Tag Archives: Culture

Dominican film in Chicago film festival

Aside

The Dominican film “Checkmate,” starring Dominican actor Frank Perozo, will participate in the Chicago Latin Film Festival 2012, scheduled from April 13 through the 26th.

The film is directed by Jose Maria Cabral.  It will open in Santo Domingo in April.

The film tells the story of David, the renowned television host of a popular program in the Caribbean.

During the call-in part of the program he receives a telephone call from a man who says he has taken the man’s wife and son hostage in their very own home.

The hijacker forces David to continue the program, prohibiting commercial breaks.  In the past few years the Dominican Republic has seen the growth of an emerging film industry, thanks to the introduction of an incentive law that encourages local filming.

Some six to ten films are being produced and filmed annually in the Dominican Republic.

World-famous directors, such as Sydney Pollack (Havana), Andy Garcia (The Lost City) and Robert de Niro (The Good Shepherd) have filmed segments of these movies in the Dominican Republic.  Michael Mann’s Miami Vice movie was also filmed in the DR.

Sabine Mertes
Sabine Mertes offers real estate services with a focus on villas, farms, land and condos for sale on the north coast of the Dominican Republic

Santiago de Los Treinta Caballeros

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Santiago Coat of Arms

Santiago Coat of Arms

Steeped in history, Santiago de los 30 Caballeros, the real name for Santiago, is the Dominican Republic’s second largest city with a population of 750,000 people. It is at its agricultural heart in the amazingly productive and diverse agricultural Cibao Valley.

The valley is huge and flat and if you stand on one of  the hilltops at its edge in the early light of day, when a gentle mist lays over it, it looks like it could be the Garden of Eden. The valley and the mountains around it support a huge range of crops—tobacco, the major cash crop, rice, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, papaya, pineapple, guava and lots more. The only things I did not see growing was peaches, pears and apples.

History keeps dark whether Christopher Columbus founded Santiago in 1494 at his second sailing or his brother, Bartolomeo Columbus, founded it in1495.  What is known for sure is that thirty Caballeros of the Order of Santiago moved there in 1504from La Isabela, hence its long-form name—Santiago de  Los Treinta Caballeros. It is astounding how quickly the Spanish settled the island. It has been two years since they first landed and already they are in the heart of the country.

Visitors get a warm welcome at the Bermudez rum factory and the E. Leon Jimenez Tobacco Company. Its main attraction, however, is the Monumento de la Restauracion.

Santiago Monument

Santiago Monument

General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961, had it built it in his own honor. After his assassination, the new government dedicated it to the men who were killed in the War of Restoration when the Dominican Republic won independence from Spain a second time. It is the visual center of the city and can be seen from most of it, and has a commanding view of it all—it stands out, like the Coit Tower (the Firemen’s Memorial) in San Francisco.

The city has a nation-wide reputation for having the best discotheques, bars and restaurants in the country,

Sabine Mertes
Sabine Mertes offers real estate services with a focus on villas, farms, land and condos for sale on the north coast of the Dominican Republic

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Scientists unearth thousand-year old taino agricultural field

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Taino artefacts that according to experts are over one thousand years old, including an agricultural field that was found intact and dating back to the pre-Columbian period, have been found in an archaeological site project in Rio San Juan, on the country’s north coast.

The Tainos were the original inhabitants of the island. The project is funded by the “Playa Grande Resort,” in collaboration with the Museum of Dominican Man and the Institute for Anthropological Research of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.

The artefacts, unearthed in an archaeological excavation, were turned over to the Museum of Dominican Man in Santo Domingo.

The “Playa Grande” project, currently under construction, will sponsor and open a local museum that will exhibit the Taino pieces.

The collection will be an added plus to the “Rio San Juan” tourism offer, situated on the country’s north coast.

The archaeological site has also unearthed a field with agricultural lots that have been perfectly preserved for almost a thousand years.  The lots are three to four meters wide and some 50 to 70 inches high.

The native population grew corn, cassava and other vegetables in these plots. It is the first time that they are found intact in the Caribbean region.

Also found in what was once a Taino settlement were the remains of several individuals, as well as a rare coin, minted in 1505 in Seville, Spain for use in the Americas. Ceramics, axes, hammers, grates, shells, Spanish pottery, a Spanish glass bead, and bronze and iron pieces.

Sabine Mertes
Sabine Mertes offers real estate services with a focus on villas, farms, land and condos for sale on the north coast of the Dominican Republic

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Visit “La Isabela,” the first european settlement in the Americas

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On January 6, 1494, Christopher Columbus officially founded “La Isabela,” the first European settlement to be built in the New World.

The settlement was named after the Queen of Spain.  In spite of the prestigious name, the settlement did not last very long.

By the end of the 15th century, the settlement had been abandoned and the colonizers had moved on to found the cities of La Vega, in the country’s central region, and the capital city of Santo Domingo.

Visitors to “La Isabela” must first stop in the town of “El Castillo,” situated a short distance from Luperon, in the province of Puerto Plata.  The highway is in good condition, and getting there is easy.

Today, the ruins of “La Isabela” are there for everyone to visit.  The remains of the colonial settlement are situated within the recently established “La Española” National Park.

There is a small museum exhibiting ceramic, stone and iron artefacts discovered during various archaeological excavations. Beside the ocean are the remains of what once were the walls of the settlement.

Also found are the ruins of the home originally built by Christopher Columbus, as well as the foundation of the first church built in the Americas and of the town’s warehouses.

Clearly visible are the remains of the Spanish cemetery and an open tomb with the visible remains of a colonizer who died during the first years of the colonization process.

For more information, visitors should contact the Vice Ministry of Protected Areas: 809 567 4300, or write to them at areas.protedias@ambiente.gov.do

Adolfo Lopez
Environmental Consultant

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Sabine Mertes offers real estate services with a focus on villas, farms, land and condos for sale on the north coast of the Dominican Republic

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