Ocoee, FL, November 27, 2023 –Jean-Claude Blaise has completed his new book, “Letters to My Father: Authentic Memoirs of Jean-Claude Blaise”: a potent personal account that mirrors the daily struggles one may face under the Duvaliers’ regimes in the sixties through the mid of eighties to cultural shock and identity in other countries.
Blaise writes, “Blaise! Oh, Blaise! A name that makes you so well-known among your peers, the neighborhood, and among your regular customers through your professional deeds and works. Of course, people are born and grow up with the names they bear, which identify them for whom they really are. This identity is embedded in their inner soul; and finally they die oftentimes without this personal attachment to their ancestral roots to even know where they have actually come from while nourishing deep in their minds this feverish idea of the horrifying journey of mankind.”
He continues, “Blaise, a name whose importance has never been inculcated in us, not even from childhood. Nevertheless, thanks to a school assignment entrusted to my son, we were able to discover the brilliant meaning of our name. In fact, it means ‘the one who reigns.’ Yet surprising discovery! It also means ‘the one who stutters.’ Interestingly enough, I remember that as a kid, I had a lot of trouble to talk. I used to stutter horribly. By the way, you acquire a fabulous fame by your name, whose origin you have completely ignored. Your name has become a parody for your fellow citizens of the city, who could have put it in song, as it dotted all their conversations and has embellished the discourse of the day.”