Nicolas Edmundo Chavarria-Portillo of Revere, who left El Salvador at 23 and spent 39 years working at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, died on September 21. He was 66. A memorial service was held September 28 at Buonfiglio Funeral Home in Revere.
He was born December 6, 1959, in La Reina, El Salvador, to Santos Ismael Chavarria and Ana Maria Portillo. He finished his schooling through El Salvador’s Ministry of Education in 1978 and went on to the University of El Salvador before coming to the United States in 1983. He learned English on his own, his family said, through books, music and his work, and became a U.S. citizen in 1999.
His family called him the center of a blended family he helped raise. He leaves his sons, Mario Chavarria-Melendez and Ivan Chavarria-Garcia; his daughter, Ana Chavarria; his stepdaughters, Rosa Flores-Casas, with her husband Ramon, and Jennifer Conway, with her husband Matthew; five grandchildren, Jasmine, Isabella and Eliza Casas Flores and Kaiden and Lukas Conway; his brothers Mario and Archimedes Chavarria; and his sisters Ana Luz, Melida, Yanira and Nery Chavarria. His parents and his sister Lita Chavarria Flores died before him.
Compiled from information published by Paul Buonfiglio & Sons-Bruno Funeral Home, 128 Revere Street, Revere. Photograph courtesy of the family via Buonfiglio Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s website. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.