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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

No other part of the world has been shaped so completely as the Caribbean by the two institutions of European colonialism and plantation slavery. Caribbean history, like its geography, is highly fractured. - Anglophone, Hispanophone, and Francophone territories, and to political, economic, and cultural developments.

.The history of the Dominican Republic could be divided into four main periods: the precolombian period, the Spanish/colonial period, the intermediate period and the independence period. The colonial/Spanish period starts with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and ends around 1790-1791. The intermediate period started around 1790 and finished in 1844 with the proclamation of the Dominican independence from Haiti. The independence period runs from 1844 to the present.

"1492 - Christopher Columbus visits the island, which he names Hispaniola, or "Little Spain". He named it La Española, and his son, Diego, was its first viceroy. The capital, Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, is the oldest European settlement in the Western Hemisphere. Columbus was searching for India when he reached here by mistake. That is the reason the original natives of this land were thought to be Indians. The original natives of the Dominican Republic were the Taíno aboriginals, who were probably settling there since 600 AD. These original inhabitants had named the island as Quisqueya, which literally means 'highest land'. In 1508, after Columbus acceded the land to King Ferdinand, the island heretofore known as Quisqueya was rechristened as Island of Santo Domingo.

By 1508, one of the most famous of the conquistadors, Juan Ponce de León, had constructed (using Indian labor, to be sure) a fortresslike house near the far southeastern tip of the island. The Spanish set up sugar plantations and cattle ranches, and the land has remained mostly rural and poor ever since (though the sugar and cattle barons have prospered).

Located in the Caribbean Sea, the Dominican Republic covers an area of 18,792 square miles (48,671 square kilometers), occupying the eastern portion of Hispaniola, the second largest island of the Antilles. It shares the island with Haiti, but the two neighbors have little in common. Haiti’s population has French and African roots, while the Dominican Republic is more closely associated with Latin America. Like many Latin American countries, the Dominican Republic has experienced ethnic tensions, oppressive military rulers, political disorder, and civil unrest-however, these problems have paled in comparison with neighboring Haiti, which is one of the most troubled countries in the Western Hemisphere. The capital of the Dominican Republic is Santo Domingo.

Spain ceded the colony to France in 1795, and Haitian blacks under Toussaint L'Ouverture conquered it in 1801. In 1808, the people revolted and captured Santo Domingo the next year, setting up the first republic. Spain regained title to the colony in 1814. In 1821 Spanish rule was overthrown, but in 1822 the colony was reconquered by the Haitians. In 1844, the Haitians were thrown out and the Dominican Republic was established, headed by Pedro Santana. Uprisings and Haitian attacks led Santana to make the country a province of Spain from 1861 to 1865.

For the next 22 years the whole island of Hispaniola was under Haitian control - Dominicans call the period "The Haitian Occupation". Due to their loss of political and economic control, the the former Spanish ruling class deeply resented the occupation . During the late 1830's, an underground resistance group, La Trinitaria, was organized under the leadership of Juan Pablo Duarte. After multiple attacks on the Haitian army, and because of internal discord among the Haitians, the Haitians eventually retreated. Independence of the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola was officially declared on February 27, 1844, and the name República Dominicana (Dominican Republic) was adopted.
1808 - Spain retakes Santo Domingo following revolt by Spanish Creoles
1810 - Overthrow of the king of Spain by Napoleon
1822 - Haitian Republic is born
1844 Feb 27 - Dominican Republic gained independence from Haiti. Santo Domingo declares its independence and becomes the Dominican Republic

In Dominican society – as in most of Latin America – the degree of discrimination is related to a blend of factors, including skin colour, clothing, family background, income/educational levels, cultural orientation, the accent used when speaking Spanish or whatever alternative language an individual uses. Variations in the patterns of slavery in the two regions were in some way responsible for the differences in race relations; and that religious, economic, cultural, and political factors determined the trajectory of race relations.

Haitians are therefore stigmatized because of the combination of their dark skin colour, low income level/social ranking, clothing quality and especially because they have steadfastly retained many of their traditional ancestral cultural values and modes. Therefore they are seen as being not 'European' enough, and above all 'too African'.

All forms of Haitian culture, such as holidays, traditional African-based religious practices (Voodoo) and the Africanized French (Creole), are derided and socially discriminated against. Dominicans typically claim the existence of a distinct Haitian 'look', which usually consists of darker skin and shabby clothing.

Dominican Republic comprises the eastern two-thirds side of the island of Hispaniola which neighbours the former French colony of Haiti. United States and other imperialist powers like France and Germany have persecuted, exploited and from time to time, occupied Haiti and how the Haitian people have resisted by any means possible.

At least half of Haiti's population in 1790 were killed before 1802 and still the Haitian people won. They crushed France's genocidal attempt to re-enslave them by crushing Napoleon's army. This hard-won victory meant Haiti was a beacon of hope and inspiration to enslaved African people of the United States, even after they obtained their freedom. Frederick Douglass, the famous Black abolitionist who was the U.S. consul in Port-au-Prince in the 1880s,

Cabarete was built as the bohemian center of the island.It is a city that offers much in the way of the past.

The small town of Cabarete is located in Puerto Plata province in the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Cabarete is a small town located between the sea and a tranquil lagoon.

The Dominican Republic, under behind-the-scenes diplomatic pressure, requested that the United States intervene to put the island's financial house in order. Under terms of an executive order of January 1905, the United States announced that it would: In 1905, the United States government took over the administration of the country’s customs authority after several European powers sent warships to the capital city of Santo Domingo to demand repayment of loans given to the earlier government of Ulises ‘Lilís’ Heureaux. The U.S. Bureau of Insular Affairs gained receivership of Dominican customs and the U.S. became the sole foreign creditor of the country. It was through this act that the United States laid the ground work for turning the Dominican Republic into a neocolony, under its complete economic control.

guarantee the territorial integrity of the Dominican Republic

assume responsibility for customs house collections, using 55% of receipts to pay outstanding obligations and turning over the remainder for governmental purposes. Economic difficulties, the threat of European intervention, and ongoing internal disorders led to a U.S. occupation in 1916 and the establishment of a military government in the Dominican Republic. The occupation ended in 1924, with a democratically elected Dominican Government.

1916 United States Marines invade the Dominican Republic. Dominican sugar exports increased from 122642 tons in 1916 to 158803 tons in 1920 .....

1916-24 - US forces occupy the Dominican Republic following internal disorder
1924 - Constitutional government assumes control and the US forces withdraw.

There is a de-facto collusion between Dominican and Haitian authorities to maintain this trafficking in cheap labor, fueled by the expulsions. It is reported that some high-level officials on both sides of the border are paid for each Haitian repatriated and each Haitian brought in. This fraudulent commerce in cheap labor also sustains a number of intermediaries and is fraught with corrupt and abusive practices. It is an example of the collusion between the dominant business interests and the governments of both countries to constantly drive down wages throughout the island.

In 1935 and 1936, Presidents Rafael L. Trujillo and Stenio Vincent signed additional clauses and amendments to the 1929 treaty, finally establishing a permanent and clearly delimited border, the same that still stands today. A fixed border one of his top foreign policy priorities. The aftermath of the border treaty, however, infuriated Trujillo. He had mistakenly thought that a fixed border would have meant a sealed border. That was not the case. The border treaty was a diplomatic agreement; for the peoples living on both sides of the newly-established border, little had changed. For decades after the end of the Haitian-Dominican wars, the border region had been a place where the authority of the state had been very weak. This led to the development of a mixed population of arrayanos, Haitian-Dominicans who spoke Spanish and Creole, engaged in trade and contraband across the border, and did not owe allegiance to any state in particular (Baud 1993a, 1993b). An inspection trip along the border directed by Trujillo himself confirmed the weakness of the Dominican state in the sparsely-populated border region (Cornielle 1980).

A former sugar cane plantation guard, Rafael Trujillo began his ascent to power in the National Guard, where he was trained by American Marines occupying the Dominican Republic. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming head of the armed forces when the American troops left in 1924, a time of relative prosperity. It was not long before he toppled an aging caretaker president, and in 1930 he began a thiry-one-year dictatorship

In 1937 thousands of Haitians living near the border of the Dominican Republic are massacred by Dominican soldiers under the orders of President General Trujillo. In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael
Trujillo ordered his country cleansed of Haitians. Estimates of the dead
range from 12,000 to 34,000.
Relations between the countries have always been tense, punctuated by
invasions and massacres that often revolve around race.

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC : The representative of the Dominican Republic at the Conference d`Evian announced that his government was willing to accept up to 100.000 Jewish immigrants. Of the many attendees, the only president to respond was Trujillo, who offered a vast expanse of farm land and 100,000 visas. This offer not only repaired his relations with the rest of the world, but also fit into his "whitening" plan. While it saved lives, the plan failed as a social engineering project. Most of the 5,000 or so refugees who acquired visas soon left for other countries. And it turned out that only about half of the 700 people who eventually settled in the new community of Sosúa were unmarried; very few of the rest married Dominicans.

Because of bureaucratic difficulties in the countries from which the Jews were to leave, both in their countries of origin and the countries of passage, and the slow pace adopted by the institutions responsible for the implementation of the project, its success was less than satisfactory. Between 1940 and 1942, when because of the War no more Jews could make it, less than 600 persons finally settled there. After the War a few families arrived from Shanghai , where several thousand Jews had been stranded during the conflict. By 1947 a total of 705 people had passed through Sosúa, the region at the northern end of the country where then President Trujillo had sold 22.230 hectares for that purpose.

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are."
– E. E. Cummings

The only source of knowledge is experience

Haitian cane cutters are usually paid by the weight of harvested cane rather than the hours worked. Observers have noted that employers sometimes delay the dispatch of collection vehicles allowing the newly cut cane to first dehydrate and lose weight, thereby lowering the wages to be paid.

In various sugar cane industry shantytowns, field guards reportedly keep workers' clothes and documents to prevent them from leaving until the end of the harvest.

History of Vodou in the Americas
Vodou was brought to the Americas by African slaves who were imported to the New World during the Atlantic slave trade. The first African slaves touched soil on Hispaniola in the early 16th century with the system in full swing by the early 1550’s. A majority of the slaves brought to the New World originated from the Central and Western Africa tribes of Yoruba, Ewe, Fon, Mina, Kabaye, and Nago. Eventually, it became financially and politically unprofitable for the Europeans to maintain the system of racial slavery in the Americas.

By 1833, the
British had abolished slavery on their colonies, including Canada.

Then, the French followed suite in 1848, the United States of
North-America in1862 and eventually the Spanish and the Portuguese in
1886 and 1888.

"Only by acceptance of the past can you alter it."
– T.S. Eliot

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic climate and geography. Why is Haiti considerably poorer?
Haiti won its independence after a long revolution that destroyed a lot of the country. They were then required to pay a large indemnity to France or else many countries—including the United States—refused to acknowledge Haiti for fear that it would encourage an American slave revolt. More recently, both Haiti and the Dominican Republic were occupied by the United States, but Haiti was occupied for much longer. By the time the U.S. pulled out in 1934, Haiti's own institutions had atrophied.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods

Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you

Over the years, I have discovered life is a journey, a pilgrimage, a sacred adventure. Within everyone’s inner solitude, there is that bright and warm hearth where the spirit dwells waiting to be roused. There are many paths to enlightenment, their teachings rich and varied offering wisdom and “food for thought” and everything we need for our journey to awakening lies within us.

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are."
– E. E. Cummings

By the middle of the 17th century, the island of Tortuga, located to the west of Cap Haitien, had been settled by smugglers, run-away indentured servants, and members of crews of various European ships. In addition to capturing livestock on Hispaniola to sell for their leather, Tortuga became the headquarters for the pirates of the Caribbean, who predominantly raided Spanish treasure ships. This area became the recruiting grounds for expeditions mounted by many notorious pirates, including the famous British pirate Henry Morgan.

Parque Nacional El Choco

El Choco National Park (Parque Nacional "El Choco" und "Las cuevas de Cabarete" - the caves of Cabarete) An incredible 77 square kilometers of jungle, lagoon, caves, forest, orchids and open backcountry to explore and includes two lagoons - Laguna Cabarete and Laguna Goleta - which stretch for 8km between the hills of the Cordillera Septentrional and the Atlantic Ocean. The park's main attraction is its caves with subterranean water systems and underground pools as large as soccer fields. Some have been developed for tourism, while many others remain hidden by vegetation which is as green, lush and healthy as you'll find thanks to generous amounts of rainfall in this part of the country.

Parque Nacional Loma Isabel de Torres, Dominican Republic

The national park takes its name from the highest of the mountains behind Puerto Plata, Isabel de Torres (800m). At 15 sq. km it is one of the country's smaller protected areas, but also one of the most visited due to its close proximity to Puerto Plata and the other tourist centers on the north coast. On top of the mountain there is a statue of Christ with outstretched arms (Cristo Redentor) not dissimilar to the one at Río de Janeiro, a botanical garden, and a fort built by Trujillo in 1942 when the Dominican Republic declared war on Germany.

Fact File

Access: The most popular way of getting to the top of Isabel de Torres is by cable car; the alternative route up the mountain is by road. The entrance to the cable-car ride is about 1km west of Puerto Plata on the highway to Imbert.

One of the 4 protected scientific reserves in the country, Mount Isabel de Torres is also home to the highest manicured gardens in the Caribbean, in addition to 5 indigenous birds.

Hiking through rainforest, this tropical expedition starts at sea level and finishes at 2,700ft. at the top enjoy breathtaking views of the old Puerto Plata bay.

If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing

OCEAN POINTE SUITE

FOR INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS CALL 516-991-9575

Vacation Property
OCEAN POINTE Vacation Rental

FOR INFORMATION AND BOOKINGS CALL 516-991-9575

OCEAN POINTE SUITE # 1307, KEY LARGO, FLORIDA - OCEANSIDE - MM 92

This upscale Condominium Resort is located directly on the Ocean in Key Largo. Offering a beautifully decorated condo, with two bedroom - two bath with whirlpool tubs for weekly and monthly rentals Ocean Pointe Suite is located,about one hour drive south from Miami international Airport,The hard Rock Cafe-Casino,the Art Deco South Beach and Miami shopping.
About 90 miles east of Key West.

Rates (in US Dollars )
Sep 01-Dec 15 ... $125/night .. $ 800/week. (3 night min) Dec 16-Aug 31 ... $150/night .. $ 950/week. (3 night min) Holidays ........ $200/night .. $1100/week. (3 night min) Special Events .. $200/night .. $1100/week. (3 night min) Special Events includes Mini + Open Lobster Season. 20 % deposit required to make a reservation. Refundable up to 30 days before arrival date. Note: Until confirmed, rates are subject to change without notice.
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