The U.S. Ambassador to Spain, the Cuban-American Benjamín León Jr., and his wife Mavileibys, who is also Cuban, made their first official visit to the city of Toledo this Wednesday, where they toured the Primada Cathedral, one of the great gems of European Gothic architecture.
The U.S. Embassy in Madrid documented the visit in a video posted on its Instagram account, showing the couple admiring the famous painting "El Expolio" by El Greco, located in the sacristy of the temple.
The images show the ambassador in a navy blue suit with gray hair, alongside his wife in a sleeveless beige outfit with her hair tied up, in front of the monumental work depicting Christ dressed in a bright red robe surrounded by a crowd.
During the visit, the ambassador and his wife explored the artistic heritage of the cathedral, which also houses works by Goya and Velázquez, and admired its main altarpiece, regarded as one of the largest and most spectacular in the world.
The visit holds special significance, as this year the Cathedral of Toledo is celebrating the 800th anniversary of the beginning of its construction.
The embassy also highlighted the historical connection between Toledo and the United States: the Spanish city has been sister cities with Toledo, Ohio, since 1931, marking the first official sister city agreement in the world for social and cultural purposes.
Benjamín León Jr. was born in Cuba in 1944 and emigrated to the United States in 1961 at the age of 16. He settled in Miami, where he and his father founded the Cuban Association Clinic in 1973 – the first licensed healthcare organization in Florida, sold in 1994 to UnitedHealthCare for about 500 million dollars – and later Leon Medical Centers, a network of medical centers serving the Hispanic community in Miami-Dade.
He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 3, 2025, confirmed by the Senate on December 19 of that year, and sworn in as ambassador to Spain and Andorra on February 10.
His wife, Mavileibys Campa Felipe, is 38 years old and is also of Cuban origin. The couple got married in 2025 in Miami, and since their arrival in Madrid, she has accompanied the ambassador at official and social events.
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