The Dominican People
By Pedro Valdez | February, 19 2022
Some of our Dominican staff with a Tico and Mexican staff on visit.
The Dominican Republic is truly paradise on Earth. From the fine sand beaches with crystal-clear waters that kiss our coastlines to the green-emerald flourishing mountains that rise in the heart of the island, not to mention the sunbaked dunes, waving in the horizon. It does not matter where you go, in this two-thirds of an island –located in the heart of the Caribbean between two Americas—gorgeousness awaits everywhere. We are blessed, but our wonders do not only lay in our natural heritage, but also in our people.
Coming to the Dominican Republic is mind-blowing. Come and experience in the flesh what the Dominican people has to show. Let us enchant you with our hypnotizing rhythms that make you shake it all. Take a bite (if you can resist not eating a whole plate) of our delicious food that invades your mouth with a torrent of flavor. Have a conversation with a Dominican person and laugh out loud with our ingenious humor. Join us in a Saturday night party to have one of the most fun nights of your life with our families and friends. Visit our busy cities and walk within the Downtown to enjoy our modern giants made of glass, concrete, and steel.
We are at another level, but this awesomeness is not fortuitous. We are today the result of what happened in the past: a clash of civilizations, an encounter of worlds that were forged as one throughout hundreds of years of complex, effervescent exchanges. We are those who came before us; our ancestors —Black, White, and Mulattos— who, a few out of ambition and many out of coercion, came to these lands from other corners of the planet. We are also all the people we welcomed and gave a chance to pursue a better life.
We are because we were. Thus, our past is not dead, it stands still within us. It lies in our monuments, silent witnesses of a history of colonization, resistance, struggles, and liberation. It remains in our museums and schools that teach about what we have gone through, what we have built together, and what we want to reach. It is written in the pencil of many brilliant Dominican authors that tell the world we are a country situated right in the sun’s path, that we clap when the airplane lands, or that The Caribbean is an Imperial Border. It speaks throughout our accent, a rhythmical song that greets with a “klk de lo mío” and invites a hacer un coro encendío.
The Dominican Republic has it all. It has beautiful, friendly, funny people. It has welcoming people that humbly receive you with open arms. It has brave and resilient communities which work day by day to achieve more and be better. It has a nation marching together towards its happiness.
Yes, we are a paradise on Earth. Nevertheless, let there never be any doubt that besides our natural beauty and breathtaking landscape, what makes the Dominican Republic special, what takes it above and beyond is us, the Dominican people.