 1865 - 1963 (97 years)
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| Name |
Herbert de Sola |
| Born |
15 Apr 1865 |
Curacao, Netherland Antilles  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Biography |
The De Sola family were Sephardic Jews who originated from Spain. They sought refuge from the religious persecution in Europe at the end of the 15th century. Herbert de Sola’s grand-parents emigrated from Holland & settled in Curacao in the Caribbean. Herbert was born in 1865 on the island of St. Thomas that was then in a Danish colony.
With little formal education, De Sola began to work in Panama with the French Alsatian brothers Marcus & David AscoLI, At the age of 20, in 1885, they founded the company “Ascoli Brothers & De Sola” which was devoted to all trade & especially French imports.
In 1895, De Sola left Panama & established himself in San Salvador where he began his commercial activities in 1896. His shop “Ascoli de Sola” sold luxury items from Europe.
Later, De Sola opened his own luxury shop “A la Ville de Paris” where it was possible to buy hats, shirts, ties, silk , wool & cotton goods, as well as perfumes, furniture & guns.
In 1903 the Ascoli brothers had died & De Sola organised the first consortium which produced sugar, with which he traded with both Europe & the USA. He was one of the first members of the Chamber of Commerce in 1915. Before 1920, together with the Gallardo de Santa Tecla family, he established a business in soap & candles. The factory was called “The Favorite”.
He became the biggest shareholder in 2 companies producing trams in San Salvador; he opened a printing works; sold fire insurance & produced the first margarine in the country.
Before 1930, De Sola came in contact with a Venezuelan, Mario C. Henriquez (1899-1977) who was the Venezuelan consul in El Salvador. His shop sold cotton goods, wine, spirits, leather & groceries as well as building materials.
De Sola served as the Dutch Consul General for 64 years.
Herbert De Sola & his wife Miriam Maduro (1868-1955), who was Panamanian, & the widow of Marcus Ascoli, had 4 sons. Herbert de Sola died on 1st April 1963 at the age of 98.
The leather industry was even less developed but, thanks to protectionism, it did cover domestic needs at a time when most of the population did not wear shoes. A small tanning industry had developed; in 1885 the total number of tanneries was over twenty. High import duties made local leather less expensive than the imported kind. Whereas the price of German leather was twenty-five cents per pound, the price of the Salvadoran product was eighteen cents. Yet, the quality was not the same since local hides were tanned using very crude methods.
The barks of locust, mangle, and oak were used for tanning, and the average tannery produced about twenty hides a month. Bigger establishments were technically superior and were run by foreigners; a German tannery turned out two hundred good quality hides every month. By the end of the century soap and candle manufacturing had developed; another instance in which government protection seems to have had some effect. All the companies engaged in this activity enjoyed tax exemptions to import machinery and inputs. And although they produced exclusively for local consumption, one of them, "La Favorita," was the beginning of Herbert De Sola's industrial complex, which now produces an impressive array of products, from margarine to toothpaste, and exports to the rest of Central America. [1, 2] |
| Hebrew Death |
7 Nis 5723 |
| Immigration |
El Salvador, San Salvador |
| Residence |
Curacao, Netherland Antilles |
| Residence |
El Salvador, San Salvador |
| Died |
1 Apr 1963 |
El Salvador, San Salvador |
| Person ID |
I7684 |
Blank Family |
| Last Modified |
2 Jan 2019 |
| Father |
Moses De Jacob de Sola, b. 25 Feb 1835, Curacao, Netherland Antilles , d. 30 Sep 1912, Curacao, Netherland Antilles (Age 77 years) |
| Mother |
Rose Rachel Osorio, b. 1 Oct 1837, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Danish West Indies , d. 18 Jul 1906, Curacao, Netherland Antilles (Age 68 years) |
| Family ID |
F12302 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Miriam Levy Maduro, b. 21 Jul 1868, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Danish West Indies , d. 17 May 1955, San Salvador, El Salvador (Age 86 years) |
| Married |
20 Sep 1903 |
New York, NY, USA |
| Children |
| | 1. Moses Victor de Sola, b. 3 Jul 1904, San Salvador, El Salvador , d. 1978, San Salvador, El Salvador (Age 73 years) |
| | 2. Ernesto de Sola, b. 3 Oct 1905, San Salvador, El Salvador , d. 10 Sep 1993, Guatemala City, Guatemala (Age 87 years) |
| | 3. Lorenzo de Sola, b. 1906, d. 28 Aug 1921 (Age 15 years) |
| | 4. Dr. Orlando de Sola, b. 17 Jan 1908, San Salvador, El Salvador , d. 18 Oct 1961, San Salvador, El Salvador (Age 53 years) |
| | 5. Francisco de Sola, b. 1909, d. 10 Mar 1983 (Age 74 years) |
|
| Last Modified |
15 Sep 2008 |
| Family ID |
F5471 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Sources |
- [S228] La Prensa .
- [S251] Weak Foundations: The Economy of El Salvador in the Nineteenth Century, Héctor Lindo-Fuentes.
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: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
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