Mariano Domínguez Vela

Mariano Domínguez Vela (1877-1971)

Many Spanish families settled and lived in Cuba during the Colonial Era and afterwards when the new and young Republic was inaugurated. A valuable immigration of hard working and principled people, who came to America to make a future for them and their families, with honest work and always contributing with positive values to the society in which they lived.

The Villa of Güines was no exception and many from the Península came to reside and establish homes and families, from all regions of the Mother Country.

We highlight here the life of Don Mariano Domínguez Vela, born on March 25, 1877 in Talamantes, province of Saragossa, Aragón, Spain, married to Doña Teresa Jurado Salido, born in La Mancha, who arrived in Cuba in 1909 with four Spanish born children, reaching the Villa of Güines in 1912. In a short stay in the city of Guanajay, their first Cuban child was born in 1910 and the last 3 until a total of 8 were born in Güines.

His beginnings were hard and difficult, starting in the Villa with a line of ice cream carts. This initial enterprise provided him with the economic foundation to establish himself as a cook, trade that he learned in Spain, buying in the Market Plaza an eatery with the name of Europa (Europe). A little bit later he opened a more spacious restaurant in the same Market Plaza naming it La Zaragozana (The Saragossan Girl). It is here where his clientele grows and his gastronomic fame starts to spread throughout the Villa, which facilitated in 1924, the purchase in partnership with another relevant Güinero, Eugenio Angulo Tavío, the best and more important hotel and restaurant in Güines called Esquina de Tejas (Corner of Tiles), where Don Mariano, (as they started to call him), served the most distinguished customers, including a President of the Republic, General Gerardo Machado Morales.

Güines Rotary Club held monthly luncheons in its salons and the well-off residents of the Villa, including professionals, sugar mill owners, sugar farmers, farmers, entrepreneurs, businessmen, etc. would order from Don Mariano the preparation of meals, to complement banquets and parties organized during baptisms, weddings, birthdays and other social activities.

That is how Don Mariano consolidated his fame, becoming the undisputed major innkeeper of the Villa of Güines, leaving to his offspring, the tradition of good eating, praised by his culinary art, imagination and creativity.

At the end of the 40’s, he retired, selling the business Esquina de Tejas in 1948 and helping to open La Viña Aragonesa (The Aragonese Vineyard) in 1949, left in the hands of his sons Luis and Joaquín, culminating a life dedicated to the gastronomic trade.

This story, like so many others that happened in Cuba, written with sweat, unstoppable work and sacrifices, had its sad end with the arrival of Communism in Cuba. In 1961 La Viña Aragonesa—as well as all other private business in Cuba—was confiscated by the Communist Government without compensation, compelling him and his family to leave everything and take the road to exile.

Ten years later and at 94 years of age, Don Mariano Domínguez Vela delivered his soul to the Lord in Los Ángeles, California, on December 31, 1971.

Continue to: José Expósito Pernas