Alberto Sánchez Ocejo

Alberto Sánchez Ocejo (1893-1952)

Dr. Alberto Sánchez Ocejo a giant of the legal profession in Cuba was born in the Villa of Güines on May 15, 1893. He came from an old and prominent Güinero family. His father, Dr. Francisco Sánchez Curbelo (Panchito), was also an attorney and a Notary Public, founder of Güines Volunteer Firemen Corps. His mother, Bernarda Ocejo Guzmán was the daughter of Don Juan Ocejo Eguía, first Cuban Mayor of Güines in 1879 and a founding member of the Irrigation Community of Güines River or Mayabeque.

He learned his first letters in his native Villa, doing his secondary education at Havana High School #1 and his career as an attorney at Havana University, School of Law.

He was a prominent civil attorney, the author of several fundamental law treatises that still are in force and effect as works of obligatory consultation. Among them we highlight, Cassation in Civil Law, published in 1936, its more valuable work due to the scarcity of texts and explanatory documentation in this legal field of such difficult understanding and handling. This treatise was included and used as a textbook at Latin-American Law Schools, such as Lima University Law School in Peru. The Nullity in Private Law, published in 1938 with a prologue from Dr. Guillermo Montagú, a Magistrate in Cuba’s Supreme Court. A Project of Constitutional Reform, published in Havana in 1939, contemporaneous with the Constitutional Convention, providing excellent ideas and guidelines, many of which were incorporated in the peerless 1940 Constitution, Magna Carta that was an example of civil liberties, legality and democracy, under the rule of law. The Attorney’s Role in Defense of the Americas, 1941, a work of continental projection, with fundamental and solid democratic concepts.

He was an attorney and Notary Public, first in the near town of Madruga and later on in Güines, occupying the Notary Office of his father Dr. Francisco (Panchito) Sánchez Curbelo and among other positions and responsibilities he was Secretary of the Irrigation Community, Legal Advisor of Güines Sugar Company, Inc. owner of Providencia Sugar Mill, Archivist of the General Notarial Protocols Archives, a member of Mayabeque Masonic Lodge where he reached Grade 32 within that fraternal organization and Treasurer of Güines Volunteer Firemen Corps.

His sharp intelligence and total mastery of Civil Law made him a formidable litigant, participating in his professional life, in important and famous lawsuits, among them the well known in its time of Nombre de Dios (God’s Name) Sugar Mill.

In his private life, he married Eloísa Prado Marcos and had four children, Francisco (Pancho), Eloísa, Alberto and Juan.

Alberto Sánchez Ocejo was a man of his time, honest, of a lofty spirituality with varied tastes and talents, an eloquent public speaker, always sharing with his colleagues, his knowledge and experiences. He was a valuable and prominent son of the Villa bathed by the Mayabeque, shining, due to his talent and intelligence, with its own light not only in his public but also in his private life. He prematurely died in Havana, on August 10, 1952, at 59 years of age.

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