Grau San Martin, Ramón

Grau San Martin, Ramón 

Born Sept. 13, 1887. in La Palma, Pinar del Rio Province; died July 28. 1969, in Havana. Statesman and political figure of Cuba. Physiologist.

From 1921. Grau San Martin was a professor of physiology at the University of Havana, and from 1927 he participated in the struggle against the dictatorship of G. Machado. He was the head of Cuba’s provisional revolutionary government from September 1933 to January 1934. In 1934, Grau San Martin founded the so-called Cuban Revolutionary Party (also called the Auténtico Party), and from 1944 to 1948 he was president of the republic. At the beginning of his administration he carried out some progressive reforms, but after World War II he began repressing democratic forces. From 1952 to 1958 he was head of the right wing of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. Although Grau San Martin opposed the regime of the dictator F. Batista, he did not actively fight against it. In 1959 he retired from political activity.

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