Castedo family per Emilito

The family was living at this address when her siblings Jorge and Isabel were born in 1889 and 1896 and still living here during the 1905 census. When Richard SIGNES was in Madrid looking for family information in August 1997, he wrote "When I was in Madrid, strolling through the neighborhood in which Maina and family grew up, I realized that Plaza de la Cebada, diez, was just about fifty yards from the well known 'Teatro de La Latina.' All sorts of images of the Gracciani actors/actresses came to mind. "

There is a document dated 9 March 1907 that gives Josefa permission to leave Spain. Isabel BESTEIRO GRACCIANI notes that the travelers consisted of Victorina GRACIANI and three of her children (who we know were Josefa, Jorge and Isabel: Domingo had gone earlier and Emilio never went). (April 2 was the actual arrival date; Emil SIGNES and Heide RUPPEL (Signes) found an announcement in the Diario de la Marina newspaper after two days of searching microfilm at the Library of Congress.) She arrived on the steamship Reina María Cristina.

Isabel BESTEIRO GRACCIANI notes that Josefa returned to Spain with her grandmother Joaquina (who had visited Cuba, according to this story, in an unsuccesful effort to get her pregnant 45-year old daughter Victorina to return to Spain with her). There is a photo of Josefa, inscribed by herself, that reads as follows: "Mamá, para que vea estoy más gruesa y mande por mí. La dedico este postal con mucho cariño. Su hija Pepita 28-8-1908 Madrid" (Mother, so you see I'm getting heavier [her mother had thought she was sickly]; send for me. . . ") (Note -- card was addressed to "Dª Victorina Gracciani / Consulado - 104 y 106 / "Isla de Cuba" / Habana.)

She sailed on the S.S. Saratoga with children Carmen, Manuel and Victorina. She was preceded in the immigration to the US by her husband, who continued to urge her to wait to join him until he had found a job. Her mother, however, offered her two pieces of advice: "don't leave a man alone that long" and "as long as you don't show up with the kids he won't find a job." (Victorina was 5 weeks old when they left.)

Her daughter Dolores had been born on New Year's Day. In March, her husband had written her in Cuba advising her and the children to return home: according to his information, the US was about to declare war on Germany, which would likely make it impossible for them to return during its duration. When she and her children (Carmen, Manuel, Victorina and the baby Lolita) prepared to depart from Havana, it was discovered that Manuel had pink eye and he was forbidden to accompany them. Fearful because of her husband's admonition, she boarded the boat and left Manuel in the care of his grandmother and Aunt Betty (Isabel BESTEIRO GRACCIANI) for approximately 2 years. The boat, the S.S. Mexico, left Havana at 29 March 1917 and arrived in New York on 2 April. The US declared war on Germany on 6 April.

They are detailed below, but here is a summary: 1884-1907: Madrid / 1907-1908: Havana / 1908-1909: Madrid / 1909-1911: Havana / 1911: Spain (Valdemoro in August; Santiago?) / 1912: Havana / 1912-1916: New York / 1916-1917: Havana / 1917-1921: New York / 1921-1953: Paterson, NJ / 1953-1968 Totowa Borough, NJ.

She first traveled to Germany for the wedding of her grandson Emil SIGNES. (There are two interesting stories about this trip: 1. In Gata de Gorgos, the home town of her son-in-law Emilio SIGNES MONFORT, which followed the Spanish tradition of widows wearing black for the remainder of their lives, Pepita astounded everyone by wearing a pink dress. 2. When in a Madrid hotel, she demanded to know why the desk clerk spoke to her in English. "But you spoke to me in English" he stammered. "Oh", said Maina, who despite speaking very little English, probably had.