Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic Casa de Campo (Spanish for "Country House") is a Ponderosa-style tropical seaside resort in La Romana on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic. It was developed in 1975 by Gulf+Western on of its Central Romana sugar mill's land. The first to enjoy the luxuries of this enclave were friends of Charles Bluhdorn, Gulf+Western's founder and CEO, who built the retreat. One of Bluhdorn's Dominican friends, Oscar de la Renta, was hired to do interior design for Casa De Campo. After Bluhdorn's death, the Cuban-American Fanjul family (the world's top sugar barons), bought Casa and
Oscar de la Renta University of Santo Domingo could offer. Another maternal uncle, Fabio Fiallo, was a diplomat and poet. On his father's side, De la Renta's great-great grandfather José Ortíz de la Renta was the first mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, elected by popular vote and who had the distinction of serving as mayor eight times, the most ever for the city. De la Renta was raised Catholic in a protective family. His mother died from complications of multiple sclerosis when he was 18. At the age of 18, he went to study painting in Spain at the Academy of San Fernando in