Last year, when I was working on Growing Up Pedro, I traveled to the Dominican Republic to do some research (it was also a family vacation). It was amazing to be able to go out into the countryside and visit places that still look they way they did when Pedro Martinez was a kid. Here are some of the pictures I took during that trip.
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| We drove up into the mountains, and I snapped pictures of everything- houses, palm trees, mango trees, all the scenery. |
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| We stopped a a little colmado (store) to get some water in the village of El Cupey, and saw some kids playing outside. |
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| When this guy heard I was working on a book about Pedro Martinez, he immediately showed me his batting stance. |
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| This family was so nice, and even invited us right into their home, where their mother was cooking dinner. That's my daughter walking in, exploring a different world. This house is a lot like the one Pedro Martinez lived in when he was growing up. |
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| Mango trees play an important role in Growing Up Pedro, so I spent a lot of time searching for The Perfect Mango Tree. When I saw this one, I knew I had found it. |
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| This is Dani, who did an amazing job posing for me as a young Pedro Martinez. |
We enjoyed the trip so much, we decided to go back this year (just for vacation this time). A few days ago, on our last day there, I finally tracked down Dani, the kid who posed as a young Pedro Martinez. Here he is, seeing the book for the first time.
