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Lázaro Peña

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Lázaro Peña
Damaged black and white photograph of Peña (approximately age 33) wearing a suit and looking to his right side
Peña in 1944[1]
Born
Lázaro Peña González

1911
Havana, Cuba
DiedMarch 11, 1974(1974-03-11) (aged 62–63)
Cuba
OccupationTrade unionist

Lázaro Peña González (1911 – March 11, 1974) was a Cuban labor leader and trade unionist. He was an active member of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and faced retaliation and arrest for his labor organizing and political activity prior to the Cuban Revolution.

Biography

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Lázaro Peña was born in 1911 in Los Sitios, a neighborhood in Havana, Cuba. His father never finished school and took on different jobs as a carpenter and on a tobacco farm, stripping leaves from tobacco plants. Peña also started working at a young age.[2]

He joined the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) when he was 18 years old and was elected to the Central Committee of the party several years later. In 1934, he was elected general secretary of the Tobacco Workers' Union.[2]

As a member of the National Confederation of Cuban Workers (CNOC), Peña participated in the August 1933 strike, while led to the downfall of the Machado dictatorship.[2][3] In March 1935, he joined another strike; this time, strikers faced violent reprisal from the government and Fulgencio Batista, who was head of the army at that time. Peña was arrested and tortured.[2] He was released from prison in August 1936.[4]

Peña continued to organize the Cuban labor movement[2][5] and criticized US policies and involvement in Latin America.[6] In the 1940s, he served as secretary general of the Confederation of Cuban Workers.[7] He was arrested in July 1952 amidst government crackdowns[8] and then in September 1953 for "subversive activity".[9] After attending the congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in Vienna in 1953, he was blocked by the Batista dictatorship from returning to Cuba.[2] He lived in exile in Mexico and was only able to return after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.[2][10]

In 1965, he was elected to the Central Committee of the PCC. In 1973, he was appointed head of the Department of Mass Organizations in the PCC.[2] He died the following year.[2][11]

References

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  1. ↑ Peña, Lázaro (June 18, 1944). "El Problema de la C.T.C. — Lazaro Peña dice:" [The Problem with the CTC: — Lazaro Peña says:]. Revista Bohemia (in Spanish). La Habana, Cuba. p. 31. ISSN 0864-0777 – via Digital Library of the Caribbean.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rioseco, Pedro (May 26, 2026). "Lázaro Peña, Captain of the Cuban Working Class". contraloria.gob.cu. Contraloría General de la República de Cuba. Archived from the original on September 11, 2026. Retrieved September 3, 2026.
  3. ↑ Cushion, Steve (March 2025). "Los trabajadores azucareros de Cuba fueron clave para la revolución". Jacobin (in Spanish). Translated by Perucca, Pedro. Archived from the original on February 9, 2026. Retrieved September 11, 2026. Durante el verano de 1933, una huelga generalizada paralizó la industria azucarera ... Este movimiento se expandió hasta convertirse en una huelga general que puso fin a la dictadura de Gerardo Machado.
  4. ↑ "Political Prisoners Released in Havana; Four Women Among First Thirteen of Eighty to Go Free Under Recent Amnesty Law". The New York Times. August 9, 1936. p. 7.
  5. ↑ "Cuba Blocks Entry of Spanish General". The New York Times. April 28, 1946. p. 7. Lazaro Pena, Communist leader and Secretary of the Confederation of Cuban Labor ... announced a fifteen-minute general protest strike next Tuesday and said that dockworkers would refuse to handle the cargo...
  6. ↑ "Cuban Speakers Assail Policy of U.S." The New York Times. May 2, 1940. p. 11.
  7. ↑ "Cubans Re-elect Pena; Only Communists, Sympathizers Vote in Labor Congress". The New York Times. May 11, 1947. p. 12.
  8. ↑ "Red Leaders Seized in Havana". The New York Times. July 6, 1952. p. 5. Lazaro Pena, former Communist Congress member and former secretary general of the Cuban Workers Confederation, was arrested tonight...
  9. ↑ "Reds' Cuban Base Reported Crushed; Army Intelligence Chief Tells of Drive to Close Nerve Center of Communists". The New York Times. September 27, 1953. p. 32. Lazaro Peña ... [is] now in jail charged with subversive activity.
  10. ↑ "Reds Drive to Win Top Role in Cuba; In Underground Since 1952, Communists Try to Take Control of Unions". The New York Times. January 27, 1959. p. 16.
  11. ↑ "Lazaro Pena, Ex-Secretary Of Workers' Unit in Cuba". The New York Times. March 13, 1974. p. 44.
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