Severiano de Heredia

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Severiano de Heredia

|image = Severiano de Heredia.jpg

|office1 = Paris municipal council

|term_start1 = April 1873

|term_end1 = 1881

|predecessor1 =

|successor1 =

|office2 = Deputy of the Chamber of Deputies

|term_start2 = 21 August 1881

|term_end2 = 11 November 1889

|predecessor2 =

|successor2 =

|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1836|11|8}}

|birth_place = Havana, Cuba

|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1901|2|9|1836|11|8}}

|death_place = Paris, France

|resting_place = Batignolles Cemetery, Paris, France

|citizenship = Spanish, French

|party = Republican Union (1881–1885)
Radical Left (1885–1889)

}}

Severiano de Heredia (8 November 1836 – 9 February 1901){{cite book |last1=Mayeur |first1=Jean-Marie |last2=Schweitz |first2=Arlette |year=2001 |title=Les parlementaires de la Seine sous la Troisième République |trans-title=Deputies and senators of the Seine under the Third Republic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BR2MUSf6OhIC |pages=308–309 |volume=2. Dictionnaire biographique |language=French |location=Paris, F |publisher=Publications de la Sorbonne |access-date=4 February 2018 |isbn=978-2-85944-432-7 |issn=1243-0269}}{{cite web |editor-last=Luquiens |editor-first=Corinne |url=http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=7962 |title=Severiano DE HÉRÉDIA |date=15 April 2014 |website=Base de données historique des anciens députés – Assemblée nationale |language=French |location=Paris, France |publisher=Secrétariat générale de l'Assemblée nationale |access-date=31 July 2015}} was a Cuban-born biracial{{cite book |editor-last=Burghardt Du Bois |editor-first=William Edward |date=November 1915 |title=The Crisis |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/civil-rights/crisis/1100-crisis-v11n01-w061.pdf|location=New York, USA |publisher=Crisis Publishing Company |author=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People |author-link=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People |page=22 |volume=11 |access-date=31 July 2015 |quote=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.}} politician, a freemason, a left-wing republican,{{cite book |last1=Raitt |first1=Alan William |author-link1=Alan Raitt |year=1981 |title=The Life of Villiers De I'Isle-Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39oKAQAAMAAJ |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-0-1981-5771-7 |page=202 |access-date=31 July 2015 |quote=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.}} naturalized as French in 1870,{{cite book |author=Adolphe Crémieux |author-link=Adolphe Crémieux |date=June 1871 |title=Bulletin des lois de la République française |trans-title=Bulletin of acts of the French Republic |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2100570 |language=French |location=Paris, F |publisher=Imprimerie nationale |via=Gallica |access-date=18 October 2015 |page=35 |quote=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.)}} who was president of the municipal council of Paris{{cite journal |last=Piñeyro |first=Enrique |year=1907 |title=José María Heredia |url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/hispa_0007-4640_1907_num_9_2_1527 |language=Spanish |journal=Bulletin Hispanique |location=Bordeaux, France |publisher=Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux |doi=10.3406/hispa.1907.1527 |access-date=6 February 2017 |via=Persée |volume=9 |number=2 |page=187 |issn=0007-4640 |quote=… 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.}} 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{{refn|group=note|Although the city of Paris did not have an elected mayor between 1871 and 1977, the title of President of the municipal council during that period would be the equivalent of the actual position of Mayor. According to Nicolas Theodet, Severiano de Heredia was elected as the head of the Council of Paris in 1879, thereby becoming the equivalent of the time of mayor.{{cite news |last1=Theodet |first1=Nicolas |title=En 1879, le maire de Paris était noir|trans-title=In 1879, the Mayor of Paris was black|url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2013/04/28/03004-20130428ARTFIG00123-en-1879-le-maire-de-paris-etait-noir.php |access-date=6 February 2017 |work=Le Figaro |date=28 April 2013 |language=French |quote=Il est ensuite élu à la tête du Conseil de Paris en 1879, devenant ainsi l'équivalent du maire de l'époque.}}}} and the first mayor of African descent of a Western world capital.{{cite web |url=http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/livres/essais-documents/l-incroyable-destin-de-severiano-de-heredia-81408 |title=L'incroyable destin de Severiano de Heredia |trans-title=The incredible fate of Severiano de Heredia |last=Triay |first=Philippe |date=10 December 2012 |website=France Info |location=Paris, F |access-date=6 February 2017 |language=French |publisher=France Télévisions}}

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,{{cite book |last1=Lloyd |first1=Reginald |last2=Plá Cárceles |first2=José |date=1913 |title=Twentieth century impressions of Cuba, its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EuEwAQAAMAAJ |location=London, UK |publisher=Lloyds Greater Britain publishing company, ltd. |series=Twentieth Century Impressions |oclc=1864681 |page=158 |access-date=6 January 2018 |quote=A Cuban quadroon, Severiano Heredia, also a naturalised Frenchman, became through his unusual ability Minister of Public Works in France.}} 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.{{cite book |last1=Ribbe |first1=Claude |author-link1=Claude Ribbe |year=2016 |title=Une autre histoire |trans-title=An alternative history |chapter=18 Severiano de Heredia |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=2749150809 |language=French |location=Paris, F |publisher=Le Cherche midi |access-date=4 February 2018 |isbn=978-2-7491-1397-5}} He is believed to be a cousin of the famous French poet José-Maria de Heredia.{{cite book |last1=de Heredia |first1=José María |author-link1=José-Maria de Heredia |last2=Zerolo |first2=Elías |date=1893 |title=Poesías líricas |trans-title=Lyric poems |chapter=Prólogo |trans-chapter=Foreword |url=https://archive.org/details/poesaslricas00heregoog |language=Spanish |location=Paris, F |publisher=Garnier Hermanos |oclc=431794473 |page=xvi |access-date=6 January 2018 |quote=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.}}{{cite book |last1=de Santa Cruz y Mallén |first1=Francisco Xavier |date=1944 |title=Historia de familias cubanas |trans-title=History of Cuban families |url=https://archive.org/details/FranciscoXDeSantaCruzHistoriaDeFamiliasCubanasTomoV |volume=Tomo V |language=Spanish |location=La Habana, CU |publisher=Editorial Hércules |oclc=835638000 |page=[https://archive.org/details/FranciscoXDeSantaCruzHistoriaDeFamiliasCubanasTomoV/page/n149 141] |access-date=7 January 2018}}

Biography

=Personal life=

Severiano de Heredia was born in Matanzas,{{cite periodical |last=Ureña |first=Max Henríquez |title=Poetas cubanos de expresión francesa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xTVXAAAAIAAJ |language=es |date=May 1941 |periodical=Revista Iberoamericana |doi=10.5195/reviberoamer.1941.1031 |volume=III |issue=6 |pages=301–344 |quote=Se ha dicho que su padre, Ignacio de Heredia (nacido en Santo Domingo en 1794 y muerto en Cuba en 1848), era hermano de José Francisco y de Domingo y, por lo tanto, tío carnal de los dos poetas, y que "dió su nombre — asienta Miodrag Ibrovac —, a un niño de raza mestiza, Severiano de Heredia, que había nacido en una propiedad suya de Matanzas en 1836"}} Cuba, to Henri de Heredia and mulatta Beatrice Cardenas.{{cite journal |last=Agapé |first=Sélène |date=7 August 2015 |title=Paris 1879: Severiano de Heredia, le mulâtre dans les hautes sphères de la République |trans-title=Paris 1879, Severiano de Heredia: the mulatto at the highest level of the Republic |language=French |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/selene-agape/histoire-de-severiano-de-heredia-homme-politique-de-la-3e-republique_b_7926228.html |journal=The Huffington Post |location=Paris, F |access-date=10 February 2016 }} Reportedly he was the natural son of his godfather Don Ignacio Heredia y Campuzano-Polanco{{refn|group=note|Don Ignacio Heredia y Campuzano-Polanco was the uncle of the poet José María Heredia}} married to the French Madeleine Godefroy, who adopted him and sent him to France at the age of 10 for his education, attending the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris.{{Cite book |last1=Noiriel |first1=Gérard |title=Chocolat, la véritable histoire de l'homme sans nom |trans-title=The true story of Chocolat, the man without name |language=French |location=Paris, F |publisher=Bayard Presse |date=13 January 2016 |isbn=978-2-227-48617-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLWCCwAAQBAJ |quote=À Paris, Severiano de Heredia, fils d'un aristocrate de La Havane, devint un membre actif du parti radical, après des études au lycée Louis-le-Grand, ce qui lui permit d'être élu conseiller municipal, puis député. |access-date=8 February 2016}}. He applied for French citizenship which was granted under the Ministerial Decree of 28 September 1870.

He married at Paris, 3 November 1868, Henriette Hanaire, by whom he had a son in 1869, Henri-Ignace, and a daughter, Marcelle, in 1873. His son died in an accident at Wimereux at the age of twelve and was buried at Cimetière des Batignolles on 4 September 1882. His daughter studied at the Paris Medical School, became a notable neurophysiologist{{Cite book |title=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC |location=New York (New York), USA |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-4159-2040-7 |first1=Marilyn Bailey |last1=Ogilvie |first2=Joy Dorothy |last2=Harvey |author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |author2-link=Joy Harvey |pages=745–746 |access-date=2 September 2015 |contribution=Lapicque, Marcelle (de Heredia) (1873–ca.1962) }} and formed a team with her husband, the neurophysiologist Louis Lapicque.{{Cite book |editor1-first=Annette |editor1-last=Lykknes |editor2-first=Donald L. |editor2-last=Opitz |editor3-first=Brigitte |editor3-last=Van Tiggelen |title=For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences |volume=44 |series=Science Networks Historical Studies |location=Basel, D |publisher=Birkhäuser |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-0348-0750-0 |doi=10.1007/978-3-0348-0286-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yR0fPFFbKqsC |pages=66–67 |access-date=19 October 2015}}.

=Political career=

Upon the death of his godfather in 1848, Severiano de Heredia inherited his wealth and embarked on a career as a poet and literary critic. In 1871, while he was assuming the role of a conciliator,{{cite magazine |editor1-last=du Puy de Clinchamps |editor1-first=Philippe |editor2-last=de Villeneuve |editor2-first=Gérard |title=Severiano de Heredia |magazine=L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux |author-last1=Vercken |author-first1=Christian |date=April 1979 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py9cAAAAMAAJ |language=French |location=Paris |number=337 |access-date=18 October 2015 |page=371 |issn=0994-4532 |quote=D'origine cubaine, propriétaire de plantations de canne à sucre, naturalisé français en 1870, il fut conciliateur en 1871, conseiller municipal de Paris (1873–1885), député de la Seine (1881- 1889), ministre des Travaux publics (1887).}} he published a political essay entitled "Paix et plébiscite"{{refn|group=note|Peace and referendum}} in which he pleaded for a democratic end to the Franco-Prussian war.{{cite book |last1=de Heredia |first1=Severiano |year=1871 |title=Paix et plébiscite |trans-title=Peace and referendum |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5446518b |location=Tours, F |publisher=Imprimerie Mame |oclc=457863038 |access-date=18 October 2015 |page=24 |via=Gallica |quote=Il est temps d'en finir avec les guerres périodiques et les boucheries humaines.}}

He entered politics as a radical Republican and was elected in April 1873 to be a member of the City Council of Paris,{{cite journal |last1=Estrade |first1=Paul |others=Instituto Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo; Instituto de Historia, Departamento de Historia de América |year=1994 |title=Pasando revista a los periódicos cubanos publicados en Paris en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX |trans-title=Critical analysis and synopsis of Cuban newspapers published in Paris in the second half of the 19th century |journal=Revista de Indias |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xclmAAAAMAAJ |pages=191–209 |issue=200 |language=Spanish |location=Madrid, ES |publisher=Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas |issn=0034-8341 |volume=54 |access-date=17 October 2015 |quote=…y elección como concejal del Ayuntamiento de París de un cubano nacimiento, Severiano de Heredia (n° 86 de 20 abril de 1873).}} for the Ternes and Plaine-de-Monceaux neighborhoods{{refn|group=note|Both neighbourhoods are part of the 17th arrondissement of Paris.}}.{{cite book |last1=Chamouard |first1=Patrick |last2=Weill |first2=Georges J. |last3=Girard-Busson |first3=Blandine |year=1985 |title=Députés et sénateurs de la région parisienne de 1848 à 1984 |trans-title=Deputies and senators of the Paris region from 1848 to 1984 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wOAlAAAAMAAJ |language=French |location=Nanterre, F |publisher=Archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine |isbn=2-86092-003-X |access-date=18 October 2015 |page=139}} In 1879, he was elected president of the municipal council of Paris, and in August 1881 member to the Chamber of Deputies, where he stayed until he was defeated at the election of 1889 by a Boulangist opponent.{{cite book |last1=McCloy |first1=Shelby Thomas |date=5 February 2015 |orig-date=1966 |title=The Negro in the French West Indies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsMfBgAAQBAJ |page=163 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-6396-3 |access-date=31 July 2015}} On 30 May 1887, he was appointed Minister of Public Works in the government of Maurice Bouvier, until 11 December 1887. On retiring from politics he devoted himself to the history of literature.{{cite web |url=http://historyofafricaotherwise.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/france-severiano-de-heredia-first-black.html |title=France: Severiano de Heredia, First Black Mayor of Paris and current racial prejudice in the West |last1=Kanyarwunga |first1=Jean |date=16 December 2013 |website=History of Africa Otherwise |location=Geneva, CH |publisher=Blogger |access-date=2 September 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200505/http://historyofafricaotherwise.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/france-severiano-de-heredia-first-black.html |url-status=dead }}

Severiano de Heredia was also an active Freemason. Initiated in 1866 in the "Étoile polaire"{{refn|group=note|North Star or Pole Star}} lodge of Paris, he became Worshipfull Master of his lodge,{{cite web |url=http://www.mvmm.org/c/docs/loges/polaire.html |title=L'Etoile Polaire |trans-title=The North Star |editor-last=Bouyer |editor-first=Jean-Pierre |date=2 April 2011 |website=Musée virtuel de la musique maçonnique |location=Paris, F |language=French |access-date=7 December 2015 |quote=L'Etoile Polaire compta parmi ses membres le sculpteur Paul Lecreux (1826-1894) dit Jacques France, Severiano de Heredia (1836-1901), maire de Paris en 1879 et député, qui en fut Vénérable…}} and then Deputy of Grand Orient of France in 1875, and President of the Masonic Orphanage.{{cite book |last1=Kupferman |first1=Laurent |last2=Pierrat |first2=Emmanuel |date=4 October 2012 |title=Ce que la France doit aux francs-maçons… et ce qu'elle ne leur doit pas |trans-title=What France does and does not owe to Freemasons… |series=Actualités Enquêtes |language=French |location=Paris, F |publisher=Éditions First & First Interactive |isbn=978-2-7540-3221-6}} Within this framework, Severiano de Heredia took part to the first French Congress for Women's Rights in 1878, as a French representative of the intended Committee of Initiative, at the Masonic Grand Orient.{{cite book |last1=Bidelman |first1=Patrick Kay |date=26 May 1982 |title=Pariahs Stand Up!: The Founding of the Liberal Feminist Movement in France, 1858–1889 (Contributions in Women's Studies) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7mMqAAAAYAAJ |location=Westport (Connecticut), USA |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-23006-6 |series=Music Reference Collection |volume=Book 31 |page=100 |access-date=11 October 2015 |quote=The nineteen French members included two senators (Victor Schoelcher and Eugene Pelletan), five deputies (Louis Codet, Tiersot, Charles Boudeville, Emile Deschanel, and Charles Laisant), three municipal councilors from Paris (Antide Martin, Georges Martin, and Severiano de Herédia)…}}

= Legacy =

Severiano de Heredia was a radical progressive and a secular-minded freethinker, having fought in favor of public school and continuing education. As a strong advocate for the separation of church and state he played a very active role in the struggle for free, secular and compulsory education, professional training and the creation of municipal libraries. As an early ecologist, he devoted himself to improving the electric car.{{cite book |last1=Laux |first1=James Michael |year=1976 |title=In first gear: the French automobile industry to 1914 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXHtAAAAMAAJ |location=Liverpool, UK |publisher=Liverpool University Press |page=91 |isbn=978-0-7735-0264-2 |access-date=3 February 2018 |quote=An 1891 graduate of the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufacturers, Krieger and Severiano de Heredia formed a company to make electric cars in 1895, the Societé Civil des Voitures Electriques, Systeme Krieger.}}{{cite book |last1=Baldwin |first1=Nick |year=1987 |title=The world guide to automobile manufacturers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJa1AAAAIAAJ |location=New York, USA |publisher=Facts on File Publications |page=268 |isbn=978-0-8160-1844-4 |access-date=3 February 2018 |quote=In 1895 he formed the Societe Civile des Voitures Electriques, Systeme Krieger, in partnership with Severiano de Heredia, a wealthy Cuban- born, French-naturalized politician.}}

Some versions claim that his last years were dedicated to work in the development of the electric car, which is why some qualify him as a pioneer of environmentalism.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} They also say that in this activity he pledged up to the last weight of his fortune, dying in misery.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} There are no clear precedents in this regard.

=Tribute=

Severiano de Heredia died of meningitis at his home in Paris, on 9 February 1901.{{cite journal |editor-last1=de Villemessant |editor-first1=Hippolyte |editor-last2=Jouvin |editor-first2=Benoît |editor-link1=Hippolyte de Villemessant |date=10 February 1901 |title=Échos |trans-title=Echos |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k285413d |access-date=6 February 2018 |language=French |journal=Le Figaro |issue=41 |page=1 |via=Gallica |issn=0182-5852 |quote=Nous apprenons la mort de M. S. de Hérédia, emporté hier soir presque subitement par une méningite.}} Some one hundred and ten years after his death, historian Paul Estrade found no remaining public recognition for his career in his thoroughly researched biography.{{cite news |last1=Triay |first1=Philippe |title=Quand le maire de Paris était noir |url=http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/2013/04/29/quand-le-maire-de-paris-etait-noir-32105.html |access-date=6 February 2017 |publisher=Réseau Outre-Mer 1re |date=29 April 2013 |language=French}} On September 10, 2013, at the initiative of Socialist elected official Lamine Ndaw and with the support of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, her name was associated with a thoroughfare in the 17th arrondissement, as part of an operation to improve the diversity and parity of outstanding personalities in the public space19. Rue Severiano-de-Heredia is located in the Batignolles district.The Mairie de Paris announced in 2013 that a walkway in the 17th arrondissement of Paris will be dedicated to de Heredia in the name of equality and diversity.{{cite press release |title=La Ville de Paris poursuit ses objectifs de parité et de diversité, en distinguant une cinquantaine de personnalités remarquables dans l'espace public |url=http://www.paris.fr/accueil/Portal.lut?page_id=1&document_type_id=7&document_id=134965&portlet_id=24052 |date=9 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011104722/http://www.paris.fr/accueil/Portal.lut?page_id=1&document_type_id=7&document_id=134965&portlet_id=24052 |archive-date=11 October 2014 |publisher=Mairie de Paris |language=French }} In 2015, a walkway in front of a new building was named rue Severiano de Heredia. In the naming ceremony, the then mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, spoke:{{cite news |last1=Triay |first1=Philippe |title=L'hommage de Paris à Severiano de Heredia, maire noir de la capitale et ministre de la République au XIXe siècle |url=http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/2015/10/05/l-hommage-de-paris-severiano-de-heredia-maire-noir-de-paris-et-ministre-de-la-republique-au-xixe-siecle-292827.html |access-date=6 February 2017 |publisher=Réseau Outre-Mer 1re |date=5 October 2015 |language=French |quote=Le premier maire noir de Paris puis ministre de la République française a pourtant été renié et relégué pendant longtemps parmi les oubliés de l'histoire. Nous sommes là pour sortir de cet oubli coupable.}}

{{Cquote|text=The first black mayor of Paris and then minister of the French Republic was rejected and relegated for a long time among the forgotten of history. We are here to correct this guilty oversight. |author=Anne Hidalgo}}

Works

L'appel au peuple : Paix ou guerre ? (1870)
Faisons la paix (1871)
Paix et plébiscite (1871)
Société des écoles laïques... Appel aux habitants du 17^e arrondissement (1873)

Notes and references

=Bibliography=

Sabine Faivre d'Arcier: Los tres Heredia [The three Heredia], La Habana : Imagen Contemporánea (2012), in Spanish. {{ISBN|978-959-293-021-6}}
Paul Estrade: Severiano de Heredia. Ce mulâtre cubain que Paris fit " maire ", et la République, ministre [Severiano de Heredia. This Cuban mulatto that Paris came to be "mayor", and the Republic Minister], series: " La boutique de l'histoire ", Les Indes savantes (15 July 2011), in French. {{ISBN|978-2-84654-270-8}}