Gilberto Álvarez Gómez

Gilberto Álvarez Gómez (1908-1997)

One of the most prominent jurists born in the Villa of Güines on September 8, 1908. He came from an old and distinguished Güinero family, being educated at Saint Julian School of La Salle Brothers, studying high school at Havana High School #1 and law at the University of Havana.

Immediately after graduation and after rigorous examinations, he was admitted into Cuba’s Judicial Power, starting as a Correctional Judge, then an Instruction Judge, then a First Instance Judge, continuing his ascending career within Cuba’s judicial circles, throughout different cities and provinces in Cuba, being a Judge in his native Villa for a short period of time.

He reached the pinnacle of his judicial career when he obtained by entrance examination the position of Magistrate in the Court of Appeals of Matanzas, where he achieved the position of President of one of its Departments. His peerless honesty, vast legal knowledge and inborn sense of justice and equity, were recognized not only by his peers within the judiciary but also by members of the bar in general.

When the Communist debacle arrived, Dr. Álvarez Gómez, a scrupulously honest man, with a legal trained mind and with deep democratic principles, could not accept the illegal system established in Cuba by Fidel Castro and his cohorts and he left Cuba, being another of the thousands of Cubans that elected to go into a sad and uncertain exile rather than to live under the iron boot of the Communist dictatorship.

His trajectory in the United States was like his life, clean and clear, working very hard to support his family and after retiring in Miami, he died peacefully on December 22, 1997, surrounded by the love and affection of friends and family.

Continue to: José Ramón Álvarez Silva