Havana Cuba. – Since the approval of the Democratic Memory Law (LMD) last October, thousands of Cubans reconstructed their genealogical tree and analyzed the family’s Spanish ancestry, in search of a direct degree relative that would give them the right to claim citizenship of the Motherland.
Through the new law, the descendants of Spaniards will be able to obtain that citizenship and the inherent rights, such as financial aid and health coverage, without age limits and without the need to live a certain time in Spain.
Those interested in applying the law have two years to process the nationality through different channels, with the possibility of extending it for another year.
“This is a law of hope for Cubans who can inherit Spanish citizenship. What is complicated are the procedures, most of us need advice because we are lost in that, ”he told CubaNet Lenin Rodríguez Prado, one of the Havanans who this week participated in a clarifying meeting on the subject.
The event was held at the Centro Gallego in Havana, where four members of the city’s extensive Spanish community responded to personal concerns and provided general guidance to the more than 200 people who attended the event.
The call, launched from social networks, emerged from the meeting held at the beginning of the month in the Hall of Ambassadors of the Hotel Habana Libre, with the presence of Pilar Cancela, Secretary of State for International Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain. ; and Ángel Martín Peccis, ambassador of the Iberian country in Cuba.
Then, Cancela Rodríguez assured that “on the part of the Cuban government, until now, there is no perception in a negative sense or of hindering, but quite the opposite, which in a certain way guarantees that each file and procedure will have a response.”
However, María Antonia Rabanillo, José Antonio Serra Artímez, Pedro González and María Felicidad, members of the Council of Spanish Residents in Cuba (CRE) who chaired the meeting of the Centro Gallego, recommend applying for nationality by “the first option” as the best way for children and grandchildren of Spanish origin.
“It would be very cumbersome to prove that they emigrated seeking political asylum. That is option 1B; And to be honest, it is almost impossible to obtain Spanish citizenship due to the number of documents that are required and that many will never be able to provide them for only one reason: it will be impossible for them to access them because almost a century has passed,” said Rabanillo. .
One of the questions whose response was not encouraging was whether the LMD included, in any of its assumptions, an option to benefit great-grandchildren.
In general, the members of the CRE explained that the LMD is much more inclusive and easier to document than the previous Law of Historical Memory, or Law 52, as it is also known, but it does not allow direct access of great-grandchildren to the Spanish citizenship.
“Indirectly, yes. Whenever the son-daughter and/or grandson-granddaughter of Spanish origin proves his blood relationship with the grandfather, he may, with the code he receives at the time of presenting all his documentation, include his children opting for the option or annex 3”, reported Rabanillo.
In this sense, he advised presenting the documentation for option 1, which is the one that grants Spanish citizenship to any son-daughter and/or grandson-granddaughter of a Spaniard born in Spain, through the documentation that supports the relationship.
The documents that are presented must be accompanied by original and copy. Those that were issued by the Cuban civil registries also need to be apostilled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX), except those that were registered at the General Consulate of Spain in Havana.
The participants in the meeting were concerned about the “literality” of the birth certificates, since the Cuban civil registries, in general, do not issue literal certifications unless it is strictly necessary and said certification has to be requested by a competent authority. , never by a natural person.
According to the Cuban authorities, the extract certifications issued by the civil registries have the same legal value as the literal ones.
Most of those present were also interested in the status of grandparents who died without completing the citizenship procedures, and especially, if in that case there is a possibility that the grandchildren could claim it.
In this sense, Serra Artímez argued that it is impossible for grandchildren to inherit citizenship “because one registers their successors, never their predecessors.”
At the end of the event, the representatives of the CRE proposed to the different Spanish associations to organize new meetings separately, to address in more detail the concerns of their members.
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