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| Rafael del Castillo del Castillo |
History Rafael del Castillo & Co. 1861-1960 by Maria Teresa Ripoll
"At the end of the decade of the seventies, his savings were enough to send his oldest sons, Rafael and Carlos, to continue their studies in the United States. By then, his first wife, Teresa, had died, leaving him five children: Nicolás, who died while an adolescent, Rafael C., Carlos, Cristina and María Teresa. Two years later he married a second time with his sister-in-law, Josefa de la Espriella Navarro, who contributed a dowry to the marriage of $16,196, gold pesos, and with whom he had two children, José María (who died at six years of age), and Ramón .
"At the end of the decade of the seventies, his savings were enough to send his oldest sons, Rafael and Carlos, to continue their studies in the United States. By then, his first wife, Teresa, had died, leaving him five children: Nicolás, who died while an adolescent, Rafael C., Carlos, Cristina and María Teresa. Two years later he married a second time with his sister-in-law, Josefa de la Espriella Navarro, who contributed a dowry to the marriage of $16,196, gold pesos, and with whom he had two children, José María (who died at six years of age), and Ramón .
During the last two decades of his life Rafael del Castillo was going to be devoted, like a good bourgeois, to improve his quality of life. The real estate that he had acquired by then didn't enter into forming part of the capital of the company that allowed him to receive a monthly income from leases of $370.00 pesos gold, besides the monthly wage of $200 pesos specified for him. It is for those years in which he makes a considerable investment of $21,500, gold pesos in remodeling his family housing on the Baloco Street; the two contiguous houses that he owned on that street are converted to one large house in which he installs a pump system that provides running water and other comforts. He orders new furnishing from abroad that includes a refrigerator, an oil portrait of his first wife, a coach and a harness. He becomes a member, with his older sons, of the new Cartagena Club, and his youngest son, Ramón, is sent to England to continue his studies.
By then various of his children have married, enlarging the family circle: Rafael C. with the North American, Sarah Crawford; María Teresa, with Henrique L. Román Polanco, an important conservative politician, who holds government office on four occasions; Cristina, after being widowed, married Lino De León. Carlos would remain single and without offspring his life long.
In January of 1902 Ramón, son of the second marriage, became part of the company. For then he had married Cartagenian Josefina Stevenson Pasos, who also was a merchant. Josefina during much of the time had her own warehouse of articles for the home, imported through the company. His older son, Nicolás, also a merchant, admitted to his son years later that he had inherited his mother’s secret pleasure of personally opening the boxes of new foreign arrivals in order to experience the fragrant scent of the new merchandise."
In January of 1902 Ramón, son of the second marriage, became part of the company. For then he had married Cartagenian Josefina Stevenson Pasos, who also was a merchant. Josefina during much of the time had her own warehouse of articles for the home, imported through the company. His older son, Nicolás, also a merchant, admitted to his son years later that he had inherited his mother’s secret pleasure of personally opening the boxes of new foreign arrivals in order to experience the fragrant scent of the new merchandise."
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