Maria Alejandrina Mercedes Castro agreed to talk to the Listin Diario newspaper to fill in for where she had been for the past 20 years. Her family thought she had drowned on a boat trip, as they never heard from her again, after she left her El Seibo hometown in the East in her quest for a better living. Surprisingly, and without notice, she returned last month. She explained that she traveled to Curaçao. From Curaçao she attempted to get to Venezuela on a boat with 36 other clandestine travelers. The boat didn’t make it and she was deported back to the DR. At the time, instead of returning home, she accepted a work offer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, falling for a scheme that in the end turned out to be a prostitution operation. She said that despite the sufferings, she rejected making easy money, remembering the upbringing of her parents. She said that in Haiti a pastor introduced her to God which gave her the strength to return home. She said she was too embarrassed to come home before. When she left in 1981, she left behind a daughter. She told the newspaper that communication is still strained between her and her daughter who today is 27 years old. Otherwise, her seven brothers and sisters received her with hugs and kisses. Her father died three years ago, thinking that his daughter had passed away. The story was first reported by DR1 Daily News in its http://www.dr1.com/daily/news020101.shtml edition.
