The Cuban historian Maikel Arista-Salado presented a documentary discovery that could change the way millions of Afro-descendant Cubans understand their legal connection to Spain: the formerly enslaved Cubans registered in the civil registry automatically acquired Spanish citizenship, and their descendants could claim it.
Arista-Salado, who has been leading a lawsuit against the Spanish State for years to demand the recognition of the nationality taken from Cubans after the Treaty of Paris in 1898, explained the finding in an interview with Tania Costa.
"The question was raised here, in this program you asked it yourself, whether the descendants of enslaved people were Spaniards or not. I told you that indeed they were, but I did not have the proof at hand. In other words, that interpretation comes from a reality that one begins to study, but now we have the arguments at hand," stated the historian.
The key lies in the very origin of the civil registry in Cuba, created in 1884 to begin operating on January 1, 1885. According to Arista-Salado, this instrument was not created as a generic administrative mechanism, but with a specific purpose: to prepare for the transition of slaves to individuals with full legal capacity before the formal abolition came into effect.
"The civil registry was established in Cuba for individuals who were no longer slaves," he noted. "It is most likely that if there is a registration record, if there is a registry entry, it belongs to someone who was, or had been, a slave."
The central legal argument rests on a principle of Spanish law. "In Spain, registration in the civil registry has constitutive effect. What does that mean? That your right is established with the registration in the registry," explained Arista-Salado. Consequently, "a copy of a record entry for a person who had been enslaved, who was born in Cuba and gained entry into the civil registry, automatically makes them a Spanish citizen."
The abolition of slavery in Cuba occurred in two stages: in 1880, the patronage system was established as a transitional regime, and on October 7, 1886, a Royal Decree definitively ended that figure. The historian emphasized that the law of 1886 "is not a law that arises in a vacuum; it is a law that responds to the patronage system."
This thesis has direct implications for the so-called Grandchildren's Law — the Law of Democratic Memory, which is in effect from October 2022 to October 2025 — that allowed the children and grandchildren of Spaniards to claim nationality. Arista-Salado argued that any descendant of an ex-slave who locates a registration record of their ancestor could have taken advantage of that pathway to naturalization.
"Could you take me in if I find that person's paperwork? Of course. And if you don't find it, it can be done through other means. But the important thing is to have this information."
The interviewer Tania Costa summarized the symbolic significance of the finding: "I don’t know if you remember when we talked the first time and I told you how unfortunate we are, the Black community, to be left out of the Law of Grandchildren... and it turns out we are the first Spaniards."
Arista-Salado confirmed this interpretation. "All individuals who were enslaved, who were descendants of enslaved people, automatically gained access to the civil registry. In Spain, access to the civil registry is proof of nationality."
The historian is currently working on a book of approximately 400 pages that critically reviews Cuban history, with publication expected in late 2026.
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