Cubans jostle for Spanish citizenship
IANS Sunday 1st February, 2009
Thousands of Cubans have shown interest in becoming Spanish citizens by
taking advantage of a new 'grandchildren's law' that came into effect in
Spain last December.
The Spanish consulate in Havana has received applications from more than
20,000 people since the 'Law of Historical Memory' came into effect in
Spain Dec 29, 2008.
The new law gives an opportunity for getting Spanish nationality to the
descendants of those who fled the country during the civil war between
1936 and 1939. It also gives a right of application to those whose
grandparents fled the dictatorship of Franco, which lasted from 1939
until 1975.
The Spanish consulate here received 20,000 citizenship applications from
Cubans in the first month after the so-called 'grandchildren's law' came
into effect, and already has granted 40 of those requests.
'There were some 20,000 appointments requested during the first month,
and those people will be attended to by the end of May or June,' Spanish
Adjunct Consul Alvaro Kirkpatrick said, adding that 40 Cubans have
already been granted citizenship.
Norberto Luis Diaz Reyes, a 38-year-old doctor, is the first Cuban to
become a Spaniard under this new law.
Kirkpatrick said the consulate 'has done everything possible to avoid'
the skullduggery that has led some Cubans to pay intermediaries for
forms that are available free of charge or to jump ahead of others on
the appointment list.
'We've informed people how things are, that the forms are free and we
even put on the form that it's free,' he said.
The official said the consulate has so far attended around 2,500 cases.
'Our estimate continues to be 300,000 or 400,000 and we expect some
150,000 new Spaniards through the end of 2010,' Kirkpatrick said.
During the early part of Franco's dictatorship, Spain went through a
grim period of economic stagnation and mass emigration continued in the
country from the end of the civil war until the 1960s.
Many of those who sought a new life in Latin America were forced to
renounce their Spanish nationality in order to obtain the citizenship of
their countries of adoption.
The new law is considered a part of several measures to compensate
victims of the civil war and Franco's dictatorship.
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