Alfonso de Armas family

The Alfonso is an old Cuban noble family.</ref>
History
The Alfonso family was a dynasty active in Cuban political, academic, and business life and had major real estate and business holdings in Havana prior to the Cuban Revolution, when private property was abolished. Its members largely resided in Havana, and some members of the family resided in part in Santa Clara, Oriente, and Santiago de Cuba when they married into other families.
Although they had been involved in Cuban society since the 15th century, especially in the foundation of Havana as the Alfonso family, the Alfonsos established their status through landholdings in the 18th century. Then, in the early 19th century, a Havanese branch of the Alfonso family began to develop great banking interests in Havana, and this branch of the family became a notable banking family. They worked with several European and American families with interests in Cuba, including a flirtation with the Rothschild family, who sent August Belmont to explore the possibilities of business. However, he was never able to do so because he was caught up in New York City during the Panic of 1837. Members of the family also owned several large sugar plantations in Cuba. They retained their noble statuses until the Cuban War of Independence. After the abolition of private property, the Alfonso family fled Cuba from 1960-1963, mostly to the United States, and its members now largely reside in there, especially in Miami, and also in Argentina, Luxembourg, and Spain.

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