The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

I have just finished reading this book: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It has left me a little wet eyed and with a horrible feeling in my gut- a brief mourning for those souls in this world whose lives have so little good in them, for those that know their only taste of beauty right before their very lights are snuffed out. A moment's silence please....

The Brief and Wondorous Life of Oscar Wao is not only a definitively fictitious, humours (and equally tragic) story about the shitty-gritty life of a young Dominican muchacho growing up in America but it is also an extremely insightful account of the history of the Dominican Republic under Trujillos' rule. "Trujillo who?" you say (well that's what I said) To give you an idea:  take Mugabe and multiple by a thousand, now add the blood-lust of Pol Pot and the Sex drive of Errol Flynn and HEY PRESTO you have Trujillo! Ruler of the Dominican Republic from 1930-1961. This guy makes Hilter look like the Sugar Plum Fairy. 
While the World was consumed with WW1 and WW2, no less sinister things were taking place on a tiny island in the Carribean. The DR was was held hostage by el presidente Trujullio for 30 years and his became one of the bloodiest and most terrifying regimes the world over. Like the majority of these despotic slugs, Trujillo dirtied himself with all matter of things highly villanous and unspeakable in their brutality.  He launched a machete and hate fuelled campaign against fellow Haitian islanders (keeping very quiet aboiut his Haitian mother), he had jailed, tortured or murdered any Intelligentsia or successful members of the community who to refused to kiss his butt, he raped the wives and daughters of his comrades and like all- amassed billions of dollars while driving his people into the depths of poverty and starvation.
The sad thing is that the DR is not an isolated case in history. There are hundreds of countries that have suffered under similar circumstances. What is worth noting is that these stories are far less publicised and less well known than the great battles of WW1 and 2. Now, I understand that these Wars involved more than 2 countries at any given time (hence WORLD WAR), but it might be worth noting that these were often the most powerful countires in the world and I sometimes get the sense that the "importance" of their war-faring history has drowned out the voices who tell the tale of less powerful nations. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way understating the calamity that gripped the world in those Wars ( and I know what side my bread is buttered) but I am quite sure that the victims of these less publicised wars suffered no less than their American, Russian and European counter-parts. 

The fact is that the money and power of the nations involved in the World Wars has given that history presidence above all else. The citizens of these wealthier nations have had the capital to both create and access countless films, books, documentaires etc about their nations' history, while the butchered Bosniacs (1992),  the 2 million murdered and 4 million displaced Sudanese (2002) and indeed the beleaguered Dominicans' stories remain largely unheard. The truth is, nobody cares about the Cambodias and the DR's of this world, these are not rich counties who can easily pay for their plight to be heard, they do not have the patronage to catapult their misery into stardom. And of course history repeats itself, just as one Trujillo is assasinated and another is born, the world sits back and worries about its own problems. Junot Diaz has managed to captivate his nation's story in a most explosive yet articulate way and has given a voice to a country who would otherwize be yet another silent prop on the world's stage.