José Gómez-Mena


José "Pepe" Genaro Ramon Gómez-Mena Vila was a Cuban sugar baron, and Minister of Agriculture during the Miguel Mariano Gomez government.

Early life

He was born in 1883, the son of Andrés Gómez-Mena, who came to Cuba from Spain, and Eugenia Carlota Tomasa Vila-Perez.

Career

His family owned the New Gomez-Mena Sugar Company.
In the 1920s, he had built the Gomez-Mena mansion in Havana, which was bequeathed to his widowed sister María Luisa Gómez-Mena Vila, the Condesa de Revilla de Camargo. The Castro regime seized the Gomez-Mena mansion, and leaving its art and furnishings intact, renamed it the National Museum of Decorative Arts.
He was Minister of Agriculture during the Miguel Mariano Gomez government.

Personal life

He married on 5 Feb 1917 to Olga Maria Patricia Seiglie y Martinez, and they had one child, Lillian Rosa. They later divorced.
In 1936, his daughter, Lillian Rosa Gomez-Mena y Seiglie, married Alfonso Fanjul Sr., which united two of the country's leading sugar fortunes, and created a combined business of ten sugar mills, three distilleries, and Cuban-wide real estate holdings.
On 8 January 1939, he married Elizarda. A pre-nuptial agreement was signed in December 1937.
He died in 1960, and is buried in Hillcrest Memorial Park, West Palm Beach, Florida.