The first city

This past weekend we all went to Santo Domingo. It was a nice chance to get out and do something (on the program's dollar - well really ours I guess) and not think about all the fun I was missing in Sarasota! GO PUMP IT!

Santo Domingo is a city of firsts. Not only is it where Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, it is the site of the first school, cathedral, and hospital (etc) in the Americas. The city is beautiful and has a lot of culture. They are currently restoring some of the oldest buildings to maintain the charm.

Another nice thing about the city is they are used to having tourists so a gringa like me walking down the street doesn't cause quite the stir in does in Santiago. I still wasn't an anonymous person but people don't think twice about an American's presence in the city.


This is a monument built along the road where the dictator Trujillo was shot and killed. Obviously, Trujillo's reign was not well received or pleasantly remembered. If anyone has read the book or seen the movie "In the Time of The Butterflies" or knows the story of the murders of the Mirabal sisters knows a bit about Trujillo and his cruelty and desperation to maintain power. Three of the Mirabal sisters were en route to visit their imprisoned husbands when some of Trujillo's men cornered them and beat them to death. They put them back in the car and pushed it into a river to make it look like a car accident. And that is only one of the horrible stories that accompanies Trujillo's power. Sooooo they noow have this odd looking statue to honor those who were part of the plot to assassinate him and to demonstrate Trujulillo's selfish social blindness.

This is a picture of Grant and I walking down the first street in the Americas! Calle de las Damas. It leads from the port to the fort... or what remains of it. Not far from this street lie the remains of Christopher Columbus (supposedly). No one knows for certain where his body truly is. It was originally buried in Santo Domingo and has since been moved. Some people maintain it is in Cuba (mostly Cubans) but the Dominicans take pride in believing Columbus's body is here.




This is an example of common graffiti in the city. This one says, "when you were born your mom gave you milk, not drugs." i guess it was a bit of a public service announcement. But they're not all like that. One of my favorites was "wherever the devil will not go, send a woman."








This is a statue of Columbus in the first plaza of the Americas (whose name escapes me right now). The statue depicts Columbus pointing towards North America and a Taino indian climbing towards him for assistence. Dominicans tend to culturally identify themselves with the Spaniards before the Tainos even though alot of their traditions and favorite foods are native to the island (not to mention their appearance is distinctly islandish).











Here we are in front of the first Cathedral in the Americas. In the back are Dan and Orlanj (A Haitian student at PUCMM who is one of our support students). In the front are Moira, myself, and Dana. Obviously this is a Catholic church - it is absolutely beautiful. The original architecture has been preserved as well as its old city charm. We didn't have a ton of time to explore,though. There was a service about to start when we got there!


For more information and photos of Santo Domingo, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Domingo or http://dr1.com/travel/santodomingo/