Argentina: The Lords of Patagonia

Every Thursday at precisely 4 p.m., the leaders of Argentina’s wealthiest, most influential—and most clannish—dynasty sit down to weigh their business affairs. The six brothers of the Braun-Menendez family, ranging in age from 55 to 68, meet in a paneled Buenos Aires board room under a portrait of their late father Mauricio. Around the table each in turn stands up to discuss the fortunes and policies of Sociedad Anonima Importadora y Exportadora de la Patagonia. Something like a Hudson’s Bay Co. of the Southern Hemisphere, “La Anonima” controls most of the commerce and communications in Patagonia, a wild and windswept region that sprawls nearly 1,500 miles south of Buenos Aires and stretches almost to the end of the world. “Other large and famous families have disappeared in Argentina,” says Armando Braun-Menendez, 65. “But our family has never been richer.”

Trade & Land. The Braun-Menendezes own a fleet of twelve fishing and cargo ships, piers and a shipyard, and a six-plane airline called Austral with routes spanning 2,500 miles. Their 22 stores, selling everything from pins to pickup trucks, have prospered from Patagonia’s oil boom; 600,000 sheep fatten on their vast ranches. In a holding company named La Josefina (after their mother), the family has impressive investments in Argentine banking, insurance and chemical companies. With all that diversity, they have prospered despite Argentina’s continuing financial trouble. By family reckoning, their companies last year had sales of $33 million.

La Anonima had curious origins. Making a trip south in 1873, Buenos Aires Bookkeeper José Menendez was struck by the region’s trading possibilities; ships sailing around the Horn stopped to replenish, and Indians were ready to trade pelts, ambergris and even grazing rights for trinkets and tobacco. Menendez set up a trading post at Punta Arenas, a port and penal settlement, and became friendly with a German emigrant, Elias Braun, who farmed near by. In 1895 Braun’s eldest son, Mauricio, married Menendez’ eldest daughter, Josefina; joined to romance was a practical mixing of land and trade. La Anonima, now run by their children, was started by Mauricio Braun and Jose Menendez in 1908.

Ties & Tradition. The nine second-generation Braun-Menendezes (three sisters along with the brothers) are closer than Kennedys. All live in the same fashionable residential block in Buenos Aires, spend their weekends at a Hyannis Port-like suburban compound, where each has a chalet, and the men spend much time watching the younger generation play polo on a family team. Altogether they have 63 children, many of whom marry cousins or into families with promising business connections. “Above all,” says Brother Armando, “we think and act as a family unit. The children in their way will keep the family—and the fortune—together.” The children will also, if their parents have anything to say, continue a family tradition; up to now there has never been a politician or a military man among the Braun-Menendezes.