Lagos - Besteiro - Graciani - Lorenzo
Emigrants: Early Havana Residences (1905-1931)
emilito
Draft, Rev: 4/9/2010
Subject: Havana residences of the descendants of Joaquina
(1837-1910) and Baltasar (d. appx. 1874) LORENZO BLAS. The first 25
years.
The Cuban Relatives.
When
Emilito
speaks
of "the Cuban relatives," he casts a wider net than most
people think.
Of course there are the BESTEIRO GRACIANI siblings (born between 1883
and 1896, died between 1936 and 1980), children of Emilito's
grandmother Josefa AKA Pepita AKA my generation's "Maina." Their
maternal grandmother was Victorina GRACIANI LORENZO (1896-1931),
daughter of Joaquina LORENZO BLAS. The first child of any of these
siblings was Emilito's mother Carmen LAGOS BESTEIRO (1910-1993).
Then
there are three chilren of Victorina's brother Joaquín GRACIANI
LORENZO: Emilio (1898-1981), Joaquín (1900-1931) and Manolita
(1906-1989). These three joined the family in Havana in the early 1920s
following
Joaquín's 1920 death in Madrid; neither the year of their
arrival nor their original residence is yet known.
Finally there is Victorina's first cousin Joaquina LORENZO GÓMEZ
(1874-1970), daughter of Baltasar LORENZO BLAS. She arrived in
Havana in approximately 1917 with her son Ricardo MATEO LORENZO
(1907-1992).
Descendants of all these branches still live in Havana today. These are
"the Cuban relatives" of all the "US Lagoses," the latter being the
descendants of
Antonio LAGOS TOLEDO and Josefa BESTEIRO GRACIANI.
At any rate, the purpose of this exercise has been to identify the
location where these immigrants and their descendants lived, and
sometimes worked, in roughly the first 25 years following their arrival
in Havana. Specifically, the range of dates was chosen to begin
with the arrival of Emilito's grandfather Antonio LAGOS TOLEDO in 1905
and to end with the death of his great-grandmother Victorina GRACIANI
LORENZO.
House Numbers Then and
Now.
From the first day of his first post-Revolution visit in 1999, Emilito
has been very curious about where in Havana his ancestors and relatives
lived after arriving from Spain. Also, from that very first day, the
house numbering made no sense to him and he became convinced that the
numbering had changed. Finally on March 2, 2010 he was able to discover
that there was a global numbering change in 1938 and that, in fact, all
the early addresses he had were no longer valid, BUT that he was able
to determine the current houses represented by the earlier house
numbers.
1905-1908. We are pretty
certain that 3 members of the Lagos-Besteiro clan - Manuel (27) and
Antonio (25) LAGOS TOLEDO and Domingo BESTEIRO GRACIANI (22) arrived in
Havana for the first time in 1905, probably to scope it out as a
possible future home for the family (Manuel Lagos had just married
Victorina GRACIANI LORENZO [42] and Antonio was romantically linked to
her daughter, Domingo's sister, Josefa "Pepita" BESTEIRO GRACIANI
[21]).
Click for references to Manuel, Antonio and Domingo's 1905 arrival.
Based on a letter written by their sister
Mercedes, we know that
Manuel had returned to Madrid by 1906 while Antonio stayed in
Havana.
Other investigations by Emilito led him to
conclude that Victorina and three children including his grandmother
arrived in April 1907 and that Manuel must have returned no later than
early 1908.
This is the first known photo - probably taken in April 1907 - of
Emilito's
family members in Cuba.
V
ictorina seated,
behind her L to R are Pepita, Jorge and Isabel. The caption on the back
of the picture says "This group as you see is of the latest to arrive
in this country where one sees nothing but gold and sweats a lot; today
the
heat is stifling. How do you think we've come out?"
Emilito has not found any 1905 or 1906 Havana addresses. The
first address found was that for his
grandfather Antonio, at
Inquísidor 14 in January 1907. Based on his March 2,
2010 research, this house is now numbered Inquisidor 406 and is located
in Old Havana south of the Plaza Vieja between Sol and Santa Clara
Streets. Note: Inquisidor may be considered a continuation of
Mercaderes and on some maps it continues to be indicated as Mercaderes,
even south of Plaza Vieja. A picture of the house where Antonio
lived is shown below. The layout of the house (balconies and apartments
within the main entrance) is called a "cuarteria" in Havana.
Juan Orlando
Nodarse at work at Planificación Física
A tabular representation of old and new numbers on Inquisidor
Antonio
Lagos
in 1907: INQUISIDOR 14 (now 406):
Left: This is Inquisidor looking South from Sol. Antonio
Lagos's residence is on the other side of the street, out of view.
Center: The other side of street: Inquisidor 406 (formerly
14)
is the house the woman is walking by.
Right: The current Inquisidor 406 is graced by a Comité de
Defensa de la Revolución sign (upper left).
Interior of Inquisidor 406, formerly 14, known as a
"cuartería" in Havana
In
May 1908, at 25 years old and in Havana just three years, Domingo was
co-director of the "Colegio
'Franco-Hispano-Americano'", located at San
Lázaro 250. Emilito did not have this address on his list to
check and it is not clear what the current number of this building is.
We don't know when Manuel returned from Spain (he was not in the family
picture), but we know he was there by 1908, as his son Paquito was born
on October 13 ... The family address at the time was "the house located
at Consulado 104-106."
Paquito's godparents were Antonio LAGOS TOLEDO and Isabel BESTEIRO
GRACIANI, listed as "residents of Havana," but no
address was given.
According to Emilito's notes from Planificación Física,
Consulado 106 is now between San Miguel and Neptuno, where it is
numbered 304. The problem is that this number is not consistent
with these cross streets. The first two pictures show the block
between San Miguel (closer to Capitolio) and Neptuno. The next
two show the building where the current 304 is. Emilito believes
that the buildings between San Miguel and Neptuno look like buildings
from that time period, whereas the other looks to be a newer building.
At any rate, this is the general area; on one end of Consulado is the
Capitolio; on the other is the Malecón. In between, towards the
Malecón, is the Hotel Lido where Emilito stayed for part of his
February tour with Atlantis rugby.
Paquito
Lagos
(1908) and Antonio Lagos (1909): CONSULADO 104-106 (now between
San Miguel and Neptuno?, or 304?)
This is Consulado
between San Miguel (near) and Neptuno (far)
(The sign in the middle says "Furniture upholstered. The Chinaman.")
This is Consulado
between Neptuno (near) and San Miguel (far)
The blue building in
both pictures is the same
This is the building currently numbered 304 further up
Consulado and looking away from el Capitolio;
the Malecón is at the end of the road in this direction.
Emilito thinks it unlikely that this was the building in which they
lived.
For one thing, he reckons it is unlikely to be more than 100
years old.
1909-1912. We know from a
photograph sent by Pepita to her mother from Spain
that Pepita was living in Spain in 1908,
ostensibly
for
health reasons.
Family oral history has it that she returned to Spain with her
grandmother after she (Joaquina) visited Cuba ostensibly to bring her
daughter Victorina back to Spain following her pregnancy with Paquito. Pepita returned in 1909 but we have no
record to which address she returned.
We have no family addresses in 1909 until December. At the time of
Paquito's death, 10 December 1909, Manuel and Victorina
were living at San Nicolás, 1. At the time of their
marriage 10 days later, Antonio was listed as living at Consulado 104
and Pepita at San Nicolás 1.
Based on data at Planificación Física, the location of
this building, now numbered 61, is between San Lázaro and
Lagunas. The building shown below is the only one that fits the
bill, though Emilito could find no number on it. It is on San
Nicolás just south of San Lázaro.
Victorina Graciani lived here from 1909 and
Vickie Lagos was born here in 1912: SAN NICOLÁS 1 (now 61)
San Nicolás 61, formerly San
Nicolás 1, must be the tall building in the middle of the
picture
(it's the only building that is
between San Lázaro and Lagunas on the odd-numbered side)
At the end of the road (just yards past the final builcing) is the
Malecón and beyond that, Florida
Close-up of the building shown above;
this is the San Nicolás entrance
The video referenced here
is a view from the corner of San Lázaro and San Nicolás.
At the end of the video, the building across from the red truck is San
Nicolás 1.
Their first child, Emilito's mother Carmen, was born on 5 October 1910 at
Galiano 125 (the current Galano 509), and the family was living a
few hundred yards away at Calle Salud
5 at her baptism on 19 March 1911. At the time of Carmen's
baptism, Victorina was living at San
Nicolás 1.
Per Planificación Física, the former address Galiano 125
is now Galiano 509 and located between Barcelona and Dragones. The
problem is that there is another street between these two, Calle Zanja,
which spins off Dragones just before Galiano. Facing the
odd-numbered side of Galiano, the first house number seen to the right
of Zanja is 513, but it's not clear if this is the end building or not.
Galiano may be the first building on the right side of the corner or,
if it is to the left of Zanja it longer exists. This side of
Zanja is a park with billboards saying "Barrio Chino de la Habana" and
"Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad."
Carmen
Lagos
was born (1910) near this corner: GALIANO 125 (now 509)
Galiano is the street with the
yellow car and Zanja the cross
street. The new number of Galiano 125 is Galiano 509.
If it was on "this side" of Zanja, the building no longer exists;
if on the other it may be the corner building.
The first number I found on that side was 513.
"This side" of Zanja on Galiano
& Zanja. This entire block now is set off by signs
indicating:
"Barrio Chino de la Habana"
and "Oficina del Historiador de la
Ciudad"
This picture and the one
above, right, were taken on March 2,
2010
The picture below is included just to give a sense of the
neighborhood. It is just a bit north of Carmen's birthplace and
is typical of central Havana today: a nice looking building attached to
a building that was once really nice but is no more than a shell and
needs to be torn down. In this picture you'll see a former jewelry
store which obviously was something special in its day. Now even
the scaffolding looks 100 years old. Next door is a building that
seems well kept.
Left: former jewelry store on Galiano just north of Carmen's
birthplace.
Right
and below: details
(a couple of blocks to the left
of the above pictures)
Carmen Lagos was living here at the time of
her baptism (1911): SALUD 5 (now 13)
Looking down Salud from Rayo towards
Galiano
Salud 13 (the former Salud 5) is the
second house from the corner
Antonio, Pepita and their daughter Carmen moved to Spain sometime after
March 1911 and were living there when their son Manuel was born near
Madrid in August. By December 1911, however, they were back, and
Antonio was listed as the director of the Colegio Franco-Hispano-Americano,
located at Concordia
154 (current address unknown).
Their daughter Victorina (Emilito's Aunt Vickie) was born at San
Nicolás 1 in August 1912. By this time Antonio was living in
New
York and the rest of the family joined him a month later. Her
grandmother Victorina was also living at San Nicolás 1 at the
time.
1914-1921. Emilito has found no
1913 Havana addresses; his grandparents and their family were in New
York at the time. (And Emilito
has
researched family New York addresses as well.)
In 1914 and 1915 we find the first
mentions of San Lázaro 198, a long-time family address, on
manifests of Manuel and Victorina visits to New York.
Then in 1916, all of the Lagos-Besteiro family, minus Antonio, moved
back to Havana. When Dolores LAGOS BESTEIRO was born there on 1/1/1917 they were
all living at San Lázaro 198.
At approximately the same time Victorina's first cousin Joaquina
LORENZO GÓMEZ came to Cuba with her son Ricardo MATEO
LORENZO. According to her granddaughter Isabel MATEO
LLÓPIZ Joaquina and Ricardo moved in with Victorina and Manuel, who were living at San Lázaro
198. Joaquina then moved to New York for several months to
live with Antonio and Pepita and act as Dolores' nanny while Ricardo
stayed in Cuba. We're not sure where she moved when she came back, but
it seems as though half the family were living at San Lázaro 198
through 1921: in 1920 when Victorina
visited the Lagoses in NY with her daughter-in-law Mercedes
(Domingo's wife) and two grandchildren, they listed the family address
as San Lázaro 198 (under Domingo's name), and in 1921 Domingo's school - the Colegio
Cervantes - was located there as well.
When
the rest of his family returned to New York in April 1917, Manuel
LAGOS BESTEIRO (our Uncle Manny) stayed in Cuba for more than two years
before returning to New York to join his family. It is nearly
certain
that he lived at San Lázaro 198; it is very possible that
Domingo's school was there as well (we know it was there in 1921).
Emilito has found no references to San Lázaro 198 after 1921.
Dolores Lagos was born, and many family
members lived, here: SAN LÁZARO 198 (now 318)
This picture of the mural was taken by
Buzz Lagos in January 2010
None of us knew at the time that the far
left house is the one in which Dolores Lagos was born
San Lázaro 198 (now 318) is the
left-most building
This was a family residence for many years, at least 1914-1921
Manuel LAGOS BESTEIRO (Uncle Manny) is at bottom row center, below his
uncle Domingo BESTEIRO GRACIANI.
The year is c. 1918, the school the Colegio Cervantes, run by Domingo.
In 1911 this school was at Concordia 154; in 1921 it was at San
Lázaro 198 (now 318)
1922-1931. Joaquín
GRACIANI LORENZO, Victorina's brother, died in Madrid on 14 June 1920,
setting the stage for his children Emilio, Joaquín, and Manolita
to emigrate to Havana in
the early 1920s, exact year and date still unknown.
In 1922, Victorina visited her
daughter Pepita in Paterson, NJ, listing her
closest relative as Mario García (her son-in-law married to her
daughter Isabel), living at San Lázaro 143.
This is the only record we have of this address and don't know if
Victorina was living there as well.
We know that in 1924 Victorina's daughter Isabel and her husband
Mario lived at San
Miguel
Street 254a. We don't know if Victorina was living
there as well.
Emilito does not know any more family addresses until 1931, when
Victorina GRACIANI LORENZO was listed
as living at San Lázaro
267 (now 813) at the time of her death.
This was the house where Victorina Graciani
lived at the time of her death: SAN LÁZARO 267 (now 813 or 819)
San Lázaro at Oquendo. This pair of
houses has been identified by Diana VALDÉS DENIS
as the address at which our
great-grandmother lived at the time of her death
Her death certificate gives her address as
San Lázaro 267 which, after the numbering change, became 813.
Beneath a rusty number plate on the left
house, however, can be seen the number 819.
It is either this house or a house to its
left has been demolished and removed.
Map of family addresses 1905-1931 (as known
in March 2010):
Note that the map shown here is a low-resolution version; to see a higher
resolution, click here:
The keys to the annotations follow the map.
X: The Hotel Sevilla, where the Lagos descendants stayed, January 2010
Z: The Hotel Lido, where Emilito stayed when on his own... Just 400
yards away, it was "on the wrong side" of the Prado and was 1/5 the
rate of the Sevilla.
A: Iglesia Monserrate, the church where Antonio and Pepita were
married, Vickie and Dolores Lagos were baptized, and Paquito Lagos was
baptized and where his death was recorded (1908-1917)
B: Iglesia de Guadalupe (now Caridad), where Carmen was baptized (1911)
C: Iglesia del Carmen, where great-grandmother Victorina Graciani's
death was recorded (1931)
Addresses below are numbered as of beginning of 20th century:
1: Inquisidor 14, Antonio's first address (1907)
2: Consulado 104-106, where Manuel and Victorina lived in 1908, where
Paquito was born and where Antonio lived at the time of his marriage
3: San Nicolás 1, where Pepita and Victorina lived at the time
of Pepita's marriage (1909), where Paquito died (1909) and where Vickie
Lagos was born (1912)
4: Galiano 125, where Carmen was born (1910)
5: Salud 5, where Carmen lived when she was baptized (1911)
6: San Lázaro 198, where Victorina and Manuel lived for some
time after 1914, where Joaquina Lorenzo lived in 1916-1917, where
Dolores Lagos was born on 1/1/1917, where Domingo Besteiro and family
lived from at least 1918, where the Colegio Cervantes was located in
1921
7: San Lázaro 267, where Victorina Graciani died in 1931
The boundary lines are:
Blue - everything to the left of the blue line is Habana Vieja.
Green - everything between the blue and green lines is Centro Habana
Yellow - everything within the yellow boundaries is the traditional
(now more appropriately "former") Barrio Chino, where Emilito's mother
was born and baptized.
Still to do...
With a couple of small exceptions
(1905 and 1906 - [Manuel, Antonio, Domingo, no idea]) and early 1909
[probably Consulado 104-106 and possibly San Nicolás 1]),
Emilito is quite certain he has found the significant addresses in Cuba
of his direct ancestors. Still of interest, however, are family
interests for the following relatives:
o Domingo Besteiro and Mercedes
Loret de Mola and their children
Ricardo (b. 1916), Miguel Ángel (b. 1918), Isabel (b. 1922) and
Raquel (b. 1926). (We know they lived at San Lázaro 198 in
1920-21.)
o Isabel Besteiro and Mario
García and children Nena (born 1922)
and Pepe (born 1928). (We know they lived at San Miguel 254 in 1924.)
o The siblings Emilio,
Joaquín and Manolita GRACIANI
SÁNCHEZ. Emilio left at an as-yet unknown date for South
America,
Joaquín died in 1931, and Manolita was not married until 1933,
so they may have lived together in the 1920s. Just about
everything about this family's trip to Cuba and residence in Havana is
unknown.
o Joaquina LORENZO GÓMEZ
and her son Ricardo MATEO
LLÓPIZ. We know Joaquina arrived in 1916 or 1917 with Ricardo
and moved into San Lázaro 198 with Victorina and Manuel and left
Cuba alone for NY in 1917 to stay with the Lagoses but we
know nothing after this visit, nor their addresses in the 1920s
or 1930s.
(can probably tell from baptismal
certificates of Ricardo, Miguel Angel,
Bellita Raquelita BESTEIRO LORET DE MOLA, Nena, Pepe, GARCÍA
BESTEIRO, etc ... marriage certificate of Manolita)
NOTES to the Text
1905 arrivals:
Manuel - Manuel is listed on a 1905 ship's manifest
on his April 1905 arrival in New York. On this manifest it states that
he
was en route to Havana.
Antonio
- Registro Central de penados y rebeldes
cleared
him
to
travel on 19 June 1905. We know from a letter from his
sister Mercedes that he was in Havana in 1906 and in his 1912 trip to
the US, the passenger manifest states that he had been in the US in
1905. Although it does not mention Cuba, we know that his brother
Manuel passed through New York on his way to Havana.
Domingo
- In a eulogy to Domingo Besteiro in Havana
in 1958 it referenced the fact that Domingo moved to Havana in 1905
(document seen by Emilito at the home of Domingo's son Miguel
Ángel on Emilito's 1999 visit).
location of
Lagos brothers in 1906-07
Mercedes'
1906 letter refers to Antonio being "there" and talks about Manuel
being in Madrid. Here is a translated
version.
On 11
January 1907 Antonio registered with the Spanish consulate as resident
at
Inquisidor
14.
1907 arrivals:
In an old
briefcase of his grandfather's stuffed with many ancient documents,
Emilito found that the Registro Central de Penados y Rebeldes cleared
her
to
leave Spain on 9 March 1907. Based on this date, he and
Heide went to the Library of Congress and searched old Havana daily
Diario de La
Marina's for her arrival. They found a tiny article of 2 April 1907
announcing the arrival of Victoria Gración y tres hijos.
Based
on
other information, including a letter from Isabel BESTEIRO
GRACIANI to his mother, Emilito is convinced the children are Pepita,
Jorge and Isabel.
Pepita's whereabouts in 1908 and 1909 are
summarized in this 1908
post card sent from Madrid and in her clearance to leave Spain,
dated 7 May 1909. Her 1909 arrival in
Havana was recorded in the Diario de la Marina of June 3; she had arrived
on the steamship Maria Cristina from Santander and
Coruña. There is no address listed for her, however, until
her marriage in December.
1908-1909:
Paquito's address - Consulado 140-106 - at the
time of his birth (13 October 1908) and baptism (13 November 1908) is
found both on his birth
announcement and on his baptismal
certificate (p2).
The family's address when Paquito died on 10 December 1909 - San
Nicolás 1 - is found on his death
certificate. The individual addresses of Antonio (Consulado 104)
and Pepita (San Nicolás 1, also given as Victorina's address) at
the time of their weddng (20 December 1909) is given on their church
marriage certificate, marriage
page1 and marriage
page
2.
Emilito stumbled
into the first-known
(1908) location of Domingo's school while looking for other family
information in Diario de la Marina while searching at the Library of
Congress.
1910-1911: Carmen birth &
baptism
The family addresses at the time of Carmen's 5
October 1910 birth (Galiano 125) and her 19 March 1911 baptism (Salud
5) are different and are shown on her birth announcement
&
birth
certificate (p2) and on
her baptismal
certificate.
1911: Lagos-Besteiro return from
home
Antonio seems to have returned from the family's
1911 trip to Spain by December. On 15 December 1911 he is listed as
Director of the Colegio
Franco-Hispano-Americano,
located at Concordia 154.
1912 Vickie baptism:
Vickie's baptismal
certificate notes that not only was she born at San Nicolás
1 but also that her grandmother Victorina was living there as well.
1914-1915: passenger manifests for
Manuel and Victorina.
In the 1914
passenger manifest (p.2) of
the ship that brought Manuel and Victorina and Victorina's daughter
Isabel
to New York to visit Antonio and Pepita, San Lázaro 198 is
listed as
the address of their closest friend. (There appears to be no way for
visitors to list their own address; ship's manifests at the time appear
to have been designed for immigrants.) Victorina visited again on
her own the next year and the 1915
manifest (p.2) listed San
Lázaro 198 as her husband Manuel Lagos's address.
1917: Dolores and Joaquina
Emilito's Aunt Dee, Dolores Lagos, was born on
New Year's Day 1917 and Dee's baptismal
certificate shows that she was born at San Lázaro 198.
Later in the year, Victorina's first cousin Joaquina, who was known to
the US familiy as Dee's nanny, traveled to New York: in Joaquina's ship manifest (p. 2) she lists San Lázaro
198 as the address of her closest relative, Victorina.
1920-1921: Domingo at San Lázaro
When Victorina
visited New York in 1920 with her daughter-in-law Mercedes LORET DE
MOLA BETANCOURT and grandchildren Ricardo and Miguel Ángel, the passenger manifest (p. 2) listed the family address
as San Lázaro 198 (under
Domingo's name).
In 1921
Domingo wrote a reference for Antonio and the letterhead
of
the reference was "Colegio Cervantes," whose address was San
Lázaro 198.
1922: Victorina and Manuel
travel (separately) to Paterson
In 1922,
Victorina visited her daughter in Paterson, NJ. The ship's manifest lists San
Lázaro 143 (p. 2) as
the address of her
closest relative Mario García (her son-in-law married to her
daughter Isabel). Whether this is also Victorina's address at the
time is not clear. Interestingly, Victorina listed her
marital status as single. A bit earlier in the year, Manuel came to
visit, listing his address as in
Santiago (p. 2).
Manuel's stay in Santiago was
of indeterminate length and at an unknown address; this is the only
example we have of a relative living anywhere in Cuba outside of
Havana.
1924: Victorina travel
to NJ / Mario travel to NJ
In April 1924,
Manuel Lagos and Victorina Graciani and her grandson
Ricardo (Domingo Besteiro's son), traveled to the US and the address of
their nearest relative Mario García was listed on the ship's manifest (p. 2) as #254 San
Miguel St. Whether or not this was also Manuel and Victorina's address
is not clear.
In July 1924 Victorina's daughter Isabel Besteiro,
her husband Mario García and their
2-year old daughter Isabel (la Nena) visited the family in
Paterson. The address listed on the ship's
manifest (p. 2)
was
that of his father José, San Miguel Street 254a.
As
we knew from the April 1924 trip of Manuel and Victorina, this was
also Mario and Isabel's address.
1931 Victorina death.
On Victorina's 1931 death certificate she is listed
as having
lived at San Lázaro 267.
find baptismal certificates -
Ricardo 1916 Miguel 1918 Bellita 1922
Nena 1922 Raquelita 1926 Pepe 1928
find death certificate -
Joaquín Graciani Sánchez