The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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with a tobacco company in Philadelphia, and served as Italy’s honorary consul to the Dominican Republic.

After spending a period of time as a political prisoner, he left the country in mid-1935,

and with his

family he settled in Cuba, where he acquired a representation for the Ford Motor Co., ultimately returning

to the Dominican Republic after the assassination of Trujillo. He joined the new commercial and business

bourgeoisie,

competing with businessmen who had accumulated capital and experience during the Tru-

jillo dictatorship, as well as others whose business relations with the dictator remained untouched by the

democratic governments that replaced the dictatorship.

During the Trujillo dictatorship, several Italian businessmen made highly productive investments that

contributed to the advancement of the economy. Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi, for example, who arrived

in the country in 1922, established a glass factory in San Cristóbal. After the fall of the dictatorship, and

for many years in partnership with the Dominican State, the factory, managed by Armando D’Alessandro,

became extremely profitable, forming part of the Dominican Corporation of State Companies (CORDE).

Not only capital but also professional talent, combined with Italian technology, were present in the

main architectural and development works in the Dominican Republic. With a strong European influence,

the engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi designed and prepared the plans for the National Palace, an

18,000-square-meter building, erected on a 25,000-square-meter site located on the La Generala hill in the

Gazcue sector of Santo Domingo. The structure cost DOP 5 million, which was paid entirely with federal

funds. Construction began on February 27, 1944, in the same year as the First Centennial of the Dominican

Republic; the Palace was completed and inaugurated on August 16, 1947.

The Italian companies Impregilo, Cogefar, and Recchi built the Higüey Dam located near the Paraje

Palo de Caja, in Peravia Province, 60 kilometers southwest of San Cristóbal and 80 kilometers from Santo

Domingo. The work was inaugurated together with the Aguacate Dam in 1992 at a cost of US$500 million,

fully financed with federal funds. It was the first time the upper section of the Nizao River had been used for

such purposes. Statistics accumulated show that the electric power generated by its turbines has averaged

142.96 GWH annually since 1992.

In sum, the Dominican economy, characterized by cycles of decline and stagnation, but with the strong

presence of capital and entrepreneurial talent from Italian nationals, grew at an annual rate of 4.7% in the

first fifty years of the twentieth century, with GDP doubling every 15 years and annual growth averaging

5.2% between 1951 and 2000, when this doubling trend was reduced to every 14.5 years.

Italian Capital and Entrepreneurial Talent during the Period of Democracy (1950 - 2000)

An analysis of the sources of growth for the Dominican economy from 1950 to 2000 indicates an obvious

dependence on the factors of capital and labor, with 82.6% of growth attributed to the accumulated physi-

cal capital by public investments and private sources, and the remainder attributed to labor force factors.

Given the significant participation of Italian families in capital invested,

and the corresponding added

value, and with the history of the railroad investments already mentioned, these investments were funda-

mental not only for the growth of the sugar industry, but also for the country’s GDP as a whole.

Italian capital also contributed to reducing the gap between supply and demand for physical infrastruc-

ture projects. In 1968, José María Vicini Cabral and his companies introduced the first automated cane

harvesters into the Dominican sugar industry, and in the 1970s, they transformed their Cristóbal Colón Mill

into the most modern one in the country and in the region.

As an astute businessman, Barletta exponentially expanded his commercial activities, and by the time

of his death in 1975, he had become one of the most prestigious dealers of motor vehicles and accessories

in the Dominican Republic.

Other initiatives involving Italian capital and business can be seen in Frank Rainieri, whose ancestors

came from Italy, and who teamed up in 1970 with the American attorney and investor Theodore W. Kheel