María Elena de Cárdenas González

María Elena de Cárdenas y González, born in La Habana in 1919, is a simple and optimistic woman who enjoys feeding the fish in the pond and the birds that arrive at the Andalusian garden that her son had built in the house's patio to celebrate her 80th birthday. "She has lived dedicated to her family, to her children and grandchildren," says De la Vega, indicating that her mother is passionate about opera and that every morning when she wakes up she plays the piano.

María Elena de Cárdenas y González has a shield of the Republic of Cuba at one of the entrances to her residence in Coral Gables. The walls inside the house on Granada, one of the main avenues of the Florida city, show, however, portraits of her distinguished ancestors from Cuban Creole nobility, landowners and military figures who maintained their attachment to traditions and honored the noble titles granted by the Spanish monarchy in recognition of their merits and services.

One of those titles was the Marquessate of Campo Florido, granted by King Fernando VII on May 6, 1826, to Miguel de Cárdenas y Peñalver, an ancestor of María Elena de Cárdenas y González, who has just recovered it in Spain after a legal battle that she won against one of the most famous families of Spanish nobility, the Koplowitz.

"The Judgment of the Provincial Court of Madrid of February 1, 2017, declares the superior right of Doña María Elena de Cárdenas y González, against Doña Alicia Alcocer Koplowitz, to the noble title of Marquis of Campo Florido," said in an interview with Nuevo Herald Luis de la Vega y de Cárdenas, son of De Cárdenas y González, and Miami businessman.

The De la Vega y De Cárdenas family left Cuba in the 1960s, after the arrival of Castroism, leaving behind an extensive art collection and valuable objects from which they were able to take very little into exile, among them some plates that had belonged to another of their ancestors, the Marquis of Almendares, Ignacio Herrera y O'Farrill, who had this dinnerware made in China in 1845.

The De la Vega y De Cárdenas family left Cuba in the 1960s, after the triumph of the revolution, leaving behind an extensive art collection and valuable objects from which they were able to take very little into exile, among them some plates that had belonged to another of their ancestors, the Marquis of Almendares, Ignacio Herrera y O'Farrill, who had this dinnerware made in China in 1845.