Julio César Guanche mercury-chrome, the Republic dies”22. The Civic Education Manual of the Rebel Army (1960) had as an illustration a Cuban version of the “Freedom guiding the people”, by Eugéne Delacroix, the most famous democratic republican allegory, from the artist Carmelo(Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces 1960). Yet in Cuba, the regime prevailing between 1902 and 1959 has largely been called “Republic” —with different adjectives— and the one that succeeded it until today, “Revolution”. The nomenclature expresses a problem, because the official name of the country is still “Republic of Cuba”, and its form of government is republican. However, the distinction between Revolution and Republic did not begin with 1959. Manuel Sanguily affirmed in 1924: “Looking back, could we properly think that the Republic is not the legitimate derivation, but perhaps the adulteration, as opposed to the antithesis, of the original elements created and maintained by the Revolution, that engendered and constituted it? Because in reality they seem two opposing worlds: one, a candid and heroic minority, all disinterest and sacrifice [the Revolution]; and the other, an accidental and mischievous majority, all business and money [the Republic]” (Sanguily 1950, p.304). The interchangeability of the two terms, which was engrained both in the official discourse and in a good part of academia between 1902 and 1958 is a political and theoretical reduction to the absurd. However, it has a historical explanation in the “zero hour” on which the triumph of 1959 was affirmed. “Be brief, we have lost 50 years”, was a phrase that could be read in public offices in the early revolutionary years, as well as the slogan “elections for what” also became famous. The phrase “that Republic” codifies its cancellation as a symbolic reference. The question was expressed in the new constitutional order. Throughout the so- called “provisional” period (1959-1976), the Revolutionary Government concentrated the executive, legislative and constituent functions. (All the laws passed in this period were promoted by the Revolutionary Government —although several subjects were qualified for the legislative initiative—). It did not distinguish state functions from governmental ones; the laws that it specified gained constitutional character and directed all areas of social life. In the meantime, the new political power built an army capable of defeating an armed invasion by the United States —Girón, 1961—and of dissuading the constant military threat coming from it. The defence of national independence, an act of survival, affected consciences, habits and language. It became essential to the identity of the republic despite its serious economic consequences. (For example, between 1962 and 1965 a large part of the resources of the country was used for defence). On the other hand, a large number of people —and social sectors that would expand over time— left the country in exile, and, later, both exile and emigration. The event dismantled all potential opposition within the country, although the number of political prisoners in the early revolutionary years was significant by regional standards at the time23, in line with the magnitude of the social and political change unleashed, and the belligerence it provoked against it. In such a context, Cuban institutional culture developed an eternal consciousness of a “square under siege”. State actors have considered that the best resources to accumulate strength and deter aggression are the concentrated control of resources and forces, popular “mobilisation” and the disciplining and control of citizen behaviour. Along this path, the state 22 The unreferenced citations of this paragraph can be found in the newspaper Combate, 8th of April 1959, 6th of April 1959 and 15th of March 1959, respectively. 23 The comparison has been estimated by Jorge I. Domínguez based on (Enhancing Global Human Rights 1979) and the data offered by Fidel Castro Ruz in (Lockwood 2003, ©1990). RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/3 - © 2020 Author(s) 17