Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga (1958 – March 2009) was a

Colombian-American Colombian Americans ( es, Colomboestadounidenses), are Americans who trace their ancestry to Colombia. The word may refer to someone born in the United States of full or partial Colombian descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United S ...

businessman. He was the director of the Santo Domingo Group, his family's

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** C ...

of more than 100 companies."Colombian Businessman Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga Dies." ''Latin American Herald Tribune''
/ref>

Biography

Santo Domingo was the first-born of the Colombian businessman

Julio Mario Santo Domingo Julio Mario Santo Domingo Pumarejo (October 16, 1923 – October 7, 2011) was a Colombian-American billionaire businessman, diplomat and patriarch of the Santo Domingo family who lived in New York City. He controlled more than 100 companies in ...

and the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian Edyala Braga, of the same family as

Eduardo Braga Carlos Eduardo de Sousa Braga (born December 6, 1960) is a Brazilian politician and businessman, currently a republic senator from Amazonas. Better known as ''Eduardo Braga'', he was a councilman of Manaus (1981–1985), state deputy of amazonas ...

, former governor of the Brazilian state of

Amazonas Amazonas may refer to: Places * Amazon River, known as ''Amazonas'' in Spanish and Portuguese *Amazonas (Brazilian state), Brazil * Amazonas Department, Colombia * Department of Amazonas, Peru * Amazonas (Venezuelan state), Venezuela Other uses * ...

, and ex-wife of Benjamin Vargas, brother of

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Braz ...

. He studied

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

Obituary for Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga
by

El Espectador ''El Espectador'' (meaning "The Spectator") is a newspaper with national circulation within Colombia, founded by Fidel Cano Gutiérrez on 22 March 1887 in Medellín and published since 1915 in Bogotá. It changed from a daily to a weekly editi ...

and law at Panthéon-Assas University. Throughout his life, he was passionate about literature of all periods but especially

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

of the 19th and 20th centuries.Obituary by ''Cromos'' magazine
/ref> He was a collector of printed books and manuscripts. He had a particular regard for

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel '' In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous En ...

, but he also greatly admired and collected the works of Baudelaire,

Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he sta ...

and

Verlaine Verlaine (; wa, Verlinne) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, Verlaine had a total population of 3,507. The total area is 24.21 km2 which gives a population density Population d ...

. He had huge collections of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

and antique Chinese

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy '' Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which ...

paraphernalia,Field of dreams: A remarkable exhibition sheds new light on the dark history of the opium business
The Independent, 2 June 2013 and was an ardent fan of

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), commonly known as A.S.S.E. () or simply Saint-Étienne, is a professional football club based in Saint-Étienne in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The club was founded in 1933 and competes in ...

, a French soccer team.

Personal life

He married Brazilian model Vera Rechulski and they had two children:

Tatiana Santo Domingo Tatiana Santo Domingo Rechulski (born 24 November 1983), also known as Tatiana Casiraghi, is an American-born Colombian-Monégasque socialite, heiress and fashion designer. She is the founder of Muzungu Sisters, a fashion company and the wife of ...

(born 1983) and Julio Mario Santo Domingo, III (born 1985). At the time of his death, he was survived by his parents and half-brothers

Alejandro Santo Domingo Alejandro Santo Domingo (born 13 February 1977) is a Colombian-American billionaire financier and philanthropist. As of March 2022, his estimated net worth was US$2.5 billion. Early life He is the son of Colombian billionaire Julio Mario Santo ...

, a

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

and the family's successor as director of the Santo Domingo Group, and Andrés Santo Domingo, a music industrialist. Santo Domingo died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

from cancer, diagnosed in October 2008.

References

1958 births 2009 deaths Julio Mario Jr. Colombian people of Brazilian descent Colombian businesspeople Columbia University alumni University of Paris alumni Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from pancreatic cancer Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University alumni Colombian billionaires Colombian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American businesspeople {{Colombia-bio-stub