Mausoleum of Sara Braun and Family

Sara Braun was a Latvian entrepreneur of Judeo-Russian descent who settled in Chile. Daughter of Elías Braun and Sofía Hamburguer, her family was of Jewish and Baltic German origin, having to leave the Curland region due to the rise of antisemitism in the so-called Settlement Zone.

Accompanied by her parents and siblings, she initially traveled to Buenos Aires before reaching the city of Punta Arenas, Chile, a remote location where they settled in 1874. There, they enjoyed the benefits that Chilean authorities had in place for immigrants who came to populate the city.

Despite the poverty with which they arrived, the Braun Hamburguer family had formal education that earned them respect in their new adopted homeland. As a tinsmith, Elías Braun managed to build a small fortune that increased when he partnered with José Nogueira, an important Portuguese shipping entrepreneur and exporter of sea lion skins and other wild animals, along with various other economic activities.

Braun’s father earned Nogueira’s trust and was hired to supervise his naval warehouse, and Sara helped her father manage the store. In 1887, Sara Braun married José Nogueira. From then on, she enjoyed one of the most privileged positions in the city of Punta Arenas.