Ricardo Rosenberg: An Introduction

Featured this week is the interview of Ricardo Rosenberg, son of Margot and "Lico" Rosenberg, baby brother to Yolanda and Frank. Ricardo is married to Nancy and has two children, Carin and Adam plus a new son-in-law, Jason Levine. Ricardo and Nancy live in Bethesda, Maryland. I interviewed Ricardo in his own living room, Nancy by his side.
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(What is your earliest memory of childhood or life in Salvador?)

Well, I think the first thing that comes to mind is that we lived in a house that was basically across the way from the Salvador Del Mundo. I had the good fortune that my grandparents lived around the corner. As a result, we were always visiting, and I particularly remember that the three of us, my brother, my sister, and I, would routinely have breakfast at their house on Sunday morning. Actually, as a matter of fact---this was when we were very young, and it continued for number of years—I remember that we would have lunch there once a week, because the American school had a two-hour lunch breack. So, my brother, my sister and I would have lunch once a week at our grandparents’, and we were usually joined by your mother, Ruth. We had a great time, particularly because we all made my grandmother have laughing fits. So those are nice memories.

(This is the Liebes [maternal] grandparents?

Yes.

(How did your parents meet? Or, how did your father get to Salvador?)

My father was born in Dominican Republic but raised mostly in Germany, in Hamburg. His father was German, his mother was Dominican. He traveled frequently between the two countries when he was growing up. In the ‘30s he left Germany permanently, went to the Dominican Republic, and worked in a small town called Sanchez, which is where he was born. His job was to meet arriving ships and review the manifest and make sure that it matched up with the freight they were about to unload. This was a port town that fed goods to the capital, Santo Domingo. During the ‘30s two things happened. One is that a good road was built between the port and Santo Domingo, so the town was not as active or as prosperous as it had been in the past, and second, the Depression deepened. He was actually looking to go to Guatemala, where his brother was, and things were not panning out.

I don’t know if you know this little story, but he had already applied for a job in El Salvador with Casa Mugdan, but he then was informed that the job was taken by somebody else. That somebody else was José Baum. Apparently, José Baum was passing through on a ship, and the ship stopped in El Salvador. There weren’t any of the formalities then that we have now, and I’m not even sure you needed a visa. So José Baum got off the ship and stayed. I don’t know in those days how long the ships stayed at port. He liked Salvador, so he stayed and he took the job that my father had applied for.. Casa Mugdan was of course later on Schoening and Falkenstein. So he lost that opportunity, but he later got a job as a representative of foreign lines of business, mainly manufacturers (Gillette and Kellogs, among others) and insurance.

(Did he ever express disappointment in not living permanently in the Dominican Republic? Was there any part of him that wanted to stay there?)

You know, my first inclination is to think that my father rarely expressed disappointment. He was a very optimistic and positive person and not somebody who dwelled on what might have been and what could have been or what should have been. I think he was happy in Salvador and eventually established very profound links with the business community and became very successful as a businessman, not only in the direct activities that he had, but in outside activities: Chamber of Commerce, being on boards in different places. I’m not aware of him ever mentioning any reservations about that, no.

(So as a young child, you started at the American school immediately? Where did you go to kindergarten, the early grades?)

I guess when you get old, you remember the really insignificant factoids. And I do remember the nursery school, Echevers. It was near the old stadium, the soccer stadium, in Salvador, and I remember going there for pre-kindergarten. And then I went to kindergarten at the American school from the beginning.

(Who were some of your classmates that you keep in touch with today?)

Boris Gabay, later on Jack Davidson, Roby Salomon. In terms of staying in touch, I think that that is about it. There were others who were not in my class, but were schoolmates. I was one year behind my brother. So, one year ahead was Bobby Schoening. One year ahead of them was Edward Falkenstein. That was really the core of the friends I had, particularly later on. Then of course the Salomons, Hélène and Andrée, but they’re older. At the time you’re growing up, beyond two years difference, the age becomes just too significant. But later on we became friends.

(Right. So did you participate in any youth activities in the Jewish community? Was there a lot of—were there things going on for young people at that point?)

No.

(What was your relationship to the synagogue? Did the family attend services?)

Rarely. I think, certainly, later on for the High Holidays, but it was sporadic.

(Now, your parents were, I guess, officially a mixed marriage?)

Yeah.

(And that was—I don’t want to put words into your mouth, but I assume that was a bit complex for them at the time?)

I think it was more complex for the community, at least some members of the community.

(Did you feel a direct impact?)

No, not directly. But I later learned of incidents that clearly reflected a lack of approval by certain members of the community. My earliest memories of the community are that there were a lot of older people who emigrated during World War II to El Salvador, a lot of them were pretty Orthodox. I think I would characterize the community back then as equivalent to, in the US, Conservative leaning towards Orthodox. I’m sure you know that at least in those days women sat in the back, men in the front. It was just more Orthodox and Conservative in many ways.

The other side of the coin was that I have very good memories of my grandfather, Eugenio Liebes, participating in the life of the community. He was president of the community from early 1940s until his death in 1967. So it was some 25 years or so that he was head of the Community. I think he had a significant effect during those years. I think he was known as being a very kind and generous person. Also, I believe he was known as being a very intelligent and able person, well respected as a successful member of the business community at large and not only within the Jewish community. My memories of going to the synagogue have to do with going with him—occasionally on the spur of the moment, because maybe when I was ten or eleven or thereabouts I’d somehow find myself in town on Friday evening and in order to get a ride with him, it would involve going the synagogue on Friday evening. So those are the kind of the memories I have.

Transcript by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC.