Who Am I?

by Confesor Miguel Edel

Confesor Miguel Edel (1991) Batey 62, La Romana. He finished his secondary studies with the “Prepara”[^fn1] secondary school program and currently is not studying. He is single and does not have children. He has a national identity and electoral card.

I am Confessor Miguel Edel, a young 25-year-old man, born and raised in a batey of Central Romana called 62, where we make a living from sugarcane: its cultivation and cutting. Even though my brother and I were young, my mother and father made the decision not to continue living together because my father didn’t want to change his habits. He is a gambler. Papá gets paid every Saturday, but after getting paid he takes the money to gamble and loses everything and, for this reason, my parents had to separate. We couldn’t take it anymore. We were tired of that situation. I think Mami made the best decision to separate from Papá. After that, we had to go work, my brother Ramón and I… we had to go work. My brother was 15 years old and I was 13 years old when we started cutting sugarcane.

When my mother would bring us breakfast to the sugar cane fields she would help us cut sugarcane without having any fear or shame of being seen cutting sugarcane. We did not have a father to depend on, we depended on ourselves and God. God never abandoned us. But there came a time when I had the bad luck of choosing the same path of gambling. I was a gambler, but one day I had an encounter with Jesus. I am a new man now. After Christ set me free, my life was restored.

I started studying again at the School of Batey of Higueral. I had to leave my mother to go live with my sister in Higueral to be able to continue studying. I am thankful to a friend named Ney, who also motivated me to continue school. He paid for my 100 pesos registration fee. I resumed my studies in the 6th grade at Batey Higueral in La Romana province and finished my primary studies. I finished Secondary School in Guaymate in Hicayagua at “Prepara” school, on Saturdays. I barely finished, machacadamente,¹ but I finished… thank God.

I was raised without a father, but I was able to survive without my dad next to me. I was an awful, unbearable man in the face of society. Nobody liked me because I was a disrespectful person… I was a dog with clothes. But I changed. After I accepted Christ into my life, I was transformed. I am no longer the same man.

I changed bit by bit by reading the Bible. Today I am sincere, honest and respectful. Now I am an evangelical Christian thanks to my God. I was able to understand that working in sugarcane was not for a man born and raised in the Dominican Republic and without documentation problems. Yes, it’s true… I cut sugarcane, but I did it out of necessity. Not for pleasure or of my own will.

After going through this, I also worked collecting iron, bottles, copper and aluminum in dumpsters to sell. Then, I went to work in a grocery store in Batey 62 as a merchant. Then I left because I received very low wages, just 3,000 pesos biweekly… I left after I paid off a Loncin 125 CG motorcycle and I still live in the Batey Central Romana. This is my life story.