Alfonso Munoz Carbo, Jr.

Alfonso Carbo was born in Manila, Philippines on June 16, 1914. Alfonso looks seventy years old but you guess the rest. His parents were from Barcelona, Spain where his father was an accountant. There were five children in his family.

Alfonso attended high school and then went to De La Salle College run by Catholic brothers and studied business. After college, he began working for a Spanish firm, a conglomerate who ran sugar mills, iron mines, and gold mines. He started out as an auditor and traveled throughout the Philippines. He met Sophie, his wife, on the boulevard. She was lovely and quite shy and came from a Greek family.

Alfonso and Sophie were married in 1940. The war with Japan broke out in 1941 and the Japanese occupation meant many hardships for the people of the Philippines. The Japanese interned many of the Filipinos into camps. Alfonso was not interned as he had Spanish papers. His sister, however, was interred because she was married to an American. The third year of the occupation was the worst until Gen. MacArthur sent tanks to the internment camps to free those who were being held captive. During the Japanese occupation, Alfonso and his family were forced to sell everything to survive.

After the war, he was able to start a business of his own when he purchased land in the province of Albay, Philippines where he produced coconuts and abaca hemp for use in ropes. His business prospered by selling much to the United States. The coconuts were used in producing coconut oil. In 1950, he joined his father-in-law in the car dealership business the first Chevrolet dealership in the Philippines. They purchased a strong concrete house in LeGazpi, Albay. The strength of the house was important as it was in a typhoon alley.

After the death of his father-in-law, in 1970, he moved to Manila and sold the dealership, because he felt his children needed better schools. They then began to attend school at an international school subsidized by the U.S. Embassy.

Alfonso is survived by his two children, a boy, Mariano Nick who teaches English Literature and poetry at a college level for the past 20 years now, and is in Europe Holland, the Netherlands teaching there as well. He is pursuing his PhD doctorial in the United Kingdom in July 2009. Alfonso's daughter, Maria Brigid Carbo, lives in San Antonio, Texas. Maria Brigid teaches high school at Alamo Heights Independent School District, as a substitute teacher for all subjects. She has three children, the oldest daughter lives in Austin, TX while the other two reside in San Antonio. The grandchildren lovingly called Alfonso "Wo-Wo". Alfonso's two children speak three languages fluently, as well as he and his wife, Sophie. Both children attended St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

When the children were in their teens, their family did extensive traveling in Spain, Greece, Italy, France and New York. Alfonso reminisced; those were some of his best years.

Alfonso relocated to The Madison in 1999, to be close to his beloved wife, Sophie, who was suffering from Alzheimer 's disease, she passed away on July 19, 2006.

Alfonso enjoyed reading, especially history, loved to sketch and always enjoyed a good conversation.