Within Historical Context

“Mira que linda!” (Look how beautiful), A phrase that was said to my grandmother often by her family members. “Ella tiene el pelo bueno”(She has good hair), another phrase. “Tienes que tener cuidado con ella, porque tal vez trujillo se la coge” (You have to be careful with her because trujillo might want her), the scariest and most worrying of the phrases that were said to her.

Early Life:

In order to understand the life of my grandmother, you must understand the historical events that had occurred around the time my grandmother was born. My grandmother was born on July 1, 1940. A chaotic time period in regards to world history. So much had happened within such a small period of jtime, within the Dominican Republic, the United States of …show more content…
In 1919, while the U.S. marines occupied the Dominican Republic, they offered him training to be a Soldier. In 1925, he was promoted to commander-in-chief. During this time, Dominican Republic was in a very fragile state. Trujillo took advantage of this and declared himself a candidate for the presidency. He would go on to organize secret police, in order to torture and murder supporters of opposition candidates. He won by a landslide. Going forward he would create a narcissistic name for himself, even as far as renaming the capital city, Santo Domingo, to the city of Trujillo or “Cuidad Trujillo.

Now you can understand why the most troubling phrase said to my grandmother while growing up was “Tienes que tener cuidado con ella, porque tal vez trujillo se la coge” (Be careful with her, because maybe Trujillo will want her). You see, trujillo was a predator on women with “good hair” or “white qualities”, my grandmother being of mixed descent, fit into those categories. She recalls that growing up she was terrified of even coming into to contact with anyone from the political party of Trujillo.

EARLY