LAS TUNAS, Cuba. – The Democratic Memory Law of October 19, 2022 (Law 20/2022), colloquially called “Grandchildren Law”, comes to give continuity to the letter and spirit of Law 52 of December 26, 2007 of Historical Memory (Law 52/2007 ) and, at the same time, to repair omissions of that legislation by which thousands of Cuban citizens and other countries opted for Spanish citizenship, by virtue of being children of a father or mother who “had originally been Spanish” or grandchildren of whom “they lost or had to renounce their Spanish nationality as a result of exile.”
Since it came into force —with its official publication last week— Law 20/2022 has brought many confusions. According to the interpretation of the new law by the operators themselves, it consecrated the option of Spanish citizenship to very specific groups, among them the descendants of Spanish citizens who had lost their nationality by marrying foreigners, and those born outside of Spain to a father or mother or grandfather or grandmother who, originally, would have been Spanish, but as a result of having suffered exile for political, ideological, or belief reasons, or sexual orientation, had lost or renounced Spanish nationality between July 18 1936 and December 31, 1955.
Seen from that closed perspective, without further interpretation, thousands of direct descendants of “originally” Spanish citizens were left unprotected and outside the protective scope of the “Grandchildren’s Law”, which provoked comments, complaints and the energetic action of civic organizations that, Fortunately, and in a short period of time, they made the General Directorate of Legal Security and Public Faith rule, which officially issued and published the Instruction of October 25, 2022, on the right to opt for Spanish nationality, established in the eighth additional provision of Law 20/2022, which is, in itself, an interpretation of that legislation, in which it states:
“If this law in its eighth additional provision had the purpose of expanding the cases of option compared to those contemplated in Law 52/2007, which now includes the possibility of option for children of legal age and children of women who lost their nationality due to marriage, assumptions not contemplated by the previous law, it seems logical to understand that “the legislator did not want to exclude from the scope of application of this law those who were in the situation described in the first point of the seventh additional provision of Law 52/2007”.
Thus, giving a solution to the conflict due to public and notorious exclusions, the current “Grandchildren’s Law” would include two different assumptions of option for which it is possible to opt for Spanish citizenship; one, that of:
“Those born outside of Spain of a father or mother, grandmother or grandfather who originally would have been Spanish”.
And, two, that of: “Those born outside of Spain of a father, mother, grandfather or grandmother who had originally been Spanish and who, as a consequence of having suffered exile for political, ideological or belief or sexual orientation reasons, had lost or renounced Spanish nationality”.
In the first case, those born outside of Spain to a father or mother, grandmother or grandfather who had originally been Spanish, must accompany the Request to exercise the right of option with a document that proves the identity of the applicant which, according to what has already been used in previous procedures, it could be a photocopy of the identity card, the birth certificate issued by the Civil Registry in which the person appears, the literal birth certificate of the father or mother, grandfather or grandmother who had originally been Spanish or, if this did not exist, the Faith of Baptism. And if the application is requested as a grandchild, then a literal birth certificate of the father or mother to whom the line of grandparents corresponds must also be attached.
In the second case, that of those born outside of Spain to a father, mother, grandfather or grandmother who had originally been Spanish and who, as a result of having suffered exile, had lost or renounced Spanish nationality, must provide, in addition to the certifications indicated in the first case, those that document the exile.
In the solution of a legal conflict, the popular, doctrinal, judicial and administrative interpretation of a law do not always converge, so the authority that interprets that legislation must be guided by logic, objective principles, among which very Grammatical criteria may well be found, seeking that the letter and spirit of that legal instrument that is not entirely clear at the time of its mandatory compliance responds to the legislative will that ended up being law by the will of the majority. And this is the case of the “Grandchildren’s Law” that at the time of its appearance many saw with pain, but now they see it with optimism.
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