Dear Nicolas
Im also looking for the Herrera Family from Cuba. Pls tell me which branch are you coming from.
The one I´m interested on are the ones that came from Mortera Cantabria in 1800. The first one to arrive to Cuba was Manuel Herrera Sancibrian (1812-1885), later on his brothers Cosme and Pedro. The three of them got married in Cuba.
Pls contact me so we can share information

best regardss
Angelica

Dear Ms. Rabago,

My paternal grandmother was Blanca Aurora FERNANDEZ y HERRERA de DIAZ, born circa 1905. Her mother was Carmen HERRERA but I do not know her other surname. I can remember that she was on "Queen for a Day" in Cuba in the late 1950s, where she won a washing machine and a refrigerator. Her daughters were quite proud of her. She had a daughter named America FERNANDEZ y HERRERA.

I am confident Carmen HERRERA was Spanish born or the daughter of a Spanish subject, as others would ask her for stories about the Spanish American War and she would decline. She was slightly build, had blue eyes(?) (they had lost their light much by then, and she was very very old). My beloved great grandmother was provided excellent care by my grandmother, who would say that Carmen was over one hundred years old, which would make her date of birth circa 1857, but I believed was later, given her daughter's date of birth.

Her daughter America married a man who fought in the Spanish Civil War against Franco, with many decorations for high heroism. They had a daughter named Isaura (BAEZ?). Both mother and daughter did suffer from severe diabetes.

Carmen's daughter, Blanca Aurora FERNANDEZ y HERRERA, my grandmother, had very black, really a mane of hair, had creamy white skin, eyes the color of amber (hence the name Blanca Aurora) and her personality was predominated by her generosity. Although she wore the vestiments of a CONVERSO, she belied her Sephardic roots in her self-denying concern for everyone, ability to survive adversity and optimism. She was also physically beautifully sephardic, given the combination of her aquiline features, her raven, thick, tresses, her VERY, VERY stubborn streak (I could tell stories there!!), her untiring work ethic and her Spanish charn.

Among the long list of charities she performed was to inject diabetics who could not or were afraid to inject themselves.

My great grandmother was of slight constitution but was strong enough to make it to a very advanced age. She did indeed refuse to die until I came to see her, so she was strong-willed in that tiny frame.

That stubborn streak, by the way, remains in the FERNANDEZ y HERRERA family to this day.

I am sorry that all I have is this, gentle memories or a Spanish woman who taught me songs and dances from her motherland. She was remembered on Queen for a Day as a mother willing to sacrifice for the good of her children.

Cordially,
Ines Diaz-Oben

Dear Ines
Thank you for your beautifull information. I would love to help you find something else. But I need the name of the place she was born, and maybe I can move from there. Do you have any other specific information such as dates, places, other family names

The family I have information from are the ones that came from Mortera, Cantabria. The first to arrive was Ramon Herrera San Cibrián, born 1812 mortera and died 1885 Cuba.

the other surnames that I´m trying to get info about are:

Blanco Herrera
Herrera Gutierrez
Herrera Herrera



Thanks for your reply.

Angelica Rabago

Dear Ms. Rabago,

Other than the information I provided, I only know that my grandmother, Blanca Aurora FERNANDEZ y HERRERA was born in Santiago de Cuba circa 1905.

Carmen HERRERA, my grandmother's mother, was probably Spanish but I do not know any more. I know of her love of Spanish music and that her accent was not Cuban.

I know that the FERNANDEZ y HERRERA family held Spain close to their heart as one of them, America, probably named so for being the first born in the new land, was married to a hero of the Spanish Civil War's Abraham Lincoln Brigade against dictator Franco. (You know, as in Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes and Nicolas Guillén).

During my teenage years I did visit my second cousins whose grandmother was America FERNANDEZ y HERRERA. They lived on 86th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and we would play in Central Park, almost every weekend, we were like first cousins (the BAEZ's). All of us knew little of the HERRERA story, only that America, their grandmother as well as Isaura, their mother, were quite diabetic. Their grandfather was radicalized by the Spanish Civil War and this caused a divorce, as the FERNANDEZ y HERRERAs are liberal but not communists.

Isaura is knowledgeable regarding textiles and her husband worked with antiques. She possesses great kindness and used to come to Cuba bearing gifts of textiles for the seamstresses in the family. There are several stories to illustrate her sweet personality and infinite patience, but you might think that I exagerate.

We are a good, liberal, patriotic family rent asunder by communism. The FERNANDEZ y HERRERAs are a very generous and altruistic lot.

My grandmother married into the DIAZ family of Santiago de Cuba. One of my father's PAZOS y DIAZ cousins, Alicia PAZOS y DIAZ de PAZOS, married a liberal representative from Oriente, so there was a tradition of liberal political involvement. I read an obituary for Dr. Felipe PAZOS, an economist, in the New York Times but I do not even know for sure whether that is him!

The one in the obituary is famous for demonstrating that Castro was not dead, as some had thought, but alive in the mountains, by arranging an interview with him by a New York Times reporter.

All this to advise you that at the time of the revolution, when I was only five years old, there was much turmoil, for liberals as well as labor leaders (which my father was) were persecuted along with conservatives by the "revolutionaries" who sought complete control. The uprooting was sudden and cruel, so that we (the DIAZ-OBENs) grew up with the PAZOS-DIAZ second cousins, in New Jersey, as our only link to our homeland.

Everyone just wanted to forget the old and start anew in the land of opportunity. It hurt to open old wounds. Also, discussions might lead to arguments and to hurt feelings.

Cordially,
Ines Diaz-Oben

Please feel free to contact me off-board with any information or to post the information for others to benefit as well.

El abuelo de mi abuela era Ramón Vélez de Herrera (4/03/1808, Habana) hijo de Esteban Vélez y Monserrate Herrera. Casó con María de Jesús Solís y Pacheco. Entre sus hijos era Manuel de Jesús Vélez y Solís (19/07/1855). Este casó el 27/02/1882 con María de Regla Petít y Murga (8/09/1868). Entre sus hijos nació mi abuela Amelia Virginia Vélez y Petít (1884-1976).
¿Tus Herrera tienen relación con los mios?

Querido Señor Moreno T.,

Desafortunadamente no puedo determinar si somos familia, basado en la poca informacion que tengo referente a mi bisabuela, Carmen HERRERA. Yo sali de Cuba muy joven y por esa razon no conosco los datos que quisiera saber sobre mis ancestros.

Solo se que mi bisabuela se caso un FERNANDEZ, pues su hija, mi abuela, se llamaba Blanca Aurora FERNANDEZ y HERRERA.

Tambien se que tuvo otra hija, America FERNANDEZ y HERRERA y que el esposo de su hija peleo en contra de Franco en la Guerra Civil del (1936?).

Carmen HERRERA estuvo en el programa "Reina por un Dia" y ya casi tenia un centenario, asi que nacio en aproximadamente 1860.

Si yo encuentro alguna informacion que le pueda asistir a su busqueda, con mucho gusto se la presentare.

Cordialmente,
Ines Diaz-Oben