author
comte de Premio-Real
1840–1888
A globe-trotting 19th-century writer and Spanish diplomat in Canada, he brought curiosity, style, and a wide range of interests to everything from history and folklore to public lectures.
1 Audiobook
Saint-Pierre & Miquelon
by comte de Premio-Real
About the author
Born José Antonio de Lavalle Romero-Motezuma in Jerez de la Frontera in 1840, the man better known in print as the comte de Premio-Real was a Spanish nobleman, writer, and diplomat. Sources identify him as the third Count of Premio Real, and his work appeared in both French and English contexts, reflecting a life lived across languages and countries.
He is especially associated with Quebec, where he served as Spain's consul general in Canada in the late 19th century. During those years he published and lectured on subjects that ranged from Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to Iberian sayings and Canadian history, building a reputation as a cultured and unusually versatile public figure.
He died in Quebec in 1888. The record that survives presents him as more than a diplomat: a man of letters with broad scholarly interests, remembered for linking Spanish, French, and Canadian cultural worlds.