Genealogy of Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg

[iowabelle]

Has anyone investigated the genealogy of Maria Teresa of Luxemburg? I have heard that her mother-in-law (who must have been a real dragon) complained about MT's African heritage. Does MT really have any African heritage? If so, it must be pretty remote. I am just very curious about this lady's background -- and if no one has dug into it, perhaps this would be a fun research project.

 

[magnik]

Something here:

HRH Grand Duchess Maria Teresa

MarÃ*a-Teresa Mestre y Batista

thePeerage.com - Person Page 11324

GeneAll.net - María Teresa Mestre y Baptista

 

[Odette]

At the time Prince Henri wanted to marry Maria Teresa The Grand Duc Jean opposed the marriage but the Grand Duchess practically imposed Maria Teresa to the court. Most of the extended family refused to attend the wedding because of rumours that Maria Teresa had black blood in her ancestry. As time went on Maria Teresa had issues with her mother in law who had a reputation of being a strong willed woman. At one point two years or so before her mother in law's passing, Maria Teresa gathered the journalists in her palace and spoke openly about the friction between her and her mother in law. At her 25th wedding anniversary she said that marriage is an "interesting journey". There are no confirmed reports but her marriage to GD Henri has not always been rosy. In any case, in family photos they always appear very united and happy.

 

[HRH Kerry]

Well I love the united front they are putting on.

 

[BurberryBrit]

At the time Prince Henri wanted to marry Maria Teresa The Grand Duc Jean opposed the marriage but the Grand Duchess practically imposed Maria Teresa to the court. Most of the extended family refused to attend the wedding because of rumours that Maria Teresa had black blood in her ancestry. As time went on Maria Teresa had issues with her mother in law who had a reputation of being a strong willed woman. At one point two years or so before her mother in law's passing, Maria Teresa gathered the journalists in her palace and spoke openly about the friction between her and her mother in law. At her 25th wedding anniversary she said that marriage is an "interesting journey". There are no confirmed reports but her marriage to GD Henri has not always been rosy. In any case, in family photos they always appear very united and happy.

Wow, is that really true? If so, sad. But I know, different times. I wouldn't be surprised if she had some African blood being Cuban, but she could "pass" so it's too bad they couldn't attend the wedding because of something that you can't even see.

 

[Rayarena]

I believe that the rumors that Grand Duchess Maria Teresa Mestre has African ancestry originated by the fact that her mother's maiden name is the same as that of the late Cuban President Fulgencio Batista who was a mulatto. What's more, MT is the goddaughter of Batista's late wife, Marta. This has lead many to believe that she is a blood relative of the late President. But, MT is not a blood relative of Batista's. In fact, Maria Teresa's maternal relatives are a whole different family not at all related to the undistinguished and poor Fulgencio family.

To add to further confusion, many people believe that MT was nothing more than a nouveau riche girl who married a prince. What they don't know is that MT has a very impressive family tree, and it comes from her mother's side. The Grand Duchess actually comes from a very illustrious family that is aristocratic in its own right.

Her mother, also named Maria Teresa, is a direct descendant of the Montalvo family. The Montalvo's arrived in Cuba from Spain in 1730. They became wealthy land barons and amassed an enormous fortune and then did what landed gentry did back in those days: they purchased a title of nobility from the Spanish crown. Remember, Cuba in the 1700's was a colony of Spain and Cuban citizens were subjects of the Spanish crown. This practice--of buying titles-- was common all over Europe. Landed gentry would aspire to join the nobility either through marriage or by buying a title if they had the money. A title of nobility meant greater rights and a higher social standing. This is what Princess Diana's ancestors did. They were landed gentry that obtained a title of nobility in 1603. Maria Teresa's nobility can be traced through many parts, but most directly through her ancestor Ignacio Montalvo who became the first Count of Montalvo in 1779. Among her distinguished ancestors, there are Mayors of Havana, Grandees to the Spanish Court, Marquises and bishops. One of her most impressive relatives was Maria de las Mercedes, Santa Cruz y Montalvo [1789-1852], the Countess of Merlin who lived in Paris and had the most respected literary saloon of her time. A writer in her own right, the Countess of Merlin wrote several books including popular travelogues about her visits to Cuba and the USA.

 

[iowabelle]

That's interesting, Rayarena. I knew there was confusion over the Batista name, but I didn't know that MT's maternal relatives were so prominent.

 

[Rayarena]

Yes, indeed. Maria Teresa's family is very prominent. What surprises me is that so little has been said about her family other than she came from a rich family. But, as we all know, there's a world of difference between being just plain rich and coming from an old family. MT's family is not only wealthy, they are also quite old. Among other distinguished members of her family we find:

--Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa--conquistador
--Capitan Francisco Perez Najarro--conquitador
--Don Martin Artegar Eraso-- Capitan of the Royal Armada
--Don Juan Francisco Nun~ez del Castillo y Sucre, 3rd Marquise of San Felipe and Santiago
--Juan Jose O'Farrill y Arriola [1721-79], Mayor of Havana
--Don Luis Chacon y Castellon [1650-1733], Coronel of the Royal Army and Military Govenor of Cuba

Basically, MT's lineage is a who's who of prominent Cuban families from colonial times.

Among the most prestigious Cuban families because of their wealth and their place in Cuba history were the:

Montalvo's
O'Farrill's
Pedroso's
Cisneros
Agramonte's
Calvo's
Pen~alver's
Gonzalez de Mendoza's

[There are more. I've only named a few]

And these families are all in MT's lineage. So you see, MT is a blue blood in her own right.

Here is a book on one of her family members, The Countess of Merlin:

Vanderbilt University Press - books

 

[iowabelle]

To me that's rather more interesting than descent from the Hanovers, again!

Hoorah to the royal mothers who bring such interesting new ancestors to their children.

I don't think it's a bad thing to bring Native American or African ancestry into these families, it's just interesting to know how these families have survived and adapted. I was surprised one time to see Queen Silvia described as "mixed race" when her Native ancestor lived in the 1600s or 1700s (by that definition I'm much more "mixed race", not that you'd know unless I told you).

 

[tan_berry]

Cuba was the last colony of Spain in America. Cuba was a jewel for Spain. They say that they still complain every day because of this loss. Cuba was independent in 1898, the last one of all latin american countries. Haiti was the first, in 1801. They were a french colony.

There were slaves in Cuba until that date, and lived in a kind of apartheid. Discrimination was huge, similar to the United States for the time being, and revolution could not erradicate it, like announced it would do. They could not give birth to a "new man", either, as announced, too. Homo sapiens is the same selfish animal everywhere. And there is only one human species in this planet, regardless the race or ethnic group: Homo sapiens sapiens. I call it Homo Sapiens Malus (malo meaning bad in spanish).

Batista family (nothing to do with the dictator) was a very prominent family in Cuba. I do not believe any member of this family never married anyone with a drop of black blood. And María Teresa comes from this legal lineage. But they are mediterranean type, like many spaniards, not northern european type. And arabs were in Spain for 8 centuries. They sure left many genes. They say, also, that there are not pure races in the mediterranean, since has been a way of merchants for far many centuries before Christ.

By the left, like everywhere, in Cuba white men had children with indian or african women. Alexandre Dumas father was grand-son of an african slave from Haiti, a woman, from whom he and his father (the son) took the name, and a french man, a military who worked there for a while.

"The Caribbean, imperial frontier", is the name of an extremely interesting book by Juan Bosch, an intellectual and ex president of my country, with pure spanish ancestors.

 

[Rayarena]

As tan_berry notes, there were slaves in Cuba in the colonial era and the situation there was the same there as it was in the antebellum south in the USA. Maria Teresa's family were in fact slave owners. I don't say this to indict them in any way, I have nothing but the utmost respect for MT and her ancestors. It's just a fact that if you were a very wealthy landowner in Cuba in the colonial era, as was the case in the Southern USA in the 1800's before the Civil War, you would have owned slaves. It's unlikely that MT's slave owning ancestors would have intermarried with their slaves since there was such a strict division between slave owner and slave.

What's more, one of MT's ancestors, the Irish side of her family, Ricardo O'Farrill O'Daly used to own a slave company.

Talking about MT's Irish side [this dates back to the 1600 and 1700's], I wonder if they were Irish aristocrats? Because as we all know, Ireland's aristocracy was destroyed by the British and many joined the Spanish Armada and some went to the new world including Spain's colonies. MT's Irish ancestors, the O'Farrill's, were very wealthy and illustrous in Cuba. One of them was a Mayor of Habana and the O'Farrill's ended up marrying into the ennobled Montalvo family. All of this means that the family had a very high social standing, i.e. mayor of Habana, marrying into a family of counts, etc..

I don't know enough about this, but there was something in Ireland called the "Flight of the Geese" referring to the Irish nobles that left Ireland when they were driven out by the invading Brits. The social standing of MT's Irish ancestors might suggest some type of noble origin. Knowing the mentality of the Spaniards in the 1600 and 1700's, they would not have named just a "regular guy" mayor of a city. Many of the leaders of the Spanish colonies were selected by the Spanish crown and were of noble birth.

 

[tan_berry]

My country is another of the big islands of the Caribbean and, like Cuba and Puerto Rico, was a spanish colony. In the XVII century, Spain gave in the western part of the island to France, 1/3, which is today Haiti. A long story within the saga of the Caribbean, imperial frontier.

Different to Cuba, this was a colony widely neglected by Spain, and Bosch says that spanish colonists were so poor that ate in the same table with the african slaves. As a result, population is almost totally mixed, only 5% are pure caucasian, and racial discrimination has never been here strong like in Cuba. The brazilian type is the rule. Europeans are fascinated here with so many different shades of skin color combined with so many different features and hair textures.

Several Hollywood pictures have been made here recreating La Habana, because the colonial part of Santo Domingo resembles so much La Habana, (The Godfather, Havana, etc.), only that seaside is much prettier here. But like in Cuba the proportion of pure caucasians in the population is more or less 60%, for recreating people they need to cast from the foreigners living here: european, american,and the natives that can "pass".

Like we have more than one million of haitian inmigrant workers (our population is 9 million), Robert De Niro used mainly haitians for recreating Africa in his film "The Good Sheperd". He recreated here, too, Guatemala, when the coup d´etat to then president Jacobo Arbenz and filmed a great state banquet with all american and european ambassadors, and the joke here was: Did they cast you? For Africa, Guatemala or the national palace?

Brad and Angelina were here with all their troupe and paparazzis from all over the world suddenly discovered our existence.

 

[jmj21983]

And these families are all in MT's lineage. So you see, MT is a blue blood in her own right.

Thank you for the interesting information, Rayarena. Since Maria Teresa has quite the impressive background then why do you think that she (supposedly) wasn't considered good enough to be Henri's wife?

 

[Kelly]

I think maybe because of her lack of a title and she is a latina, not and anglo saxon. Latin american people seem to face such racism towards them and I can imagine much more at that time.

 

[pamk]

I have felt that Josephine-Charlotte must have been an awful mother-in-law
I think that she really favored Guillaume's wife, Sybilla, over Marie-Terese.
I wonder what pushed MT over the edge to tell all her troubles to a bunch of
journalists over lunch - surely she couldn't be so naive as to think that someone wouldn't spill the beans and the word would get out.
But.... maybe that's just what she wanted to happen ... just a thought.

 

[Rayarena]

JMJ,

It's so strange, because originally I heard that Grand-Duchess Josephine Charlotte was Maria Teresa's biggest ally in her struggle to marry Henri and that it took her and Henri four years to convince Grand Duke Jean to allow the marriage. That is to say, Jean was opposed to the marriage not J-C. I, also, heard that Henri's grandmother, Charlotte, was dead set against the marriage. This I believe to be true, because if you look at the pictures of the marriage, Charlotte [the grandmother] looks absolutely despondent during the ceremony as opposed to the look of joy on her face during Marie Astrid's marriage to a Hapsburg. Who wouldn't want their granddaughter to marry an illustrious and regal Hapsburg after all?

Now, the news is that Josephine Charlotte was the one who was against the marriage and that she hated Maria Teresa and tried to have Henri divorce MT. I don't know if we will ever know the truth, but to answer your question [if J-C was against the marriage], I would say that her reason was that MT was not royal.

Remember, Josephine Charlotte was a princess in her own right, the daughter of a king and a queen. I mean, that is setting the bar pretty high. Royalty is the pinnacle of society. You can't get any higher than that. I would imagine that to someone like J-C anyone lower than a duke or a duchess would be somewhat too low in her book. Remember, we weren't talking about the marriage of one of her other children, we were talking about the marriage of the heir to the throne!

Even though MT's pedigree is quite illustrious by 99.9% of all standards, it naturally falls short in the eyes of some as throughly royal as the late J-C was. That's my take on it.

 

[jmj21983]

Thanks for your response, and I agree with your statement. Nowdays Maria Teresa would seem to be the ideal royal bride: well educated, wealthy and scandal free, but I guess to someone from the old school royalty that isn't enough. Henri's sisters followed the royal rules and married fellow royals, I suppose Jean and JC expected their son and heir to do the same.

 

[Rayarena]

Exactly. Nowadays, Maria Teresa would seem like an ideal royal bride, especially in light of the scandals that rocked Princess Di's marriage. What's more, Maria Teresa proved her harshest critiques wrong, she proved that she was the correct royal bride by the way in which she adapted so effortlessly into her role as Princess and Grand Duchess. No doubt thanks to her upbringing, which while not royal, certainly the result of that certain grace that comes from belonging to old money.

Among other things, Maria Teresa went to the best girl's school that money could buy. As a little girl, she went to the Marymount School in New York City, a school located in the most exclusive area of New York, she then went to the Institut Marie-Jose in Switzerland and she finally went to the University of Geneva. Her family were known philanthropists in Cuba and from them she learned that with wealth comes the responsibility of being charitable, a trait so important in a good monarch. Finally, because of her illustrious family, she no doubt learned from birth to feel comfortable and at ease around important and powerful people. Because she was born a "princess" figuratively speaking, that is to say, in everything but title [she even had a nanny growing up], she was well-grounded and didn't let her marriage to a real prince go to her head.

These are traits that are not easy to learn, because they are acquired from one's surrounding, one's home and one's environment.

 

[Warren]

I don't know enough about this, but there was something in Ireland called the "Flight of the Geese" referring to the Irish nobles that left Ireland when they were driven out by the invading Brits.

Thanks for making this thread so interesting Rayarena.
One clarification: The "Flight of the [Wild] Geese" refers to the departure of an Irish Jacobite army from Ireland to France in 1691.
The "Flight of the Earls" occurred in 1607 when the ancient Gaelic aristocracy of Ulster went into exile.

Wikipedia: Geese, Earls

 

[Rayarena]

Warren,

Thank you for your kind words and for correcting me. Yes, that's what I meant, that Maria Teresa's Irish side, the O'Farrill's, who arrived in Cuba in the 1600's were possibly members of the "Flight of the Earls." Certainly, their high status in Colonial Cuba, their accumulated wealth, marriage into a family of counts and their position as ranking administrators for the Spanish crown would seem to indicate a very high social status, likely of noble birth.

 

[SavetheArchduke]

I've found a more complete source for her ancestry: Ancestry of Maria Teresa Mestre, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

Her Amerindian ancestor and ancestress were both from the 16th century, as was the Amerindian ancestor of Queen Silvia of Sweden: Ancestry of Queen Silvia of Sweden (b. 1943).

 

[Rayarena]

As I have mentioned in past posts, Maria Teresa's mother's family is quite distinguished and aristocratic. I am particularly interested in Maria Teresa's Irish ancestors and since the the last time that I posted on MT's family, I have uncovered some additional information about them. Richard O'Farrill O'Daly was one of the founders of Maria Teresa's maternal dynasty [The Montalvo-O'Farrill's]. He was an Irish sea captain and was known in Cuba by the Spanish version of his name "Ricardo." The O'Farrill's were Irish Catholics who settled in by the British Crown in 1713, (Utrecht Treaty), as Agents for the black slaves brought to work in the sugar fields from Africa to Cuba.

Don Ricardo O'Farill and O'Daly, whose family originally came from County Longford in Ireland, was a wealthy merchant who made his fortune from the lucrative slave trade. He was also the owner of several sugar mills. Don Ricardo arrived in Havana in the early 18th century and is the founder of the O’Farrill family in Cuba, which subsequently went on to gain a reputation for its notable performance in administration, commerce and in the country’s cultural development. They were further distinguished by a plethora of titles of the nobility.


As time went by, the O'Farrills became involved in different aspects of Cuban society: Nicolas Calvo de la Puerta y O’Farrill, a distinguished academic and Doctor of Theology at the Pontifical University of San Jeronimo, who introduced improvements in sugar cane production and promoted the Sociedad Patriotica (Patriotic Club) in collaboration with Baron Alexander Von Humboldt. Juan Montalvo y O’Farrill owned the first steamship used in Cuba. Jose Ricardo and Rafael O’Farrill and Herrera were listed among the 18 most influential and richest people in Havana under the rule of Spanish Governor Miguel Tacon. Others played important roles in the army, commerce and music, and in various government offices.
Two splendid mansions in Old Havana perpetuate the memory of the O'Farrill Family. One, on the corner of Habana and Chacon streets, was acquired by the Church and up until recently was the site of the Archbishop of Havana’s office. The other, on the corner of Cuba and Chacon streets, built in the first half of the 19th century by Jose Ricardo O’Farrill y O’Farrill, Don Ricardo’s great grandson, underwent some architectural changes in the 20th century, resulting in the building as it stands today.

 

[Yanne]

Mt' has black blood from both parents and no aristocracy

Maria teresa is not related to fulgencio batista. It is a completely different batista. Her mother's family was quite wealthy: The wealth coming from her great grandfather laureano falla who came to cuba at the age of 14 and made a fortune. Mt's father was a no one: Modest family with no formal education who married money. She has black blood from both her father and mother: On her father's side the Mestre branch had a black ancestor and like all blacks who came to cuba was not even documented in the white book. Her maternal great grandmother was half black(if in doubt ask her to show a picture). As a matter of fact age always shows race and as she has become older and heavier it shows in her features as they are not very refined, more so a country like Cuba that had extraordinarily white women of enormous beauty. Even in Cuba she would have been considered ordinary and a bit mulatto.

There is absolutely nothing aristocratic in her background. At the time of Maria Teresa's wedding her mother paid to have her ancestry documented and the writer Enrique Gonzalez de Mendoza-expert in the matter and supposedly related-explained to her that it was wiser to stop the search as there was an ancestor not far behind who was not white. Needless to say that they parted ways.

 

[josjul]

Ancestry of Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

Dear Yanne:

This is in response to your previous entry.
What Rayarena has posted so far is entirely correct. The GD does indeed have a well documented descent from aristocratic and noble families from Cuba. On the other hand I do have some comments and questions regarding what you have written.

You said that MT’s father was a no one. You are mistaken, his family in 1950 built CMQ, Cuba's first TV station. It was Latin America's third TV station and they were wealthy in their own right. It is correct that the Falla's were a newer family to Cuba, just like the robber baron families in the late XIX and early XX centuries in the US, who also came from very humble backgrounds. Her uncle Eutimio Falla was worth over 60 million in Cuban properties and about 45 million in foreign investments. He was know to be a very well known philantropist and his wealth at the time of his death was among the largest anywhere in the US or in Europe when the dollar was worth a lot more than now.

Next you said: She has black blood from both her father and mother: On her father's side the Mestre branch had a black ancestor and like all blacks who came to Cuba was not even documented in the white book. This makes me ask you where is your documented proof?
You know very well that there were two sets of Sacramental books kept: one for Blancos (100% caucasians) and another for Pardos y Morenos (non caucasians) who included indians, blacks and any other racial mixture who would not be recorded in the Blancos book. No white person was ever listed in any other book just like you will never find anybody who was not white listed in the Blancos book and it is not true that blacks can not be documented, all their data is kept on the Pardos and Morenos books and can be obtained. On any copy requested today for any sacramental record it is clearly written from what book, folio and entry the record can be found.

Next you claim Her maternal great grandmother was half black (if in doubt ask her to show a picture) I want to ask you several things: Has GD María Teresa shown you this picture herself as you imply? or do you have a copy of this picture that you can share and post here ? and if indeed her maternal great grandmother was half black as you seem to know: what was her name? and in what book is her baptismal record listed? Innuendo is not valid in genealogy what only matters is the documentary evidence you can provide.

Let us continue with your next statement: As a matter of fact age always shows race and as she has become older and heavier it shows in her features as they are not very refined, this remark recalls similar detrimental comments posted about the Crown Princess of Sweden, are you implying that she also has a dubious background, derived from her mother HM Sylvia, Queen consort of Sweden?

Then you proceeded with: Even in Cuba she would have been considered ordinary and a bit mulatto. This brings me to very important questions. From this comment as well as others you have made you must be either a Cuban yourself or a descendant of the well documented Cuban founding families, is this correct? and if not what then is your background? Yanne is not a Spanish name after all, although perhaps it might be a distortion of Janet, which is an English name.

You claim that: There is absolutely nothing aristocratic in her background. This is a complete falsehood on your part because if you are Cuban as I believe you are, you could not have made this gross mistake. Again it comes to mind: what documented proof do you have to the contrary?

Then you went on with: At the time of Maria Teresa's wedding her mother paid to have her ancestry documented and the writer Enrique Gonzalez de Mendoza-expert in the matter and supposedly related-. Now you are getting in an area I can enlighten you quite well. The person you quote here is Enrique Hurtado, not Gonzalez de Mendoza, who is still alive and who would be quite happy to set you straight himself. Besides, there are far too many people who are experts in Cuban genealogy in the US and in Europe who would not have tolerated nor allowed any fraud or wasted any time to show it clearly with documented proof.

It is a complete falsehood as well that Enrique explained to her that it was wiser to stop the search as there was an ancestor not far behind who was not white. I have to ask you as well where you there when this was said? I know for a fact that you were not there because as I recall the incident it had nothing to do with what you imply, it was about giving up his author’s copyright on the research which he was not willing to do and therefore the information was never published in a book format.

So I hope that you take the time to answer these questions on what you wrote for the benefit of the rest of the readers of the Forum and ask you to please back up these statements with documented proof not hearsay.

 

[josjul]

Dear Yanne:
As Rayerana has already posted the GD’s maternal descent from the Montalvo family, here is her descent from her paternal side, the very man you claim is a nobody.

1.- Lorenzo Montalvo Ruiz de Alarcón y Montalvo, 1st Count of Macuriges Married twice:
=1= Mariana Bruñón de Vértiz y Arancibia

2-José Rafael Montalvo y Bruñón de Vertiz, 2nd Count of Macuriges
= Ana Josefa Sotolongo y González-Carvajal

3-María del Rosario Montalvo y Sotolongo
= Juan Esteban de Xénes Spínola y Arancibia

4.- María del Tránsito de Xénes y Montalvo
= Agustín Cerice y Marcanalt

5.- Agustín Cerice y Xénes
= María Gertrudis Lima, descendant of the Marqueses of Santa Olalla

6.- Águeda Cerice y Lima
=Lucas Álvarez y Guillén.

7.-Lucas Álvarez y Cerice
= Narcisa Tabío y de la Lanza

8.- Mª Narcisa Álvarez y Tabío
= José Antonio Mestre y Ramos-Almeyda

9.- José Antonio Mestre y Álvarez
= Mª Teresa Batista y Falla

10.- Mª Teresa Mestre y Batista
=HRH Henri GD Luxembourg.

 

[Hereditary Thane]

So we now measure nobility and standing by money? Always thought that was in the realm of cafe society to apply such criteria.

 

[Prince of Chota]

Seriously?!

Maria teresa is not related to fulgencio batista. It is a completely different batista. Her mother's family was quite wealthy: The wealth coming from her great grandfather laureano falla who came to cuba at the age of 14 and made a fortune. Mt's father was a no one: Modest family with no formal education who married money. She has black blood from both her father and mother: On her father's side the Mestre branch had a black ancestor and like all blacks who came to cuba was not even documented in the white book. Her maternal great grandmother was half black(if in doubt ask her to show a picture). As a matter of fact age always shows race and as she has become older and heavier it shows in her features as they are not very refined, more so a country like Cuba that had extraordinarily white women of enormous beauty. Even in Cuba she would have been considered ordinary and a bit mulatto.

There is absolutely nothing aristocratic in her background. At the time of Maria Teresa's wedding her mother paid to have her ancestry documented and the writer Enrique Gonzalez de Mendoza-expert in the matter and supposedly related-explained to her that it was wiser to stop the search as there was an ancestor not far behind who was not white. Needless to say that they parted ways.

I am in shock that anyone would find this kind of conjecture appropriate to write here. It is well documented that Maria Teresa's family has extensive connections to the Spanish-Cuban aristocracy, although not technically belonging to any noble class themselves. Other than supposed comments made by a new mother-in-law, I have no idea how Afro-Cuban ancestry is relevant. Also, I find your argument that she is a "nobody" BECAUSE of this supposed African ancestry incredibly offensive. Keep antiquated and ignorant racial views to yourself, please.

In addition, I will point out that a majority of noble families in Latin America can either prove or claim ancestry from indigenous Amerindian families, which is used as a mark of nobility and length of heritage.

Even during colonial times, mixed racial heritage of all kinds never exclusively meant a lower class background.

 

[Lenora]

Well,is this true that she has an African ancestor?Anyway,that's very interesting and I think Maria Theresa is a very interesting woman

 

[Castilla95]

To BurberryBrit: Excuse me?!

BurberryBrit, I find your comment that Cubans have African blood to be offensive, as well as demonstrative of ignorance of other nationalities and cultures. I find it offensive not because there is anything inherently "wrong" or "less valuable" about being black, but because of the negative connotation associated with it in society. Were I black, I would be proud to be so and to represent the great continent and peoples of Africa, after all, according to scientists, we did all commence our human existence in Africa.

Having said that, I shall continue with my main purpose in this thread, which is to express that you are in need of elucidation on various points. Cubans are no more African than the Southerners in the U.S. As with many European colonies in the New World, Cuba operated on a slave economy, meaning that the economy depended upon slave labor, just as the Southern U.S.A. did; however, there was one very important distinction: we did not lynch black persons and we did not murder black children on their way to school or at church; furthermore, although the rule was "separate but equal," racial tensions were nowhere near as prevalent as in the U.S.A., and being gracious and polite to black compatriots was expected.

In addition, Maria Teresa and I share several common ancestors; none of them was black. They were, however, related to various Spanish nobles and others were of the Spanish nobility themselves; of those, quite a few trace their ancestry to a long string of European monarchs from many European countries, including Spain, France, Italy, England, the Scandinavian countries, etc. One of her Calvo de la Puerta ancestors was related to Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farrill, the Marques de Casa Calvo (which translates into English as Marquis of Casa Calvo), who was also the governor of the State of Louisiana (U.S.A.), commencing in 1799.

If Maria Teresa has black ancestry, that would be very surprising, as several of her ancestors owned slaves in Cuba, not the other way around - although descending from a family that owned slaves is nothing about which any person should be proud.

Suffice it to say that Cubans represent all the races that exist on the planet. The large population of African Cubans is due to the large number of slaves that were brought into the country as labor, as well as the "white flight" to the U.S.A. and other countries that took place after Castro seized power.

In closing, let's not confuse the different categories and group affiliations that apply to every person on the planet: nationality, culture and race. Cuban is a nationality, Hispanic is a culture, Caucasian (white) is a race.

And with that - I bid you good night.

-----------
BurberryBrit;736054]Wow, is that really true? If so, sad. But I know, different times. I wouldn't be surprised if she had some African blood being Cuban, but she could "pass" so it's too bad they couldn't attend the wedding because of something that you can't even see.[/QUOTE]

 

[Castilla95]

To Josjul: well said!

Josjul, I read your below entry with appreciation of its well-written discourse on the subject, as well as your attempt therein to dispense with Yanne's innuendo, which in my view, drips with envy as thick as molasses toward Maria Teresa.

You are correct that the Fallas were very wealthy and influential. I remember hearing them mentioned on occasion by several family friends and also by my great-aunt who told me that my maternal grandmother (her sister) was engaged to one of them back in the 1920s, although they did not marry. That particular Falla went on a trip to Spain, met some other woman and married her instead, taking her back to Cuba, then when she turned out to be not who he thought she was, he tried to get back together with my grandmother - who gave him a resounding "No."

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Ancestry of Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
Dear Yanne:
This is in response to your previous entry.
What Rayarena has posted so far is entirely correct. The GD does indeed have a well documented descent from aristocratic and noble families from Cuba...