Martinez Ortez, Rafael

Cuba. Los primeros enos de independencia. La intervencion y el establecimiento del gobierno de Don Tomás Estrada Palma ... Tercera edicion. [Volume II sub-titled: Gobierno de Don Tomás Estrada Palma, Elecciones presidenciales da 1905, la guerra civil, la segunda intervencion y el restablecimiento de la República]

Paris: Editorial "Le Livre Libre", 1929. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. [5], 10-452, [2]; [7], 10-519, [1]; one (of two) frontispiece portraits in volume I; high school prize for Cuban Revolutionary Emigrants rubberstamp on both half-titles filled in in ink and dated 1949; postal export slip dated 2004 laid in; original gilt-stamped red cloth, recased with new endpapers; the binding a bit dull and spotted, but nicely rebacked in red gilt-stamped calf. The recipient of the prize was a woman, Maria Elana Diez. This is very likely María Elena Diaz (Suarez) (1931-2022), "an accomplished, educated, well-read woman. She was a top student at the University of Havana until her education was disrupted by the Cuban Revolution. She finished her undergraduate degree at Montclair State University in the 1970s. She then went to work at the Bell Company compiling information for the voluminous telephone books that were a staple of every home in that era" (see her loving and interesting obituary at: www[.]megaromemorialhome[.]com/obituaries/Maria-Elena-Diaz?obId=26758616 for an account of her politically active life in Cuba before arriving in the U.S. in 1966). Don Tomás Estrada Palma (1835–1908) was a prominent Cuban politician, military leader, and the first President of Cuba (1902-1906). This copy lacks the portrait and the one-page testimonial to Gerardo Machado y Morales, the Cuban president at the time this book was published (and presumably lacking on purpose). Machado y Morales was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933. A putative dictator, he "won a non-democratic election where the opposition was repressed. As protests and rebellions became more strident, his administration curtailed free speech and imprisoned, exiled, and murdered Machado's opponents ... Ultimately, in 1933, Machado was forced to step down" (Wikipedia). The missing portrait and testimonial (whether at the hands of Ms. Diaz, or not), and the high-school prize stamp for a politically active Cuban woman give this book a bit of added interest. Item #73155

Price: $135.00