[Eustaquio Sedeno y Granados, Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo, Maria Teresa ’Lila’ Blanco Sedeno, Carmina Sedeno Rodrigo, and Marisa Sedeno Diaz in Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain - May 2005]
[Marisa Sedeno Diaz, Eustaquio Sedeno y Granados, Maria Teresa ’Lila’ Blanco Sedeno and Carmina Sedeno Rodrigo - Spain 1980’s]
[Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo posed by the gorilla statue at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, she has often talked about the Barbary Apes roaming the streets in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory and headland, on Spain’s south coast, that she had visited with her parents when she was a young girl - August 2010]
[Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo and daughter Ann Greyson with their origami gold foil wrapped leftovers from Gladstone's restaurant, Pacific Palisades, California - August 1997]


Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo (b. September 7, 1925, Havana, Cuba), has generations of aristocracy in her lineage. Her godfather was Alexandre de Bernard Kourakine, the husband of Hilda Heydrich, and a member of an exiled family of the Russian nobility, a descendant of Russian Princess Tatiana Alexandrovna Kourakine. 1953 and 1954, Meaghan studied piano and music theory alongside her classmate Harvey Van Cliburn at The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City. 1954 thru 1956, she studied ballet under instructors Alberto Alonso, Fernando Alonso and Nikolai Yavorsky at Escuela de Ballet de Pro-Arte Musical de La Habana, Cuba, and performed in ballets such as Les Sylphides with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. 1956 and 1957, she was in France training at the Ballet de l’Opera National de Paris and danced as a coryphee alongside dancers Rudolph Nureyev and Renee "Zizi" Jeanmaire. On September 8, 1958 at Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Carmen in Havana Cuba, Meaghan married Neil Alfredo Otazo y Diaz (b. May 20, 1926, Florida, Camaguey, Cuba - d. June 11, 2003, Columbia, Maryland). Guests at the wedding included Meaghan’s two cousins: Altagracia de la Camara y O’Reilly and Maria Francisca de la Camara y O’Reilly, VIII Marquesa de Justiz de Santa Ana, (sisters of a distinguished family of pioneer settlers on the Island of Cuba whose great grandfather was Manuel O’Reilly y Calvo de la Puerta, IV Conde de Buenavista and III Conde de O'Reilly, the brother of Meaghan’s great-great grandmother Rosa O’Reilly y Calvo de la Puerta); and their husbands Nicanor Martinez Bandujo y Troncoso and Marcos Zarraga y Ortiz. On June 22, 1962, Meaghan left Cuba and immigrated to the USA with her mother Maria Virginia Barzaga, a U.S. citizen by birth, aboard Pan American Airways flight 2422 to Miami, Florida, though U.S. Officials had suspended commercial flights between Cuba and the United States of America, they had allowed flights for Americans and their immediate family members. Meaghan and Neil are the parents of three children born in the United States. She is credited Production Coordinator of The War Is Over, 30-minute digital betacam program, starring Jack Donner and Harley Jane Kozak (1997) 11th Cycle Directing Workshop For Women project of the American Film Institute. Certificate of graduation in Professional Photography from the New York Institute of Photography (1990); Teaching Certificate in field of Hearing Impaired from the State of Georgia, Department of Education (1980-1973); Teaching Certificate in field of Administration & Supervision [Provisional] from the State of Georgia, Department of Education (1979-1975); Specialist In Education degree in Supervision from the University of Georgia (1976); Master of Education degree in Special Education from Georgia State University (1973); Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Georgia State University (1972); Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Universidad de la Habana (1961); and Diploma from Colegio Baldor.

Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo on the campus of the University of Miami in Florida in July 1963, a few days after being offered a personal secretary job from actor Jackie Gleason {The Honeymooners - Paramount TV show CBS}, which she had declined. Other photos are Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo and Neil Otazo of their wedding and younger days.

Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo; Maria Virginia Barzaga; Miguel Blanco; Antonio Barzaga; Maria Salome Diaz Barzaga and Maria Virginia Barzaga

Though Meaghan Regina D’Otazzo is legally a U.S. citizen born abroad and should have been granted automatic U.S. citizenship, she obtained U.S. citizenship through Naturalization on September 12, 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother, Maria Virginia Barzaga (b. January 6, 1898, New York, New York - d. May 24, 1976, Atlanta, Georgia, buried at College Park Cemetery, College Park, Georgia), was baptized by Reverend Philip Cardella on July 23, 1898 at the Church of St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit Roman Catholic parish, 55 W. 15th Street, New York, NY, where her granddaughter Ann Greyson had attended Sunday mass periodically for 18 years. After her birth, Maria Virginia Barzaga lived for 4 years in a red brick townhouse on W. 102 Street in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan before she moved with her parents, Antonio Barzaga y Herrera (b. 1858, Bayamo, Granma, Cuba - d. 1909, Havana, Cuba) and Maria Salome Diaz y Sosa (b. October 22, 1863, Quivican, Cuba - d. September 28, 1948, Havana, Cuba), to Cuba shortly after The Spanish-American War had ended. Due to that war, the Barzagas had left Cuba in 1897 on the advice of family friend Blas Villate y de la Hera, II Conde de Valmaseda and Governor of Cuba three times. Maria Virginia Barzaga married Miguel Blanco y Sanchez, (b. October 28, 1887, San Miguel de Ucio, Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain - d. March 20, 1956, Havana, Cuba), on August 15, 1918, at Iglesia de Termino del Espiritu Santo in Havana, Cuba. Guests at the wedding included: Piedad Zenea y Mas, {the daughter of poet Juan Clemente Zenea y Fornaris whose bronze statue monument sits at the base of Paseo del Prado in Havana, Cuba}, her husband Emilio Bobadilla y Lunar, the novelist, along with his cousin Herminia Saladrigas y Lunar and her husband Rafael Montoro y Valdes, I Marques de Montoro (parents of Octavio Montoro y Saladrigas who was the father of Rafael Montoro y de la Torre, II Marques de Montoro, married to Albertina O’Farrill y de la Campa). Maria Virginia Barzaga de Blanco lived many years in a house in the poshest suburb in Havana, Cuba on Avenida 7, numero 9, Miramar, Marianao.


Miguel Barzaga; Rafael Barzaga; Carlos Blanco; Miguel Angel de la Campa; Albertina O'Farrill; Maria Teresa Mestre

Antonio Barzaga y Herrera is the brother of Miguel Barzaga y Herrera, who married Aurelia Landa; and Rafael Barzaga y Herrera, (b. May 24, 1864 - Bayamo, Granma, Cuba - d. February 17, 1945, Cuba), married to Concepcion Condis (d. February 9, 1959), he was the founder and director of El Figaro newspaper (1885-1930). Miguel Blanco y Sanchez is the first cousin of Carlos Blanco y Sanchez (b. February 16, 1904, Havana, Cuba - d. October 17, 1999) Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree from Universidad de la Habana (1925), he worked for the Department of State, Havana (1930-1935 and 1939-1945) Assistant Secretary of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations, Member: American Society of International Law (ASIL), Decorations: Order of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes (1941) and the Order of Brilliant Star of China (1950) and married to Maria Luisa de Lasa y Broch, whose great-great grandfather was Ignacio O’Farrill y Arredondo the brother of Juan Jose O’Farrill y Arredondo, (sons of Jose Ricardo O’Farrill y Herrera). Additionally, Maria Luisa de Lasa y Broch was the niece of Catalina de Lasa y del Rio, a high-society belle considered the most beautiful woman of her generation and known for her scandalous marriages to {Pedro Estevez y Gonzalez-Abreu}; and to wealthy sugar mill owner, Juan Pedro Baro, who is buried next to her mauseluem designed by Rene Lalique, a French jeweler and artist noted for his glass creations, at Cementerio de Cristobal Colon in Havana, Cuba.

Carlos Blanco y Sanchez is the uncle of Sonia Blanco y Zalba, V Vizcondesa de Valvanera, who married Adolfo Isidoro Ponce de Leon y Benavides (the son of Adolfo Ponce de Leon y Ponce de Leon, VII Conde de Villanueva and V Vizconde de Valvanera} whose family mansion in Old Havana became Hotel Conde de Villanueva not far from the majestic Palacio de los Marqueses de Aguas Claras, built by their ancestor Antonio Ponce de Leon y Maroto, (1833-1838), I Marques de Aguas Claras. This Ponce de Leon line are direct descendants of Juan Ponce de Leon y Figueroa (the son of Pedro Ponce de Leon y Guzman and Leonor Suarez de Figueroa y Manuel de Villena [the consort/sister and direct descendant of Juan Alonso de Guzman y Suarez de Figueroa, III Conde de Niebla and I Duque de Medina Sidonia]). Juan Ponce de Leon y Figueroa (1474-1521) born in Santervas de Campos, Valladolid, Castile y Leon, Spain, was a Spanish explorer and conquistador on a quest for the Fountain of Youth, vitality-restoring waters that bestowed eternal youth on anyone who bathed in or drank from it, according to legend situated somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. But Juan is best known as the first Governor of Puerto Rico, and the first Governor of Florida. Juan’s first cousin once removed, Rodrigo Ponce de Leon y Nunez, III Conde de Arcos, II Marques de Cadiz, I Duque de Cadiz and I Marques de Zahara (1443-1492), was written about extensively in the Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada by Washington Irving.

Miguel Blanco y Sanchez is a half-first cousin of Miguel Angel de la Campa y Caraveda (b. December 8, 1882, Havana, Cuba - d. August 20, 1965, Miami, Florida) as they share the same grandmother, Francisca Alvarodiaz y Suarez (b. Pola de Lena, Asturias, Spain). Miguel Angel de la Campa y Caraveda married Maria Teresa Roff y Castilla, and served as Ambassador of Cuba to the United States in Washington, DC (1958), Foreign Minister of Cuba (1952-1954), Charge d'Affaires at London - Cuban Legation (1913-1918), and Minister Plenipotentiary (Japan). Doctor of Philosophy degree in Civil & Public Law from Universidad de la Habana. Decorations: Legion d'honneur (Chevalier) of France, Orden de Carlos III (Grand Commander) and Real Orden de Isabel la Catolica - Spain.

Miguel Angel de la Campa y Caraveda is the grandfather of Adela de la Campa y de la Torre who married Laureano Batista y Falla, the uncle of Maria Teresa Mestre y Batista, (b. 1956, Marianao, Havana, Cuba), the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, married to Henri, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Maria Teresa Mestre y Batista’s great grandparent was Ricardo O’Farrill y O’Daly, (1677-1730), (born in Kinsale in Montserrat, a British-owned island in the Caribbean to Richard O’Farrill y Killcleigh and Catalina O’Daly), who married Maria Josefa de Arriola y Garcia de Londono. Maria Teresa Mestre y Batista’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandparent is Maria Josefa O’Farrill y Herrera, (the daughter of Juan Jose O’Farrill y Arriola and Luisa Maria Herrera y Chacon), who married Ignacio Montalvo y Ambulodi, I Conde de Casa Montalvo, the brother of Francisco Montalvo y Ambulodi, (1754-1822), who served as the Captain-General and Viceroy of New Granada (Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador) from 1812-1818. Additionally, Ignacio Montalvo y Ambulodi was the the grandfather of Maria de la Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo, (1789-1852) (the daughter of Maria Teresa Montalvo y O’Farrill and Joaquin Santa Cruz y Cardenas, III Conde de San Juan de Jaruco and I Conde de Santa Cruz de Mopox), whom had a preferential place in the Spanish Court of Carlos IV and his Queen. Maria de la Mercedes Santa Cruz y Montalvo married Napoleonic General Antoine Christophe Merlin, a. k. a. Merlin de Thionville, and became a fixture of high society having a friendship with Empress Eugenia de Montijo (Palafox de Guzman Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick de Closeburn), XIX Condesa de Teba, wife of Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Bonaparte). Condesa de Merlin was Cuba’s first published female author, the novelist of Viaje a La Habana, (1844), a 19th-century Romantic work that captured the moment Havana began its transformation into a modern city, and was greeted in the Havana press as an editorial sensation.


Hotel Conde de Villanueva in Havana; Maria de la Mercedes Santa Cruz; Francisco Montalvo; Gonzalo O’Farrill; Hugo O'Conor


Hugo O'Conor statue in Tucson, Arizona; Alejandro O’Reilly; Pedro Pablo O’Reilly; Luis de las Casas; Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta

Miguel Blanco y Sanchez is a half-first cousin of Armantina de la Campa y Caraveda, who married Alberto O’Farrill y Alvarez, a cousin of Maria de los Dolores Herrera y O’Reilly [daughter of Joaquin Herrera y Herrera and Rosa O’Reilly y Calvo de la Puerta, who was born in Sevilla, Spain]. Maria de los Dolores Herrera y O’Reilly married Miguel Barzaga, the grandparents of Maria Virginia Barzaga, whose great-great-grandparents were Jose Miguel Herrera y Zayas-Bazan (1748-1828), VI Marques de Villalta, and Maria Gabriela Herrera y Chacon, the parents of Joaquin Herrera y Herrera whose second wife Rosa O’Reilly y Calvo de la Puerta is the daughter of Maria Francisca Calvo de la Puerta y del Manzano, III Condesa de Buenavista, (the daughter of Francisco Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farrill, II Conde de Buenavista), and Pedro Pablo O’Reilly y de las Casas, II Conde de O’Reilly, (b. 1768 - Madrid, Spain - d. 1832), (the son of Maria Rosa de las Casas y Aragorri and Alejandro O’Reilly y MacDowell, I Conde de O’Reilly (1723-1794), who was regarded in his day in the mid-eighteenth century as one of Spain’s greatest generals, was born in Baltrasna, County Meath, near Dublin, Ireland, appointed by the Spanish King Carlos III to serve as the 2nd Spanish Governor of the state of Louisiana in the US, and in Spain he was Captain-General of Andalusia, and Governor of Cadiz. Alejandro O’Reilly y MacDowell, (the son of Thomas O’Reilly y O’Reilly and Rose MacDowell y Dillon, sister of Honora MacDowell y Dillon, (the daughters of Bridgett Dillon and Luke MacDowell of Mantua), who married Andrew O’Conor y Birmingham of Clonalis) is the first cousin once removed of Hugo O’Conor y Ryan (the son of Daniel O’Conor y MacDowell of Clonalis and Margaret Ryan). Brigadier General Hugo O’Conor y Ryan (1734-1779), Knight of Calatrava XCVI, was nicknamed "The Red Captain" by the Apaches because of his red hair and his ferocity in battles with Spanish troops against the Apache and Comanche Indians in Texas. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he was an interim Governor of Texas (1767-1770), and Governor and Captain-General of the Yucatan peninsula in southeast Mexico. On behalf of the King Carlos III of Spain, in 1775, Hugo established a presidio, San Agustin del Tucson on the east side of the Santa Cruz River, a military fort to provide protection of Spanish interests from Pima and later Apache threats, which was the founding of the city of Tucson, Arizona. This Gaelic-Irish aristocratic dynasty, O’Conor Don line, are direct descendants of the 12th century Kings of Connacht and Kings of Ireland, Turlough Mor O’Conor (1088-1156), and his son Rory O’Conor (1116-1198). The O’Conor ancestral home is the Clonalis House, a huge Victorian Italianate mansion set on a 700-acre wooded estate, in Castlerea, County Roscommon, Ireland.

Pedro Pablo O'Reilly y de las Casas was the nephew of Luis de las Casas y Aragorri, Conde de Aranda, the brother of Maria Rosa de las Casas y Aragorri, who was born in Sopuerta, in the province of Biscay, in the Basque Country of northern Spain, and was the Captain General of Cuba. Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta y O’Farrill, I Marques de Casa Calvo, was an interim Governor of Spanish-owned Louisiana for two years (1799-1801), and the brother of Francisco Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farrill, the sons of Pedro Jose Calvo de la Puerta y Arango, I Conde de Buenavista, and Catalina O'Farrill y Arriola (the daughter of Ricardo O'Farrill y O'Daly). The O’Reilly family, descendants of the Princes of East Breifne, (County Cavan) in Ulster, Ireland, were among the Irish Catholics that settled in Cuba by the British Crown in 1713.

Albertina O’Farrill y de la Campa, (1921-2016), a lady of Havana high society who had once frequented the intimate gatherings of European royalty. In Cuba, she collaborated with the CIA in Operation Pedro Pan, a visa-waiver program that brought thousands of unaccompanied children to the United States. A half-second cousin of Miguel Blanco y Sanchez, Albertina O’Farrill shares a direct descendant relationship with Maria Virginia Barzaga to the noble Irish Brahmin family O’Farrill, a prominent clan with Celtic roots, that traced their line to County Longford in Ireland. Descendants Maria Virginia Barzaga, and specifically Albertina O’Farrill y de la Campa’s paternal great-great grandfather was Jose Ricardo O’Farrill y Herrera, the brother of Ignacio O’Farrill y Herrera, Juan Manuel O’Farrill y Herrera, Rafael O’Farrill y Herrera, and Gonzalo O’Farrill y Herrera, (1754-1831), a Minister of War to Joseph Bonaparte, who had been made King of Spain by his brother Napoleon Bonaparte. Gonzalo was also a Minister of Spain in Berlin, Germany who aided the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt in his scientific journey though the Americas. However, in Cuba, Ignacio, Juan Manuel, Gonzalo, and Rafael were notable for their intermarriages and were notorious figures in the Atlantic slave trade, importing Africans to cut sugar cane in the fields with machetes, intent on creating a rich, sugar-based economy in Cuba. They had slave trading plantations near Madruga, within twenty miles southwest of Matanzas, Cuba, a sugar plantation named La Concordia in Tapaste; and Santa Ana de Biajacas, a coffee plantation. Rafael O’Farrill y Herrera married his niece Maria Luisa O’Farrill y Arredondo, the sister of Juan Jose O’Farrill y Arredondo, the great grandfather of Albertina O’Farrill y de la Campa.


Chico O’Farrill; Rita de Acosta portrait by Giovanni Boldini; [Aida de Acosta at the controls of Brazilian pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont’s six-horsepower flat-twin starboard engine dirigible in Paris;
Mercedes de Acosta; [Maria Virginia Barzaga; Maria Salome Diaz Barzaga; Francisca Martinez y Acosta; Piedad Diaz y Martinez; Amparo Diaz y Martinez; Margarita Andux y Diaz; Laura Diaz y Torres]

Albertina O’Farrill y de la Campa is the first cousin of Arturo "Chico" O’Farrill y Theye, (1921-2001), who was born in Palacio O’Farrill (a family, colonial mansion with neoclassical elements inherited from Rafael O’Farrill y Herrera and Maria Luisa O’Farrill y Arredondo), now a 4-star hotel featuring the Salon Longford in Old Havana. Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill y Theye was a pioneer of Latin jazz music, who produced about two dozen albums and worked with musicians such as Count Basie, Ringo Starr, and David Bowie. Also, he wrote many Spanish-language television commercial jingles for companies such as American Airlines and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and his son Arturo O’Farrill y Valero, a Grammy Award-winning Afro-Latin jazz musician, has followed in his footsteps.

Manuela Teresa Garro y Herrera, (the granddaughter of Maria de la Ascension de la Barrera y Espinosa de Contreras, III Condesa de Gibacoa), married Rafael O’Farrill y Arredondo, the great grand uncle of Albertina O’Farrill y de la Campa. Their daughter Maria Catalina O’Farrill y Garro married Francisco Carrillo de Albornoz y Arango (the brother of Antonio Carrillo de Albornoz y Arango married to Maria de la Mercedes Hernandez y Aloy). Their son: Francisco Carrillo de Albornoz y O’Farrill, who married Maria Cleofas Garcia-Barrera y Valdes-Lancis (the daughter of Francisco Garcia-Barrera y Landa), was a first cousin of Maria de la Mercedes Carrillo de Albornoz y Hernandez, who married her first cousin Fernando Carrillo de Albornoz y de la Guardia (the son of Juan Carrillo de Albornoz y Arango). Francisco Carrillo de Albornoz y O’Farrill was a first cousin to Maria del Carmen Carrillo de Albornoz y Hernandez (wife of Ramon Diago y Zayas-Bazan and daughter of Francisca Hernandez y Aloy and Jose Manuel Carrillo de Albornoz y Arango (the brother of Francisco Carrillo de Albornoz y Arango)

Maria de la Mercedes Hernandez y Aloy and Francisca Hernandez y Aloy are the sisters of Rafael Hernandez y Aloy, who married Rita "La Linda" Hernandez de Alba y Sanchez (the daughter of Rita Sanchez y Carvajal (b. 1751 - Yepes, Castile-La Mancha, Spain), and Lorenzo Hernandez de Alba y Alonso, (b. 1740 - Arevalo, Castile y Leon, Spain), Caballero de la Orden de Carlos III. The O’Farrill cousin relationship continues with their daughter Maria Micaela Hernandez de Alba y Sanchez, (b. 1853), who married Ricardo de Acosta, the parents of: Rita de Acosta y Hernandez de Alba, a moody and vivacious American socialite named by one observer as "the most picturesque woman in America" with notable marriages to Philip Mesier Lydig, and William Earl Dodge Stokes, who had vast amounts of inherited wealth and of the Phelps Dodge company, a brash real-estate developer who built the turreted 17-story Ansonia residential condominium, Beaux-Arts style building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City; Aida de Acosta y Hernandez de Alba, (1884-1962), an American socialite, who at the age of nineteen, after only three flight lessons, became the first woman to fly a motorized aircraft solo in France from Paris to Chateau de Bagatelle on June 27, 1903, nearly six months before American aviation pioneers Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright flew their heavier-than-air powered aircraft, she was married to Oren Root and Henry Skillman Breckinridge; Angela de Acosta y Hernandez de Alba was married to Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Charleton Shaw, O.B.E. (son of Frederick William Shaw, D.S.O. [Distinguished Service Order}, 5th Baronet of Bushy Park, cousins of George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize-winning playwright and novelist); Mercedes de Acosta y Hernandez de Alba (1892-1968), playwright and novelist whose lesbian affairs with modern dancer Isadora Duncan, ballerina Tamara Karsavina, and movie star Marlene Dietrich who was bewitched by her, was known in some circles, but is best known as the lesbian lover of movie star Greta Garbo.

Manuel Diaz y Hernandez and Maria Sosa Diaz; Manuel Luciano Diaz monument by artist and sculptress Rita Longa y Arostegui; Manuel Luciano Diaz; Manuel Dionysius Diaz; Felipe Rivero

Maria Salome Diaz y Sosa is the daughter of Manuel Diaz y Hernandez, (d. February 23, 1896, Guanabacoa, Cuba), and Maria Sosa y Diaz; and the sister of Manuel Luciano Diaz y Sosa, (b. January 7, 1850 on a coffee plantation in Alquizar, Artemisa, Cuba - d. December 30, 1917, Naranjito of Arroyo Naranjo, Havana, Cuba, shortly after his horse, "Golden Chance" won his first race, under Jockey Eddie Taplin, at Oriental Park Race Track in Marianao, Havana), an avid equestrian, with his Kentucky thoroughbred "Pierpont," he took blue ribbons in many horse shows, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and was friends with Samuel Jones Tilden, the 25th governor of New York, and Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, KCMG, a president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Dubbed the "Cuban Copper King" by The Leavenworth Echo newspaper of Leavenworth, Washington, Manuel Luciano Diaz y Sosa, was the proprietor of Minas de Matahambre, S.A. copper mining facility established in 1912 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba and was the Secretary of Public Works under Tomas Estrada Palma, the first President of the new republic of Cuba. His farm of Holstein breed of dairy cattle from the Netherlands, enabled his venture into local distribution and exportation of milk and cheese in 1916. He married Francisca Martinez y Acosta and is the father of Manuel Dionysius Diaz y Martinez, (b. April 8, 1874, Havana, Cuba - d. February 20, 1929, Rochester, Minnesota), Harvard University graduate class of 1899, drove stakes for the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1900-1901), and two time gold medalist in the individual sabre and team foil competition in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, Missouri, married Blanche Maud Bridgman y Morrill, (b. 1873 - Rock Island, Quebec, Canada).

Felipe Rivero y Diaz, the grandson of Manuel Dionysius Diaz y Martinez, was a descendant of a renowned family of the Cuban oligarchy, owners of the world-famous leading Havana cigar manufacturer Por Larranaga, and owner of the conservative newspaper Diario de la Marina, founded by his grandfather Nicolas Rivero y Muniz, I Conde del Rivero. Felipe Rivero y Diaz was a freedom fighter (Company 6, 2nd Battalion) in the Central Intelligence Agency sponsored Brigade 2506 Cuban-exile invasion force armed with Garand rifles in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Spearheaded by the United States to overthrow the Cuban government headed by dictator Fidel Castro, the failed military landing operation took place along the Playa Giron on the east bank of the Bahia de Cochinos in the province of Matanzas.

MEAGHAN D’OTAZZO | Autumn Lake Healthcare nursing and rehabilitative care center, 16 Fusting Avenue, Room 123B on B Wing, Catonsville, Maryland 21228 | 410-747-1800 | meaghan772@comcast.net