Frank Pais (Frank País García)

       

Baptist, Cuban Revolutionary (December 7, 1934 - July 30, 1957)

This site is inspired by a desire to learn about the enigmatic Frank Pais. He was the son of a Baptist pastor who died in the Cuban revolution in his early 20's. I'm digging up as much info as I can. Any leads on further information are greatly appreciated! I'd be particularly interested in finding more pro-Castro perspectives, because the information I've utilized so far seems to be more weighted in the anti-Castro direction. I have no desire to use this site as any sort of polemic, I wish to merely present what many different sources have said about Pais, and to some degree sort through this information and make it more understandable. I'm a bit of a Cuba/Cold War/Latin America buff. For that reason and because I am a Baptist, I'm particularly interested in learning more about Pais. And I know there are sources of information which I haven't yet tapped into. I hope this site becomes useful to others. (For the purpose of full disclosure, I'm a Christian and a political libertarian. I oppose socialism, communism, and totalitarianism in general. However, I also oppose the imposition of sanctions or embargoes on Cuba, and I believe they have not only hurt Cuba but also denied American citizens their freedom of association, travel, and commerce.) - Mark J. Nenadov

Basic Details Son of Francisco País Pesqueira, Baptist pastor of First Baptist Church of Santiago de Cuba Had a younger brother, Josué Pais Interests: Jose Marti, poetry, the Bible, composing music

• Order of Frank Pais
• Aeropuerto Internacional Frank Pais (Frank Pais International Airport) - Holguín, Cuba
• Frank Pais Hospital
• Calle (Street) Frank Pais
• Museo Casa Natal de Frank Pais - A museum in Frank's house (226 San Bartolomé Street)
• Frank Pais Lectureship at Baptist Theological Seminary of Nicaragua
• "Frank País García" Pedagogical University
• Frank Pais Garcia Institute of Advanced Teaching Studies (Santiago)

Various Descriptions of Pais "seems to have been a young patriot of genuinely democratic ideals" (Llerena, 1978, p. 307) "self-sacrificing hero", "important revolutionary leader" (Twigg, 2004, p. 25) "Cuban Revolutionary hero and martyr", "head of the...operations in Santiago de Cuba", "devout Baptist", "advocate of liberal, rather than socialist, reforms" (Font, p. 15) "Baptist teacher and son of a Baptist pastor" (Esqueda, 2003, p. 35) "Baptist schoolteacher" (Twigg, 2004, p. 25; Sainsbury, 2006, p. 43) "devout Baptist" (Lampe, 2001, p. 258) "anti-communist rebel" (Romualdi, 1967, p. 196) "evidentally anti-communist" (James, 1961, p.179) "Deeply religious", "idealistic", "democratic-minded", "the alternate Fidel" (Symmes, 2007, p. 356) "the last of the young democratic leaders" (James, 1961, p.180) "superb organizer and immensely brave" (Bourne, 1986, p. 147) "energetic, capable, and brave" (Horowitz, 1995, p. 13) "one of those men who command respect from the first meeting" (Guevara & Ortiz, 1968, p. 77)

• "In a series of spirited letters to Castro, Pais tried to convince him that it was necessary to have a number of bourgeois-liberal reformist politicians on his general staff" (Skierka & Camiller, p. 54)
• "This was about the time when the friction more or less openly began between the Communist and the democratic revolutionaries. An indignant Frank Pais, who led the 26th of July Movement in Oriente and the second leading figure in the group, discovered that a Communist...was distributing Marxist propaganda among the soliders. He ordered for him to be eliminated. The execution did not take place, because a lawyer intervened... Pais agreed but he explained his reasons for issuing the order in the first place: he was deeply concerned about increasing filtration of Communists in the 26 of July Movement. " (Montaner, 2001, p. 71)
• "Frank had a great interest in studying the political problems, was very concerned to increase knowledge in this sense, his thinking evolved much, and even in one of the last documents prepared before his death, a series of ideas on the future of our country and mention socialism.

• Faustino Perez
• Marcelo Salado
• Oscar Lucero
• Mario Llerena

• Bourne, P. G. (1986), Fidel: A Biography of Fidel Castro
• Farber, S. (2006). The origins of the Cuban Revolution reconsidered
• Font, Mauricio, Cuba Today: Continuity and Change since the 'Periodo Expecial'
• Geyer, G.A. (1993), Guerrilla prince: the untold story of Fidel Castro
• Guevara, E. & Ortiz, V. (1968), Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War
• Horowitz, I.L. (1995), Cuban communism, 1959-1995
• James, D. (1961), Cuba: the first Soviet satellite in the Americas
• Lampe, A. (2001), Christianity in the Caribbean
• Llerena, M. (1978), The unsuspected revolution
• Montaner, C.A. (2001), Journey to the heart of Cuba: life as Fidel Castro
• Romualdi, S. (1967), Presidents and peons: recollections of a labor ambassador in Latin America
• Sainsbury, Brenda (2006), Lonely Planet
• Skierka, V & Camiller P. (2004), Fidel Castro: a biography
• Symmes, P. (2007), The Boys from Dolores
• Twigg, A. (2004), 101 Top Historical Sites of Cuba

• Esqueda, Octavio J. (2003), Theological Higher Education in Cuba: A Case Study of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Theological Seminary

• Frank País and the Underground Movement in the cities
• Pictures of Pais at latinamericanstudies.org
• Frank Pais, The President That Cuba Could Have (YouTube)

• Dekar, Paul R. (2002), Frank Pais, Baptist Martyr, Cuban Revolutionary from Baptist Quarterly Volume 39 No. 8 ( ISSN 0005-576X )
Frank Pais: Architect of Cuba's Betrayed Revolution
• Alvarez, J. (2009), Frank Pais: Architect of Cuba's Betrayed Revolution