Pedro Pablo Cazañas y Garcia (1902–1978) was a
Cuban
Cuban may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean
* Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent
** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof
* Cuban citizen, a perso ...
judge and politician.
Early life
Pedro Pablo Cazañas y García was born December 5, 1902, in
Matanzas
Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...
,
Cuba to Francisco E. Cazañas and
Enriqueta García Martín
Enriqueta García y Martín de Cazañas was a prominent Cuban socialite, landowner, and agricultural businesswoman.
Life Family and early life
Enriqueta García y Martín was born on November 3, 1862, in Matanzas, Cuba to the wealthy García ...
.
His family was of considerable wealth and he was raised on their
Buena Vista estate near
Varadero
Varadero (), also referred to as ''Playa Azul'' (Blue Beach), is a resort town in the province of Matanzas Province, Matanzas, Cuba, and one of the largest resort areas in the Caribbean. Varadero Beach was rated one of the world's best beaches in ...
.
Cazañas would remain in Cuba for much of his life before emigrating to the United States in the late 1960s as a result of the
Cuban Revolution.
Career
Cazañas attended the
University of Havana, earning a doctorate in law, after which Cazañas was often referred to as "Doctor Pedro (Pablo) Cazañas" in official documents, journals, and media.
Cazañas served as a traveling judge, holding court in various locations across Cuba that required a judge on a case-by-case basis before becoming an increasingly prominent politician in the Cuban judiciary as a municipal and then regional judge.
In the 1930s Cazañas married Raquel María Díaz Teresa, thereafter Raquel Díaz Cazañas. The marriage was significant due to the Díaz family's importance in the
San José de los Ramos
San José de los Ramos is a former town in the east of the Cuban province of Matanzas. It now forms part of Colón, Cuba. It is located some to the north east of the centre of Colón and east of Havana. The municipal district measured and had a ...
area of Matanzas. Her father, José Lorenzo Díaz, was an administrator in the
Cuban judicial system, working in the Juzgado de Primera Instancia (Court of First Instance) of the broader
Colón area until his death in 1954.
The Díaz family was also regarded for replacing the small chapel in the town center with a grand church.
Raquel Díaz and Cazañas had three children - Raquel, Marta, and Eduardo - all born in Havana and raised in the Cazañas family's properties in Matanzas.
After the
coup d'état of 1952, Cazañas' stature in Cuba's judiciary rose further through the rest of the 1950s during the regime of
Fulgencio Batista, with whom Cazañas had ties.
Batista had planned to attend and serve as a witness in the wedding of Cazañas’ eldest child, Raquel, to high-profile psychiatrist and
Agrupación Católica Universitaria The Agrupación Católica Universitaria (ACU - Catholic University Group) is a prominent Christian life community (CVX-CLC) composed of professional Catholic men. It is based in Miami, Florida.
Background
The group officially began in Havana, C ...
leader Rene de la Huerta, a friend of the Cazañas family.
However Batista was unable to attend due to his required presence in state visit abroad, therefore a top representative was sent to the ceremony in his place. Cazañas’ support of Batista would be a recurring source of generational tension with his children, each of whom were opposed to Batista.
By the end of the decade and Batista's rule, Cazañas would serve as a highly ranked Juez de Instrucción (Judge of Instruction).
Later life
The Cazañas family opposed
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
and, following the
Cuban Revolution, some were able to leave the island to take refuge in the United States and seek life in democracy there. The first of his children to leave Cuba was Eduardo, in 1959, who would later join the
United States Armed Forces. Cazañas' younger daughter,
Marta
Marta may refer to:
People
* Marta (given name), a feminine given name
* Märta, a feminine given name
* Marta (surname)
:István Márta composer
* Marta (footballer) (born 1986), Brazilian professional footballer
Places
* Marta (river), an ...
, was deeply involved in the counter-revolution against Castro and left to the United States with her future husband
Jesús Permuy
Jesús A. Permuy (born 1935) is a Cuban-American architect, urban planner, human rights activist, art collector, and businessman. He is known for an extensive career of community projects and initiatives in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Latin ...
, a leader of the counter-revolution, via
Venezuela following the failure of the 1961
Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Cazañas, his wife, their eldest daughter, his siblings and several other relatives remained in Cuba and were unable to leave for much of the 1960s.
When his son Eduardo died in combat during the
Vietnam War, the family sought to attend his funeral, however it was difficult for the remaining family in Cuba to participate due to
diplomatic strains with the United States. Cazañas and his wife went to Mexico as a simpler way to reach the United States, however Cazañas contracted
tuberculosis and was ultimately unable to attend the services and ceremonies. The couple relocated permanently to Miami by 1968 and their eldest daughter's family joined them the following year.
After emigrating to the United States, he lived out the rest of his life in retirement. He died in Miami on June 28, 1978, at the age of 75.
Family
Immediate ancestry
Both Pedro Pablo Cazañas’ ancestry and descendants have been a prominent force in Europe (especially Spain), the Caribbean, and the United States. In his immediate family, Cazañas’ grandfather, Francisco José Cazañas y Peraza (born 1840) was directly descendant of the
Peraza and
Bobadilla families that were influential in the Castilian royal court, ruled the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
, and participated in the conquest of the New World, including Cuba and
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...
.
It was this Peraza lineage of the family that traveled from Spain to Cuba and the United States in the nineteenth century.
Francisco J. Cazañas Peraza (sometimes written as Francis), would gain American citizenship, and was a landowner in
New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...
. Therefore, his son, Francisco Eduardo (Pedro Pablo's father), was born in New Rochelle, giving him
dual citizenship with the United States and Cuba. Several generations of the Cazañas family would maintain regular business travel to the United States and be educated there
before ultimately migrating back to the United States permanently following the
Cuban Revolution. In Cuba the Cazañas family were significant
landholders in Matanzas and owned several large estates,
manor houses, and
plantations
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
, including the historic
sugar plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
Dos Rosas, which was purchased in 1868 by Bartolomé Cazañas, great-grandfather of Pedro Pablo Cazañas.
The
country estate was originally named "San Francisco de Paula-Riverol" and Bartolomé Cazañas renamed it that year to "Dos Rosas" (Spanish for "Two Roses") in honor of his Italian wife and their daughter, both named Rosa.
Cazañas's mother,
Enriqueta García y Martín, was heiress of the García family of Spain. At the age of sixteen, Enriqueta was the subject of a poem included in the 1878 ''Jardín Matancero'' ("Matanzas Garden"). The publication was a literary collection dedicated to the
debutantes of the Matanzas region's most prominent families in which a flower-themed poem was dedicated to each emerging ("blossoming")
socialite
A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
. As an adult she owned the vast
finca Buena Vista overlooking
Varadero
Varadero (), also referred to as ''Playa Azul'' (Blue Beach), is a resort town in the province of Matanzas Province, Matanzas, Cuba, and one of the largest resort areas in the Caribbean. Varadero Beach was rated one of the world's best beaches in ...
, its champion horses, and yacht while her husband Francisco would manage the estate's staff and grounds.
The property was damaged in the
Spanish–American War and became the center of the couple's high-profile claims to the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission. The couple, which traveled frequently to the United States and would occasionally reside there, first filed their claims with the commission in 1902, the year Pedro Pablo was born. It took six years to settle their claims, in which Francisco's legal background and US ties proved useful. Their claims were finally settled in 1908 when the
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States awarded the couple total compensation of $13,138
($9,738 to Enriqueta and $3,400 to Francisco), equivalent to over $360,000 in 2020, adjusted for inflation. They received the second highest awards granted by the commission, and the highest among private citizens not representing a corporation.
Her brother (Pedro Pablo's uncle), Félix García y Martín, was a prominent doctor and insurrection figure during the
Cuban War of Independence
The Cuban War of Independence (), fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months ...
who became the second highest-ranking doctor in the Matanzas province and was later Chief Doctor of the Port of Matanzas and Head of Administration.
Extended ancestry
Pedro Pablo Cazañas’ ancestry is noted for several prominent lines. In addition to the
Perazas,
Bobadillas,
García's and
Martín's, he is directly descended from several other ancient
Spanish and other European (
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
English) noble and royal families, including the
Guzmán,
Haro,
Lara,
de Luna,
Martel Martel may refer to:
People
* Andre Martel (1946–2016), American politician and businessman
* Anne-Marie Martel (1644–1673), founder of what is now the Congrégation des Sœurs de l’Enfant-Jésus.
* James B. Aguayo-Martel, ophthalmologist ...
, and more distantly, the
Plantagenets.
He is descendant of the line of the Martel family that migrated from
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
France to Spain by way of
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...
and then to
Seville during the
Reconquista era and is descendant of the Plantagents through
Eleanor of England
Eleanor of England ( es, Leonor; – 31 October 1214), was Queen of Castile and Toledo as wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She was the sixth child and second daughter of Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Early life and fa ...
.
Progeny
His son, Eduardo Enrique Cazañas y Díaz, emigrated to the United States in 1959 and quickly embraced his adopted homeland. He settled in
Rhode Island, attending university to become an agricultural engineer and married his girlfriend in 1965. Eduardo is most known for his military service. With the escalation of the
Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, he voluntarily enlisted in the
United States Army to serve his adopted country and received the rank of SP-4 as an Armor Reconnaissance Specialist.
He died in combat in 1967 at the age of 22, his death was covered in both Spanish and English media, including the
Diario Las Américas
''Diario las Américas'' is the first Spanish-language newspaper founded in South Florida, the second oldest in the United States dedicated to Spanish-speaking readers, after ''La Opinión'', in Los Angeles.
Its first copy circulated on July 4, ...
, which described him as the son of "Doctor Pedro Cazañas."
He received the
Purple Heart for his actions in battle and is included in the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
Washington, D.C.
Both his daughters, Raquel and Marta, would have high-profile marriages to Cuban leaders. Raquel married Rene de la Huerta, a noted psychiatrist, writer, and a leader of the
Agrupación Católica Universitaria The Agrupación Católica Universitaria (ACU - Catholic University Group) is a prominent Christian life community (CVX-CLC) composed of professional Catholic men. It is based in Miami, Florida.
Background
The group officially began in Havana, C ...
in Cuba, Spain, and the United States.
Cazañas' younger daughter,
Marta Cazañas, was married to Cuban architect, community leader, and human rights advocate
Jesús Permuy
Jesús A. Permuy (born 1935) is a Cuban-American architect, urban planner, human rights activist, art collector, and businessman. He is known for an extensive career of community projects and initiatives in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Latin ...
. The couple met in and were both prominent figures of the Anti-Castro Counter-Revolution and relocated to the United States following the
Bay of Pigs Invasion.
In the United States Marta became an influential fine art dealer, curator, promoter, and collector. She managed and co-founded the historic
Permuy Gallery in
Coral Gables, Florida, one of the first Cuban fine art galleries established in South Florida and credited with helping establish the early Miami Latin art market. Her children and grandchildren have in turn become prominent figures in art, architecture, politics, and finance. Marta's second son, Pedro Pablo Permuy, was named after Cazañas and served as Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) in the
Clinton Administration
Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...
and later as President of the US-Spain Council, where he would host and organize events with
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
King Felipe VI of Spain.
Agenda
spainusa.org
See also
* Judicial system of Cuba
The judicial system of Cuba consists of the judicial branch of the Cuban government, and the lawyers and judges who operate within it.
History of the Cuban Judiciary
Shortly after the Cuban Revolution, the Cuban government adopted as its guiding ...
* Enriqueta García y Martín
* Peraza family The Peraza family was a Castilian noble family of conquistadors, territorial lords, counts, and governors that were a significant force in the history and conquest of the Canary Islands during the Age of Discovery in the fifteenth and sixteenth c ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cazañas, Pedro Pablo
1902 births
1978 deaths
People from Matanzas
Cuban emigrants to the United States
Exiles of the Cuban Revolution in the United States
Opposition to Fidel Castro
Cuban judges
20th-century Cuban politicians
Cuban people of Spanish descent