Histoire familiale : la famille de Montalvo

 

The familial history

 

The building of our today families

(V)

 

 

The family of Mathilde de Montalvo

 

The 22nd of April 1819, the Colonel Louis de Clouet, a french officer from the Regiment of Louisiana gone into service of the King of Spain, founded officially, in the Bay of Jagua on the southern coast of Cuba, the colony of Fernandina de Jagua which, in 1832, gave rise to the town of Cienfuegos. The first immigrants, in 1819, were mostly french coming from Louisiana and some americans from Philadelphia and Baltimore. The first census, in 1824, reported a population of 1283 inhabitants, mostly white little tenant-farmers ( they were 1129 on a total of 1555 at the following census in 1827). It is probably with the second wave of migrants that don Lino de Montalvo y Vinader arrived and settled in Cienfuegos. At his arrival, he was a soldier but very quickly, he devoted to sugarcane growing, sugar production and alcohol distillation.

 

position of Cienfuegos on the cuban south coast

Position of Cienfuegos on the south coast of Cuba

 

Don Lino de Montalvo y Vinader, the father of Mathilde and Maria Victoria, the respctive wives of Ludovic Eugène Denis de Lagarde and of Diego Santiago Colon de Toledo y Ruiz de Villafranca, has been, in Cienfuegos, the founder of the Montalvo lineage. He was born in Medina del Campo ( Province of Valladolid in Spain) the 27th of September 1802, descendant of an ancient family of this town. Here already lived his ancestor Ignacio Franco de Montalvo y de la Barrera. He was married with Francesca Maria Villaroel y Velasquez, daughter of the Viscount de la Frontera and descendant of Diego Velasquez, one of the Conquistadors of Cuba in 1510. The son of Ignacio Franco de Montalvo, Joaquin Maria, born in Medina del Campo the 20th of August 1767, married the 22nd of October 1892, in San Miguel, Maria del Rosario Vinader y Paz, born in 1766 in Murcia, town where her family was present since the middle of the 17th century.

Don Lino, son of Joaquin Maria, was dead in Cienfuegos the 29th of October 1853. He had five sons and two daughters from his marriage with Maria de los Dolores Brigida Rodriguez Prieto y Jimenez, daughter of Don Antonio Rodriguez Prieto. Don Antonio was a member of the first town-council of Cienfuegos (2nd of February 1829) then of the Port Management Council created the 28th of August 1837 in Cuba. When he arrives in Cuba, Don Lino was Lieutenant at the 6th Company of the Infantery Batallion of Tarragone. He was then elected, in 1836, first Alcade and, in 1845, Regidor and Alcade Mayor of Cienfuegos. During the year 1850, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and took the command of the Volunteers Batallion of Cienfuegos, raised to face the invasion of the General Narciso Lopez.

 

Cienfuegos - Punta Gorda

Cienfuegos (Cuba) : Punta Gorda

(afar, we can see the channel connecting the bay of Jagua to the Carribean Sea)

 

From the nine children of Don Lino, five sons were preeminent among the notables and citizens of Cienfuegos.

Antonio de Montalvo y Rodriguez, landowner, born and dead in Cienfuegos, was from 1860 to 1864 "Regidor" of the municipality. propriétaire terrien, né et mort à Cienfuegos, fut de 1860 à 1864 "Regidor" de la Municipalité. A street of Cienfuegos bears always his name. Moreover, he has been an outstanding person of the Autonomist Party.

Evaristo de Montalvo y Rodriguez, born in Cienfuegos and dead in New York (USA) the 17th of November 1905, was also a landowner. From 1878 to 1880 he was Town Councillor and, in 1879, was elected member of the Managing Board of the "Liceo Artistico y Literario", created the 23rd of May 1847. This institution has been the great learning center of Cienfuegos. At the endof the ten Years War (1868-1878), he was elected Representative of the Autonomist Party to the Cortes.éé le 23 mai 1847, qui fut le grand centre d'instruction de Cienfuegos. A la fin de la Guerre des Dix Ans (1868-1878) il fut élu Député aux Cortès. During several years , even after the 20th of May 1905, date of proclamation of the Cuban Republic, member of the Education Commission of Cienfuegos.

Hermenegildo de Montalvo y Rodriguez, born in Cienfuegos, dead in Barcelone (Spain), was elected, the 15th of June 1879, vice-secretary of the Lyceo. In 1881, he was second in command of the Fire-Brigade and took soon its Chief Command. The 28th of February 1887, he was appointed Treasurer of the local Junta of the Autonomist Party and, the 31st of January 1899, he was elected Town Councillor. Don Hermenegildo was Knight Grand-Croix of the Royal Order of Isabelle the Catholic.

Jose Ramon de Montalvo y Rodriguez was born the 27th of November 1840 in Cienfuegos where he died the 19 of January 1917. He studied law at the Madrid University and was graduated in 1862 as a bannister. Back to Cuba, he devoted to the sugar industry and developped the San Lino Sugar Factory from which he was a shareowner. He was among the first to use the pressure residues of the sugarcane processing as a fuel, and did an important economic bonus in the industrial production of sugar. He was also an iùportant member of the Autonomist Party and an active propagator of its ideas, either in speeches or in newspapers. From his marriage with Doña Francesca Franco y Hernandez, he got ten sons who were all men of merit and played a leading part among the citizens of Cienfuegos.

Lino de Montalvo y Rodriguez, born and dead in Cienfuegos, was elected in 1881 Provincial Representative for the Autonomist Party. He was the owner of the sugar-factory "Andreita" and share-owner, with his brother Jose Ramon, of the "San Lino" factory.

Don Lino de Montalvo y Vinader had also four daughters, Maria Victoria and Mathilde Ignacia de la Caridad , the respective wives of Diego Santiago Colon de Toledo y Ruiz de Villafranca and of Ludovic Eugène Denis de Lagarde and two other girls, Dolorès et Rosa, from whom we have no biographical details.

(The biographical details on the Montalvo family are extracted from the Dictionnario Bibliografico Cienfueguero of Luis J. Bustamante, published in 1931 and available, in spanish language, on the official site of Cienfuegos).