Desiderio Alberto Arnaz II

Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y Alberni II (8 March 1894, in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba—31 May 1973, in Miami, Florida, United States) was a Cuban politician and the father of Desi Arnaz.

Desiderio Arnaz II was the youngest mayor of Santiago de Cuba (1923–1932). He was elected to the Cuban House of Representatives in November 1932 for the Oriente Province. When Gerardo Machado was overthrown as president in August 1933, Rep. Arnaz was arrested and jailed. Six months later, he was allowed to go into exile. He graduated from the Southern College of Pharmacy (merged and known now as Mercer University, School of College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences) in 1913 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rep. Arnaz was the son of Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha I (1857–1929), a doctor (and grandson of Manuel Arnaz, a mayor of Santiago de Cuba in 1869) and Rosa Alberni y Portuondo (1870-?), the great-granddaughter of a mayor of Santiago de Cuba, José Joaquín Portuondo y Rizo, 1st Conde de Santa Inés (1762–1824). He married Dolores “Lolita” de Acha y de Socias (2 April 1896—24 October 1988) in 1916 and had one son, Desi Arnaz. He later had a daughter, Connie Arnaz (10 June 1932), with Anne M. Wilson (12 June 1902—7 June 1994), whom he married in 1941.

He died in 1973 in Miami and is entombed above President Machado at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North Park Cemetery and Mausoleum.

References

• Lewiston Evening Journal; Father of Entertainer Arnaz Dies; 1 June 1973.
• Santa Cruz y Mallen, Francisco Xavier de; Historia de Familias Cubanas - Tomo Primero; Editorial Hercules, Havana, Cuba; 1940.
• Arnaz, Desi; A Book; Morrow, 1976; ISBN 978-0-688-00342-5.