Unfortunately, he had a beautiful young daughter named Maria, who caught the eye of the local parish priest, renowned for taking advantage of young innocent women, and she fell prey to his lust. No one now will say what took place then, but my great-grandfather bought a gun and was going to kill that priest. Someone found out and warned the police, who came, arrested him and gave him five days to leave the island or face prison time. That is how my family came to settle in the Dominican Republic. They all left for DR, except Maria, to whom he left the house, a small coffee plantation and a store, to live off of. She stayed there until her death, trying several times, unsuccessfully, to join her Dominican family, but it never worked out. Her brothers often stopped in to see her in Mayaguez, eventually bringing along their young children to know her and their Puerto Rican inheritance, as my great-grandfather had a large ship that carried produce to all the local islands, as far as Venezuela. My grandfather, Felipe Collado Fernandez, eventually took over the business and the ship, and made those seasonal trips with his own sons and occasionally even his daughter, Lourdes. They were doing very well until the rise of the worst political dictator the island had ever seen Leonides Trujillo in the early 1930s.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 15:02:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015