Spain approves Democratic Memory Law that will benefit thousands of Cubans

Spain approved the Democratic Memory Law this Wednesdaythat will benefit thousands of Cubans, while descendants of up to the second generation (grandchildren) of Spanish citizens may acquire Spanish nationality.

After five hours of debate, according toThe world, and a bumpy legislative journey, with hundreds of amendments and very little consensus, the Democratic Memory Law saw the green light from the Senate, the last instance of the parliamentary path that laws take in Spain.

After being approved in the Congress of Deputies in mid-July, the community of Cubans descended from Spanish citizens on the island awaited the end of the procedure and placed their hopes in its approval.

The Spanish Democratic Memory Law included an amendment that provides new cases of acquisition of Spanish nationality to which Cuban citizens could apply.

In the call“Grandchildren Law”, an amendment included in the historical memory legislation, Spanish nationality could be acquired in two ways in the Cuban case:

• The first,opens the door of citizenship to the descendants of Spanish exiles who lost their nationality by marrying a foreigner before 1978.
• AlsoThe adult sons and daughters of Spaniards whose nationality of origin was recognized by virtue of the right of option will benefit..

These are the two points that affect Cubans of Spanish descent, because the rest of the bill focuses on the "recovery, safeguarding and dissemination of democratic values", issues that have sparked great controversy among Spanish political forces.

Until 2018, andthanks to the Spanish Historical Memory Law, Nearly 100,000 people obtained Spanish nationality in Cuba and another 100,000 were in the process of obtaining it..

Estimates from that year calculated that another 200,000 could acquire Spanish nationality. under the law. Approved this Wednesday in the Senate, now only the process of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Spanish State (BOE) remains to be definitively consolidated.

"Many Cubans who in 2010 could not apply for Spanish nationality, because the Historical Memory Law expired, will be able to do so," said Cuban lawyer Estela Marina in 2018. "And then, the children of Cubans who nationalized with said law, they will also be able to choose," added the lawyer.

According to the portal thenMartí NewsIn 2018, some 140,000 people with Spanish nationality resided in Cuba, the majority of whom obtained nationality with the Historical Memory Law enacted by the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2007.

2018 figures published by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics indicated thatCuba was the sixth country in the world with the largest number of Spanish citizens in the world. The first five were Argentina (457,204), France (253,036), Venezuela (167,255), Germany (154,876) and the United States (147,817).

The number of Cuban Spanish citizens then represented 5.6% of all those living outside Spain; and 9.1% of those who lived on the American continent.

Plunged into a crisis of unprecedented proportions, in the last year hundreds of thousands of Cubans have been involved in the largest migratory exodus in the history of the nation. In fiscal year 2022, which ended on September 30, around 200,000 Cubans have entered US territory and requested political asylum.

Spain and other countries that concentrate a large number of Cuban emigrants have not published data on their arrival in the last year, but it is foreseeable that the numbers describe a pronounced curve. With the adoption of the Democratic Memory Law, in a short time Spain will surely see the number of Cuban-Spanish people in its territory increase.