José Irisarri
José Miguel Irisarri y Gamio was a Cuban lawyer and a member of the Pentarchy of 1933.
Biography
Early life
José Miguel Irisarri y Gamio was born in Abreus, Santa Clara Province, Spanish Cuba, on August 31, 1895. He completed his early studies in Spain.From 1923 to 1924, he participated in the Veterans' And Patriots' Movement led by Carlos García Vélez in opposition to the Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso administration.
He was educated as a lawyer. On January 17, 1930, he participated in a debate at the Havana Bar Association.
Politics
Irisarri was an early member of the Directorio Estudiantil Universitario established at the University of Havana. For rejecting the presidency of a Gerardo Machado electoral district, he was imprisoned for two years in Castillo del Príncipe on the Isle of Pines. He went into exile in May 1931 and returned to Cuba amid the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada presidency.During this period, Sumner Welles reported that Irisarri was a law partner of Cuban President Mario García Menocal's son-in-law, Eugenio Sardina.
Pentarchy of 1933
In September 1933, Irisarri was a part of the brief provisional government of Cuba, known as the Pentarchy of 1933, which included Porfirio Franca, Guillermo Portela, Ramón Grau, and Sergio Carbó. The short-lived Pentarchy lasted for 5 days, before being replaced by the first Grau administration. Irisarri remained closely connected to the Cuban political party, Partido Auténtico, founded in 1934.In the early 1940s, Irisarri headed Cuba's Import and Export Agency.
On July 18, 1942, President Fulgencio Batista issued a decree appointing Dr. Irisarri as Minister of Finance. By 1943, he left his position by submitting his resignation.
In 1943, while in Havana, he consulted with Frank Southard of the Navy Department and E.M. Bernstein of the Treasury Department about creating a Cuban central bank.
When Ramón Grau assumed the presidency in 1944 until 1948, Jose Irisarri served in his cabinet as Minister of Finance. In 1948, Grau's successor, Carlos Prío Socarrás became president, establishing the Auténtico government. On December 20, 1950, President Carlos Prío signed a law to establish the Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank. In January 1951, Jose Irissari was appointed vice president of the bank's Agricultural Division, headquartered in Havana. After Fulgencio Batista's 1952 Cuban coup d'état deposed President Carlos Prío Socarrás, Irisarri immediately resigned from the position he held.
He kept practicing law as an attorney and was listed in 1956 with an office in the Almendares neighborhood of Havana.