Approved on July 1st of the year that gives it its name, the Constitution of 1940 could have been perfectible in many ways, like all human works. However, 82 years after that event, a consistent and honest look will highlight above all how faithful it was to its time and to the spirit of its distinguished predecessors, and its contribution to a progressive jurisprudence, with a clear attachment to justice, civility, human dignity and patriotic values.
With the forms of bourgeois liberal thought, according to Raul Roa Garcia, the important thing about this document was not what it had achieved, but that it established the way, the channel for the future. Even when it was supposed to protect just and emancipating laws that could never become a reality, its value is evident.
This Magna Carta endorsed for the first time in Latin America the inalienable right of man to work, the equality of women and all people without distinction of race, access to public health services and general education, universal suffrage, in addition to the prohibition of large estates, among other advances then unheard of, which achieved a deeper social approach, previously unseen.
Within jurisprudence, it already stood out in its time, as it does today, for being modern and advanced. From the point of view of the development of the intellectual and humanist creation of Cuban thought, together with its patriotic, political and revolutionary progression in the background, its preparation and proclamation were steps that will always make us proud, despite the vicissitudes and ostracism it suffered.
The symbolic document was approved by the Constituent Assembly in charge of its drafting in Gualimaro, the land where the Republic in Arms and the first Cuban Constitution was established in 1869, on the aforementioned date. That same year, on October 10, it was put into effect.
Its significant and deep-rooted text came from a patriotic intellectuality that knew and suffered the excesses of a U.S. intervention and then a Platt Amendment. It also came from the revolutionary awareness and the wave that had swept away the criminal dictatorship of Gerardo Machado. And it had the influence of leaders such as Julio Antonio Mella, Carlos Baliño, Ruben Martinez Villena, Antonio Guiteras and Lazaro Peña.
Although the 1940 Constitution had the destiny of being mostly a dead letter, within the Cuban political-social practice, its advanced character shone and used to be invoked as a moral sun, many times violated and definitively overturned by Batista, under the orders of the power of the North.
Its validity barely reached 12 years, since on March 10, 1952 the police officer Fulgencio Batista carried out a coup d’état and abolished the Constitution, which was never reinstated in spite of the strong popular mobilizations and claims in its favor.
It is worth mentioning that the maturing of the conscience that made it possible to achieve the aforementioned Magna Carta included the patriotic action and mobilization that had resurfaced since the early 20’s of that century, times in which Cuban society began to grow stronger with the imprint of student organizations, young intellectuals, teachers, workers and farmers, women, who created institutions, unions and confederations and took to the streets in their struggles.
New publications were added to this strong social activity, avant-garde lectures were given, and art and literature were produced that exalted and exposed the historical and cultural roots that formed the nation, even the hidden and neglected ones. Without ceasing to be nourished, moreover, with the most illuminating universal sources.
As can be deduced, the Magna Carta of 1940 was forged in the forge of the struggles of the people and the most advanced legal thinking of its time, with a high level of honesty and courage, something not suitable for tyrants, corrupt and petty thieves.
An act of atonement and significant honor was carried out by the students of the University of Havana and the people, precisely 70 years ago, on April 6, 1952, shortly after Fulgencio Batista’s coup d’état.
It was called the Oath of the Constitution and in it took place, promoted by the Federation of University Students (FEU), the symbolic burial of the corpse of the Magna Carta, outraged by the illegal act of the former army sergeant, future tyrant of Cuba. For several days the students kept vigil over the document and after a journey from the Alma Mater to the Rincon Martiano, today Fragua Martiana, they buried it with the promise to bring it back to life later on. Raul Castro was among the participants in that ceremony.
And among those who at that time denounced the outrage against the Constitution were Fidel Castro Ruz and Armando Hart Davalos.
The moment invoked in the Oath of Allegiance arose when the Revolution triumphed. Much was honored until time and life demanded the logical updates and renovations it deserved.
Cubans approved in 1976 and later in 2019 new Magna Carta in accordance with the changes that were needed, but not without first being inspired by the probative and loyal spirit of all their Mambi predecessors and the one of 1940, seen as an important part of the course of national history.
