Pau Casals i Defilló

Sculpture of Pau Casals located near the house where he was born in El Vendrell

Pau Casals i Defilló (December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973), best known in his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Catalonian cellist of world reknown..

Casals was an ardent supporter of the Spanish Republican government. After its defeat in 1939, Casals vowed not to return to Spain until democracy had been restored, although he did not live to see the end of the Franco dictatorial regime.

Casals was born in El Vendrell, Catalonia. His father, Carles Casals i Ribes (1852-1908), was a parish organist and choirmaster. He gave Casals instruction in piano, violin, and organ. At age four Casals could play the violin, piano and flute. When Casals was eleven, he first heard the cello performed by a group of traveling musicians and formed an instant creative connection with the instrument.

Casals often spoke and wrote of his mother as the person to whom he owed his entire musical career. In 1888 his mother, Pilar Defilló de Casals, who was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico of Catalonian parents, took him to Barcelona despite her husband’s pessimistic lack of support for their son’s future as a musician, where he enrolled in the Escola Municipal de Música. There he studied cello, theory, and piano. He made prodigious progress as a cellist; on February 23, 1891 he gave a solo recital in Barcelona at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the Escola with honors two years later.

Casa Defilló Amiguet in Mayagüez

On Friday, the 9th of October 2009, through the generous assistance of Dinorah Rodríguez Torres, from the Office of the City of Mayagüez Property Management, and with the support of Hon. José Guillermo Rodriguez, Mayor of the City of Mayagüez, I was able to visit the historic home at 21 Calle Mendez Vigo where Pilar Defilló Amiguet, mother of Pau (Pablo) Casals, was born on November 11, 1853. The house was built in the 1840’s in the colonial neo-classic style and was the center of much social and cultural activity during Pilar’s childhood. The house is currently closed to the public but plans have been put forward to transform it into a museum. With many original features still intact, it was not difficult for me to imagine the Defilló Amiguet family living in the center the growing city of Mayagüez in the 1850’s.

I have included a few of the many photos that were taken.  More will be shared in later posts as I continue to piece together the Puerto Rican childhood of Pilar Defilló Amiguet.

Pilar and the Waters of Liberty

The mother of acclaimed cellist Pau (Pablo) Casals, Pilar Defilló iAmiguet was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in 1853 to Catalan parents who had a comfortable position on the island. The family possessed a profound social consciousness and were friends and supporters of Ramón Emeterio betances, Puerto Rican nationalist and absolutist, considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Pilar’s father was a member of “The Secret Abolitionist Society" founded by Betances. The society baptized and emancipated thousands of black slave children. The event, which was known as "aguas de libertad" (waters of liberty), was carried out at the Cathedral of Mayagüez. Through the eyes of Pilar the book explores the work of the absolutists, the social conditions of the time and the contribution of Catalonians to the cause of social justice in 19th century Puerto Rico.  Sample pages (click on images to enlarge):