Landing in Santo Domingo - Great First Impressions (Day 1)

After my first day in the Dominican Republic I felt somewhat at home, but just not in the best neighborhood. Some areas are better than others, like around the restaurants and memorial area, but in other areas there’s trash on the ground, broken up streets, and not many open stores. The greatest part so far was the food! I haven’t had such a delicious meal in a while! Even the food I ate in Italy didn’t taste as great, with maybe some exceptions of course. Then again, it’s pretty dang hard to mess up chicken (haha!). I’m looking forward to more of the trip, especially the dance lesson, mural painting, and METS Academy; and the beach of course if we go!

A little of the Santiago Airport

There are beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere!

A monument my group and I visited in the memorial area.

Getting ready to bat up!...for a trip to the Caribbean

I remember planning for my short study abroad trip to the Dominican Republic, January 9th to the 15th. The anticipation of a new culture, meeting people of different backgrounds, exploring new sites, and most importantly, getting away from the cold New York weather! (Beach I await thee!)

What I was mainly preparing myself for was the poverty and race issues that I was reading all about. Similar to the US with it’s Mexican border the Dominican Republic has the issue of handling immigration from Haiti and racism against the Haitians, or anyone who looks Haitians. From my understanding, at this point at least, not only are immigrants illegally crossing the border is an issue, but also the children already born in the country aren’t considered Dominican, not even politically! To make matters worse, a number of Haitians were deserted with no paperwork to count them as citizens or even work to help support families. As Jonathan Dimaio wrote in his article A Human Rights Crisis in the Dominican Republic,  

“lack of due process puts many Dominicans who should be legally protected from deportation at risk of being expelled from their birth country” and to make matters worse “Extremists' rhetoric and actions have incited international commentators to make blanket condemnations of the Dominican Republic as a racist country, frustrating and alienating many Dominicans who care deeply for their country, their fellow citizens, and that the migrants who live and work among them are treated fairly”. 

-Jonathan Dimaio 

Based off of what I read, the huge human rights issue is that Haitians in the Dominican Republic aren’t taken care of, are exploited for work, and are eventually left behind and forgotten, and left in poverty. Dominicans are assumed racists, and the government is left with no organized way to clean up any of this mess.

I find the historical background and economic origins of the racial issues in the Caribbean, or anywhere for that matter, to be of utmost importance. Tim Shenk and Alicia Swords’ article Dominican Republic Deportations and the Global Economy is a very eye-opening piece, discussing “the first European colony in the Americas, and [how] for centuries it served as a major entry point to the hemisphere for European immigrants, speculators, military expeditions and the Church” and the “invention of a racialized social hierarchy” to maintain control of the exploited Haitian, darker skinned, workers.

Now as much as I like to keep up with current events, I'm not much of a reader, so as insightful and enlightening as these article, and many others, are there's nothing like seeing it yourself. So enough with the lecture! Let me tell you all about my crash-course in the culture of the Dominican Republic!

Let the games begin!

Hola Amigos! (Unless You Are Amigas, then Apologies Are In Order)

My name is Jaclyn. I'm a Communication Arts Senior of St. John's University, Staten Island (you know, the New York burrough everyone seems to forget). But that's not why you're here is it?

Me neither.

I've made this blog to tell you all about my study abroad trip to the Dominican Republic, January 9th to 15th (Short? Yeah, I think so too). I'll you about the awesome places my class and I went to, the beautiful, and not so beautiful, sights we saw, and what I learned about a new culture, a dark history, a little on humanity, and the big question: Why are Dominicans so crazy about Baseball!

If I've caught your interest then perfect, we'll get along swimingly!

Until next time,

     Hasta Lluego!~