Granados
Ramon Granados Marquez

The information below was compiled by Luis Granados, II (aka "Sonny"), son of Luis Granados, grandson of Ramon Granados and Maria Concepcion Rey.

Rey
Maria Concepcion Rey Capdevila

GRANADOS

The Granados name was well established in the ancient Roman Province of  Cantabria,   (Santan-der) at  the  time  of  the  Visigoth conquest.  The  oldest  official record  was  in  438,  when  a Granados paid  a  fine  or  fee  to keep  his  house  from  being  destroyed.   A  story,  printed  on  a wine bottle label used  by a  relative  for  business  patrons,  says the name originated in the mountains  of  Burgos  and  spread through the peninsula with the re-conquest of Aragon and Valencia.  

Knights of this lineage served under King Alfonso X “The Wise” in the conquest of Andalucia, especially in the recapture of Jerez de la Frontera from the Moors in 1254, where Don Pedro Fernandez Granados distinguished himself.  In reward, the King granted him hereditary titles and their corresponding estates in Andalucia.  The name is mentioned many times in Los Libros de Repartimientos de Tieras de la Conquistas de Andalucia, and its nobililty is mentioned in Las Ordenes de Santiago, Calatrava y San Juan de Jerusalem and La Real Maestranza de Seville.

Some of the family names turn up in odd places.  In 1517, Francisco Fernandez de Cordoba discovered the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and in 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a Spanish explorer, led an expedition into the American Southwest in search of gold, and discovered the Pueblos of New Mexico.  His lieutenant, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, discovered the Grand Canyon.

Luis Granados-Rey claimed that the original Muñoz was a representative of Caesar’s government in Rome.  Among other powers, he was authorized to mint money, and was very good at it, so good that when the Roman soldiers invaded England, they preferred to be paid in coins minted by Muñoz.  They called his coins munoz, a term which eventually became money.

The oldest known ancestor was named Barrera, who married a woman named Monsalves.  They had two sons, Pedro Barrera-Monsalves, who became a Catholic Priest, and Manuel de San Agustare Barrera Monsalves

Manuel Barrera-Monsalves had two daughters, Isabel and Maria de los Dolores.  Maria   married a Granados-Gonzales, and they had a son, Ramon Granados Barrera.

Ramon Granados married Dolores Fernandez-Dominguez, whose mother was Catalina Dominguez.  Their sons were: Juan Nepomuceno, a Catholic Priest; and Luis.

Granados-Fernandez forebears held titles that included Count and duke.  The Duke’s palace in Seville was later converted into the famous department store, Corte Ingles.

When Juan Nepomuceno Granados entered the priesthood, his aunt, Maria de los Dolores Barrera, gave him properties known as El Pino, Pera Mora, end of Aroche; Huestos Viejas, Cerro and Vinerias.  His will, dated January 1, 1912, bequeathed these properties to St. Peter’s Priesthood.  Other properties included a chestnut orchard at Carrera del Caballo, an olive grove at Dehera on the road to Cortelazos, a vineyard at Dehera, and an olive grove at Rebollar.            

Luis Granados-Fernandez, who held a very important position in the government of Huelva, married Maria del Rosario Marquez Muñoz, daughter of Antonio Marquez Garcia and Carmen Muñoz Galvan, from the province of Huelva.

They had four children: Luis, a lawyer; Ramon, born September 4, 1880; Librada and Celestino, who amused children with his Kaiser Wilhelm style mustache.  Librada married Juan Parra, and they had five sons, Fernando, Luis and German (two others un-named). 

The church in Arecena, called the Castillo, was a mosque before becoming a Catholic church. Many Granados family members are buried there under the altar and in the graveyard.   

Although a small town, for at least seven consecutive years Aracena was judged the cleanest city in Spain.

When he was three, Ramon was sent to boarding school, coming home for Christmas and for four or five days in the summer.  He attended various schools, becoming a prankster.   

While at a military academy in Toledo, he and other boys replaced the holy water with nitrate of silver just before a big church affair, creating a black mark on people’s foreheads, and upsetting the entire town.  

When in a Salesian boys school, he smeared excrement on the outside door handle of his dormitory, and held a candle to the inside until it got red hot.  One of the boys let out a loud groan, and when the brother came to see what was going on, he grabbed the handle.  He got sent home for that.  He wasn’t allowed to read Jules Verne stories, although they were carried as a serial (folletin) in the Spanish newspapers, so he got someone to wrap them around a rock and throw them over the wall to him.  He studied at the University of Seville and Salamanca, obtaining his Masters Degree from the University of Seville.   

He fell in love with Maria Concepcion Rey-Capdevila, daughter of Antonio Rey and Concepcion Capdevila.

After the Spanish-American War, the U.S. stipulated that Spain supply Cuba with Professors of Spanish certified by the Royal Academia, until such time as Cuba could train its own professors.  Ramon was selected by the Spanish government to teach Spanish grammar in Cuba.  He went alone to Vinales, Pinar del Rio, Cuba..

After Ramon left, Concepcion’s father Antonio died and left the family penniless.  Rosario Granados, Ramon’s mother, suggested that if the young couple planned to get marred, they should do so now.  Concepcion’s mother agreed, and on January 20, 1903, Ramon and Maria Concepcion married by proxy and she traveled alone to Cuba.  Her brother, Viriato, stood in for Ramon in a civil ceremony in Seville,  and immediately upon her arrival in Cuba, a second marriage ceremony took place before a priest on February 10, 1903.  

Granados and Rey families are joined

Granados Origins in Spain

Coming to America

Riverdale  

Spain

Coat of Arms

Narrative by Luis Leon Granados on Emigration

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