The Story Of The Morales-Espada Family

By Kelvin E. Morales-Espada

The Morales-Espada Family
Manuel Morales & Josefina Espada
with there sons (R to L) José,
Ibsen and Kelvin

The story of the Morales-Espada family had its beginnings as far back as the sixteenth century, but for our purpose we won't go that far back. Let's use the year 1898 as a point of reference.

Much has been said of the Spanish-American War from the historical, economic and political perspective. I would like to share how the spiritual aspect of this war affected tens of thousands in Puerto Rico by simply telling you how the spiritual lives of two of my ancestors, my maternal and paternal grandparents, were changed and consequently the paradigm for generations to follow.

José V. Espada Marrero
picture taken by grandson, Kelvin

Eight years prior to the Spanish - American War of 1898, José Vicente Espada-Marrero, my maternal grandfather, was born in a small town, Barranquitas, high in the central mountains of Puerto Rico. He was eight years old when the Spanish-American War broke out. And my paternal grandfather,

Manuel Morales Morales
with grandson Kelvin

Manuel Morales Morales, born 1886 in the town of Naranjito, also a mountain town, was twelve years old when the war started. Both born in Puerto Rico as subjects of Spain and consequently were baptized Roman Catholic. Manuel Morales Morales baptized September 12, 1886 at the San Miguel Archangel Church Naranjito, Puerto Rico. And Jose V. Espada Marrero was baptized August 24, 1890 at the San Antonio De Padua Church Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. It is well known that in those days Roman Catholicism was the only accepted religion in Spain's Empire and enforced by the "Santo Oficio", in charge of making sure that its subjects were Roman Catholics.

Spanish Military Battalion
"Cazadores de la Patria" hearing mass in the
Plaza de las Delicias in Ponce, P.R.

At the end of the Spanish-American War of 1898  the doors in Puerto Rico were open for the arrival of the missionary movement of the protestant denominations from the United States of America. It is with this influx of protestant missionaries and their message of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, which made way for a true change of paradigm for many Puertoricans. (For more information go to this link):
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism_in_Puerto_Rico 

US Army
General Miles in Puerto Rico 1898

My mother, Josefina, shared with me the stories of how the good news of Salvation penetrated our family tree. The protestant missionaries that arrived in Puerto Rico on the heels of the Spanish-American War established churches first in the major cities and then in the mountain municipalities and rural areas. She shared with me about her father, Rev. José V. Espada-Marrero, who had converted and was baptized when he was nineteen years old (1909) in a Baptist church by the then pastor Dr. A. B. Rudd  in the town of Barranquitas where he was born. This town is known as the cradle of patriarchs. During my genealogical research of my family I found an article titled "La Conferencia Misionera de Puerto Rico" published by the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, which talked about a Bible institute established in 1915 and closed in 1919 in the municipality of Hatillo called "Robinson Bible Institute". In said article the writer says that the Institute had at that time 51 students but the only name mentioned was that of José Espada-Marrero, my grandfather. Recently I received a copy of a book titled History of a Faith ["Historia de Una Fe"]  by William Fred Santiago. In this book he has a short biography of my grandfather written by Rev. Jesus M. Amaro

At Rev. Amaro's in Jayuya, P.R.

and read by him at the annual conference of the Methodist Church in Puerto Rico in 1943. In it Rev. Amaro narrates that when my grandfather was converted and baptized, he went to Guayama in 1913 to work as a teacher in a rural school and shortly after joined the Methodist church and became assistant to the pastor of the church in Guayama. In 1915 my grandfather went to Hatillo to the Robinson Bible Institute; not only had he believed in Jesus as his Lord and Savior but also committed to serve him as minister and later as missionary. My grandfather, José, met his wife to be, Josefina Orlandi Questell. and they married in 1918 at the Methodist Church of Barrio Aguirre, Salinas, Puerto Rico.My mom, Josefina, their only daughter was born on October 30,1919 in Barrio Aguirre, Salinas, Puerto Rico while he was pastor at the church in the city of  Ponce and in the church at Barrio Playa in Ponce. They had a total of eight children, one of them died eleven months after birth, Eduardo Alfredo.

Then Mom shared how this change of spiritual paradigm affected my father's family. My father, Manuel Morales-Nieves, born to Manuel Morales-Morales and Aurelia Nieves-Suarez on November 22, 1915 in Naranjito, Puerto Rico was the first of his family to convert and believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior when he was a teenager. This expression of faith in Christ took place during an evangelistic campaign at a Disciple of Christ Church in Barrio Mana, Corozal, Puerto Rico. He invited his sisters, brothers and parents to a service after which his father believed. This decision to believe and follow Christ caused a strained relationship between Aurelia, my paternal grandmother and her parents and siblings. To my understanding her sisters did start visiting her again. Aurelia was bed ridden with Parkinson until the day she passed away. In spite of this, other descendants of the Nieves-Suarez family have come to saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1934 Rev. José Espada-Marrero became the head pastor at the Methodist Church in Comerio after serving as pastor and missionary in the Dominican Republic from 1921-1928. He was pastor at the Methodist church in Guayama, Puerto Rico from 1928 to 1934 and the Methodist Church in Comerio 1934-1939. During this period in Comerio my mother met for the first time Manuel Morales whom she would marry in May of 1941. It was at this church that my grandfather had the most difficult and testing time as pastor including suffering a mild heart condition. After a short pastorate back in the Barrio Playa in Ponce (1941-1944), he started in 1948 in the carport of his house at 405 Calle Escocia, Caparra Heights, San Juan Puerto Rico, the Methodist Church located on De Diego Ave. in Puerto Nuevo which now carries his name: Iglesia Metodista de Puerto Rico "Rev. José Espada Marrero".

At the present time we are in the process of maturing a fifth generation of believers in the Morales-Nieves and Espada-Orlandi familly tree. My grandson, Matthew Morrill 5 yrs. old, recently received Jesus as his savior. This is how one can bring change into our society, changing one family member at a time.

Galatians 6:9  And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 

They are absent from their bodies but present with our Lord.

My Grandparents:

Rev. José V. Espada-Marrero 1890 - 1972
 Josefina Orlandi-Questell 1894 - 1989

L to R Manuel Morales-Morales 1886-1970
Aurelia Nieves-Suarez 1886-1968
Josefina Espada Orlandi 1919-2014
And Kelvin E. Morales Espada 

My Parents:

Manuel Morales-Nieves 1915-1999 and Josefina Espada-Orlandi 1919-2014

Romans 12:1-3 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 
2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 
3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.