Marquis of Valdecilla
Ramón Pelayo de la Torriente, Marquis of Valdecilla, was a skilled merchant born in Valdecilla (Cantabria) in 1850. At the age of 14 he left for Cuba, embarking in Cádiz on the steamship Santo Domingo, owned by A. López and company. From the beginning, his destiny was linked to the island of Cuba, since a large part of his paternal and maternal family had been there since the first third of the 19th century, with some of its members standing out in the world of business and later in politics. In 1889 Ramón Pelayo married María Teresa Piedra Pérez, daughter of Pedro Ignacio Piedra, partner of Ingenio Feliz, belonging to the Sugar Company of New York, in New York.
This mill was abandoned by the Piedra family in 1906 due to financial problems, although at the time of the wedding of Ramón and María Teresa, the financial situation of the political family of the later Marquis of Valdecilla had to be relieved since in In 1892 he acquired the property of the Rosario Mill and began the construction of the main house of his estate in Valdecilla. In Cuba, Ramón Pelayo becomes an important sugar industrialist with an interest in technical advances in the industry, which makes him travel to the United States and meet relevant figures such as Henry Ford. In 1920 he sold his business in Cuba and returned to live in Valdecilla until his death in 1932.
In 2003, what was his farm, and currently Finca Marqués de Valdecilla, was purchased by the Medio Cudeyo City Council.
