Los Alcarrizos—Forty-five years ago, on August 31, Hurricane David hit the Dominican Republic. Its footprints are still marked in the shantytowns of the municipality of Los Alcarrizos, with three generations born in a place that has been multiplying poverty, disillusionment due to deceit, abandonment, illnesses, and deaths.
Such is the case of Beatriz Báez, who arrived in the shantytowns of Canta La Rana with her parents when she was only 15 years old. There, she raised her seven children with great sacrifice and has 20 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Daughter of Dolores Baez and Juan José Medina, who died more than 30 years ago, she is one of five children her parents had.
When Cyclone David hit, they lived with their parents and siblings in Quisqueya, but their house was swept away by the winds of the phenomenon from where they were taken as refugees to the Liceo Unión Panamericano in Miraflores.
From that school, they were transferred to Los Barracones de Los Alcarrizos, with the promise that they would be there temporarily for six months. However, today, they have been carrying a very heavy cross for 45 years due to the deterioration of the habitat and the insalubrity that surrounds it.
Her older brother was one of two Dominicans who drowned after being thrown into the sea by the crew of a Philippine ship in June 2005.
She specifies that she had seven children, all in the barracks where she still lives, of whom two died, three live practically nearby, two in the barracks, and one in the La Piña sector.
She says that one of the boys who died suffered from respiratory problems as a consequence of the unhealthy conditions in which they lived; another one was epileptic and died of a seizure in the hospital of Los Alcarrizos, Vinicio Calventi.
Their youngest children are 25 years old, twins who live in the Juanita sector, near the Center of Los Alcarrizos. Each has two children, but the female already expects a third, so there will be 21 grandchildren in a few months.
She says, “I am proud of all my grandchildren and great-grandchildren because they come and hug me, take care of me, and would like to stay with me all the time.”
In order to raise her children, she says, she was forced to work hard in the family home from a very young age, which she did until a year and six months ago when the ailments in her body no longer allowed them to do so.
She points out that her situation was so critical that she sometimes worked in three family homes simultaneously. In the last one, she worked for 17 years and was even allowed to bring one of her children.
From so much work, especially ironing, Beatriz’Beatriz’s became bent and stiff, which prevented her from continuing to work.
“Although I would like to continue working, the pains in my body and the fatigue don’t allow me to,” Beatri says from a chair in front of her house.
Although all her children had made their lives outside the barracks, her daughter Carmen returned with four children because her barracks had been remodeled three years ago, one block away.