Ramiro Argüello Manning - Life Sketch written by Ramiro Arguello Manning himself.

Ramiro Arguello Manning, was born to Doctor Victorino Arguello Prado and Carolta Manning Alonzo, on July 9, 1890, in Leon, Nicaragua. Ramiro’s parents eventually had 11 children, six sons and five daughters. At the age of three he became very sick of an intestinal fever and was so close to death, his father ordered a coffin. In 1900, at age 10, his parents sent him to school at St. Edmunds College, Old Hall, Ware, Herfordshire, England, with his older brother, Victorino. While in school, he played soccer in the winter, learned to skate on ice and played cricket in the summer. During Ramiro’s last year in school he missed an important entrance exam, due to a fire in a large part of the building, so test results were never sent to Cambridge University.

He returned home in 1907, but as Ramiro’s father was an active opponent to the Nicaraguan dictator, Jose Santos Zelaya, he and his wife and 10 other children, moved to San Salvador. Ramiro’s father died in 1910, after what was then a dangerous operation, and two years later, in 1912, his mother returned to Nicaragua with her children, including Ramiro. His brother, Victorino, married Rosita Solorzano, and Ramiro arrived fell in love with Rosita’s sister, Emilia Solorzano.

After Ramiro’s return he was offered a position at a private bank owned in part and managed by an Englishman and a good friend of his father. In 1918, at the end of World War I, Mr. Martin left with his family for Europe and never returned. Another part-owner objected to the young Ramiro managing the bank, and hired a Frenchman as a co-manager. While he knew everybody in Nicaragua, he knew nothing of banking.

Six years later, on March 31, 1931, a tremendous earthquake destroyed most of Managua, killing only 2,200 people, as the quake struck at 10:30 AM, and not at night. Fortunately, Ramiro, Emilia and their children had left the city the day before for their coffee estate in the mountains, Las Carpas. They felt aftershocks all that day and night, but could not communicate with anybody as the telephone lines were down. Early the next morning, Ramiro drove to Managua and was shocked to see that most homes were in ruins and others were still burning. Ramiro found his house in ruins. He also found his mortally wounded mother-in-law, Francesca Montealegre. Ramiro immediately brought Emilia back to see her mother who soon died, on April 1st. Ramiro found the bank in ruins, but the vault, where the money, books and documents were kept, was intact and rescued everything in his car. Ramiro found a house for his family and brought Emilia and the children there to live for several months. When Managua was safe, he brought his family back and continued the bank’s business.

As a result of the earthquake four years earlier, the bank’s owners decided to liquidate the business in 1935, in spite of not losing any money. When his brother-in-law, Dr. Juan B. Sacasa, who was then President of Nicaragua, heard the bank was closing, he offered Ramiro the post of Treasurer/Director of “Banco Nacional de Nicaragua”, at the New York City branch office, located at 40 Wall Street. One of the other three directors was the Minister of Nicaragua and board meetings were held in New York and in Washington D.C. Ramiro went alone to New York to take the post and after a few months sent for his wife our two younger children, Lily and Ramiro. Arrangements were made for the two older daughters, Emilia and Carlota to join them in New York, who at that time in England attending school.

In 1936, Anastacio Somoza Garcia, as the general of the National Guard, ousted Dr. Juan Bautista Sacasa as president and was elected president on January 1, 1937. One of the first things he did was kick Ramiro out of his post in New York City, leaving him stranded with his wife and four children with no prospects. Fortunately, the Solorzano family in Managua asked Ramiro to go to San Francisco to look after the inheritance of Federico Solorzano Gutierrez, uncle to his wife, Emilia. They left for San Francisco by car with Carlota and Ramiro, leaving Lily at school in Philadelphia and Emilia at a convent in New York.

While staying with the Sacasa family in Los Angeles, Carolta met a good friend of theirs, Rachford Harris and at the request of his sister, Maria, they left Carlota with them for a short while. Afterwards Rachford would visit the family in San Francisco and he eventually came to Nicaragua to propose marriage. They married a year or so later on August 18, 1939.

In the year 1937, upon the death of Emilia’s uncle, Federico Solorzano (his father, Federico Solorzano Reyes, served as president of Nicaragua in 1867), a number of various houses were being held in trust by a bank. Ramiro was able to sell each and every one of the houses, with the help of a real estate agent, by the end of the year 1938. The bank congratulated Ramiro for disposing of the properties in a relatively short time and at good prices. Ramiro sent his wife and Carlota and Ramiro home by boat to Nicaragua, a month ahead of his departure, so he could complete some formalities.

Ramiro had no job upon his return to Nicaragua, until a good friend, Luis Palazio, asked him to manage his hotel, Hotel Lido, stating the current manager was dishonest. Ramiro accepted and Emilia looked after the kitchen and servants. Lily came from school and a room was arranged for her near her parents. However, Samoza prevented Ramiro from attending an international conference of hotel managers, even after a personal appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. But, with the start of WWII the hotel was taken over by the government because one owner was Italian.

After some time without a job, Ramiro left for Panama in 1942, and this time had no problem getting a visa to leave the country. He immediately got a job with the U.S. Army in the cost accounting section. Ramiro rented a house in the residential section of Balboa, Panama, called Bella Vista. Lily came out first to be with him, and then Emilia, Ramiro and their maid joined him. Lily and Ramiro got jobs at Pan American Airways. Apart from the hot temperatures and high humidity, they all enjoyed their stay and one of the Mormon boys, Robert Sorensen, began dating Lily, after meeting her at Pan American Airways.

Lily went to Los Angeles to visit her married sister, Carlota Arguello Harris, and while there became very ill with malaria. She continued to correspond with Robert and they made plans to meet and merry in Mexico City in 1943. Robert was transferred to Guatemala and Victor, their first son, was born in 1944. The next spring Lily brought Victor to Ramiro’s family in Panama for an enjoyable visit. Seeing that World War II was about to end in 1945, Ramiro decided to move to New York with his family. Ramiro found an apartment, but had to pay $2,000 to get the renters to cede their unit. Soon afterwards, Ramiro got a job with a Peruvian firm, Martinto & Company, earning a fairly good salary and stayed eight years.

In 1953, Ramiro was offered and accepted a job in Peru with one of Martinto’s clients. Ramiro flew to Peru, with the understanding his wife and their maid would follow, after going to Nicaragua. However, in Nicaragua, Emilia fell ill with a hemorrhage before she could come to Peru, so Ramiro quit his job and met Emilia in San Salvador. Emilia stayed with Ramiro’s brother, Raul, a radiologist, who after taking X-rays, didn’t think she had cancer. They then flew to Los Angeles and after an exam by a famous surgeon, a hysterectomy operation was performed and analysis demonstrated no evidence of cancer. Complications followed the operation though as it took nearly three months for her to recover completely.

While they stayed in Los Angeles their oldest daughter, Emilia, came to live with them. She soon met and married, Stanley P. Forest on December 19, 1953. Ramiro first got a job with the Hollywood Bank, which later merged with another financial firm, so Ramiro got another job with a man representing various foreign firms.

Then in 1958, Ramiro’s son, Ramiro, wrote indicating he needed help, so they decided to go back to Nicaragua, in part because Anastacio Samosa had been assassinated the year before. In December, Ramiro and Emilia drove by car, going through Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, taking 16 days to arrive in Managua. Their last years were spent in their native country, with many cousins, aunts and uncles in their extended family.

As fate would have it, early in the morning hours of the night on December 23, 1972, a most devastating earthquake destroyed Managua and killed an estimated 25,000 citizens of the old capital city. The epicenter of the earthquake was near the city and liquefaction tumbled the heavy brick wall of their home down upon Ramiro and Emilia in their bed. Ironically, Emilia died in a similar way to her mother, more than 41 years earlier.

(compiled from a life sketch written by Ramiro Arguello himself)
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