CNN
April 1, 2002

Grand duchess of Luxembourg visits Cuba

 
                 HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- Luxembourg's Grand Duchess Maria Teresa toured
                 Havana's historic center on Monday during her first visit back to her native
                 Cuba since the 1959 revolution.

                 Maria Teresa arrived here Friday with two of her five children for a private visit.
                 They were staying at a Havana hotel and planned to stay until next week, relatives
                 here said.

                 Born Maria Teresa Mestre in 1956, the little girl who grew up to marry into
                 European royalty left Cuba with her family in October 1959 -- 10 months after
                 Fidel Castro took power.

                 The family first lived in New York, later moving to Spain and then finally to
                 Geneva. Maria Teresa met then-Crown Prince Henri of Luxembourg at the
                 University of Geneva, where she obtained her doctorate in political science in 1980.
                 The couple wed the following year.

                 Henri became Luxembourg's monarch, the Grand Duke, in 2000 when his father,
                 Grand Duke Jean, abdicated the throne to the small, wealthy country wedged
                 between Belgium, France and Germany.

                  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.