President Carías headed Honduras in 1924, and then again from 1933 to 1949. Mr. Basilio risked his life by staying in Olancho and in 1924 he preferred to start his life anew on the then very remote island of Roatan. Even here he decided to settle in an area that was remote and visited by few people. His Olanchano friend and fellow political activist Matilde Santos followed him and eventually Encarnación Sevilla joined them as well.

Juticalpa was home to Santos Moradel who had three daughters: Viviana, Pasquala and Ingimia. Soon Basilio married Pasquala, his friend Matilde Santos married Viviana and Encarnación married Ingimia.

While US and Europe were going through the Great Depression, Honduras went through the crisis much less affected. Thousands of Hondurans lost work as US consumers demand for bananas fell. In 1935 Black Sigatoka epidemic damaged many banana plantations. Extensive banana areas around Trujillo were abandoned.

In 1935 Black Sigatoka epidemic damaged many banana plantations.

In 1937 the Triburcio Carías Andino unleashed another wave of political repression imprisoning left leaning political activists. Communists were gaining influence all over Latin America. While Carías declared the Communist Party (PCH) of Honduras illegal, the Liberal Party of Honduras (PLH) was active for a few more years.

When Filomena was nine years old, in 1937, her father decided the political climate in Honduras made it no longer safe to live on the island. With the two other Olanchanos of Juticalpa he decided to leave for Belize. They sailed from Punta Gorda on a cayuco with a small sail. They sent some letters to their wives and family. They even sent some money through Jim Gaugh in Oak Ridge. They were afraid to return and died in exile in Belize.

Mrs. Filomena had received only two years of public school in Oak Ridge, and remembers her two colleagues drowning when their cayuco flipped as they paddled to school in Oak Ridge Cay.

At 17 Mrs. Filomena married Domingo Ramos, an accordion player. Her husband was in demand to play music at Saturday evening dances in Oak Ridge and Milton Bight. He could play the accordion, banjo and cimbalom. Being a musician didn’t create enough income and Mr. Domingo worked in the fields, looked after cattle and worked as a security guard.

Mrs. Filomena stayed at home looking after the couple’s eight children. Back in the 1940s there were four houses in First Bight. “We were poor, but we gave our childrens love”, says Mrs. Filomena. “That is something I am most proud off.”

We were poor, but we gave our childrens Love.

Mrs. Filomena is catholic and in 1940s and 50s she attended Catholic Masses and services whenever she had a chance to. There would be a priest visiting the Punta Gorda Garifuna community every so often and celebrating mass at the church there. There was also a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows in a Catholic home in Brick Bay.

Mrs. Filomena is nimble, and moves around her blue painted cement home with agility and purpose. While Alzheimer’s has made her forget many things from recent past, her memory from her youth remains vivid.

Today, one of Mrs. Filomena’s most prized possessions as a photo of her, her husband and her oldest daughter Aida in front of their home in First Bight. It was taken in 1948 by Luis Chirinos, a photographer based in Oak Ridge that for 50 cents would take and print a photograph for local people.

Quiet Life After Decades at Sea

His grandmother Decidelia Solorzano from Olancho raised him until he was seven and at age ten the young Sam would do “machete work,” clearing bush for people and earning two Lempira a day. “No man worked harder than me,” says Mr. Sam. “Money had value those days. Today it has no value.”

There were no schools nearby and getting education was dependent on tutors and family usually using Royal Readers. “I don’t know what a schoolhouse looks like,” says Mr. Samuel, who was taught to read and write by his stepfather, Archibald Hinds, who came from Barbados.

At 24, Mr. Samuel married a friend he met in church, her name was Juliet Francelia Gale. He built an 18 foot by 14 foot “bush house with a porch on it” for his new family and thus his married life had begun. The couple had two girls: Greta, Wilma, and a boy named Buel.

Money had value those days. Today it has no value.

When he was 33 his life took a drastic turn. It was 1967 and he picked up a contract to work on “Red Diamond V” a frozen foods transport ship sailing between Bluefields Bluff, Nicaragua and Brownsville, Texas. The 104 foot long ship was moving lobster and other frozen seafood to markets in the US. Mr. Samuel worked in the engine room and while the work was noisy and tough, he got used to it.

After working for 18 months straight he was able to come home for 18 days before an offer to become the chief engineer on “Red Diamond V” came in. Jobs were hard to come by and Mr. Samuel jumped on the opportunity. He became a permanent member of the crew of six that run the vessel for ten long years.

In 1977 Mr. Samuel moved to Dubai to join Gulf Fleet, a company running boats supplying oil rigs in the Persian Gulf. He was the chief engineer working on 190-foot vessels. It was a big responsibility and Mr. Samuel did that until 1982. “For nine years I didn’t spend a single Christmas at home,” remembers Mr. Samuel. Life of a boat crew was not easy as one had to ask for permission to take time off to visit home for Christmas and special occasions.

Mr. Samuel’s year-long contracts would be interrupted by three month visits to Roatan. Eventually he moved closer to home and began working for Gulf Fleet out of Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. He switched boats a few more times and took his final gig in 2001- Mr. Sam was 69 years old and after 34 years at sea he was ready to spend full time on his native Roatan.

Now well into his 80s, Mr. Samuel spends much of his time in his home on a Diamond Rock hill just 100 paces from mangroves. The view from his porch of the rolling hills and fields is stunning. He took up planting yucca, camote in his back yard and bought a fishing dory. The 31 foot boat with 100 horsepower diesel motor takes him wherever he wants to go looking for a Wahoo, or a barracuda.