Julio Antonio Mella

Julio Antonio Mella McPartland (25 March 1903 – 10 January 1929) was a founder of the "internationalized" Cuban Communist Party. Mella studied law in the University of Havana until he was expelled in 1925 and is considered a hero by the present Cuban government. Some Cubans view him as a victim of the Stalin-Trotsky struggle. His biography varies with the source consulted.

Mella was born Nicanor McPartland in Havana in 1903. His father was Nicanor Mella Breá (1851–1929), a tailor and son of one of the heroes of the Dominican Republican war of independence, Matías Ramón Mella Castillo. Mella’s mother was an Irish woman named Cecilia McPartland, Cecilia was not the wife of Nicanor senior. Mella initially took his name from his father and as a child travelled with his younger brother Cecilio to New Orleans while his mother convalesced from lung troubles. The boys returned to Cuba to live with his father’s wife (and step-mother) Mercedes Bermúdez Ferreira. Mella changed his name from Nicanor to Antonio and his younger brother became Nicasio Mella.

Antonio Mella studied secondary studies at Chandler College in Marianao, Havana and Colegio Mimó. His step-mother, Mercedes Bermúdez Ferreira, died in 1915, and after visiting the US again in 1917 Mella returned to Cuba. He prepared for the University of Havana at Academia Newton before being sent to boarding school at the prestigious Escolapios of Guanabacoa, where he was expelled. Mella finished his secondary studies at the public Instituto de la Habana and/or Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza of Pinar del Río, in 1921.

First arrested during the democratic rule (1921–1924) of Alfredo Zayas, Mella attended the University of Havana where his radicalism was further enhanced through his leadership. Students forcibly occupied Havana University and sought power through demands for changes including: the modernization of textbooks, autonomy for the university, free education for all, and more unusually, to be head of the university for one day. Mella was soon involved in the struggle against future Cuban president Gerardo Machado, and organized the formal founding of the Moscow directed Partido Comunista de Cuba. At this time he was linked to women radicals Rosario Guillaume (Charito) and Sarah Pascual. He was expelled from the University after being arrested and accused of a bomb plot. After being released in late 1925, he eventually fled to Central America in the earlier portion of 1926.

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