Miami ISBN 84-399-2580-8
* Carrillo, Justo 1985 Cuba 1933: Estudiantes, Yanquis y Soldados. University of Miami Iberian Studies Institute ISBN 0-935501-00-2 Transaction Publishers (January 1994) ISBN 1-56000-690-0
* Masó, Calixto (1998) "Historia de Cuba" 3rd edition. Ediciones Universal, Miami. ISBN 0-89729-875-6
* Perez, Louis A. Jr. "Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution." Third Edition. New York/Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2006
* Perez-Stable, Marifeli (1999); "The Cuban Revolution". Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Riera Hernández, Mario. 1953. Cincuenta y dos años de política: Oriente, 1900-1952. La Habana.
* Riera, Mario. 1955. Cuba política, 1899-1955. La Habana: Impresora Modelo, S.A.
* Riera Hernández, Mario. 1968. Cuba libre: 1895-1958. Miami: Colonial Press of Miami, Inc.
* Riera Hernández, Mario. 1974. Cuba repúblicana: 1899-1958. Miami: Editorial AIP.
* Thomas, Hugh (1998) "Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom." Da Capo Press; Updated edition (April, 1998) ISBN 0-306-80827-7
* Perez-Stable, Marifeli (1999); "The Cuban Revolution". Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* cite book
last = Otero
first = Juan Joaquin
authorlink =
title = Libro De Cuba, Una Enciclopedia Ilustrada Que Abarca Las Artes, Las Letras, Las Ciencias, La Economia, La Politica, La Historia, La Docencia, Y ElProgreso General De La Nacion Cubana - Edicion Conmemorative del Cincuentenario de la Republica de Cuba, 1902-1952
publisher =
series =
year = 1954
doi =
isbn = (Spanish)

Chambelona

* Cano Vázquez, F. 1953: La Revolución de la Chambelona. Revista Bohemia. La Habana, May 1st 1953. 45 (19) 82-86, 184, 188.
* González, Reynaldo 1978 Nosotros los liberales nos comimos la lechona. Editorial de Ciencias Sociales. Havana
* Waldemar, León Caicaje: Batalla Final de una Revuelta. Bohemia pp. 100-103, 113
*Montaner, Carlos Alberto 1982 Cuba: claves para una conciencia en crisis. [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:iX8RGiuUyTEJ:www.firmaspress.com/Cuba_claves_para_una_conciencia_en_crisis.pdf+Portell+Vila,+Herminio++La+Chambelona+&hl=en]
*Montaner, Carlos Alberto 1999 Viaje al Corazón de Cuba. Planes and Janés [http://www.firmaspress.com/viaje-al-corazon-de-cuba.pdf]
*Morales y Morales, Vidal 1959 (printed 1962) Sobre la guerra civil de 1917. Documentos del Siglo XX, Boletín del Archivo Nacional. Volume 58 pp.178-256.
*Parker, William Belmont 1919 Cubans of Today Putnam's Sons, New York,
*Portell Vila, Herminio La Chambelona en Oriente. Bohemia pp. 12-13, 112-125.
*Primelles, L- 1955 Crónica cubana, 1915-1918: La reelección de Menocal y la Revolución de 1917. La danza de los millones - Editorial Lex, Havana.