The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY PRESS

5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131

610.660.3402 email:

Andrea Canepari

Ambassador of Italy

to the Dominican Republic

his book is long overdue.

The descendant of a hero of national independence and a leading Dominican intellectual, Marcio

Veloz Maggiolo published an article entitled “Italians in Dominican life” in 2001, in which he re-

viewed the most illustrious Italians in the Dominican Republic. He pointed out that his discussion served

primarily to “focus attention on a community that has been fundamental in Dominican life, in its history and

in the formation of its national identity.” The Italian community has been instrumental in forming a number

of the identifying characteristics of the country by helping to build the political, social, economic, and cul-

tural structures that have played a part in molding the current Dominican Republic: from the establishment

of the Navy and active involvement in the all-important quest for national independence to strengthening the

Catholic church, the educational system, and the economy; participating in the first free elections; creating

the first newspaper; defining architecture, and sketching the borders of culture through art, cinema, music,

and literature.

It was therefore important to produce a book that seriously studies the various expressions of Italian in-

fluence in the Dominican Republic.

The combination of contributions, images and texts, from a variety of voices present in the book, allows

us to understand the essence of the Italian cultural heritage in the Dominican Republic. A picture emerges

of the Dominican Republic as a country with structures forged by centuries of communication with Italian

immigrants and as a country capable of creating opportunities at an international level, owing to its engage-

ment in international dialogue since its foundation.

any stories of the richness and depth of the history of friendship and ties between Italy and the Domin-

ican Republic have come to light, thanks in no small part to the work of this book’s forty-five authors.

I felt like an archaeologist faced with wonderful and fully intact testimonies, though hidden by the passage

of time, which had to be rediscovered and brought to light like an ancient temple hidden in the forest.

But unlike an archaeological discovery, what is found here is not a dead ruin but a living résumé of the

cultural, political, religious, educational, economic, technological, and social histories of real individuals that

even today constitute one of the cornerstones of the Dominican Republic’s cultural identity with which Italians

so strongly identify.