Roberto Despradel, a columnist for the Dominican newspaper Diario Libre, has written about his father's newly published autobiography, tracing a family tradition of public service that stretches back more than a century in the Dominican Republic.
The book, titled "Traté de Merecer mi Existencia" ("I Tried to Deserve My Existence"), covers his father's main experiences and contributions to the Dominican economy across more than sixty years of professional work in both the public and private sectors, Despradel wrote. He said the book does not simply list the positions his father held or the events he took part in, but also shows how his father understood professional life, public service and the responsibility that comes with decision-making.
Despradel traced the origin of his reflection back roughly twenty years, to a school assignment in which his son had to build a family genealogical tree, complete with photographs and short accounts of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and, in some cases, great-great-grandparents. He recalled his own father looking through the finished album and remarking on the importance of knowing where one comes from. At the time, Despradel wrote, the comment did not strike him as significant, but it stayed with him like a seed lying dormant underground, waiting for the right conditions to grow.
A family tradition of service
Despradel wrote that public service ran through daily life in the Despradel Roques family. His great-grandfather, Fidelio, a lawyer and judge, served as minister of public works and minister of justice, among other posts. His grandfather, Arturo, also a lawyer, was rector of the University of Santo Domingo, chancellor of the republic and ambassador to several countries. His father, an economist, continued that path, holding senior positions within the Dominican state and taking an active part in the country's economic life for decades.
Despradel added that this sense of service was not limited to holding public office. His grandmother, together with the Roques Martínez sisters, pursued it through another calling: teaching.
Shared values across generations
One and the same current ran through that family tree, Despradel wrote: a vocation to serve, whether from within the state or from the classroom. Rooted alongside it were values such as responsibility, integrity, justice, honesty, rectitude and dignity.
Anyone who knows his father's siblings, Despradel wrote, would likely conclude they could hardly be more different from one another, with distinct temperaments, professions and ways of facing life and voicing their convictions. Yet behind those differences lies a common foundation, he said, since the values are essentially the same even if each sibling has interpreted and applied them in his or her own way.
That, Despradel suggested, may be one of the most important lessons a family passes on. Families do not hand down precise instructions for how to live, he wrote, but principles, leaving it to each generation to decide how to turn them into conduct.
A duty passed down
Despradel argued that this task is growing more complex. He described living in an era in which immediacy has become the norm, the constant stimuli of hyperconnectivity pull focus in every direction, and material success is too often mistaken for success itself. Surrounded by a steady stream of opinions, images, judgments and instant rewards, he wrote, it can become harder to tell what is convenient from what is right, and what is allowed from what is owed.
That is why having a solid counterweight matters so much, Despradel wrote. He said the family tree is not merely a collection of old names, dates and photographs, but a map of responsibilities, a reminder that a family's history did not begin with any one person and that the consequences of one's decisions do not end there either.
Over the years, Despradel wrote, he has come to believe that one of a son's great responsibilities is to return the family name he was lent in at least the same condition in which he received it. He said this is not a matter of titles, positions, honors or wealth, but of something far more fragile and, at the same time, far more valuable: the reputation built around a name and the values that name represents for those who come after.
Despradel closed by writing that he is certain his grandfather would be proud of the way his son, Despradel's father, is returning the name he once received from him. He said it now falls to him and to the new generations to keep carrying that name with the same integrity, and, when their own turn comes, to hand it down in the same condition in which it was left to them.
