Personal life Severiano de Heredia was born in
Matanzas,
Cuba, to Henri de Heredia and
mulatta Beatrice Cardenas. Reportedly he was the natural son of his
godfather Don
Ignacio Heredia y Campuzano-Polanco married to the French Madeleine Godefroy, who adopted him and sent him to
France at the age of 10 for his education, attending the
Lycée Louis-le-Grand in
Paris. He applied for French citizenship which was granted under the Ministerial Decree of 28 September 1870. and formed a team with her husband, the neurophysiologist
Louis Lapicque.
Political career Upon the death of his godfather in 1848, Severiano de Heredia inherited his wealth and embarked on a career as a poet and literary critic. In 1871, while he was assuming the role of a
conciliator, he published a political
essay entitled "Paix et plébiscite" in which he pleaded for a democratic end to the
Franco-Prussian War. He entered politics as a radical Republican and was elected in April 1873 to be a member of the City Council of Paris, for the
Ternes and
Plaine-de-Monceaux neighborhoods. In 1879, he was elected president of the municipal council of Paris, and in August 1881 member to the
Chamber of Deputies, where he stayed until he was defeated at the election of 1889 by a
Boulangist opponent. On 30 May 1887, he was appointed Minister of Public Works in the government of Maurice Bouvier, until 11 December 1887. On retiring from politics he devoted himself to the history of literature. Severiano de Heredia was also an active
Freemason. Initiated in 1866 in the "Étoile polaire" lodge of Paris, he became Worshipfull Master of his lodge, and then Deputy of
Grand Orient of France in 1875, and President of the Masonic Orphanage. Within this framework, Severiano de Heredia took part to the first French Congress for
Women's Rights in 1878, as a French representative of the intended Committee of Initiative, at the
Masonic Grand Orient. Some versions claim that his last years were dedicated to work in the development of the electric car, which is why some qualify him as a pioneer of
environmentalism. They also say that in this activity he pledged up to the last weight of his fortune, dying in misery. There are no clear precedents in this regard.
Tribute Severiano de Heredia died of
meningitis at his home in Paris, on 9 February 1901. On September 10, 2013, at the initiative of Socialist elected official Lamine Ndaw and with the support of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, her name was associated with a thoroughfare in the 17th arrondissement, as part of an operation to improve the diversity and parity of outstanding personalities in the public space19. Rue Severiano-de-Heredia is located in the Batignolles district.The Mairie de Paris announced in 2013 that a walkway in the
17th arrondissement of Paris will be dedicated to de Heredia in the name of equality and diversity. In 2015, a walkway in front of a new building was named
rue Severiano de Heredia. In the naming ceremony, the then mayor of Paris,
Anne Hidalgo, spoke: ==Works==