Hope Portocarrero
Encyclopedia
Hope Portocarrero Somoza Baldocchi (1929 – 5 October 1991) was the first lady of Nicaragua
, the wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle
and mother of Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero
.
She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1968.
, Hillsborough County
, Florida
, United States
. She was the daughter of Dr. Nestor Portocarrero Gross and Blanca Debayle Sacasa de Portocarrero. She had a brother, also named Nestor in Tampa.
She was of Spanish
, French
and German
descent. Her grandfather was Dr. Luis Henri Debayle Pallais, good friend of Rubén Darío
, married to Casimira Sacasa Sacasa. Her great-grandfather was Roberto Sacasa Sarria, a former 44th and 46th President of Nicaragua
. The Debayles and Portocarreros were among Nicaragua's wealthiest families.
She spoke fluent English
, Italian
, Spanish
, and French
and had an appreciation for Art
and Culture
.
In the North after 1943 Hope often spent time with her cousin Lillian Sevilla-Sacasa (née Somoza) at the Washington embassy. She was a modern young girl and liked to dance. When she returned home in the early hours of the morning during her visits to Washington, Lillian would reprimand her. She wouldn't catch herself a man if she behaved that way. Hope startled her cousin with the announcement that she was going to marry Tachito ( Lillian's brother).
Hope attended Barnard College
in New York
.
Hope Portocarrero and her cousin Anastasio Somoza Debayle
married on 10 December 1950 at the Cathedral in Managua
by Archbishop Jose Antonio Lezcano. Over 4,000 guests attended the ceremony. The reception was given by President Anastasio Somoza García
in the luxurious and modern Palacio de Comunicaciones. It was the social event of the decade. The buffet tables were laden with food and champagne and dancing went on until dawn on all three floors of the palace. They went to South America for their honeymoon.
Hope and Anastasio had five children: Anastasio
, Julio, Carolina, Carla, and Roberto.
of Nicaragua and an icon of fashion and elegance and refinement in high society
.
She attended diplomatic missions with her husband, such as the visit to the former U.S. President, Richard Nixon
, and the Japanese Emperor Hirohito
.
Hope was president of the (National Social Security).
She created the National Cultural Center, The General Archives of the National Library, National Conservatory of Music, National School of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes), National Museum and Plurar Gallery.
Her biggest legacies were the constructions of Teatro Nacional Rubén Darío
(The National Theater of Nicaragua), the Children's Hospital, a clinic for Nicaraguan women and a Center for Orphans "The Hope".
In December 1969 there was a gala of the Ruben Dario Theater, named after the native son who became one of the world's foremost Spanish language poets. Construction of the large, columned edifice was on the shores of Lake Managua, a short distance from the National Palace. For Hope the opening night was to be a high point of her reign as the first lady of Nicaragua.
Hope gradually separated from Somoza. She made rare trips home from London, where she had set up housekeeping, for board meetings of the Social Security Institute and other groups she headed. There were also occasional meetings in Managua for her favorite charity, the building of a Children's Hospital for which she appeared as sponsor on 1.50-códoba stamps. There were rumors that Hope had received a sizable cash settlement from Tachito and freedom to do as she pleased.
She acquired considerable real estate in Miami and investments with an eye to the future. The smartly dressed Hope was well known in Neiman Marcus
and the best Miami shoe stores. An attendant in one recalled, "She always wanted no-color shoes. I don't know how many times I said, Sorry, Mrs Somoza we have no no-color shoes".
By the summer of 1977 no one knew why the two were still together. Hope remained estranged from him in London where daughter Carolina joined her. She married Archie Baldocchi, a wealthy Salvador
an man of Italian descent, Baldocchi had a son by a previously marriage: Archie Baldocchi Dueñas. Hope Somoza Baldocchi died of cancer in Miami
, Miami-Dade County
, Florida
, on 5 October 1991.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, the wife of Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio Somoza Debayle was a Nicaraguan leader and officially the 73rd and 76th President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country from 1967 to 1979...
and mother of Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero is a son of former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Debayle and Hope Portocarrero de Somoza. Also known as El Chigüín—"daddy's kid"—Somoza Portocarrero had been the heir apparent to the Somoza dynasty prior to the ouster of his father by the...
.
She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1968.
Family and education
Hope Portocarrero Debayle was born in TampaTampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
, Hillsborough County
Hillsborough County, Florida
As of the census of 2000, there were 998,948 people, 391,357 households, and 255,164 families residing in the county. The population density was 951 people per square mile . There were 425,962 housing units at an average density of 405 per square mile...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She was the daughter of Dr. Nestor Portocarrero Gross and Blanca Debayle Sacasa de Portocarrero. She had a brother, also named Nestor in Tampa.
She was of Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
, French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
and German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
descent. Her grandfather was Dr. Luis Henri Debayle Pallais, good friend of Rubén Darío
Rubén Darío
Félix Rubén García Sarmiento , known as Rubén Darío, was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the Spanish-American literary movement known as modernismo that flourished at the end of the 19th century...
, married to Casimira Sacasa Sacasa. Her great-grandfather was Roberto Sacasa Sarria, a former 44th and 46th President of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
. The Debayles and Portocarreros were among Nicaragua's wealthiest families.
She spoke fluent English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and had an appreciation for Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and Culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
.
In the North after 1943 Hope often spent time with her cousin Lillian Sevilla-Sacasa (née Somoza) at the Washington embassy. She was a modern young girl and liked to dance. When she returned home in the early hours of the morning during her visits to Washington, Lillian would reprimand her. She wouldn't catch herself a man if she behaved that way. Hope startled her cousin with the announcement that she was going to marry Tachito ( Lillian's brother).
Hope attended Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Marriage
Hope had grown into an attractive brunnette, extremely well groomed and Anastasio Somoza García "Tacho", her future father-in-law agreed she would make a good wife for "Tachito", "she's got class", Somoza García liked to say and indeed, refinement was Hope's forte. No woman dressed as smartly as Hope in Nicaragua. There was some concern that the offspring of close blood relatives might suffer mental or physical defects. But for Tacho, the good blood of the Debayles overruled this consideration.Hope Portocarrero and her cousin Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Anastasio Somoza Debayle was a Nicaraguan leader and officially the 73rd and 76th President of Nicaragua from 1 May 1967 to 1 May 1972 and from 1 December 1974 to 17 July 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country from 1967 to 1979...
married on 10 December 1950 at the Cathedral in Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
by Archbishop Jose Antonio Lezcano. Over 4,000 guests attended the ceremony. The reception was given by President Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García was officially the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956, but ruled effectively as dictator from 1936 until his assassination.-Biography:Somoza was born in San Marcos, Carazo Department in Nicaragua, the son of...
in the luxurious and modern Palacio de Comunicaciones. It was the social event of the decade. The buffet tables were laden with food and champagne and dancing went on until dawn on all three floors of the palace. They went to South America for their honeymoon.
Hope and Anastasio had five children: Anastasio
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero
Anastasio Somoza Portocarrero is a son of former Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Debayle and Hope Portocarrero de Somoza. Also known as El Chigüín—"daddy's kid"—Somoza Portocarrero had been the heir apparent to the Somoza dynasty prior to the ouster of his father by the...
, Julio, Carolina, Carla, and Roberto.
First Lady of Nicaragua
In 1967 Hope Portocarrero became the First LadyFirst Lady
First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...
of Nicaragua and an icon of fashion and elegance and refinement in high society
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
.
She attended diplomatic missions with her husband, such as the visit to the former U.S. President, Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, and the Japanese Emperor Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
.
Hope was president of the (National Social Security).
She created the National Cultural Center, The General Archives of the National Library, National Conservatory of Music, National School of Fine Arts (Bellas Artes), National Museum and Plurar Gallery.
Her biggest legacies were the constructions of Teatro Nacional Rubén Darío
Teatro Nacional Rubén Darío
The Rubén Darío National Theatre is the national theatre of Nicaragua. It is located in the capital, Managua, and was named in honor of Nicaragua's most renowned poets, Rubén Darío.-History:...
(The National Theater of Nicaragua), the Children's Hospital, a clinic for Nicaraguan women and a Center for Orphans "The Hope".
In December 1969 there was a gala of the Ruben Dario Theater, named after the native son who became one of the world's foremost Spanish language poets. Construction of the large, columned edifice was on the shores of Lake Managua, a short distance from the National Palace. For Hope the opening night was to be a high point of her reign as the first lady of Nicaragua.
Hope gradually separated from Somoza. She made rare trips home from London, where she had set up housekeeping, for board meetings of the Social Security Institute and other groups she headed. There were also occasional meetings in Managua for her favorite charity, the building of a Children's Hospital for which she appeared as sponsor on 1.50-códoba stamps. There were rumors that Hope had received a sizable cash settlement from Tachito and freedom to do as she pleased.
She acquired considerable real estate in Miami and investments with an eye to the future. The smartly dressed Hope was well known in Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas, and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth...
and the best Miami shoe stores. An attendant in one recalled, "She always wanted no-color shoes. I don't know how many times I said, Sorry, Mrs Somoza we have no no-color shoes".
Final years
Hope loved Anastasio, but spent much of her time trying to smooth his rough edges and make him into a gentleman. "She wanted to make Anastasio into something he wasn't", said a friend. "She wanted him to mis in Newport society, eat caviar and drink champagne and watch his language and manners". Hope's constant correction of his barrack mannerisms, Anastasio found release in the arms of a warm teenaged beauty: Dinorah Sampson.By the summer of 1977 no one knew why the two were still together. Hope remained estranged from him in London where daughter Carolina joined her. She married Archie Baldocchi, a wealthy Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
an man of Italian descent, Baldocchi had a son by a previously marriage: Archie Baldocchi Dueñas. Hope Somoza Baldocchi died of cancer in Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 2,496,435, making it the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, on 5 October 1991.
External links
Further reading
- Death of Somoza by Claribel Alegria and Darwin J. Flakoll
- La saga de los Somoza by Agustin Torres Lazo
- Somoza Falling by Anthony LakeAnthony LakeWilliam Anthony Kirsopp Lake, best known as Tony Lake, is the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund , author, academic, and former American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and political advisor. He has been a foreign policy advisor to many Democratic U.S...