Rafael Montoro y Valdés

Rafael Montoro y Valdés (born October 24, 1852 in Havana , † August 14, 1933 there ) was a Cuban politician and ambassador .

Life

Rafael Montoro y Valdés was the son of Cayetano Montoro, who took part in the separatist activities of the Ten Years War in Cuba and was deported to Spain, as well as the grandsons of Clara and José Montoro (baptized June 14, 1814 in the Cathedral of Port-au -Prince ; † February 1, 1875 in the municipality of Espíritu Santo in Havana).

Rafael Montoro attended the Colegio de El Salvador in Havana in 1862 and 1863 . In 1864 his parents migrated with him to Europe. From 1866 he attended a school in New York City and then studied rhetoric at the Colegio San Francisco de Asís with Antonio Zambrana in Havana .

During the Ten Years' War in Cuba, Valdés studied law in Madrid from 1868 to 1878 and wrote articles for magazines like Antonio Cánovas del Castillo , Gumersindo de Azcárate and Emilio Castelar . He was also secretary of the Asociación de Escritores y Artistas Españoles (Association of Spanish Writers and Artists). In Spain he met José Martí , among others , who had been sentenced to forced labor in 1871 and deported to Spain, where he also studied law in Saragossa .

In 1878 Valdés returned to Cuba and founded the Partido Liberal Autonomista , whose policy he determined for 20 years. In 1886 he was elected as a candidate for his party in the Cortes (Assembly of Estates) in Madrid . Two years earlier he had completed his law studies in the fields of civil and canon law at the University of Havana .

In 1897 Alfonso XIII borrowed. of Spain with him the Marquesado de Montoro . A year later he was appointed finance minister in the brief autonomous government of Cuba. From 1903 to 1904 Valdés was transferred to London as Ambassador to the Court of St James’s . In 1908 his attempt to become Cuba's foreign minister through a coalition with the Partido Conservador failed . Two years later he was accepted as a founding member of the Academia Nacional de Artes y Letras and also joined the Academia de la Historia de Cuba . From 1921 to 1925 he was appointed to various offices by the Mario García Menocal government.

In addition, he followed a call to the Real Academia Española .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Historia de Cuba  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 22.6 MB).  

predecessor	Office	successor
	Cuban Ambassador to the Court of St James’s 1903 to 1904	Gabriel Zéndigui y Gamba