The Family and Ancestry of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa
 

Fireweaver posted this on 9/6/03:

"It would nevertheless be wrong to assume that the multicultural life of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has all been plain sailing. Maria Teresa Mestre y Batista was born in Havana before the Cuban revolution and lived there until she was three years old. In October 1959, however, her parents José Antonio Mestre and Maria Teresa Batista-Falla de Mestre decided to leave Cuba and move to New York. However, the move from revolutionary Cuba to the USA did not remain the family's sole endeavour, and after six years in New York they decided to move again and settle in Switzerland. This meant that even the young Maria Teresa had to make the effort familiar to many immigrants of normalising her life in a new country. At the same time she adopted the right attitude towards settling into a new culture: "My parents taught me that one should always be optimistic about the future and not languish in nostalgia for a past that no longer exists.”

I believe this note by Fireweaver is the oldest thread in the Luxembourg page.

Are Maria Teresa's parents still alive?

Who were Maria Theresa´s parents? Did they come from noble families?

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa was born in Havana, Cuba, on 22 March 1956, to José Antonio Mestre and Maria Teresa Batista-Falla de Mestre.
In October 1959, at the time of the revolution, Maria Teresa Mestre left Cuba with her parents. The family settled in New York where, as a young girl, she was a pupil at Marymount School.

That's some cutting of a report about Maria Teresa I found on the web and which I post a few posts ago in this thread. Her parents were rich, but not nobles. Her mother Maria Teresa Batista-Falla de Mestre was related with a certain Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973), the president of Cuba (1954-1955) and pro-american. I have found a report from him on the web and the adversary of Fidel Castro seems to be not a nice (quite a nasty) person (basing on all I read about him). He was involved in the Cuban Revolution in the fifties and lead a tough regime.


And here you find two links of this Fulgencio Batista: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista
http://www.historyofcuba.com/history...cts/batist.htm


Note: It is perhabs because of the relationship to this Fulgencio Batista that Maria Teresa and her parents have to leave Cuba.:(
What's your opinion after reading the reports of him? If this is all true poor Maria Teresa certainly doesn't had a happy childhood! After all she was not responsible for a related person involved in a revolution!:(

Please don't take me wrong to write this article. You know that I respect and like Maria Teresa and this is not to harm her in anyway. I have only found this reports on the web and want to show it to you. ;)

Yes that is actually true. Weren't here parents plantation owners or something?

Was her family very wealthy?

The Family of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa
 

sorry moderators, but to help those unfamiliar to the forum and these threads; to sum it up quickly, basically, it was henri's mother, josephine -charlotte, whom was against the marriage, becasue of the fact that mt was from cuba, with gd jean having a few reservations at first. but henri stood up and fought for mt, and gd jean agreed, however, j-c never fully warmed to her until the end. basically that's what i gather from all that i've heard about it. mt's family fled cuba during the communist revolution there in the late 1950's when batista himself fled; i believe she's related to batista via her mother, and her father had benefited greatly from batista's regime. so it only made since that they leave too. the rest is history, and more info can be found all around the threads. for the most part, i'm of the opinion that mt gets along quite well with most of her in-laws, and this can be seen from the many random snaps of the family interacting with each other at various events. hopes this helps. yes, guillaume has grown up quite well.

Besides, Batista wasn't the nicest guy to his people. To be related to that is kind of bad.

She in NOT related to him!

I thought she was related to them except they weren't that close.:confused:

I had always heard that they were related.

so have i, via her mother. lindy, could you please fill us in on what you know?

wow! loads of info about that. anyway, thanks for that.. for what i can see the grand ducal family is the most loving, most united family other than the spanish royal family. thank god henri and mt survived their relationship! MT is one great woman!

It is true that Maria Teresa's maternal grandfather and President Batista had the same last name. However, they are not related.

MT's grandfather, Agustin Batista y Gonzalez de Mendoza was born in Havana in 1899. He was President of the Trust Bank of Cuba and along with sugar czar, Julo Lobo, was one of the the most notable personalities of the Cuban Beourgeoise. He was a great supporter of the arts and the Cuban Philharmonic Orchesta was almost entirely financed by Agustin Batista. His protrait can be seen behind a family picture of the Mestre family sitting around piano when Maria Teresa is about seven.

Fulgencio Batista was born in 1901 to peasant laborers of mixed descent (black, white, Indian and Chinese) who lived and worked on a sugar plantation. He worked from a young age and went to an American Quarker school at night. He later joined the Cuban army and became president of Cuba in the 30's.

Maria Teresa's family left in the late fifties when they were able to leave along with their large family fortune. They did not leave because they were related to Batista. Many, many people left Cuba at that time.

i stand corrected. thanks for the info and insight lindy.

your welcome.. can anybody post photos of MT's family??.. the siblings that she names in the interview..antonio.. becuase people say that guillume is very much alike to his uncle antonio..

Antonio, where does he live? Is he the one living in florida or geneva?

i believe antonio is mt's brother that lives in florida and i think it was mentioned in the article.

Grand Duchess Maria Teresias mother and father? grandmother and grandfather? Photo?

Her mother and father are in this photo [her dad is sitting in the chair, and her mother is dressed in pink].
I can honestly say I've never seen a photo of her grandparents, nor a recent photo of her parents, even.