Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1902
Mr. Squiers to Mr. Hay.
Habana, November 13, 1902.
Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith a translation of a law passed by the Cuban Congress and promulgated on November 7,1902, establishing a procedure for obtaining Cuban citizenship, and to be, etc.
Department of State and Justice.
Be it by these presents known that the Congress has enacted, and I, Tomas Estrada Palma, constitutional President of the Republic of Cuba, have sanctioned the following
Law.
Article 1. The acts by virtue of which Cuban nationality is acquired, lost, or recovered shall be made to appear by means of a record in the section of citizenship of the registry of civil status.
[Page 357]The persons included in the cases referred to in sections 2 and 3 of article 5 of the constitution and the second of the transitory provisions of the same, and residing abroad, shall exercise the right conferred upon them by the former sections before the diplomatic or consular agent of Cuba nearest to their places of residence.
Article 2. The inscriptions to which the preceding article refers shall be made with the following formalities and requirements:
- 1.
- The date and place where they are drawn.
- 2.
- The names and surnames of the officials authenticating the same.
- 3.
- The names, surnames, and filiation of the parties and the witnesses participating in the act.
The witnesses referred to in the preceding paragraphs shall be two, having legal capacity, and shall make a declaration setting forth the truth of the circumstances which should be expressed in the inscription.
Article 3. The interested parties shall present to the custodian of the registry their certificates of baptism or the certificates of birth, as the case may be, as well as the record or certificate of marriage, should they be married, together with the certificates of birth of the wife and of the children.
Should it be impossible to present the documents referred to in the preceding paragraph, they shall indicate the archives where they may be found and their approximate date.
In the cases where the birth of the interested parties, their wives or their children, shall have been inscribed in the registry of civil status of this island, or in the register-in charge of the diplomatic or consular agent, the acquisition, loss, or recovery of Cuban citizenship shall be made by a marginal note on the record of birth, for which purpose the custodian of the register wherein the said acquisition, loss, or recovery occurs shall remit, within the term of fifteen days counting from that on which the inscription took place, a certificate of the same to the custodian of the register wherein the said birth appears.
For failure to comply with the provisions of the preceding paragraph a fine of from ten to twenty-five dollars, American currency, shall be imposed on the custodian of the register required to remit the certificate.
Article 4. In the inscriptions mentioned in this law the following circumstances shall be expressed if it is possible:
- 1.
- The former domicile of the interested parties.
- 2.
- The names, surnames, place of birth, domicile, and profession or occupation of his parents.
- 3.
- The name, surname, and place of birth of his wife, if he be married.
- 4.
- The names, surnames, place of birth, residence, and profession or occupation of the parents of the latter.
- 5.
- The names, surnames, place of birth, residence of the children, setting forth if any of them are emancipated.
Whenever it is impossible to express any of the circumstances mentioned previously a statement shall be made in the inscription of the reason of that impossibility.
Article 5. In order to be inscribed as Cuban citizens the persons included in section 1 of article 6 of the constitution shall prove by means of the discharge or of any other document issued by a competent revolutionary authority that they have belonged to the liberating army. This proof shall be made by such persons before the custodian of the civil registry of their domicile, should they be in this island, or by means of a special attorney before the custodian of the civil registry at their last place of domicile therein or of the place of domicile where they intend to fix their residence in Cuba, if they are abroad.
Article 6. In order to be inscribed as Cuban citizens the persons included in sections 2 and 3 of article 6 of the constitution shall prove before the custodian of the civil registry of their place of domicile in Cuba the residence required by said sections by means of an authentic document, or proof by witnesses made in the manner established in article 8 of the present law.
The declaration of intention to which the third section of article 6 of the constitution refers should be made before the custodian of the civil registry of the domicile which the interested party has in Cuba with the same formalities as in case of inscription.
Article 7. To be inscribed as Cuban citizens the persons included in section 4 of article 6 of the constitution shall prove before the custodian of the registry of civi! status of their place of domicile in Cuba that they have not been registered in the registry of Spaniards opened in pursuance of the provisions of the treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898; that they are of full age, and that they resided in this island on the 11th day of April, 1899.
The proof of not being inscribed in the said registry of Spaniards must necessarily be made by means of a certificate issued by the functionary of said registry.
The circumstances of full age and of residence shall be accredited by means of [Page 358] proof by witnesses received under oath, before the custodian of the registry of civil status, the witnesses declaring that they resided on the aforesaid date of the 11th of April, 1899, in the same locality as the moving party making the proof.
The interested party shall present a certificate of the captaincy of the port, or proper authority, wherein shall appear the date of his arrival in the island, the age which he then had, whether he came alone or with a family, the name of the vessel which brought him, and of the captain of the same.
Article 8. To be inscribed as Cuban citizens, the persons included in section 5 of article 6 of the constitution shall prove before the custodian of the civil registry of their place of domicile that the circumstances exacted in said section exist as to them by means of a declaration of witnesses received under oath.
Article 9. In all the inscriptions to which this law refers, it shall be made to appear that the interested parties renounce their previous nationality, and that they swear to obey the constitution of the Republic, the laws which are actually in force in this island, and those which may be in force in the future.
Article 10. The custodians of the registry of civil status in this island shall remit to the division of state of the department of state and justice a certificate of each inscription which they make in the books of the section of citizenship; and to the section of registries and notarial affairs of the same department, a comprehensive table of the inscriptions, classified according to the model which said section shall formulate.
The diplomatic or consular agents shall remit to the department of state certificates of the inscriptions referred to in paragraph 2 of article 1 of this law, for their transcription in the registry of civil status of the last place of domicile which the interested parties may have had, or of that which they propose to have in this island.
The term for the remission provided for in the two preceding paragraphs shall be fifteen days, counted from the day following that on which the inscription of transcription in question shall take place.
Failures to fulfill this duty shall be punished gubernatively by the secretary of state.
Article 11. Those who prior to the promulgation of this law have proven in the extinct department of state and government that there exist as to them the circumstances exacted in articles 5, 6, 7, and 8 of this law, are exempted from the proof of the same; as well as those that may have made in the registry of civil status of their domicile the declaration of option or renunciation of nationality, to the end that they might be registered as electors according to the provisions of the additional dispositions of order No. 218 of October 14, 1901.
Article 12. All laws, provisions, orders, or decrees contrary to the provisions of this law are repealed.
Therefore, I command the obedience and enforcement of this law in its entirety.
- T. Estrada Palma.
- Carlos de Zaldo,
Secretary of State and Justice.