Tomás Estrada Palma

Tomás Estrada Palma
1st President of CubaIn office
20 May 1902 – 28 September 1906 Vice PresidentLuis Estévez Romero and Domingo Méndez Capote Preceded by None Succeeded by José Miguel GómezBorn 9 July 1832
Bayamo, CubaDied 4 November 1908
Santiago de Cuba, CubaNationality CubanPolitical party Moderate Party Other political
affiliations Cuban Revolutionary Party. Spouse Genoveva Guardiola Arbizu Children Jose M. Estrada-Palma Guardiola Occupation Attorney

Tomás Estrada y Palma (Bayamo, July 9, 1832 – Santiago de Cuba, November 4, 1908) was a Cuban political figure, [1]. He served as the first President of Cuba between 1902 and 1906.

1 Fight for independence
2 First term
3 Second term
4 Personal Life
5 Statue
6 References

Fight for independence

Tomás Estrada Palma was an important Cuban general in the Ten Years' War.

Estrada Palma was captured by Spanish troops and sent into exile. While in exile, he traveled to New York where he worked with José Martí.

After Martí's death, Estrada Palma became the new leader of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

When the revolutionaries established a Government in arms, Estrada Palma was sent to Washington as its diplomat. With the help of an American banker, he tried offering Spain $150 million to give up the island, a plan that failed.

He was, however, successful in getting the US Congress to pass the Joint Resolution. This bill was one of the factors that led the United States to declare war on Spain, demanding that Cuba be freed from Spanish colonial rule[citation needed]. (see Spanish-American War)

First term

After a few years of General Leonard Wood's rule in Cuba, elections were to be held. The Republican Liberals, headed by José Miguel Gomez, and the National Liberals, headed by Alfredo Zayas, both supported Estrada Palma. He did not campaign though, staying the full time in the U.S., where he was a citizen.

Palma's opponent, General Bartolomé Masó withdrew his candidacy in protest against favoritism by the occupational government and the manipulation of the political machine by Estada Palma's followers. Thus Palma was left as the only candidate.[1] On December 31, 1901, Estrada Palma was elected President. His politics have been likened to those of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.[citation needed]

American troops left after the Cuban government signed a bill lowering tariffs on American products and incorporated the Platt Amendment into their constitution. Many American companies came to do business in Cuba.

On February 16, 1903, Estrada Palma signed the Cuban-American Treaty, agreeing to lease the Guantanamo Bay area to the United States, in perpetuity, for use as a naval base and coaling station.

Second term

Estrada Palma was re-elected in 1906, but this time against violent opposition by the moderates, who claimed electoral fraud. Estrada Palma and the liberal camp appealed to the US for intervention, and in 1906 the US installed a provisional occupation government which lasted from 1906 to 1909. After 1908 elections, another pro-American government was established in Cuba under Charles Magoon [2].

Personal Life

Born in Bayamo, Cuba, Estrada Palma was the son of Andrés Duque de Estrada y Palma and wife and cousin María Candelaria de Palma y Tamayo. He married in Honduras with Genoveva Guardiola Arbizu, daughter of General José Santos Guardiola, President of Honduras, and wife Ana de Arbizu, and they had six children: Manuel José Estrada Palma Guardiola (b. 1875); Tomás Andrés Estrada Palma Guardiola (1884-1960), married in 1910 to Helen Douglas Browne and had issue; Carlos Joaquín Estrada Palma Guardiola; María de la Candelaria Estrada Palma Guardiola (b. 1887); Mariana de la Luz Estrada Palma Guardiola; and Rafael Morales Estrada Palma Guardiola. He was an attorney, and died in Santiago de Cuba.

Statue

A statue of Estrada Palma was erected in the "Avenida de los Presidentes" in Havana. It was pulled down by Fidel Castro's revolutionaries, reportedly because they blamed Estrada Palma for starting the trend of U.S. intervention in Cuba. The plinth, with a pair of shoes, remains.

Estrada Road (Old U.S. Route 6) through Central Valley, a hamlet in the Town of Woodbury, in Orange County, New York is named after Tomas Estrada Palma. Palma spent many years of his exile in the United States in the Orange County town and ran a summer camp which has since been abandoned along the road bearing his name.

References

Mellander, Gustavo A.; Nelly Maldonado Mellander (1999). Charles Edward Magoon: The Panama Years. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor. ISBN 1563281554. OCLC 42970390.

Otero, Juan Joaquin (1954). 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. (Spanish)

Preceded by
None President of Cuba
1902–1906 Succeeded by
José Miguel Gómez