Bipeds of Brookland: Carmen Torruella-Quander
Carmen painting a portrait of her great grandmother, who was an indigenous Taino Woman in the Dominican Republic.
Carmen Torruella-Quander grew up in a Dominican family in Adams Morgan and remembers coming to the Franciscan Monastery with her mother for mass in Spanish before it was available in other churches. “Back then, to come from Adams Morgan to Brookland was a good hour and a half or two hours… by bus and a street car.” Brookland always seemed a small town… outside of the city…There were cows at Old Soldiers Home.”
Along with her brother and her now husband, she was one of the first students to integrate Sacred Heart School in 1950. “We had kids from all over the world and we’re still
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