Ask a New Yorker: Hello, Donna Maria Victoria Del Valle, where do we start? That is the question.
Victoria: I’ve got a very good idea. Let’s start in the crib.
Ask a New Yorker: Excellent. Where was that crib located?
Victoria: The crib was in Havana, Cuba. A few years ago, let’s not mention the exact date because it’s not important. It was in Havana, Cuba in a beautiful, beautiful house that is now the Mexican embassy. It was a big home, too big for the three of us, my mother, my father and me. But we enjoyed it while it lasted and then we left Cuba when Castro came into power in 1959. We did not sell the house or rent it or do anything. The Mexicans take care of it very well.
Ask a New Yorker: Tell us more about your family?
Victoria: My grandmother on my father’s side married General Santa Anna from the Alamo. This General Santa Anna was married to my grandmother at the time. She was 14 and he was 36. They had two children. Then he died and she remarried Mr. Del Valle, who was my real grandfather on my grand- mother’s side. They had five children–they were very Catholic as you can see–of which one was my father. Unfortunately, he is dead today. I studied in American schools in Cuba. I came to this country every year and stayed here for about a month or two, depending what was happening in my life, because my parents wanted me to speak good English. My father went to Georgetown. He wanted me to study English, then French, which I did. I’m as fluent in French as I am in English. I think it’s helpful, you never know when you’re going to leave your country as I did and need languages.
Ask a New Yorker: How did your family make their money in Cuba?
Victoria: My father had interests in sugar, tobacco and real estate. Obviously, all the sugar mills were confiscated as well as the tobacco plantations when Castro took over.
Ask a New Yorker: On a more serious note. Where do you get your hair done? It looks great. And do you smoke cigars?
Victoria: (laughter) I did it myself today. I have good hair. It’s a little bit like a mane of a horse. It’s very think and strong. But I do it myself. I don’t like to get complicated with hours in a beauty salon. No, I don’t smoke cigars but I smoke cigarettes. There are some Cuban women that smoke cigars but they stink forever. The first cigarette I smoked was Lucky Stripe. My first cigarette generally is at 6 or 7 in the evening when I have my first drink.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s your favorite cocktail?
Victoria: I love vodka. I have a vodka Negroni, which is 1/3 of Campari, 1/3 of red sweet vermouth and 1/3 of vodka. I keep having this cocktail. It’s very good and uplifting.
Ask a New Yorker: My mind is racing. Your life has been very interesting.
Victoria: I got married at age 17. He was 19. We were a very young 17 and 19. It was a beautiful wedding. It took place in a church that my grandmother donated to the Jesuits, one of the biggest churches in Cuba. We invited 3000 people.
Ask a New Yorker: Small wedding.
Victoria: 800 came to the house for dinner. That’s all, not the 3000. Then we went on our honeymoon in a house that we had in Varadero Beach about 2 ½ hours outside Havana. We stayed there for a week and I was getting used to being married. I had no idea. Nobody had told me. Nobody told me what really marriage was in any sense. So I had to discover it .That was exciting. Then the real honeymoon took place in France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
Ask a New Yorker: That sounds lovely.
Victoria: Yes, but with my mother and my father. I think it would have been better with just my husband.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you have brothers and sisters?
Victoria: There were 9 children, brothers and sisters. They all died. Not when they were immediately born but within two weeks of their births. Nowadays they would know those things. But at the time they didn’t know. My mother had two uteruses and one should have gone somewhere else. (laughter)
That is why my name is Victoria. I made it! When I was born apparently all these 9 children born before were absolutely gorgeous. But when I was born my mother looked at me and said, “And I have waited so long to have this little tiny brown thing?” Apparently I had hepatitis and I was born a mixture of brown and green which was not very appealing. A year later I won a beauty contest here in this country, like a Gerber baby type contest. After being green and brown I became cute.
Ask a New Yorker: Don’t stop now.
Victoria: Well I was married the first time, as I said, when I was 17. Then I had a baby nine months after. His name was Francis. Unfortunately he is not with us anymore. After that I had a baby girl, Victoria, that was born 1 ½ years after Francis was born. Then I remarried a second time with a Doctor. I had a baby, now a grown up man, who is married to a Japanese opera singer. Then I married a third gentleman. He was very, very handsome and ten years younger than me. Then I started going down in ages. (laughter) It was a very good marriage although he wanted to liberate Cuba which was a little too much for me.
Ask a New Yorker: What is a New Yorker?
Victoria: For me I would say a New Yorker is a very attractive human being. He is exposed to everything that happens in the world. Not many more things can happen more than New York. Everything happens here. Everything interesting and attractive and from different countries happens here. So if you’re exposed to New York you get the best of everything.
