Officially
known to all American friends and
relatives as
Emil Signes, the title character of this web site was
“Emilito” to his
parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts,
and decades later remains so at least to all his Cuban relatives (both
within
and
without that beautiful and unfortunate island); to
his Valencian father he was often "Emiliet." His
ancestral line not only travels through
Emilito
is married to Heide Ruppel, a native of Germany (born in
Worms and raised in Braunfels an der
Lahn (Hessen), and they have four children - Carmita married to Kip
Desch, Heide the Younger, Stephen and Ricardo married to Gloria Hestle
- and four grandchildren, Jacob, Anika and Matthias Desch, and
Martha Signes. Many of Heide's
ancestral lines
can be traced centuries back within Germany. Only with the
arrival of the in-laws do any American ancestors enter the family
picture.







