Antonica G. Martel

Antoñica, as she preferred to be called, was born in Remedios, Cuba. Her parents were Carlos Manuel Galagarza and Juanita Muñiz Urbano. Her aunt, who was like a second mother was Concepción (Conchita) Muñiz de Gárate.

After graduation from high school in her home town, she attended the University of Havana where she obtained dual PhD degrees, with the highest honors, in Spanish Literature and Philosophy. She was a teacher and educator the rest of her working life. As a youngster she was an accomplished horseback rider. Later her interests turned to music and travel.

She married Carlos Manuel Martel on July 5, 1945, an executive with the largest textile manufacturing company in Cuba. Shortly after, they traveled to Paris, Rome and Geneva where her newlywed husband had been asked to serve as a member of Cuba?s delegation to the international commission charged with negotiating and drafting international treaties for sugar and later for cotton.

In 1947, their son, Carlos Martel, Jr., was born. From that day, and for the rest of her life, she was the most loving, caring and nurturing mother anyone could ever have. She was also an adoring and supportive wife and life partner to her husband, a loyal and faithful friend, and a loving daughter, sister, niece and Godmother to her parents, aunt, brother and Godson.

Because of the political changes in Cuba in January 1959 that led to Fidel Castro?s dictatorship for the ensuing nearly 50 years, Antoñica emigrated to the United States in February 1961
She joined her son in Miami whom she and her husband had sent a few months earlier, in October 1960, to live with her brother, Carlos Galagarza, and to attend high school abroad pending a hopeful change in Cuba?s political situation.

In August 1961, with no hopeful signs of change, Carlos Sr. also emigrated from Cuba to rejoin the family, none of them ever to have returned to their homeland. In November of that same year, Carlos Sr. accepted a position as export manager of a textile machinery manufacturing company in West Point, Georgia. Antoñica and Carlos Jr. joined him in January 1962 and the family has been resident in Georgia ever since. Seven years later, on December 10, 1969, they became naturalized citizens of the United States, their adopted country.

Antoñica taught Spanish at the elementary school in West Point, Georgia and later at Troup County High School in LaGrange, Georgia where she and Carlos Sr. had moved after her parents and aunt were able to leave Cuba. After retiring from teaching, she and Carlos Sr. moved to Atlanta to be closer to their son Carlos Jr. and daughter-in-law Carol. She became a short-lived resident of Blue Ridge, Georgia in 2007 where she passed away peacefully on April 24, 2007.

She is survived by her brother Carlos Manuel Galagarza of Miami Beach, and her son and daughter-in-law Carlos Martel, Jr. and Carol M. Martel of Mineral Bluff and Atlanta.

Antoñica was devoted to her family, loyal to her friends, nurturing to her students and faithful to her church. She was a beautiful and graceful lady, spiritually and physically. The memory of her sweet smile will forever remind us of the mark she left on the lives of each of us she touched.