Severiano de Heredia (1836-1901) The first mayor of African descent of a major European city, Severiano de Heredia, was born in Havana, Cuba, on November 8, 1836. He was the son of prosperous mulatto parents, Henri de Heredia and Beatriz de Cárdenas. Registered as a “mulatto born free” in the parish of Jesus del Monte, some contend his actual father was his godfather, Don Ignacio Heredia y Campuzano, a wealthy landowner and slaveholder, who adopted and raised him along with his wife, Madeleine Godefroy. Escaping turmoil in Cuba, at age 10 he was packed off to France where he studied in Paris at the prestigious Lyceum Louis le Grand, graduating with highest honors (winner or the Grand Prix d’Honneur) in 1855. Living comfortably on the inheritance he acquired upon the death of his godfather, Heredia worked as a journalist, literary critic, and poet. In 1868 he married Henriette Hanaire with whom he had a son, Henri-Ignace, who died in an accident at age 12, and a daughter, Marcelle,