José Miguel Pérez (politician)

José Miguel Pérez (8 December 1896 – 4 September 1936) was a Canarian politician.[1] He founded the Cuban Communist Party (Partido Comunista Cubano) in 1925 along with Carlos Baliño, Alfonso Bernal del Riesgo, and Julio Antonio Mella.[2]

José Miguel Pérez
1st First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
In office
18 August 1925 – 31 August 1925
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJosé Peña Vilaboa
Personal details
Born(1896-12-08)8 December 1896
Santa Cruz de La Palma
Died4 September 1936(1936-09-04) (aged 39)
Barranco del Hierro, Tenerife
NationalitySpanish
Political partyPopular Socialist Party (Cuba)
Other political
affiliations
Communist Party of Spain
Communist Party of the Canary Islands
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionTeacher

Biography

edit

He was born on the island of La Palma in 1896, and in 1921 he emigrated to Cuba, where he joined the Socialist Group of Havana. In 1926, together with union members, students, and intellectuals, he formed the Communist Group of Havana. In 1925, alongside Julio Antonio Mella, he founded the Communist Party of Cuba, with José Miguel Pérez being elected as its general secretary.

During the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado, he was expelled from Cuba and returned to the island of La Palma.[3] In the Canary Islands, he continued his political activity and in 1929 founded the La Palma Workers' Federation and the newspaper Espartaco. He also participated in the founding of the Socialist Party in La Palma and, in 1933, the Communist Party of the Canary Islands. He was elected general secretary of the Communist Party of the Canary Islands in La Palma and became one of the most important figures in the party, alongside Gomeran Guillermo Ascanio. During this time, through the Espartaco newspaper, he criticized the bourgeois nature of the Second Spanish Republic. He later adopted the political line of the PCE and influenced the Communist Party of the Canary Islands to participate in the Popular Front. He took part in the resistance against the military coup of Francisco Franco in La Palma during the period known as the Red Week. After the island fell to the Nationalists, he was arrested and taken to Tenerife, where he was sentenced to death.[3]

On 4 September 1936, he was executed by firing squad by the coup forces in Barranco del Hierro, a place where numerous political prisoners were executed.[4]

References

edit
  1. ^ Canarias-semanal.org. "JOSÉ MIGUEL PÉREZ, EL PALMERO QUE FUNDÓ NADA MENOS QUE DOS PARTIDOS COMUNISTAS". Canarias-semanal I Digital informativo de ámbito internacional y actualización diaria (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-04-19.
  2. ^ "Communist Party of Cuba | History, Ideology & Structure | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-09-04. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  3. ^ a b Fuentes, Carlos (2008). Los últimos de Cuba (in Spanish). Ediciones IDEA. ISBN 9788483823408. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  4. ^ "José Miguel Pérez, Co-Founder of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Communist Party of the Canary Islands — Canarias-semanal.org, Internationally-focused digital news with daily updates from Monday to Friday". Canarias-semanal.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 March 2018.