Matías Pérez (balloonist)

[1] Matías Pérez, originally a Portuguese citizen, moved to Cuba and started a successful business selling canopies and awnings.

The list goes on, and includes the famous French pilot Eugène Godard, who flew his balloon Ville de París (City of Paris) many times in the island, before selling it to Matías Pérez for 1,200 hard pesos.

Godard had constructed a balloon called Ville de París in 1850, in which he gained notoriety on 6 October by flying from Paris to Gits.

[3] Once Pérez procured the ship, he sought permission to fly it in a letter to Captain General José Gutiérrez de la Concha.

Coprefil, the Cuban official agency responsible for design, production and sales of stamps, celebrated Matías Pérez 100th anniversary flight with a First Day Edition, on 29 June 1956, and honored him again as one of Cuba's first pilots with a 3-cent and a 13-cent postage stamp, showing Plaza de Marte, from where he departed, and the Chorrera Fort, where he landed after his first successful trip in 1856.