New book looks at caye through family eyes

It started out as a story, intended to help three children understand their family history and ended up as a history of Caye Caulker Village. Today, the daughter of Antonio Vega Senior came home to launch “Caye to Success”, a documentary of her father’s rise out of poverty. Mati Vega Gomoll, who currently resides in Lansing, Michigan, says the part biography, part history book is a must read for all Belizeans.

Mati Vega Gomoll, Author, Caye to Success

“The book is about the history of Caye Caulker and the two main elements that helped the caye to be propelled to success. The two things are: one, the successful first fishery cooperative that was formed, and the main founder is the person on the cover of the book. The other picture on the cover of the book is the caye, and the caye itself has a story… and the story is in the book.”

“The biography is actually the biography of my father, his life is really rich, but he had a lot to do with the changes of the island. And the history of caye caulker has never been documented before, so I am proud to do that.”

Patrick Jones

“What was the inspiration for your putting this work together?”

Mati Vega Gomoll

“I started writing a story for my own children. I have three boys, and I started writing a history for them and it turned out like this.”

The book was published in September in the United States. The Angelus Press has been contracted as the Belize distributor for “Caye to Success”, which Vega says she hopes will be used as a history text in the schools.