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GENEALOGY OF THE ALBANES FAMILY
The U.S. Albanes family came from Cuba due to Fidel Castro in the 60's and 70's.
EARLY HISTORY
Founder of the Cuban Albanés family was Geovanni Albane, who arrived in Cuba from Italy. He was an expert sailor. The general public placed the emphasis on the last vowel and added the final "s", with an accent over the "e", which the name originally did not have. He arrived in 1821 with a large migration from Italy which arrived in Gibara, Oriente Province, Cuba. In this same migration came several friends of Geovanni Albane: Manduley (originally Manduli, of the Macei Calcani or Carcano), Imperitori, Caramera, Pitalugo, and others.
Geovanni Albanés was married in Holguin, Oriente Province, to Doña Altagracia Sanchez, and in 1826 was born their son Don Antonio Albanés Sanchez, who died in the Cuban War for Independence (or Spanish-American War) and was a Captain in the liberating army. Other children of this marriage were Francisco, Laura, Fidelia, Eugenia Matilde, and Juan Albanés Sanchez, from whom the present Albanes generation is descended.
Juan Albanés Sanchez was a furrier, and he married Doña Dolores de la Peña y de la Torre, daughter of Don Rafael de la Peña y Bermudez, Marques de la Peña (this title was created by Peter the Cruel, King of Castille, during the Middle Ages), and Doña Eliana de la Torre y Martinez, who was also titled through the de la Torre family. They were very wealthy and well to do. Doña Dolores inherited the greater part of their wealth and all their lands, since she was the eldest. She also inherited the title of Marquesa de la Peña, and the duty to "protect her brothers and sisters from want and grief," a Spanish custom that endures today.
From this marriage were born three children: Juan Rafael, born 17 December 1866, died 18 October 1942; he married Asuncion Carballo y de la Cruz; Julio, born 14 February 1877, died 30 September 1930; he married Carmen Manduley. Wifredo, born 29 February 1880, died 10 March 1964 of prostate cancer; he married Remedios Gomez Torres, and were our grandfathers.
Remedios Gomez Torres was descended from Doña Victoriana de Avila, and from (first name forgotten) Holguin, who accompanied Cortez in his conquest of Mexico. A descendant of this Holguin founded the city of Holguin, Oriente Province, Cuba.
Juan Rafael and Asuncion Carballo had five children: Oscar, Ossian, Ascension, Josefa Dolores, and Marina. Julio and Carmen Manduley had four children: Josefa Dolores, Rene, Julio, and one more son, name forgotten. Wifredo and Remedios Gomez Torres had two children: Lilia and Wifredo Juan. This Wilfredo Juan Albanes y Peña married Laureana Maria Perez and had us, Wifredo Valentin, born 30 November 1949, and Maria Gloria, born 6 June 1951 in Miramar, La Habana, Cuba
Doña Dolores de la Peña y de la Torre had two sisters, Maria and Concepcion, all highly educated. Doña Dolores was a poet, and had noble blood from both sides of her family. Doña Dolores was born in Madrid, Spain. It is from her that the Albanes family gets its intelligence.
This recollection was written by Wifredo Juan Albanes Peña, Miami, Florida, USA, circa 1988. Translated from the Spanish by his daughter, Maria Gloria Albanes.
RECENT HISTORY OF THE ALBANES FAMILY
Wifredo Albanes Peña (grampa) was a lawyer and politician, having been born in Holguin, Oriente Province, Cuba, he held various appointed and elected posts within the national government, serving under various Presidential administrations. His highest offices were as Senator from Oriente Province, and as Counselor and member of the Council of Counselors, which was the name given to the President's Cabinet under President Batista in the 1950s. These two positions can be verified from the letterhead Wifredo used in writing from Cuba to his grandchildren in Miami in the early 1960s. He also used another letterhead where he designated himself, simply, as "abogado" - lawyer. Family anecdotes also indicate he was a Congressman from Oriente Province, President of the Cuban Senate, and Minister (or Secretary) of the Interior under other administrations in the 1930s and 1940s. He helped other Central and South American countries with implementing law. Regardless, he was a Renaissance man, having knowledge of a variety of subjects. He was also a poet and writer, and left a wonderful legacy to his grandchildren in the shape of numerous letters, poems, essays on a variety of subjects, and children's stories, all written and illustrated by him, and which still exists today.
Wifredo had two children. Lilia spoke fluent Spanish and English, and attended university in both Cuba and the U.S. She was a lady of the house, never married, and lived with her parents until their deaths. Wifredo Juan (Wifredo II) graduated form Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in pre-Med and then returned to the University of Havana to study medicine. He initially specialized in lung disease, was involved in Red Cross sponsored Tuberculosis research, had his own medical practice in Havana, and also served as a Naval officer and physician on the staff of the medical unit at the Presidential Palace in Havana, Cuba, under President Batista. After the Castro Revolution of 1959, and after sending his wife, kids, and mother-in-law to Miami in 1960 and caring for his dying father until 1963, Wifredo II was imprisoned for a number of years, first in La Cabaña Prison, a fortified Spanish castle in Havana Harbor; then in a prison camp in Havana Province. It is unclear if this was as punishment because he tried to leave Cuba after the Iron Curtain dropped, or because Cuba needed doctors, or for other reasons. He was released, due to very poor health (possibly Hepatitis B?) and convalesced at his parent's home in Havana. After much effort, he was able to leave Cuba for Mexico, and then enter the United States, to be reunited with his wife in 1971. He studied, took and passed the appropriate licensing exams, and worked as a general practitioner and house physician in the Miami area until his death due to stroke on Christmas Eve, 1989.
Wifredo II married Laureana Maria Perez Hernandez (also known as Laura and Nenita), of Cardenas city, Cardenas Province, Cuba. This Perez family had business interests in Cardenas. They had us two children, Wifredo Valentin or Wifredo III (also known as Wilfredo with an L and Willy) and Maria Gloria (also known as Mary).
Both Wifredo III (Willy) and Maria Gloria (Mary) were born in Havana, Cuba, and spent their childhood there. On November 10, 1960, they were brought to Miami, Florida, by their mother, due to the political unrest in Cuba. They grew up in Miami until both left to pursue their studies in 1969.
Willy worked hard in Miami as a boy, delivering newpapers early on, and working at several grocery stores and a hardware store He graduated with a high GPA from Coral Gables High School in 1967, was awarded an AA degree in 1969 from Miami-Dade Junior College, did night school in electronics, and finally graduated in 1971 from the University of Florida with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering with dual options in computers and electronics, ranked 7th out of 34 in his class. At UF he also worked two jobs at the school's departments of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Environmental Engineering. He was awarded an MSE in 1978 also in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Control Systems, with Department Honors, from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has also completed coursework for the PhD in EE and has unsuccessfully attempted several dissertation topics. He works as a research and development engineer in the Huntsville, Alabama area, where he has also headed his own private engineering consulting firm and taught engineering at night at UAH. He has two children from his marriage to Daisy: Jennifer Marie and Carl Steven.
Mary graduated in 1973 from Barry College in Miami, Florida, with a degree in Chemistry. She then joined the U.S. Air Force, where she also acquired a Master's degree in Industrial Management from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Michigan State University. She did post-graduate studies in family practice at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, in the Los Angeles area; and graduated from the Program in Occupational Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. After completion of her Air Force commitment in Florida, the Philippines, and Korea, she returned to the States to become Medical Director of the Division of Occupational Health, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, a 900 bed hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Presently she serves as Medical Director at Riverbend Station, a nuclear power plant outside St. Francisville, Louisiana. She is married to Colonel James L. Hendrickson, USAF, (Ret.), and is the mother of a daughter, Kyrsten.
This second writeup originally by Mary Albanes, Jackson, Louisiana, 1995, with rewrites and additions by Willy Albanes, 1997.
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Created July 97.