CALDERON–CARDONA v. DEM. PEOPLE’S REP. OF KOREA
Cite as 723 F.Supp.2d 441 (D.Puerto Rico 2010)
ther, witnessed his mother become permanently depressed and disabled, suffers the
trauma of the JRA’s murder of his father,
and endures the daily disruption to his
family life and his relationship with his
parents and siblings. Accordingly, Luis is
awarded $5,000,000 as compensatory damages. Defendants are jointly and severally
liable for the full amount of Luis’ compensatory damages.
D.
Gloria Calderon–Cardona
Gloria Calderon–Cardona (‘‘Gloria’’) is a
citizen of the United States (Exhibit No.
31) and resides in Puerto Rico. From the
time of her father’s death, Gloria has experienced emotional pain and suffering, loss
of her father’s society, companionship,
comfort, advice and counsel and has suffered severe mental anguish and extreme
emotional distress.
Gloria testified at trial that as a child
she considered Carmelo to be ‘‘a loving
father. He was an upright, upstanding
man, but he was a loving father, and TTT
whenever we had to go on a trip, if we all
didn’t go, he wouldn’t go.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 148, ln. 6–11) Asked
about Carmelo’s relationship with his wife
Eladia, Gloria said, ‘‘they had a loving
relationship. It was a very close relationship at all times.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec.
2, 2009, p. 146, ln. 19–20) Gloria added that
her father, ‘‘was a Christian, and TTT he
taught us that we had to go every Sunday
to church.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2,
2009, p. 146, ln. 5–6)
Gloria described the regular weekend
family trips to the countryside: ‘‘Whenever we traveled—because we went out to
the countryside a lot—and we would always go together as a family. My father
had a cargo truck that he would use for
construction, where he would take his materials; so on Sunday for church, he would
put some benches in the back, and we
would sit on those benches and all sit in
467
the back of the truck. So a—when we
would go out to the countryside, if we
brought in fruits, we brought in banana,
plantains, when we would get home, then
he would tell us to give it—to give out
fruits to the neighbors. The neighbors
were first.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2,
2009, p. 149, ln. 10–19)
Gloria said that because her father ‘‘was
always at home’’ playing with the children,
he would teach them ‘‘about the constellations, the Major, the Minor, and also teach
us about poetry, songs, games.’’ (Trial
Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 147, ln. 14–19)
She continued, ‘‘Well, at night, he would
buy corn, corn on the cob, and my mom
would roast them. And then we would all
get in the living room, and he taught us
the game of odds and even.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 147, ln. 23–25)
At Christmas, the family was all together. Gloria said, ‘‘My father would always
kill a pig, my mother would prepare it for
Christmas dinner, and we would have
‘‘pasteles,’’ ‘‘arroz con dulce,’’ ‘‘blood sausage,’’ because all that used to be prepared
at home. And at night we would all sit
down at the table—and sometimes we did
have family from the countryside that
would come in and join us.’’ (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 148, ln. 16–21)
New Year’s Day is also a very vivid
memory for Gloria. ‘‘New Year’s Day we
would spend it—we’d all spend it together.
We would receive the New Year, all of us
together, with our neighbors, singing, and
we would—that would also be true for
Christmas Eve. We would always get on
the porch with the ‘‘maracas,’’ the ‘‘palitos,’’ with all types of instruments. There
would be singing, together with neighbors,
that would also come to our home.’’ (Trial
Transcript, Dec. 2, 2009, p. 149, ln. 1–7)
Gloria testified that Carmelo had ‘‘always dreamed about some day going to
the Holy Land, to go to the places where