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 St ...

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 ** Co ...

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 and the Brazilian 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, and ex-wife of Benjamin Vargas, brother of Getúlio Vargas. He studied literature at Columbia UniversityObituary for Julio Mario Santo Domingo Braga
by El Espectador and law at Panthéon-Assas University. Throughout his life, he was passionate about literature of all periods but especially French literature 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 Eng ...

, but he also greatly admired and collected the works of

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

, Rimbaud and Verlaine. He had huge collections of rock and roll 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 i ...

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 Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 o ...

(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, a financier 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 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