Hundreds of Cubans have been queuing outside the Spanish Consulate in Havana to collect the necessary forms to apply for Spanish citizenship.
Under the Law of Historical Memory, citizenship will be granted if either:
- a: The applicant has a grandparent who was a Spaniard born in Spain.
or
- b: The applicant’s grandparent was exiled from Spain following the victory of Franco in the 1936-1939 Civil War.
The law will be in force for at least two years, three if a proposed extension goes through, and it is estimated that up to 100,000 Cubans per year could obtain Spanish Nationality.
The law comes into effect next week and it could be a similar story in other South American countries, particularly Argentina.