Leonor Vera Manzanares

Leonor “Fanny” Vera Manzanares, born September 2, 1947, in Riobamba, Ecuador, died suddenly in her daughter’s home in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on the morning of June 20, 2026. She was one of nine children of Manuel Vera and Mariana Guevara, three daughters, and seven sons; sons are Luis, Carlos, John, Henry, Manuel, Gabriel, Salvador, and daughters are Rosa, Susana, and Leonor.

On May 31, 1972, at the age of 24, Leonor, accompanied by her two brothers, Salvador and Manuel, decided after taking out a loan of about $6000 for travel expenses, to then fly out to Mexico with plans of entering the United States by crossing the Rio Grande near Texas to visit her father in Boston, Massachusetts, who would travel to the United States routinely for work. Her plan was to work a few years, pay off her debt, and then save up enough money to build a house for her parents in Ecuador. Upon entry to the United States of America, through the kindness of strangers, she took bus after bus, and traveled to San Antonio, Texas, and then to New York City. From there, she traveled to East Boston, via train, and reunited with her father, who after saying, “¡Mijita! ¿Qué haces aquí?” promptly put her to work as a seamstress for about $2/hour, working with large industrial sewing machines that could cut and stitch simultaneously. At first the machines intimidated her, but she was confident that she could learn how to operate them. She worked in Boston for about six years, and traveled by train to work each day. One day, a man with a thick beard, who looked like Fidel Castro, approached her and asked for the time. That man was Carlos Gerardo Manzanares Morgan, and he would become her first and only love. The two eventually moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where they raised two children, and both obtained work at a large commercial printing company in the neighboring township of North Brunswick.

The two worked at Webcraft Technologies, Inc. which historically, was a revolutionary force in the American direct-mail, lottery, and specialty printing industries. They even worked through the rebranding into Vertis Communications. Leonor worked through a brutal, hyper-local labor dispute typical of the commercial printing industry in the 2000s. She lived through a targeted, aggressive corporate restructuring that hit printing plants across the United States during this time. Leonor was a packer for many years, and in high-volume web printing, packers, frequently women, handled the intense physical labor at the end of the press line—stacking, bundling, and preparing printed materials. Vertis began aggressively combining these jobs with the press assistants' roles to cut labor costs and squeeze out the unionized packing staff. When Vertis moved to eliminate the female packers, the union naturally revolted, leading to the strike and wildcat picketing. Printing press operators and assistant pressmen were historically an overwhelmingly male-dominated trade. During a major labor dispute, Leonor saw an opportunity to become a press operator since the majority of the workers were on strike. Since Leonor was the only qualified female pressman left, and she chose to keep working—taking on all of that grueling overtime—she became the central focal point of the union's anger. A single worker keeping a press line functional during a labor stoppage threatened the union's entire leverage. Local law enforcement had to provide a physical escort through the hostile front gates on Route 1 to prevent violence and guarantee her safe passage into the building. A true testament to her skill, toughness, and work ethic became evident when she was the only female pressman running massive industrial printing machines, which intimidated her at first, but just like those larger sewing machines, she was confident she could learn how to operate them. In 2012, Vertis filed for bankruptcy, and in 2013 liquidated its assets. Leonor did not want to retire, but since her job had closed down, she felt 66 was the right age to finally relax, and go see the house that she worked her whole life to build in her home country of Ecuador. She traveled to it only twice in her 13 years of retirement.

Leonor’s younger brother Henry predeceased her. Her husband Carlos G. Manzanares Morgan also predeceased her. Her surviving descendants in mourning are two children, Leonor Emma Manzanares and Professor Rafael Gerardo Manzanares, and six grandchildren, Luis, Miguel, Amara, Winry, John, and Otis. She also has dozens of nieces and nephews.

Leonor leaves behind a reputation for working hard, despite the circumstances, and proving others wrong that did not believe in her, and an uncanny altruistic nature. She would say, “Time heals everyone.” She was quick to forgive and forget. She once wrote, “La libertad es la llave del éxito,” which translates to “Liberty is the key to success.” She would say, “No comas así, que nadie te va a quitar,” when her son would eat quickly. She survived the collapse of a printing empire, systemic sexism in the trades, and intense union hostility, only retiring because her work had quite literally finished.

Her only son, her “corazón de melón,” writes this final praise, fighting back tears, and looking through the blurry ones that made it through. We will honor her legendary work, and miss her more than anyone can imagine.

Professional services entrusted to Crabiel Parkwest Funeral Chapel of New Brunswick, NJ. Please visit www.crabielparkwest.com to sign the online guestbook.