Father of Irish Republic was a Cuban

Eamon de Valera a Cuban?

A few days in Miami... so on the flight here I began to read Louis Perez's voluminous On Becoming Cuban (what an appropriate book to read before heading to Miami, uh?).

I discovered quite an interesting fact.

The father of the modern Irish republic was Eamon de Valera, who was born in New York in 1882.

His father, Juan de Valera, although technically a Spaniard, was really a Cuban, born in Cuba (which was part of Spain back then), the son of a Cuban sugar planter and escaped to New York during the Independence Wars with Spain.

There he earned his living as a piano teacher. He met and married Irish immigrant Catherine Coll. Juan died shortly after the birth of their son Eduardo. After Juan's death, his wife sent Eduardo to Ireland, where her family changed his name to the Gaelic version of Eduardo: Eamon.

Whodda thunk it?

Article Author: Lenny Campello

F. Lennox Campello is a widely published Washington, DC and Philadelphia based art critic, as well as an award winning artist and curator. He is also often heard on NPR and the Voice of America discussing visual art issues. …

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