He was born in 1836 in Havana and at an early age he arrived in the French capital, where he strengthened his education and delved into the culture and customs of that country. (Photo: Assemblée Nationale France – Wikipedia)
It may, a priori, seem like a fictional novel, but there was a Cuban who became mayor of Paris, one of the most important cities in Europe. The story of Severiano de Heredia is an incredible plot of social ascent. Let’s see below how it all happened.
He was born in 1836 in Havana and at an early age he arrived in the French capital, where he strengthened his education and delved into the culture and customs of that country. He was the cousin of the famous poet José María Heredia, one of the main voices of Cuban poetry.
Little is known about his early years, but biographers say that he was baptized in the Jesús del Monte parish as the son of freed slaves Henri Domingo de Heredia and Beatriz de Cárdenas, people who bore the surnames of their former owners.
Several historians indicate that Severiano was the adoptive son of Ignacio de Heredia Campuzano, a landowner and slave owner. There is another confusing theory about his origin that includes adultery.
Once in France, he began to study at the best schools in the “City of Light”, including the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he stayed for nine years during which he learned to master rhetorical techniques and even reached , to obtain an Honorary Award.
His economic situation was prosperous: he had inherited a plantation in Cuba and owned several slaves. He also owned a villa on Boulevard Pereire. He was seen on different occasions in luxurious places such as the opera and cafes where a large part of the capital’s aristocracy met.
At that time he collaborated with various media and wrote art reviews in Gallic and the Paris Magazine. He aspired to become a recognized writer. According to people who knew him, he liked to walk for hours through the Parisian streets.
His beginnings in politics have an important antecedent: in 1866, two years before getting married, he began to form part of the Estrella Polar masonic lodge. In that entity she rises quickly due to his charisma and ability to make decisions. She knew that enjoying influence in one of these groups is a fundamental impulse to later aspire to be part of the political class.
With the beginning of the Third Republic, he decided to apply for French nationality and, in 1873, de Heredia held his first important position: Municipal Councilor of the Ternes neighborhood. Then he will be representative of the department of the Seine and in 1879 he will be elected president of the Council of Paris, a duty that is the equivalent of that of the mayor today. He was only 42 years old.
He was re-elected as a deputy in 1881 and, six years later, he ended up as head of the Ministry of Public Works, just in the same year that the construction of the Eiffel Tower began.
Among the main elements of his political ideology was the separation of the State and the Church, freedom of the press and public education.
He died of meningitis at his home in Paris on February 9, 1901, in the greatest of ruins and total oblivion. Historian Paul Estrade found no remaining public acknowledgment of his career in his extensively researched biography.
Some say that he invested the rest of his fortune in research to develop the electric car. In the city where he pursued his political career, there is a catwalk in the 17th district dedicated to de Heredia in the name of equality and diversity, and another catwalk in front of a new building was called Rue Severiano de Heredia.
He was the first man of African origin to become a minister in a European administration and, to date, the only one born in America to have held the post of Mayor of Paris.
