A Ramirez de Arrellano in El Rosario

Written by Don Joaquin Agusty Ramirez de Arellano, c 1940's

There existed in San German in the time of Spain a Spanish gentleman who went into history as an honest, brave and law-abiding man. He was an Intendente (royal official appointed by the 18th-century kings of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain). Interested parties may consult the book written by journalist Ramirez Brau about the Ramirez de Arrellano's and in which details on this important figure are given. Note: The Brief Chronology of the History of Puerto Rico by ASPIRA 2001 mentions: In 1812, Alejandro Ramirez becomes Intendente to oversee the island’s treasury.

From the descendants of Intendente Ramirez the different branches of that trunk appeared; they spread throughout the island especially in the Southwestern part.

It is the case that of one such branch, at the start of the 19th century, appears Don Ramon Ramirez de Arrellano of San German who marries Doña Belen Cancel of the Barrio Hoyos neighborhood in the town of Hormigueros where they settle in their plantation and ancestral home.

There, they had nine children: Candido, Baldomero, Petra, Isabel, Belen, Felipe, Valentina, Manuela and Ceferino. I knew Aunt Petra and Aunt Isabel and Ceferino who was my maternal grandfather and whom we called Papapino.

How did Don Ceferino Ramirez de Arrellano y Cancel come to be my grandfather? Well let's begin the story.

Don Antonio Capielo de la Torre was a Spaniard from Oviedo, capital of the Province of Asturias in Spain, but he was a descendant of a family from Tirol in Italy (which up to 1918 was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and as such ancestry searches for this name should include the Tyrol province of Austria). He came to America and ended up in the city of Coro in Venezuela, but things got hot there for Spaniards and he came to Puerto Rico disembarking in Mayaguez with many others. He settled in Maricao and there he met another great Spaniard called Don Manuel Castejon. Castejon was from Castilla la Vieja in Spain and must have been a person of great prestige for he got to be Corregidor (governor). It was said that he was "owner and master" of Maricao in those times.

The result of this Capielo-Castejon friendship was that Don Antionio Capielo de la Torre, who was born in 1809, married Juana Saturnina, daughter of Don Manuel Castejon, and they had seven known children: Juana Maria, Olaya, Javier, Santiago, Pedro, Dolores and Ana Petrona.

Between the townships of Maricao and Hormigueros there is a great distance, especially in those times when roads were nothing but paths and one had to travel on foot, by horse or wagon when weather or land conditions permitted it.

Those who died in the townships removed from Maricao and adjacent to El Rosario were brought to El Rosario for burial. And so Don Antonio Capielo and family travelled to El Rosario, to attend some burial and to visit friends.

The family of Don Ramon Ramirez de Arellano, although residing in the Barrio Hoyos neighborhood in the township of Hormigueros, would occassionally travel to El Rosario and it was there that they met the Capielo-Castejon family. The result was the marriage of Don Ceferino Ramirez de Arellano y Cancel with Doña Ana Maria Petrona Capielo y Castejon, who were by good fortune my maternal grandparents.

Don Ceferino and Doña Ana Maria moved to El Rosario where they acquired a plantation and built their ancestral home on the road called El Brujo, before the crossing of the Rosario River that led to the township of Limon.

From the marriage of Don Ceferino Ramirez de Arellano y Cancel and Doña Ana Maria Petrona Capielo y Castejon came seven children: Ramon Baldomero, Nicolasa, Raimunda, Belen, Diego and Maria Antonia who was born December 17, 1865 and died February 10, 1900. She was my mother.

On the day of February 7 1891 she married my father Antonio Agusty y Sabater. They had two children: Emilia, who died at six months, and I who is still alive and kicking.

From that faraway branch of the Ramirez de Arellano, only my aunt Belen Ramirez de Arellano y Capio, widow of Garcia, remains, and may God keep her with us for many years to come.

Joaquin Agusty