Cuca and Alberto Vadillo's

Family Page

Cuca Iturrioz and Alberto Vadillo on their wedding day in Cárdenas.

        Juana Catalina (Cuca) Iturrioz was the second of 4 children of Juana Ceferina Llaguno Arechabala and Fermín Iturrioz Michelena.  She and her three brothers were born  in Cárdenas, Cuba at the end of the 19th Century.  Cuca was born on April 30, 1892, and died in Hialeah, Florida, USA, on October 30, 1978.  Before her birth and during her childhood, her father, Fermín Iturrioz, had been the warehouse manager at her granduncle's company, José Arechabala, S.A., but he died when Cuca was only 11, on October 7, 1903, leaving his wife a young widow with 4 children to raise on her own.

       After their father's death, Cuca's older brother, Josechu, went to work at Arechabala, sweeping floors at first but through the passage of time and turn of events, rising to become its President, Director and chief operating officer from 1927 through 1957.  While in Cuba, and before the  takeover of that country by dictator, Fidel Castro, Cuca and her brothers held interests in two sugar mills and other productive economic endeavors in Cuba..  

       Cuca married Alberto Vadillo Ruiz de Austri in Cárdenas on _____.   Alberto Vadillo was born on April 8, 1888, in Mijala, Burgos, Spain.  He was the eldest of 9 children of Eusebio Vadillo Vadillo and Apolonia Ruiz de Austri Barredo, only seven of whom survived into adulthood.  His mother died only two months after the birth of his youngest sister, in 1904 or 1905, catching an illness from an older sister that she began to attend shortly after having given birth.  With bleak employment prospects in Spain,  and facing having to rear 7 children on his own, Eusebio sent Alberto off to Cuba, to live and work with his mother's brothers, Leandro and Balbino Ruiz.  At only 16 years of age, he crossed the ocean alone on a ship, to work for his uncle Leandro who had established a successful hardware business in the bustling and burgeoning port city of Cárdenas, Cuba.  While young, Alberto slept on a cot in the warehouse and did all of the menial tasks that were needed around the store.  Later, he was joined in Cárdenas by his younger brothers Dionisio and Eustaquio, Dionisio remaining to work alongside Alberto, while the younger Eustaquio was sent off to study in the United States.

       After the deaths of Leandro and Balbino Ruiz, Alberto, Dionisio, and their cousin, Victor Ruiz Aramburu, became the principals of "Ferreteria Leandro Ruiz," forming "Sucesores de Leandro and Balbino Ruiz, S. en C".  Together, they continued to successfully operate and grow the hardware business while expanding into other areas of business and manufacturing, including assembling busses, and shipbuilding.  On the side, Alberto became a potato farmer, commercial flower gardener and rancher, purchasing a finca named "La Union," located just outside of nearby San Miguel de los Banos, on which he grew hardwoods and raised cattle.  Alberto Vadillo owned, and later donated to the Trinitarian Order of Catholic Priests, the building on Calle Real that later became the Catholic boys' school known as "Colegio Los Trinitarios"

       At a young age, Alberto was elected President of the "Colonia Española" in Cárdenas, the Spanish cultural and social organization that was responsible for establishing and running many civic and social projects, including an HMO-type hospital/clinic in which many of Cardenas's residents were attended and treated without regard for their ability to pay.  He continued at the head of that organization throughout his life.  Alberto Vadillo died in Cárdenas, 6 days after his 61st birthday, on April 14, 1949.    

       Cuca and Alberto had two children, Eusebio Alberto and Juana Luisa (Nena).

Other Photos

Cuca along with her 3 brothers in 1907.