Dominican Republic: Latin American tourism champion

 
MIAMI.- (Latinvex).- The Dominican Republic continues to be a Latin American champion in receipts as a percent of its GDP, according to a to a Latinvex analysis data from the World Tourism Organization and the International Monetary Fund.

Dominican tourism receipts last year reached US$4.5 billion. That was 7.7 percent of the country's US$59 billion economy. No other country in Latin America as a high a ratio between receipts and GDP.
Meanwhile, international arrivals grew by 5.9 percent to 4.6 million. When compared to its population, the arrival ratio is 40.3 percent, the third-highest in Latin America.

On average each visitor spent US$996.9, considerably higher than the Latin American average of US$860, according to Latinvex.
 
The Dominican Republic ranks fourth in Latin America in terms of both number of tourists and receipts from tourists. Mexico leads, followed by Brazil and Argentina.
Overall, Latin America received a total of 80.2 million international arrivals last year, an increase of 3.1 percent from 2011. Total receipts reached US$68.9 billion, a 5.3 percent increase.

1.5 million Dominicans live in the U.S.: Pew study

NEW YORK.- A new report by the Pew Center on United States’ Latino population confirms that  1.5 million Dominicans live in the nation, or 2.9% of the total population.


The study notes that the statistic is valid until 2011, an was also confirmed by the 2010 Census, which found that Dominicans are the fifth largest Hispanic population in the U.S., while the 33.5 million Mexicans continue at first place (64.6%).

The Pew Center said the data is based on its survey of the Latino community in the U.S. conducted in 2011.

Mexicans are followed by Puerto Ricans with around 5 million, but doesn’t explain why that group was included since they are U.S. citizens by birth.

The report said 14 Latino subgroups have emerged including Argentinians, Nicaraguans, Spaniards and Venezuelans.
 

It adds that more than half of the Dominicans (56%) were born in the Dominican Republic compared with 36% for all other Hispanics, which account for 13% of the entire U.S. population.

 Key facts include:

• Immigration status. More than half of the Dominicans (56%) in the United States are foreign born compared with 36% of Hispanics and 13% of the U.S. population overall. A majority of immigrants from the Dominican Republic (64%) arrived in the U.S. in 1990 or later. Less than half of Dominican immigrants (48%) are U.S. citizens.
• Language. A majority (56%) of Dominicans speak English proficiently.² The other 44% of Dominicans ages 5 and older report speaking English less than very well, compared with 34% of all Hispanics.
• Age. Dominicans are younger than U.S. population and slightly older than Hispanics overall. The median age of Dominicans is 28; the median ages of the U.S. population and all Hispanics are 37 and 27, respectively.
• Marital status. Dominicans ages 15 and older are less likely to be married (35%) than Hispanics overall (43%) or the U.S. population overall (48%).
• Fertility. Less than one-in-ten (7%) Dominican women ages 15 to 44 gave birth in the 12 months prior to this survey. That was similar to the rate for all Hispanic women—8%—and the overall rate for U.S. women—6%. More than half (59%) of Dominican women ages 15 to 44 who gave birth in the 12 months prior to the survey were unmarried. That was higher than the rate for all Hispanic women—47%—and the overall rate for U.S. women—38%.
• Regional dispersion. About eight-in-ten Dominicans (78%) live in the Northeast, and nearly half (48%) live in New York.
• Educational attainment. Dominicans have higher levels of education than the Hispanic population overall but lower levels than the U.S. population overall. Some 16% of Dominicans ages 25 and older—compared with 13% of all U.S. Hispanics and 29% among the entire U.S. population—have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree.

 

Juan Pablo Duarte

Juan Pablo Duarte,  (born 1813, Santo Domingo, Hispaniola [now in Dominican Republic]—died 1876, Caracas, Venez.), father of Dominican independence, He was a visionary and liberal thinker who along with Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Matías Ramón Mella is widely considered the architect of the Dominican Republic and its independence from Haitian rule in 1844.
 His aspiration was to help create a self-sufficient nation established on the liberal ideals of a democratic government.

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Duarte, who was sent to Europe for his education (1828–33), became determined to free the eastern part of Hispaniola from Haitian domination. On his return to the island he and several other patriots organized a secret society, La Trinitaria, to work toward independence and to stimulate liberalism.
 
 His first attempt to oust the Haitians in 1843 collapsed, and he fled the country; but his followers succeeded in overthrowing the Haitians the next year.

 Duarte and others founded a society called La Filantrópica, which had a more public presence, seeking to spread veiled ideas of liberation through theatrical stages. All of this, along with the help of many who wanted to be rid of the Haitians who ruled over Dominicans led to the proclamation of independence on February 27, 1844 (Dominican War of Independence)


In February 1844 Duarte returned, and the Dominican Republic proclaimed its independence. It was not Duarte’s followers, however, who ultimately triumphed, but a local caudillo (military dictator), Pedro Santana. The defeated Duarte was exiled and took up residence in Caracas, Venez. He left Caracas for his homeland only once, during the War of Restoration (1864) against Spain, after which he was sent on a diplomatic mission for one year.



 Duarte, then living in Venezuela, was made the Dominican Consul and provided with a pension to honor him for his sacrifice. But even this after some time was not honored and he lost commission and pension. He, Juan Pablo Duarte, the poet, philosopher, writer, actor, soldier, general, dreamer and hero died nobly in Caracas at the age of 63. His remains were transferred to Dominican soil in 1884—ironically, by president and dictator Ulises Heureaux,—and given a proper burial with full honors.

 He is entombed in a beautiful mausoleum, the Altar de la Patria, at the Count's Gate (La Puerta del Conde), alongside Sanchez and Mella, who at that spot fired the rifle shot that propelled them into legend.
 His birth is commemorated by Dominicans every January 26.

Juan Pablo Duarte square, NYC

Where are you from? From the Island of la Hispaniola , la isla de Santo Domingo o Saint-Domingue?

Where are you from? Quisqueya, Santo Domingo, Haiti, La Espanola o la Hispaniola?



I was having an argument in South Florida.An old friend of mine was arguing that he was from la Hispaniola, I told him I am from the Island of Santo Domingo, so probably we are from different countries.

Sometimes when people ask me where i am from, saying i am Dominican, I have to clarify that i am dominican from Dominican republic, not from the island of Dominica, so it get more confusing..

To clarify this I have to go back to my own people history...


La Española es una isla situada en el archipiélago de las Antillas Mayores en el Caribe, la cual contiene a los estados soberanos República Dominicana y Haití.

La Española es conocida por ser el lugar del primer asentamiento europeo en el Nuevo Mundo, descubierta por Cristóbal Colón en su primer viaje en 1492.
Es la décima isla más poblada del mundo, y la más poblada de América.
Es la isla número 22 en tamaño en el mundo.

The island bears various names originated by its native people, the Taíno Amerindians. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492 he named it Hispana in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning "The Spanish Island", in Spanish. Bartolomé de las Casas shortened the name to "Española", and when Pietro Martyr d‘Anghiera detailed his account of the island in Latin, he translated the name as Hispaniola, Because Anghiera’s literary work was translated into English and French in a short period of time, the name "Hispaniola" became the most frequently used term in English-speaking countries for the island in scientific and cartographic works.



Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas documented that the island was called Haití ("Mountainous Land" by the Taíno. D‘Anghiera added another name, Quizqueia (supposedly "Mother of all Lands", but later research shows that the word does not seem to derive from the original Arawak Taíno language.] Although the Taínos use of Haití is verified and the name was used by all three historians, evidence suggests that it probably was not the Taíno name of the whole island. Haití was the Taíno name of a region (now known as Los Haitises) in the northeastern section of the present-day Dominican Republic. In the oldest documented map of the island, created by Andrés de Morales, that region is named Montes de Haití ("Haiti Mountains".
Las Casas apparently named the whole island Haití on the basis of that particular region;] d‘Anghiera said that the name of one part was given to the whole island

The colonial terms Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo are sometimes still applied to the whole island, although these names refer, respectively, to the colonies that became Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The name] Haïti was adopted by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines as the official name of independent Saint-Domingue, as a tribute to the Amerindian predecessors. Quisqueya (disambiguation needed] (from Quizqueia) is used to refer to the Dominican Republic.

So, after this small research, I am confused how to answer the question of "where are you from?"



So ,after all this information, in the future..If somebody ask you..where are you from..What will you answer and why?

Edited on 6/12/2013 2:24 PM by ohhhvictor.

Dominican expressions ..

The first immigrant in NY was dominican !

Juan Rodriguez , first foreigner ( and dominican! ) in NYC, 1613

At the renaming of Broadway into Juan Rodriguez Way. The first nyc immigrant from 1625 who was a black, free dominican man.


About three miles of northern Manhattan today honor a man who, until recently, was unknown to most of the people who live there.

Juan Rodriguez Way will be the name of Broadway from 159th to 218th Streets, after an early settler from Santo Domingo who reportedly arrived in New York in 1613. Rodriguez is believed to be the city’s first Dominican immigrant, as well as its first free black settler, its first Latino and its first non-Native American merchant.

“It completely re-conceptualizes the Dominican presence in NYC,” said Led Black, a local Dominican-American writer and editor of the Uptown Collective. “I think many Dominicans feel that even though we have been a part of this city for quite some time now, we have been left out of the city’s narrative and that is starting to change finally.”

Though many uptown residents are now learning about Rodriguez through efforts by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, which uncovered his story, Rodriguez’s existence had been completely unknown by the uptown community, with its high Dominican population.

Anthony Stevens, an assistant director at the Dominican Studies Institute, worked to unravel Rodriguez’s history and pushed for the Broadway co-naming. From what Stevens and other researchers have gathered so far, Rodriguez appears to have landed somewhere in the Hudson Bay area while on board a Dutch expedition ship.

“He’s sort of the first immigrant,” Stevens said. “Not just the first settler, because he came from afar — another culture, another place.”

Black noted the renewed sense of pride Rodriguez’ history offered Dominicans.

“People are generally happy to find out our history predates the last 50 years,” he said. “Most had no idea but once they knew, they were pretty proud of it.”

Many locals, though unfamiliar with Rodriguez, found the history interesting. Mary Kate Burke, a teacher born and raised in Inwood, was fascinated by the news.

“That is really amazing,” she said. “The thing about this area is, you always associate Dominican culture with the influx of immigrants in the ‘60s or ‘70s, not the 1600s.”

Emmanuel Abreu, lifetime local of Washington Heights, was one community member familiar with Juan Rodriguez and the upcoming street co-naming.

“I think it’s important to everyone, especially Dominicans in Washington Heights,” Abreu said. “Or at least it should be.”


An archival document about Juan Rodriguez from the Archives of the City of Amsterdam. (Reproduction by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute)

El primero de nosotros en estas tierras! Seguimos sigiendole sus pasos!
Arriba esas banderas!

Former dominican President Leonel Fernandez to be nominated for secretary general of the Organization of American States

Leonel Fernandez for OAS secretary general

22 out of 34 countries in the Americas are said to be backing a proposal for former President Leonel Fernandez to be nominated for secretary general of the Organization of American States. "Leonel Fernandez not only has the capacity, track record and knowledge to lead the OAS, but even the United Nations, as his meritorious political career can attest to," Senate president Reinaldo Pared Perez told Listin Diario. Fernandez is the president of the ruling PLD party, and Pared is general secretary.

Pared Perez said that the proposal, first mentioned by Dominican ambassador in Spain Cesar Medina in his Tocando la Tecla column in Listin Diario, recognizes President Fernandez's track record as a former President and politician.

Medina says that Fernandez has the support of the Caricom countries, and Venezuela and Brazil.

Cesar Medina wrote that while Fernandez is aware of the interest in presenting his candidacy, he has not expressed an opinion.

In the past, there has been speculation that the former President would be interested in being secretary general of the UN.

Pared Perez said that in order to accept the post, Fernandez would have to decline the presidency of the political party.






Senate president Reinaldo Pared yesterday said it’s "a slap in the face by ignoble souls to not recognize the exceptional conditions of former Dominican president Leonel Fernandez," who was nominated by 22 countries as secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).

"Leonel Fernández not only has the capacity, experience and knowledge to lead the OAS, but even the United Nations, because the merits he accumulated in the course of his public career confirm it," said the also Secretary General of Dominican Republic’s ruling PLD Party, quoted by listin.com.do.

 
Pared said the mere fact that Fernández, President of the ruling party, has been mentioned by a score of countries, "implies a remarkable recognition of the public career of this man from the Dominican Republic, not only in his capacity as former President, but as a prominent politician."

www.listin.com.do/la-republica/2013/6/3/279310/Reinaldo-destaca-las-condiciones-de-Leonel-para-dirigir-la-OEA