The Combat of Virtue against Vice: Ramon Grau San Martin, Eduardo Chibas, and Messianic Disappointment in Mid-Twentieth Century Cuba

As Ramon Grau San Martin campaigned for Cuba's presidency in 1944, popular enthusiasm was such that his right hand was broken as he shook the hands of overzealous supporters.  His eventual victory prompted expectations that an honest and accountable administration would take office after decades of corrupt and dictatorial regimes.   Instead, Cubans were ultimately disenchanted by Grau's tolerance of corruption and apparent disregard for the country's new (1940) constitution. Grau not only demolished the high expectations of his supporters, he undermined his Autentico party and the 1940 constitution, both of which he helped create.

His successor as the leading Autentico politician, Eduardo Chibas, raised even greater expectations than Grau as the new messiah who would end government corruption, cronyism, and incompetence.  An astute manipulator of the media, Chibas' Sunday evening radio show was regarded as the most popular program in the country.  Chibas used it, and his natural charisma, to generate support for a nascent presidential campaign and was the leading contender for that post in 1952 when he shot himself while on the radio in an apparent dramatic gesture gone wrong.  The demise of Chibas, and the hopes he raised, contributed to the 1952 coup by Fulgencio Batista and ultimately to the 1959 revolution. 

Based on materials from Cuban and US archives, including the Grau and Chibas archives on the island, this paper explores messianism in Cuban politics and its relationship to political instability.  Interviews with colleagues of the two individuals both in Cuba and elsewhere help deepen the analysis.  Both Grau and Chibas have entered into Cuban mythology, the former resurrected by Cuban Americans and the latter by official Cuba.