Ernesto Dihigo

Ernesto Dihigo y López Trigo combined law, diplomacy, and scholarship. Born in Havana in 1896, he completed degrees in law and philosophy and letters in 1918, taught at the University of Havana for more than four decades, and became dean of its law faculty. His Roman law textbook went through several editions. ¹

At the early United Nations, Dihigo pressed for an international declaration of rights. In January 1946 he argued that the organization should act on the promises made at San Francisco. When the General Assembly declined to add Cuba’s proposal to its agenda, the Cuban delegation took a draft declaration to the Economic and Social Council. This was part of the wider drafting process that eventually produced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ²

Appointed ambassador after the 1959 revolution, Dihigo helped arrange Fidel Castro’s April visit to Washington. He made requests concerning a possible meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon, the visit’s security arrangements, and an aircraft export licence. ³

After returning to Cuba, Dihigo retired from teaching and devoted more time to language and bibliography. He organized the work of his father, the philologist Juan Miguel Dihigo, and published a study of Cuban expressions in the Royal Spanish Academy’s dictionary. He also directed the Cuban Academy of the Language. He moved to Miami in 1989 and died there in 1991. ¹