María Genoveva de Jesús Guardiola Arbizú, called Veva, was born on 30 July 1858, in Comayagua, Honduras to Ana Mateo Arbizú Flores and Honduran President José Santos Guardiola Bustillo. In 1878, she met Tomás Estrada Palma, who had been invited to come to Honduras and serve as postmaster general. Estrada, a Cuban national, was a participant in the independence struggle of Cuba from Spain and was arrested and sent to prison in Spain in 1877, he was released and sent to the United States. Estrada, took up residence with his cousin, the poet José Joaquín Palma in Tegucigalpa, across the street from the widow Arbizú de Guardiola and her five daughters. The widow often hosted musical evenings with her daughter, Galatea playing the piano. A romance developed between 45-year-old Estrada and 23-year-old Veva and they were married on 15 May 1881 and had their first child, José Manuel, the following year. The band of Cuban exiles who had been living in Honduras began going their separate ways at this time, and the young family left the country in 1882, settling in Central Valley, New York.