Piedad Luisa Figueredo y Vazquez and Gabriel Moreno Ayala
[her parents]
[parents not known]
Piedad Luisa
Figueredo y Vazquez was born on June 21, 1859.8
In August 1870, she was captured by the Spanish, along with her
mother and several of her sisters, following the burning of
Bayamo. She was sentenced into exile in the military prison
in Ceuta,2,4 located on the
north coast of Africa, opposite Gibraltar, but was permitted to
disembark by a “humane Spanish ship captain” in New
York City during a stopover.4 There she
was reunited with her mother and sisters and, on December 11,
1871, moved with them to Key West, FL.
In an article in the Tampa Tribune, Tony Pizzo wrote that
José Martí “would enshrine her memory in a beautiful
poem”,4 but, so far, that poem is unknown.
She married Gabriel
Moreno Ayala y Fleites 1 on May 25, 1880,3
in Key West, Monroe County, FL 3 and they had
five sons, Gabriel, Gustavo, Rolando, Armando, and Oscar Ayala y
Figueredo. Piedad died of pneumonia,? in
Key West 3 on January 22, 1891,3
at which time Gabriel and Piedad’s address was said to be
“Fleming Street, corner of Elizabeth”.11
A memorial service was held in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
in Key West and she was buried in “the city cemetery”
on January 23.9 Obituaries and funeral
notices appeared in the Daily Equator Democrat on January
23, 1891, the Key West Advertiser on January 24, 1891, in La
Verdad, published in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on February 5, 1891,6
and in another Spanish language publication, on January 24, 1891.
The funeral
party included “…, ladies of the Masonic Order of Estrella
del Oriente, to which the deceased belonged, …” and
numerous “gentlemen and ladies” 10
including Angel Maria Figueredo, her brother; Federico Portillo,
husband of Candelaria, her sister; Fernando Figueredo, possibly
Fernando Figueredo y Socarras, her second cousin; and Carlos
Manuel de Céspedes, possibly Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y
Céspedes, the widower of Eulalia Figueredo, her sister.11
Gabriel, who was born on November 13, 1848,1
in Santa Clara, Cuba,1 married, in 1893,1
Carlotta (Lottie) Russell,1 daughter of Joseph
H. Russell and Ruth Pinder,1 in Key West.1
Gabriel and Lottie had two children, Dahlia 1
and Nelson Miles Ayala.1
Gabriel was a
commander of the Cuban revolutionary army during the Ten
Years’ War 3 and could trace his ancestry
to López de Ayala, Spanish poet, historian, and nobleman in the
court of Pedro I (el Cruel) of Castile,4
and to Juan Manuel de Ayala, a lieutenant of the royal (Spanish)
navy, who, in 1775, 5 navigated the first
European ship, the San Carlos, through La Boca del
Puerto de San Francisco, 5 later known as
the Golden Gate.4,5
During the Ten
Years’ War Gabriel was imprisoned by the Spanish on the Isle
of Pines, Cuba, and escaped by paying a fisherman $10,000 to take
him off the island.1 He then made his way
to Key West, arriving in 1875,1 and became a
prominent businessman in Key West when that community was the
leading cigar manufacturing center in the US.4
He had a business at the corner of Elizabeth and Fleming Streets,1
and was said to have been an intimate friend of President Grover
Cleveland.4 He died in Key West,1
on November 15, 1900,1 and is buried next to
Piedad in the family plot in Key West.7
# Children
of Piedad Figueredo and Gabriel Ayala:
i
Gabriel Felix Ayala
ii
Gustavo Louis Albert Ayala
iii
Rolando Ayala
iv
Armando Frederick Ayala
v
Oscar Augustus Ayala
____________________
1 Source: e-mail - John
McComb - Sept 26, 2001
2
Footnote: It isn’t clear why Piedad would have been deported
to Ceuta while her mother and sisters were apparently allowed to
emigrate to New York.
3
Source: e-mail attachment - John McComb - June 13, 1999
4
Source: Tampa Tribune article by Tony Pizzo
5
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1976, Vol.
IV, page 607
6
Source: e-mail attachment - John McComb - Dec 19, 2001
7
Source: e-mail - Neal A. Now - Oct 23, 2000
8
Source: notes written by Neal A. Now, between June 6 and 12, 2000
9
Source: obituary - Key West Advertiser - Jan 24, 1891
10
Source: obituary - in Spanish from an unknown source - Jan 24,
1891
11
Source: announcement of the funeral of Piedad, dated Jan 22,
1891.