Spanish lawyer, writer and journalist who authored more than a dozen books including La emigración (1902) and El Milagro (1912).
In 1873, when he was only 17 years old, he published some poems in the Revista Galaica, but his most committed articles, in which he denounced the political system of the Bourbon Restoration, appeared in the Gaceta de Galicia newspaper. Due to the difficulties they caused him, Álvarez Insua decided to follow the path of emigration.
He moved to Cuba in 1877. He enrolled at the University of Havana, obtained a law degree and worked for ten years as a clerk in the Belén District Court of First Instance (Havana), later opening his own law firm. He founded the weekly newspaper El Eco de Galicia, held management positions in the Galician Center and is credited with founding the newspaper La Aurora del Yumurí in Matanzas.
Initiator of important Galician societies in Havana, Álvarez Insúa was one of the main defenders of Galician regionalism in Cuba. He was vice president and partner of an entity that in a short time was the cornerstone of Galician society on the island of Cuba. From El Eco de Galicia he publicly denounced the maneuvers that were about to begin from the Circle of Landowners of Havana to bring workers from Galicia who would do their work in terms similar to those of slavery.
In Cuba he met Sara Escobar de Cisneros, a married woman, related to Cardinal Cisneros, and who belonged to an aristocratic family settled in Camagüey. He married her just after she was widowed, adopting her son, the writer Alberto Insúa (1883-1963), he was the father of six children, including the writer Sara Insúa (1901-1985).
Although he travelled to Galicia relatively frequently, his definitive return did not take place until 1898, after the Treaty of Paris and the blowing up of the Maine. He settled temporarily in La Coruña, and on 4 February 1899 he was elected president of the Galician League of La Coruña.
In November 1899 he moved to Madrid where he devoted himself to law. He was secretary of the Galician Center of Madrid and collaborated in the Madrid press, mainly in El País and El Liberal, La Ilustration Gallega y Asturiana, La Esfera and Blanco y Negro, while he continued writing for newspapers in Havana, Buenos Aires or the Estradense newspaper El Emigrado.
Waldo A. Insúa died in Madrid on 10 August 1938 at age 82.
Link to Wikipedia biography (Spanish)