Cuban Revolutionary. Real name Nicanor McPartland. The grandson of Dominican rebel leader Ramon Matias Mella, he was born in Havana and was involved in leftist politics from his teens. While studying law at the University of Havana he organized the radical Federation of University Students (FEU), which demanded curriculum reform and free education for all. Mella first gained international attention in 1923 when he led the FEU in seizing control of the campus for several days; he was subsequently arrested and expelled. In 1925 he co-founded the Cuban Communist Party and was named its first General Secretary. A brilliant and charismatic orator, he soon proved dangerous to Cuba's Machado dictatorship and was exiled to Mexico in 1926. There he became a key operative in International Red Aid, wrote editorials for El Machete, Mexico's Communist newspaper, and attempted to raise a guerilla army to invade Cuba. His fiery speeches drew many to his cause and by 1928 he was regarded as Latin America's most influential Marxist revolutionary. At this time he was also romantically involved with photographer Tina Modotti, who took several famous portraits of him. On the evening of January 10, 1929, Mella was fatally shot on a Mexico City street. As he lay dying he insisted that the Cuban government had ordered his assassination. Others believe he was killed by a Stalinist Soviet agent because of his Trotskyite sympathies. Mella's ashes were brought back to Havana after the fall of the Machado regime in 1933, and are now entombed in a monument in front of the University. He is considered a national hero in Cuba.
Cuban Revolutionary. Real name Nicanor McPartland. The grandson of Dominican rebel leader Ramon Matias Mella, he was born in Havana and was involved in leftist politics from his teens. While studying law at the University of Havana he organized the radical Federation of University Students (FEU), which demanded curriculum reform and free education for all. Mella first gained international attention in 1923 when he led the FEU in seizing control of the campus for several days; he was subsequently arrested and expelled. In 1925 he co-founded the Cuban Communist Party and was named its first General Secretary. A brilliant and charismatic orator, he soon proved dangerous to Cuba's Machado dictatorship and was exiled to Mexico in 1926. There he became a key operative in International Red Aid, wrote editorials for El Machete, Mexico's Communist newspaper, and attempted to raise a guerilla army to invade Cuba. His fiery speeches drew many to his cause and by 1928 he was regarded as Latin America's most influential Marxist revolutionary. At this time he was also romantically involved with photographer Tina Modotti, who took several famous portraits of him. On the evening of January 10, 1929, Mella was fatally shot on a Mexico City street. As he lay dying he insisted that the Cuban government had ordered his assassination. Others believe he was killed by a Stalinist Soviet agent because of his Trotskyite sympathies. Mella's ashes were brought back to Havana after the fall of the Machado regime in 1933, and are now entombed in a monument in front of the University. He is considered a national hero in Cuba.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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