Severiano de Heredia | |
---|---|
Paris municipal council | |
In office April 1873 – 1881 | |
Deputy of the Chamber of Deputies | |
In office 21 August 1881 – 11 November 1889 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Havana, Cuba | 8 November 1836
Died | 9 February 1901 Paris, France | (aged 64)
Resting place | Batignolles Cemetery, Paris, France |
Citizenship | Spanish, French |
Political party | Republican Union (1881–1885) Radical Left (1885–1889) |
Severiano de Heredia (8 November 1836 – 9 February 1901)[1][2] was a Cuban-born biracial[3] politician, a freemason,[4] a left-wing republican,[5] naturalized as French in 1870,[6] who was president of the municipal council of Paris[7] from 1 August 1879 to 12 February 1880, making him the only native of the American continent who was appointed on relevant post of the Mayor of Paris[note 1] and the first mayor of African descent of a Western world capital.[9]
In 1880, he succeeded Victor Hugo in the presidency of the Philotechnical Association. He served in the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 to 1889 and was briefly Minister of Public Works for the cabinet of Maurice Rouvier in 1887,[10] at the time when the Eiffel Tower first started being built, where he planned and oversaw the construction of some of the finest French highways.[11] He is believed to be a cousin of the famous French poet José-Maria de Heredia.[12][13]
Jose Maria Heredia, the king of sonnets crowned by the French Academy, was a white man but Severiano de Heredia, who held high post under the French government, was of Negroid descent and this is amply verified not only by LaRousse, encyclopaedia but by his family, some of whom still survive him.
lkupferman
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).He had two opponents, the sitting councillor Severiano de Heredia, a Cuban-born left-wing republican who later became a minister, and a fringe 'collectivist' called Couturat.
N° 48. – DÉCRET (signé par le membre et délégué du Gouvernement de la défense nationale, garde des sceaux, ministre de la justice) qui admet à jouir des droits de citoyen français le sieur de Heredia (Severiano), né le 8 novembre 1836, à la Havane (île espagnole de Cuba), sans profession, demeurant à Paris. (Tours, 28 Septembre 1870.)
… niño que fué adoptado como hijo por su viuda, dama de origen francés, y llamado Severiano de Heredia; que recibió su educación en Francia y llegó á ser primero Concejal de París, luego miembro de la Cámara de Diputados y por último Ministro de Obras Públicas de la República francesa.
Il est ensuite élu à la tête du Conseil de Paris en 1879, devenant ainsi l'équivalent du maire de l'époque.
A Cuban quadroon, Severiano Heredia, also a naturalised Frenchman, became through his unusual ability Minister of Public Works in France.
Del mismo don Pedro de Heredia son sucesores don Severiano de Heredia, importante político radical naturalizado en Francia, donde ha sido ministro y muchas veces diputado, y don José María de Heredia, poeta de alto vuelo que escribe en lengua francesa.
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