En la actividad conducida por la abogada Lucía Fernández y Mónica Lockhart, el cónsul Selman dijo que la República Dominicana recibe importantes aportes de los dominicanos residentes en el exterior, principalmente en los Estados Unidos y Europa, que envían más de 3.000 millones de dólares anualmente a familiares y para invertir en medianas y pequeñas empresas, siendo las remesas el segundo renglón de ingresos de divisas. -“Forman en NY Consejo de Apoyo a la Comunidad por iniciativa del Consulado de RD,” El Nuevo Diario, Santo Domingo, 1 de Abril 2015
My translation:
At the event presided over by the lawyer Lucia Fernández and Mónica Lockhart, Consul Selman said that the Dominican Republic receives important contributions from Dominicans who live abroad, principally in the U.S. and Europe, who send more than 3 billion dollars annually to their families and to invest in small businesses, with remittances being the second most-important source of foreign currency coming into the country.”
-“Dominican Consulate in New York Forms a Support Council,” El Nuevo Diario, Santo Domingo, April 1, 2015
Dominican migration to the United States has been most prominent since the 1960s, according to the book A Tale of Two Cities by historian Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof. Hoffnung-Garskof notes since then, moving to New York was often considered the height of “progress” for Dominicans. Yet at the same time, journalists, activists, and members members of the Dominican middle class would often deride “Dominicanyorks” for supposedly being un-cultured and corrupted by the life of New York City (pp. 190-198).
This article is of interest to historians who want to know how the image of Dominicanyorks has continued to change through the years. It appeared in El Nuevo Diario, a print and web newspaper based in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo that covers events on the island as well as in the Dominican diaspora. Its likely audience was therefore a variety of readers on the island as well as Dominicans anywhere with access to a computer or smartphone. However, since there is no comments section, it is difficult to tell exactly who was reading and how they reacted to the article.
The article suggests a new image of Dominicanyorks: as an ATM, providing much-needed cash to the island. It definitely reveals this to be a prominent “official” Dominican government perspective, and shows government officials building relationships with Dominican professionals and business people in New York. But it does not shed much light on how these ideas did (or did not) permeate among different social classes on the island in 2015.
-Julie M. Weise