Dr. Carlos Márquez Sterling y Guiral (September 8, 1898 – May 3, 1991) was a

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n lawyer, writer, politician and diplomat.

Political career

Born Carlos Guiral y Márquez Sterling on September 8, 1898, in

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 333,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by Sp ...

, Cuba, Márquez Sterling was the son of Captain Guillermo Guiral Dominguez of the Spanish Army and Maria Dolores Márquez Sterling y Loret de Mola, the sister of Cuban President

Manuel Márquez Sterling Manuel Márquez Sterling (born Carlos Manuel Agustin Márquez Sterling y Loret de Mola on August 28, 1872 in Lima, Peru – December 9, 1934, Washington, DC, United States) was a Cuban diplomat and interim President of Cuba for 6 hours on Januar ...

who also served as Cuba's Ambassador to the United States for a short time in 1934. This article misidentifies him as the son of the Cuban Ambassador to the U.S. He married twice, first Silvia Dominguez y O'Mahony and then Uva Hernandez Cata. He had two sons, Carlos and Manuel Marquez Sterling y Dominguez (Cuba, 1931-U.S. 2022). Márquez Sterling was an attorney and professor of law and economics at the

University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...

. He founded the Manuel Márquez Sterling School of Journalism at the University of Havana. He served as a member of Cuba's

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

as a member of the Liberal Party and was elected president of that body in April 1936 after weeks of deadlocked negotiations among parties, none of which controlled a majority of votes in the chamber. Following the impeachment of President Miguel Mariano Gomez in December, which ended the three-party coalition that had supported him, he was forced to resign in February 1937 following a 101 to 28 vote of no confidence. He also served as Minister of State and Minister of Education. In 1940, he was the president of the constitutional assembly that over six months wrote the

1940 Constitution of Cuba The 1940 Constitution of Cuba was implemented during the presidency of Fulgencio Batista on 10 October 1940. It was primarily influenced by the collectivist ideas that inspired the Cuban Revolution of 1933. Widely considered one of the most pro ...

. President

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (born Rubén Zaldívar; January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who played a dominant role in Cuban politics from his initial rise to power as part of the 1933 Revolt of t ...

named him Secretary of Labor in his first cabinet in 1940 (one month). He resigned after a few weeks to seek election as president of the House of Representatives, a post he held for about a year before resigning for reasons of ill health in August 1942. In the 1950s, he was detained many times by the government of

because of his opposition to Batista dictatorship. He ran unsuccessfully in the 1958 Cuban general election for President of Cuba as head of the Free Peoples Party. The following year the government of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

placed him under house arrest. He then went into exile.

Exile

He taught at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and at C.W. Post College on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. In 1979, he moved to Miami and taught at Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University) and gave conferences at

Florida International University Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...

. He also wrote opinion columns for the Spanish-language newspaper ''

Diario Las Américas ''Diario las Américas'' is the first Spanish-language newspaper founded in South Florida, the second oldest in the United States dedicated to Spanish-speaking readers, after ''La Opinión'', in Los Angeles. Its first copy circulated on July 4, ...

''. He authored more than twenty books, including a history of Cuba, ''Historia de Cuba Desde Colón Hasta Castro'' (1963). In 1984, the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the C ...

honored him for his contribution to "Cuba, democracy, justice and liberty". He died on May 3, 1991, in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. He is buried in Miami Memorial Park Cemetery.

References

Sources

* ''Carlos Márquez Sterling, Memorias de un estadista: Frases y escritos en correspondencia'' (edited by Manuel Márquez Sterling) (Miami, Florida: Ediciones Universal, 2005) * ''Cuba: Anuario Historico 1991''; Esteban M. Beruvides (Miami, Florida: AD Ventures International, 1992) * ''Memorias de Carlos Márquez Sterling", ''extensive video interview produced as part of Florida International University Cuban Living History Project. The documentary is available at FIU's Green Library as part of the Cuban Living History collection ((Coral Gables, Florida: Village Films; 1990) ''
video clip
* ''Cuba and Its Right to Freedom''; Lincoln Rodon Alvarez (Miami, Florida: Editorial Laurenty Publishing Inc., 1987) * ''Fulgencio Batista: From Revolutionary to Strongman''; Frank Argote-Freyre (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2006) * ''Semper Fidel: America & Cuba 1776–1988''; Michael J. Mazarr (Baltimore, Maryland: The Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of America, Inc., 1988) * ''Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom''; Hugh Thomas (London, Great Britain: Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd., 1971) * ''Directorio Social de la Habana 1948'', (Havana, Cuba: P. Fernandez y Cia S.A.) * ''Registro Social de la Habana 1958'' (Havana, Cuba: Molina y Cia S.A., 1958) * ''Anuario de Familias Cubanas 1988'' (Miami, Florida: Trejos Hermanos Sucrs., Inc., 1988) * ''Historia de Familias Cubanas'' (Miami, Florida: Ediciones Universal, 1985) ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Marquez Sterling, Carlos 20th-century Cuban lawyers Government ministers of Cuba Cuban people of Dominican Republic descent 1898 births 1991 deaths Speakers of the House of Representatives of Cuba

Political career

Exile

See also

References

Sources