Roberto Batista Fernández

Son of Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar, former president of Cuba, and of Marta Fernández Miranda.

He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1947 he moved to La Habana in December of 1948 where he resided until December of 1958, the date when he began his exile, at the age of eleven years old.

Initially educated by the Brothers of La Salle in Havana itself, he continued his education in boarding schools in Connecticut and Switzerland, finishing high school in Madrid, where he later enrolled at the Universidad Complutense to pursue studies in the Faculty of Law. He then practiced law for many years.

Roberto Batista renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1966 in order not to have to risk his life in Vietnam. He was stateless until 1975, when he processed Cuban nationality at the Cuban consulate in Madrid. In 1985 he also obtained Spanish nationality. He was a voter of the PSOE of Felipe González.

Years later he furthered his studies at the Universities of Miami and Nueva York, remaining in this last city dedicated to work linked with law practice.

Bobby Batista suffered throughout his life a terrible "dichotomy," as he himself called it: being the son of a dictatorial politician and of a "most loving father." Facing criticism, he defended the first political stage of Fulgencio, until he carried out the coup d'état of 1952, a mistake according to his son. "Mistakes are paid for dearly and we, the Batistas, have paid for them in full." So too was it, in his opinion, his father's decision to release Fidel Castro from prison, the man who would later take the reins of the country.

After his retirement he moved to Madrid near his children and grandson where he remained until his death in January of 2022 from pancreatic cancer.

He was the author of the books Hijo de Batista (2021)