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Bruno Zaldo Rivera (Pradoluengo -- España, 1836-1916) represents an example of the emigrant who triumphed "haciendo las Americas" [making it in the Americas]. In this paper, a man is profiled who, with hardly the most basic studies, and thanks to his endeavors and perspicacity, was capable of benefitting from the opportunities, both in economic and in social spheres, from his beginnings as a small-time merchant in the Mexican emporium of Veracruz, to his election as a senator of Spain. The investigation demonstrates his entrepreneurial versatility and his generosity in the form of innumerable donations and foundations. The analysis of his initiatives as a real-estate promotor and successful banker, and his social and political relations, explain his accession to a group within the high society of the Spanish Restauration. Finally, it will be shown how art, in all of its expressions, was subsumed as an instrument for the consolidation of his prestige and for the preparation of his image as a distinguished gentleman of the Nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]