On World War II

"Fleeing Poverty, Not Fatherland" is about Martine Marteaux, an eight-year-old girl whose dream is to be a doctor when she grows up so she can change her community by promoting employment, health, and education. On the island where she lives, the illiteracy rate is extremely high. Food is scarce, and there is no running water. The Marteaux family lives in total despair on a small farm with nothing to their names but a small vegetable garden for food, a cow for milk, and a donkey for transportation. Misery, for them, is a way of life. There is no opportunity whatsoever. The people's only choice is to live and die in misery, or risk their lives on a boat to Miami. Sometimes, they make it there safely, and, sometimes, they drown at sea. Cecile, 25, finally leaves her daughter, Martine, with her grandmother, Widow Marteaux, and is smuggled into Miami. Five years later, Cecile pays another smuggler $5,000 to bring her mother, Widow Marteaux, and her daughter, Martine, to America. Martine, then 13, enters Free Will High School in Fort Lauderdale, where prejudiced teachers and violent classmates vainly try to strangle her hopes and dreams. Despite difficulties of all sorts, Martine graduates with honors and gets several scholarships, attends NYU (New York University), studies medicine, and becomes a pediatrician. After a few years of hard work and saving, Martine (now Dr. Marteaux) returns to her island as planned, and builds a school and a medical facility in her own community. This impacts the entire island and greatly challenges the repressive government there, but eventually America helps Martine Marteaux reach her goals and keep her promises.