Inducted in 2015
Attorney; Banking Executive
Professional Baseball Player, Cuban League
Cuban Baseball League Executive
First Secretary of State, Cuba

Like fellow Hall of Honor inductee Esteban Bellán a decade before him, Carlos de Zaldo came a long way to attend Fordham Prep — all the way from Cuba. During the 19th century, Fordham was one of the premiere Catholic boarding schools in the Americas, and so, even without the convenience of commercial aviation, it was not uncommon for boys to arrive at Rose Hill from Canada, South America, and the Caribbean. In particular, during the 1870s, for Cuban families of means like the de Zaldos, Fordham, with its idyllic grounds in what was then the remote countryside of the Bronx, was an attractive option for educating their sons in a Catholic setting far removed from the violence and confusion that often flared up as the island fought for its independence from Spain — what history would remember as la Guerra de los Diez Años, the Ten Years’ War.

Carlos Gustavo Demetrio de Zaldo y Beurmann was born on December 22, 1860 in Sagua La Grande, Cuba. His father was Guillermo de Zaldo y Domine, a well-known banker and international financier. His mother was Isabel Beurmann y Salas, or Doña Isabel as she would have been known, a prominent Havana-born socialite. Carlos was baptized in La Iglesia de la Purísima Concepción on January 31, 1861, and was one of eleven brothers and sisters: Guillermo, Enrique Teodoro, Maria, Manuela, José, Isabel, Guillermina, Federico, Eduardo and Ernesto. 

In 1875, together with his brother Enrique, Carlos arrived in Fordham, New York to begin his studies at St. John’s College, as Fordham Prep and University were together once known. They were joined at Rose Hill a year or so later by younger brother Federico. Carlos and Enrique completed their Second Division, or Prep, studies in three years making them both members of the Class of 1877. Along the way, the brothers would earn awards in French, history, penmanship, and music — both Carlos and Enrique, it seems, could play the piano. Moreover, out on Fordham’s lawns, the boys from Sagua La Grande learned how to play baseball, a pastime the de Zaldo brothers would have known was more than just a game back in Cuba — the imperial Spanish government had even gone as far as unsuccessfully outlawing the sport in the 1860s as “anti-Spanish” and having “insurrectionist tendencies.” 

With a solid Jesuit education and a love of hardball, Carlos and his brother returned to Cuba after their Prep graduation. As for younger brother Federico, he would complete his Second Division days in 1879 and go on to marry Marie, the eldest sister of classmates and fellow Cubans Gonzalo and Antonio van der Kieft, Prep Classes of 1880 and 1881 respectively.

Back in Cuba, Carlos continued his studies, working towards a degree in law. It would seem that the Caribbean air in no way stifled his love of the “anti-Spanish” game. In 1878, Carlos and his brother founded the Almendares Base Ball Club. Carlos was both manager of the team and played shortstop, while Enrique Teodoro was a pitcher. Carlos was also instrumental in bringing together the other local amateur teams, El Habana and Club Matanzas, to form La Liga Cubana de Béisbol, the Cuban Baseball League. The first official league game in took place on December 29, 1878 with Club Habana narrowly defeating Club Almendares 21-20. Carlos’ opposing player-manager that game was none other than former fellow Fordham alumnus, Esteban Bellán, Prep Class of 1866.

Carlos continued to play and captain the team through the end of law school and would remain involved with team in an executive capacity long after his shortstop days. By all accounts, he had an exciting career with Club Almendares. The colorful rivalry between de Zaldo and Bellán in La Liga’s early days has been credited by baseball historians as one of the forces that helped awaken Latin America’s interest in baseball. A bit of trivia: de Zaldo is often credited with the first successful bunt outside of the United States in a game against a visiting American team, the Hop Bitters, in December of 1879. But more than first bunts, he was a force behind the island’s first ballpark, as well. As noted in Roberto González Echevarría’s The Pride of Havana, Carlos, together with his brother, purchased the land and financed the construction of Almendares Park, the home of the Cuban Baseball League for decades. If Esteban Bellán is considered by some the “Father of Cuban Baseball,” then certainly Carlos de Zaldo and his brother were its godfathers.

After law school, de Zaldo took his place in the family’s business alongside his brothers and also began to gain notoriety as a lawyer. On December 26, 1885, he married Maria de la Caridad Josefa Ignacia Rita Lamar y del Portillo at La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Montserrat in Havana. Having residences in New York as well as in the Caribbean, they raised and educated their three children, Carlos, Jr., Isabel and Jorge in both Cuba and the United States.

As a young, educated man of means with a firm grasp of the law — and a love of the “insurrectionist” game of baseball to boot — it is no surprise that de Zaldo found himself at the center of Cuban politics with imperial Spain on one side and the Cuban separatists on the other. As noted by scholars, during the second half of the 1800s many influential individuals such as de Zaldo, whose family had prospered under Spanish rule, tended to be autonomists: in other words, they professed a desire for a distinct Cuban identity and sought self-determination for their island, but were still hopeful that an amicable connection to the motherland of their ancestors could be maintained. By the 1890s, however, as Spanish repression intensified, more and more of the autonomists abandoned their ideology and allied with the revolutionaries. Carlos de Zaldo was among them.

The rest, as they say, is history. The Spanish-American War of 1898 lead to the withdrawal of the Spanish colonial government from Cuba. In 1902, a transitional US governorship gave way to the establishment of the Cuban Republic under Tómas Estrada Palma, the country’s first president.  Palma appointed the former shortstop from Sagua La Grande as Cuba’s first secretary of state on April 21, 1902, Secretary de Zaldo y Beurmann would admirably carry out the difficult work of representing an independent Cuba during its debut on the world stage. He was proud of his country and his heritage, and he labored alongside his president with the hope of improving conditions for his fellow Cubans who had suffered in their long struggle for freedom. In his day, he was known as a “distinguished Cuban patriot.” 

Carlos de Zaldo retired from government in 1904 to spend time with his wife and children and to tend to his family business which had been neglected during his term in office. Though he would often spend time in New York, where he had first honed his baseball skills decades before, his beloved Cuba would remain his home always.

The Hon. Carlos de Zaldo y Beurmann passed away in Havana on June 15, 1939. He was 78 years old. He is remembered in Cuba on a plaque at Havana’s grand stadium, El Estadio Latinamericano.