Roca, Blas (1898–1987)
Roca, Blas (1898–1987)
Blas Roca (Francisco Calderío; b. 1898; d. 1987), Cuban union organizer and politician. Roca was born in Manzanillo, Oriente Province. A shoemaker by trade, he changed his name to Blas Roca and fought to unionize his fellow workers before joining the Cuban Communist Party in 1929. Five years later he was elected secretary general of the party. Roca held many important positions in the party and government. He helped form the new Cuban Communist Party (PCC) in 1965, served on the central committee, politburo, council of state, and in the National Assembly, of which he was president from 1976 to 1981. Roca played a decisive role in consolidating and institutionalizing the control of the Communist Party. His writings include The Fundamental Principles of Socialism in Cuba (1962) and The Cuban Revolution: Report to the Eighth National Congress of the Popular Socialist Party of Cuba (1961).
See alsoCastro Ruz, Fidel; Cuba, Political Parties: Communist Party.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hugh Thomas, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971).
Additional Bibliography
Batlle, Lucilo, and Blas Roca Calderío. Blas Roca, continuador de la obra de Baliño y Mella. La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 2005.
Whitney, Robert. State and Revolution in Cuba: Mass Mobilization and Political Change, 1920–1940. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Todd Little-Siebold