​THE ESPADA-ORLANDI FAMILY 

Rev. José Vicente Espada Marrero was born to Don Luis Espada Morales and Doña Maria de los Santos Amparo Marrero on August 8, 1890 in barrio Helechal, Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. His paternal grandparents were, Don  Francisco Marcos Espada and Doña Juana Maria Morales; maternal grandparents were, Doña Narcisa Marrero. He was the second of six children, four boys and two girls: Luis Maria Eugenio, José Vicente, Francisco, Alfredo, Amelia y Ana.

 

At the tender age of 8 he lived through the Spanish-American war of 1898 (The change from Spanish regime to American regime in Puerto Rico). At 19 years of age he made his choice to follow Christ and joined the Protestant faith; and in 1909 he was baptized at the"Primera Iglesia Bautista de Barranquitas" by Reverend Augustus Baxton Rudd. He attended the Robinson Bible Intitute in Hatillo Puerto Rico from 1915 to 1918. In 1918 he was already a minister when he met Josefina Orlandi-Questell whom later became his wife.

He married Josefina Orlandi Questell on October 22, 1918 in the little Methodist chapel of barrio Aguirre, Salinas Puerto Rico. They had 8 children in the following order: Josefina, Jose Luis, Samuel Leocadio, Ismael Francisco, David José, Eduardo, Ibsen Ruben and Kelvin Emerson. They have all lived to a ripe old age with the exception of Eduardo, he died at the age of 11 months during our  grandfather's  missionary tour in La Romana, Dominican Republic. 

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At the time of this publication Kelvin E. Espada Orlandi is the soul survivor of the Espada Orlandi family.