Julio César Guanche category of relation to the State that has had less strength to exercise rights before power, rights of power and the control of power than that granted by other statuses of a political nature —not institutional—, like that of the “revolutionary”. Hence, the use of terms such as “the people” has been more frequent than that of “citizens”. More recently, and contrary to that tradition, official documents use the concept of “citizens” frequently. Cuban academics also note: “In exchange for what did Cubans sacrifice and still sacrifice? Once again it will be necessary to recognise that only in exchange for their national independence, their sovereignty and, ultimately, their leading role in the direction and determination of their destinies as citizens of a country that belongs to them as beneficiaries, but also as legislators, consecrators, operators and creators, of a set of Human Rights, which then have their fullest realisation” (Férnández Bulté, Fernández Estrada, Julio Antonio 2007, p.16). 6. The current legal citizenship regime From here on this publication will change its tone and style to enumerate from a strictly legal point of view the current regime on the forms of acquisition, loss and recovery of Cuban citizenship. 6.1. Acquisition of citizenship Cuban citizenship is acquired, according to the text (reformed in this aspect in 1992) by birth or by naturalisation (Constitution, Article 28). By Birth (Constitution, Article 29) Cuban citizens by birth, following the previous constitutional tradition, are those born on national territory, with the exception of the children of foreigners who are at the service of their government or international organisations; those born abroad to a Cuban father or mother, who are fulfilling an official mission; those born abroad to a Cuban father or mother; those born outside the national territory, of a father or mother natural of the Republic of Cuba who have lost Cuban citizenship25 and foreigners who, due to exceptional merits achieved in the struggle for the liberation of Cuba, were considered Cuban citizens from birth. Argentinaborn Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, exclusively, obtained Cuban citizenship for exceptional merits, and has thus been made into a Cuban citizen from birth. In most cases, the recognition of Cuban citizenship by birth to foreigners born to a Cuban father or mother, no longer requires the individuals to “settle” 26. Rather, the procedure 25 The reform of 1992 substituted the work “nationality”, which appeared in the text of 1976, for “citizenship”, so as to not confuse both terms, as the previous constitutional history had done. 26 This is a very recent measure (of the 28th of October 2017): which approved “the end of settlement requirements for the children of Cubans born abroad. In this way, their offspring may acquire Cuban citizenship”. See: “Bruno Rodríguez: “El gobierno de EEUU cierra y Cuba abre””, in: RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/3 - © 2020 Author(s) 21