MARIANO MENÉNDEZ VALDÉS

(1840 - 1892)
He was born in la Aldea, El Condao. He studied Law and practised it for several years. He was member of parliament, district attorney of Laviana and of Navalcarnero, Director of the post office in Oviedo and, amongst other duties, Governor of Pagasinán, of La Laguna, and of Battan, in the Philippines, and chief of administration of the court of the Phillipines. He was an eloquent spokesman and writer, with publications in the most important newspapers of the time and with various history books, ahead of many of his contemporaries in his assessment of the importance of coal in Asturias and his literary work, in 1877, "Asturian coal: The importance and necessity of the coal industry in Asturias".