Rubén Martínez Villena was born on December 20, 1899. Before becoming a lawyer in 1922, he wrote verses on love, philosophy, and patriotism.

His work made him one of the most outstanding Cuban revolutionary leaders in the 1920s and 1930s.

Villena was linked since an early age to the struggle against corruption and the surrender of the Cuban republican governments.

The “Protesta de los Trece” (Protest of the Thirteen) made him become a political leader. It was the first civil action conducted by intellectuals to fight the government’s corruption.

As a leader of the Communist Party of Cuba, Villena worked in Moscow in the Latin American section of the Komintern (the Communist International).

Upon his return to Cuba, he organized and led the revolutionary general strike that overthrew the Gerardo Machado dictatorship in August 1933.

Villena died of tuberculosis on January 16, 1934, at the age of 35.

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