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CHAPTER 40
Frank Rainieri Marranzini:
Creator of Dreams
By Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben
1
Director of the Department of Education, History, and professor at PUCMM
•
Origins of a dreamer and pioneer
ntonio Elizade and Eduardo Yentzen wondered to themselves, “What would life be like without de-
sirable, conceivable, and potentially livable futures? Would it be possible to live without dreaming of
something better?”
2
They theorized that the collective imagination has set down roots in the world we
inhabit, and has become a constituent element of human history, as reflected in “the capacity to dream
of a different and better world than the one we have built thus far.”
3
Utopia—according to the authors—is
above all else an “eschatological tension, something that does not exist, but could exist in the future. It is some-
thing that has formed part of the human experience since the dawn of history. As such, it could be said that
history requires an eschatology, and therefore utopias.”
4
Thus, it could be said that our human condition gives us an attribute which is unique among living beings:
our ability to imagine alternate realities, in order to escape the limits imposed upon us by the one in which we
live. With the conviction that we must build and rebuild our heritage—that history is built by those up to the
task of shaping it—we continue to believe in the need to value utopias and the men and women who chase
their dreams, undaunted by adversity.
Frank Rainieri Marranzini has always been a dreamer who worked hard to make his own utopia a reality.
His story is enchanting, because it shows that we can chase after our dreams against unfavorable odds.
Both of his surnames show that his maternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from Italy sometime
in the late 1800s to early 1900s. His paternal grandparents, Isidoro Rainieri and Bianca Franceschini de Rain-
ieri, arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1898 and settled in Puerto Plata. They had nine children—two boys
and seven girls. Lacking the means to make a living, they decided to try a novel business venture for the time:
hotels. Thus, the Gran Hotel Rainieri and Hotel Comercio were established in Puerto Plata and Santiago,
respectively.
Life was going well until Isidoro passed away in 1912, leaving 35-year-old Bianca a widow. Their eldest son
died shortly thereafter. Bianca held the family together, with her children growing up to make something of
themselves and embarking on their own life projects. This is how the Imbert-Rainieri, Ginebra-Rainieri, Harp-
er-Rainieri, Maltes-Rainieri, and Barletta-Rainieri families came to be. Francisco, the surviving son, married
Venecia Marranzini, who was of Italian descent, a widow and mother to a young boy named Luis Manuel
Machado. Francisco would adopt the child as his own and would father two more children with Venecia: Frank
and Fernando.