My Great Grandmother, Herminia Rodríguez San Pedro was my mother's paternal grandmother. She lived in the small town of Consolación del Sur in the province of Pinar del Rio in Cuba. Her family were members of a social club called La Union. This specific dance card is from February 4th, 1907 and was used at a party to celebrate La Virgen de la Candelaria, the patron saint of the town. A dance card would be given to each eligible single woman during a formal dance to plan out with whom she would dance throughout the night. When a man would request a dance from a woman, he would write his name next to the dance number. This dance card offers a rich insight into the nightlife of a small Cuban town at the turn of the century. It was at one of these dances that Herminia met her husband, Angel Colls, a widower much older than she, from a Catalonian family. My mother, her sister and her parents left Cuba in 1961 and settled down in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Abuela Herminia left the year before and lived in San Juan with one of her sons until her death in 1968. My mother's maternal uncle, Pablo, stayed in Cuba for a year and mailed out family photos and momentos to Puerto Rico. One of the things he mailed was this dance card. 

– Cecilia Vidal

Relationship:  Im/migrant who arrived as a child Im/migrant who arrived as a child