Mi hermana llamó para gestionar otra solicitud, pero le dijeron que hoy ya no había citas.

Llamó is the preterite, which is used for a completed action in the past.

Here, the sentence refers to one specific completed event: your sister called.

• Mi hermana llamó... = My sister called...
• Mi hermana llamaba... would usually suggest a repeated action, a habitual action, or background description, such as My sister used to call or My sister was calling depending on context.

So llamó fits because this is a single finished phone call.

After para, Spanish normally uses the infinitive when the subject stays the same.

So:

• Mi hermana llamó para gestionar otra solicitud
• literally: My sister called in order to handle/process another application

The subject of both actions is the same person:

• she called
• she wanted to manage/process the application

That is why Spanish uses para + infinitive.

If the subject changed, Spanish would usually use para que + subjunctive instead:

• Llamó para que la ayudaran = She called so that they would help her

Gestionar is a fairly formal verb. In this kind of context, it usually means something like:

• to handle
• to process
• to deal with
• to arrange

With solicitud, it often sounds administrative or bureaucratic.

So gestionar otra solicitud suggests something like:

• to process another application
• to deal with another request
• to arrange another application/request

In Spain, gestionar is very common in official, work, and administrative contexts.

In Spanish, otro / otra normally does not take un / una before it.

So you say:

• otra solicitud = another application/request
• not una otra solicitud

This is different from English, where another already includes the idea of an + other.

Compare:

• Quiero otro café = I want another coffee
• Necesitamos otra cita = We need another appointment

Because le is an indirect object pronoun.

In le dijeron, the idea is:

• they told her

Spanish uses:

• decir algo a alguien = to say/tell something to someone

So in this sentence:

• le = to her
• dijeron = they said / they told

The actual thing told is the clause that follows:

• que hoy ya no había citas

So the structure is:

• Le dijeron que... = They told her that...

You would not use la here, because la is a direct object pronoun, and decir takes the person as an indirect object in this structure.

Spanish often uses the third person plural with no expressed subject to mean something like:

• they
• people
• the staff
• someone at the office / service / institution

So le dijeron does not necessarily mean a specific group already mentioned. It often means:

• they told her
• in natural English: she was told

In context, it probably refers to the people answering the phone or the staff handling appointments.

This is a very common Spanish way to avoid naming the person directly.

Because this is the impersonal use of haber, meaning there was / there were.

In standard Spanish, impersonal haber is always used in the singular, even if the noun after it is plural.

So:

• había citas = there were appointments
• había problemas = there were problems
• hubo muchas personas = there were many people

Not standard:

• habían citas

This is a very common learner question because the noun after haber is plural, but grammatically it is not the subject. That is why the verb stays singular.

This is about how Spanish presents the situation in the past.

Había is the imperfect of haber, and here it presents the lack of appointments as a state/situation at that moment:

• que hoy ya no había citas = that there were no more appointments today

It sounds like the person is reporting the availability situation as it existed when they checked.

If you used hubo, it would sound more like a completed event, which is less natural here.

Very roughly:

• había = there were / there was as a situation or background state
• hubo = there was / there were as a completed occurrence

In this sentence, Spanish naturally prefers había because it is describing the status of appointment availability.

Ya no means no longer or not anymore.

So:

• hoy ya no había citas = there were no more appointments today
• literally: today there no longer were appointments

It suggests that earlier there may have been appointments available, but by the time your sister called, they were gone.

This is a very common structure:

• Ya no tengo tiempo = I don’t have time anymore
• Ya no vive aquí = He/She doesn’t live here anymore

Here citas means appointments.

In Spain, cita is very commonly used for:

• a doctor’s appointment
• an appointment at a government office
• an administrative appointment
• a scheduled time slot

So in this sentence, no había citas most likely means:

• there were no appointments left
• there were no available slots left

Depending on context, English might translate it more naturally as appointments or slots.

Because decir is commonly followed by que when introducing what was said.

So:

• Le dijeron que hoy ya no había citas
• They told her that there were no more appointments today

This is the normal pattern:

• Me dijo que venía = He/She told me that he/she was coming
• Nos dijeron que era imposible = They told us that it was impossible

In English, that is often optional. In Spanish, que is usually required in this kind of sentence.

Yes. Solicitud can mean both request and application, depending on context.

Common possibilities are:

• request
• application
• sometimes form or submission, depending on the situation

In an administrative context, solicitud often means an official application or request submitted to an institution.

So otra solicitud could be:

• another request
• another application

The best translation depends on what exactly your sister was trying to arrange.

Because Spanish often omits subject pronouns and repeated subjects when the meaning is already clear from the verb or context.

So after Mi hermana llamó..., the sentence continues with:

• pero le dijeron...

There is no need to repeat a mi hermana or ella because le already shows who received the information, and the sentence flows naturally without repetition.

Spanish generally prefers this kind of economy when the reference is clear.

It is literally they told her, but in natural English it can often be translated as she was told.

Both capture the meaning well:

• They told her that there were no more appointments today
• She was told that there were no more appointments today

Spanish often uses this active-looking plural form where English might prefer a passive structure. Both are good translations depending on style.