title: José María Cabral y Báez
text: # José María Cabral y Báez
  
  José María Cabral y Báez (1864–1937) was a lawyer, businessman, and politician from the Dominican Republic. He served as the President of Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic in 1901.
  
  ## Early life and family
  
  Cabral y Báez was born to President Marcos Antonio Cabral and Altagracia Amelia Báez (daughter of President Buenaventura Báez); he had 7 siblings, among them, Mario Fermín Cabral y Báez. On 17 November 1897, he married María Petronila Bermúdez y Rochet, daughter of Erasmo Bermúdez Jiménez, the founder of Bermúdez rum company; they had 6 children: Amelia María (1899–1996), Auristela (1901–1988), José María (1902–1984), Marco Antonio (1906–1973), Josefina Eugenia (1910–1994), and Pedro Pablo Cabral Bermúdez (1916–1988). He also begat 3 children with Estela Navarro: Mairení, José and Raúl Cabral Navarro; with Rafaela Meyreles he sired 2 children: Rafael and Enrique Meyreles.
  
  Ancestors of José María Cabral y Báez :
  
  ## Career
  
  In 1886, he founded in Santiago the law firm J. M. Cabral y Báez. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from July 1908 to November 1911, during the last half of Ramón Cáceres’s presidential term, and minister during the short presidency of Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal in 1916, before the American occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–24).
  
  