The records in Harvard show that Matilde and her sister Rosa were assigned to live at No. 5 Howland Street, a "new house" owned by Mrs. F. D. Stone.

Cuando de niña me enfermaba y mi madre me hacía quedar en cama, mi abuela “Chucha”, que así le llamábamos, se sentaba junto a mí y me contaba historias de ese viaje a los Estados Unidos

Ana Abril, mi abuela, my grandmother, was born in 1878 in Baracoa, in Eastern Cuba. As a child she loved school, and in 1900, at age 22, was a school teacher at Preston, a small town near the Preston Sugar Mill, whose owners were American, and she was selected to participate in the summer program at Harvard.

Sometime in 2017 I discovered Francisca, my second great-grandmother, attended Harvard University. The knowledge of this small, but puzzling fact sent me on my own journey that would quickly become my life's passion.

El Comandante Zayas-Bazán, as he was known, became popular with the people because he was perceived as a brave leader ready to end the rampant corruption of that Republican epoch.

We always knew it was only through her guidance and support that her closest family members, born into poverty, were allowed a better future for themselves and their descendants.