I come from an island where people are more in tune with the unexplained. People pray to their ancestors for guidance. Many people in my family and somewhat attuned with a strong intuition and, in some cases,  a connection to spirits, or some kind of 6th sense. My...

In 1985 I was the founding director for the Mount Dora Center for the Arts. In those days, the Mount Dora Art Festival was 14 years old and was being managed by a group of volunteers who called themselves the Mount Dora Cultural Council. In 1984 I volunteered to be...

In the 1980's, Connie, my mother-in-law, lived on Lake Gertrude, a beautiful lake in Mount Dora, Florida. In the early 80's Mount Dora was a sleepy little town, mainly a retirement community. For the most part, if you saw anyone younger than 60 walking the streets you...

My mother was born in San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic, on October 20, 1926. San Pedro de Macorís, a city now known for producing baseball players, was, in 1926, the leading economic boom city of the island, and was going through what was called “The Dance of...

When I was born, there was a problem with my mother’s milk and I wasn’t breast-fed. I had to go on formula. Unfortunately, no matter what anyone tried to feed me, I didn’t like it. My mother says I scrunched up my whole face and spit it out. Not having enough food, I...

  When my father had to jump ship in Puerto Rico to save his life, in 1959, he sent my mother a telegram that said “I Love You Always”. This was their code for something had happened but he was OK. The next day it was in the news: Alberto Arvelo traitor and...

  December of 1978, my husband Tom and I headed down to the DR for Christmas vacation. We were both attending Tyler School of art in Philadelphia.The journey to the DR every vacation started with a train ride to New York City. Then a shuttle ride to the airport,...

As soon as my parents got together again, my mother became pregnant. It seems every time they got back together, there was a new baby. My mother was about 5 months pregnant when she and my father went out for a drive. My father didn’t see a speed bump (in the DR they...

Rafael Alberto Arvelo Gonzalez and Ysabel María Irene Dalmau Pichardo My mother was the daughter of Alfredo Dalmau Rijo and Diana Pichardo Martinez. My mother’s father was a tycoon, who, among other things, represented and distributed Sinclair Oil Company in the...

On June 13th, 1961, thirteen days after the death of Trujillo, the despot that had ruled the Dominican Republic for 32 years, we left for San Juan Puerto Rico. For 10 years, my family had been on the enemy-of-the-state list. My father had spent 22 months in jail, part...

Altos de Chavón was an artist village located on the edge of the Chavón River in La Romana, Dominican Republic. I say "was" because it is not longer an artist village. When the Fanjul Corp bought it from Gulf & Western, they discontinued all art in the village...

Post by Tom Buzbee I am a painter. Not completely successful and certainly not a failure. My work is good but I feel I could have gone farther. I am definitely not a writer. I have, at times, flirted with putting a few words together in a sentence, or a paragraph,...

On September 5th, 1979, I gave birth to my daughter Avaryl Jayne Buzbee Arvelo. It didn’t realize it at the moment, but it was one of those moments in life when you thought you were going in a direction and then there is this major change of plans. Although the...

Growing up in the outskirts of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with very limited TV and no technology, meant that us children spent most of our time outside, communing with nature in a world full of daily discovery and adventure. We learned from an early age...

Post by Tom Buzbee And they crashed together in an orgasmic explosion! Well, that’s a better start than some, but I gotta be real. I am sure that hundreds of books or stories have started by asking, “Where do I start?” and answering “At the beginning.” However, I’m...

A couple of years ago my mother gave me a huge scrapbook that she had put together about my father. Among other things, there are invitations to most of the receptions that he attended around the world, to things like presidential inaugurals and Queen Elizabeth's...

  By the time I turned three, my family had gone from a normal family living in the outskirts of Santo Domingo dealing with "normal" day-to-day issues, to having my father jailed as a political prisoner, my mother harassed daily, renting out our family home and...

In 1957 my parents were enjoying some semblance of normality and peace after the tumultuous years or phony trials, persecution, and jailing of my father. Out on "loan" to Benitez Rexach, my father was the captain of the Moineau Yacht part of the year, and of a...

In 1962 The investigations into political crimes committed by the Trujillo regime was under way. My father was called to testify about the disappearance of the Brito – On July 20, 1951 the Quetzal, commanded by Alfredo Brito, was delivering cargo to Cuba and was 50 to...

  By the time I turned three, my family had gone from a normal family living in the outskirts of Santo Domingo dealing with "normal" day-to-day issues, to having my father jailed as a political prisoner, my mother harassed daily, renting out our family home and...

I was born in the Dominican Republic (D.R.) during the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, fact that would define the rest of my life. Whether directly or indirectly, my family was affected by chaos during my formative years. The political unrest created an...

  One of the earliest memories I have is of going to see my father in the La Victoria jail in Santo Domingo. My father was a political prisoner and had been arrested several months prior. The Dictator Trujillo had been feeling that my father wasn’t totally...

Updated July 2023 "I cried, I cried, I cried..." I write this in the hope that it can help anyone young or old going through the same situation that I found myself in as a teenager and later as an adult. FACT: No, you are not weird. No, you are not alone. You are...