Albert Pujols is featured on George W. Bush’s book
Albert Pujols, the Dominican player for the Los Angeles Angels, has been included in the most recent book by former U.S. President George W. Bush.
The publication is titled “Out of Many One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants” and presents the history of 43 immigrants to that North American country accompanied by an equal number of portraits. painted in oil by the ex-president.
Pujols was one of the personalities chosen last Monday he was in the exhibition that since last week can be visited at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in the city of Dallas, Texas. Pujols thanked the inclusion of him with a message on his social networks.
“I want to send my greatest appreciation and thanks to President George W. Bush for including me in his new book, #OutOfManyOne. On Monday, the president invited me to see the painting he created and to meet with him and former First Lady Laura Bush”, the veteran player wrote.
“I felt an overwhelming sense of humility and appreciation. Only through God’s grace is a child from the Dominican Republic honored by the former leader of the free world. Thank you, Mr. President, for a day that I will never forget”, added Pujols, who on his visit was accompanied by his wife, Dreide.
Sign of success
“Immigration is ultimately a sign of a confident and successful nation,” Bush said. “It says something about our country that people from all over the world are willing to leave their homelands and their families, risking everything to come to our country.”
In recent interviews, the 74-year-old Bush has said that the biggest disappointment in his presidential tenure was his failure to achieve a comprehensive reform of the US immigration system, which keeps more than 11 million foreigners illegally.
In an interview with the Telemundo network, broadcast on the occasion of the parallel launch of his book of portraits and stories of immigrants, Bush said that he had started painting “from scratch, without prior knowledge, about eight or nine years ago.”
“We all come from different backgrounds but we are united by American values,” he noted. “That is the beauty of our country, and it is important that people remember that, that immigrants enrich our nation”.
Bush recalled the role she played in his life and that of his siblings Paula Rendón, a woman from Cuernavaca, Mexico, who was his nanny and, for him, “a second mother.”
“Paulita was my first real encounter with the history of immigrants. Obviously, she stayed in my whole life, and I’m very happy to have painted her”, he said. The exhibition at the Presidential Center will remain open to visitors until January 3rd