José María Cabral y Báez


José María Cabral y Báez was a lawyer, businessman, and politician from the Dominican Republic. He served as the President of Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic in 1901.

Early life and family

Cabral y Báez was born to President Marcos Antonio Cabral and Altagracia Amelia Báez ; he had 7 siblings, among them, Mario Fermín Cabral y Báez. On 17 November 1897, he married María Petronila Bermúdez y Rochet, daughter of Erasmo Bermúdez Jiménez, the founder of Bermúdez rum company; they had 6 children: Amelia María, Auristela, José María, Marco Antonio, Josefina Eugenia, and Pedro Pablo Cabral Bermúdez. He also begat 3 children with Estela Navarro: Mairení, José and Raúl Cabral Navarro; with Rafaela Meyreles he sired 2 children: Rafael and Enrique Meyreles.

Career

In 1886, he founded in Santiago the law firm J. M. Cabral y Báez. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from July 1908 to November 1911, during the last half of Ramón Cáceres’s presidential term, and minister during the short presidency of Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal in 1916, before the American occupation of the Dominican Republic.