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Posts Tagged ‘Dominicans’

Haitian Immigrants Still Face Hardship in the D.R.

6:10 pm By Maegan La Mala · Dominicans| Haiti| Immigration| Latin America| World · Comments Off

11 Nov 2008

Nearly 3 years ago, I wrote about reports out of the Dominican Republic that Haitian workers and immigrants were being subjected to the most extreme forms of xenophobia and discrimination, and many were losing their lives. This post stirred up a lot of emotions, and it appears that now, 3 years later, things aren’t much better for Haitians in the D.R. The Inter Press Service reports on recent hate crimes and reprisals which are driving Haitians out of the Dominican Republic.

“A group of Dominicans armed with pistols, machetes and knives came to take revenge on us. I broke my leg trying to escape from my house, which was on fire. It’s not fair that all Haitians should have to pay for the crime of one,” Elena Piti, a Haitian mother of seven who lives in the Dominican Republic, told IPS.

“I’m thinking of going back to Haiti, because I’m afraid that something might happen to me. Besides, I have nothing left here. I lost everything: my house, my money and my job,” said Franklin Jean, who IPS found hiding out in a precarious shelter in the surrounding fields.

The violence is reportedly a reprisal for a crime committed by a Haitian man against an elderly Dominican farmer. IPS reports that a mob burned down 25 houses in a Haitian settlement of El Cerro.

Dominicans in Nueva York Celebrate Their Day

11:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Culture| Dominicans| New York City · Comments Off

11 Aug 2008

My ‘hood was jumping yesterday with Dominican flags waving off the backs of men and women and, flags hung outside car windows, people playing guiros and merengue from open windows and the doors of bodegas. More than just an ordinary domingo in the ‘hood they were celebrating Dominican pride and yesterday was the Dominican Day parade in New York City.

Via / Remolacha

One of the Dominican Sextuplets Will Grow Up and be a Revolutionary

8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Dominicans · Comments Off

4 Jan 2006

The first recorded birth of sextuplets in the Dominican Republic happened on December 27th of the year we just left behind. While the babies, whose mother had undergone fertility treatments to conceive, are struggling to survive, their papi has named one baby after someone that some would say is a source of struggle or a leader in the struggle (depending on who you ask). Emilio Figueroa, the father, said he admired Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his “revolución bolivariana” and named one of his newborns “Hugo” to prove it.

Via / Terra.com

Flight 587 Victims to be Honored

6:25 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Dominicans| New York City · Comments Off

21 Nov 2005

The victims of American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed in Queens in 2001 en route to the Dominican Republic, will be honored via a tribute to be created by a Dominican artist:

A Dominican-born visual artist has been selected to create a memorial for the victims of Flight 587 that crashed in the Rockaways on its way to the Carribbean nation four years ago, the mayor’s office said Wednesday.

Freddy Rodriguez’s proposal calls for a sloping granite wall with window-like openings and an entrance doorway that faces the same direction in which the plane had been heading for the Dominican Republic. He has said his design grew out of this concept of “here and there” and the universal longing to go home. The site on the beach at Beach 116th Street.

More of Freddy’s work

Via / Newsday

Garcia: Latino pride or Latino marketing?

5:41 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California| Dominicans| Marketing| Sports · Comments Off

7 Nov 2005

The Sacramento Kings are all giddy about the latest addition to their team. “We’ve finally got a Spanish speaker!”, they proclaim. Some California Latinos are fired up with cultural pride, and it seems the Kings have dollar signs in their eyes. The headline from the Sacramento Bee’s article on the matter seems to say the same thing: “García is Kings’ ticket into Latino market”.

What’s weird to me is that Garcia is a Dominican from New York. Not exactly the market anyone is trying to court out here in California. But then again, to marketers, if your name is Garcia it doesn’t matter if you are from Mexico or Minnesota.

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