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The inauguration of the Banreservas Representative Office in Manhattan, New York took place on September 20, 2023 with the presence of Dominican President Luis Abinader and Dominican First Lady Raquel Arbaje de Abinader. This office is in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the corner of 181st St and Amsterdam Avenue.
Inauguration Event
Typical of the Dominican Republic, insugurations regardless if it's of the government or the private sector includes a small gathering with a few words from several people. It also includes a blessing from a Catholic priest and this was no exception even though it took place in the United States. In fact, more than a few people that were in the event or that have vidited the representative office say once they entered it felt as if they were entering a Banreservas branch in the Dominican Republic and it felt as if they were in the DR.
This is the first Dominican bank with a presence in New York City.
The religious blessing starts at 4:23 when Celines Toribio (very beautiful woman, I met her in person a few years ago and I couldn't get over how beautiful she is. Before I knew it was her -I've seen her before in TV, in Youtube and in several movies but never in person-, all I was saying is "wow, what a beautiful woman.") lol
Printscreens from the video above of the Banreservas Representative Office.
Services
A representative office isn't exactly a branch, but Celines Toribio explains in the video that sone of the things Dominicans and foreigners with an economic interest in the DR can do there is:
- Open a savings account. The request and all their info/copies is sent to the Banreservas main office in Santo Domingo and is processed there. Then the account has to be funded through the Banreservas separate remittances office as the representstive office can't take any money.
- Apply for a home/vehicle loan. The home/vehicle must be in the DR.
- Have all their documents handled by them instead of the Dominican consulate (for example, all documents in English must be traduced into Spanish and notarized prior to submitting them to any Dominican government represents¡ation.)
Dominicans in the USA with accounts in Banreservas can now use their app available in the Apple App Store and in Google Play.
This is a printscreen I just did of the Banreservas TuBanco app in Apple.
In this video (also in Spanish, actually from a Dominican radio show that transfer to New York City to cover this a few other events) they say the bank is still going through the process of getting the green light to function as a branch, but that process is slow since it deals with the US government/the feds/etc.
For the first time ever the Dominican baseball teams Águilas Cibaeñas (from Santiago, DR) and Tigres de Licey (from Santo Domingo, DR) will be having three games at Citi Field in Queens, NY. According to the article in the Listín Diario newspapers, already the tickets are on sale. The games will be on November 10, 11 and 12.
While anyone can attend these games as spectators, the reason they will be held is the Dominican diaspora in New York City and vicinity. Each game will end with an "artistic spectacle."
Dominican artist that lives in New York City, Julio Valdez, wins the Biennal Grand Prize in the XXX Visual Arts Biennal that took place at the Modern Art Museum in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The competition included Dominican artists living in the Dominican Republic and in the diaspora. It also included Dominicans born abroad (Dominican-Americans, Dominican-Spaniards, etc.)
The Modern Art Museum (Museo de Arte Moderno) is the most important of its kind in the Dominican Republic and one of the most important art museums in the Caribbean. Unlike most art museums in the Dominican Republic which are creation of private entities or individuals, the Modern Art Museum was built in the 1970's by the Dominican government. It's still owned by the Dominican government under the Culture Ministry (Ministro de Cultura).
Another example of how not just the Dominican government but private institutions consider the Dominican diaspora as an integral part of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican people.
A few months ago Mariana Downing won Miss Dominican Republic 2023 and will represent the Dominican Republic in the Miss Universe pageat in El Salvador. The thing is that she was born in the United States to a Dominican mother and a British father. Her Spanish was also not as fluent as her English at the moment she won. Those two things didn't trump her qualifications to represent the DR in the Miss Universe pageant, as first and foremost the contestant must be of the origin of the country which they will compete and possibly represent.
Despite there has been some criticism in the Dominican Republic as well, she still has an overwhelming support among Dominicans in the Dominican Republic and in the Dominican diaspora.
Here are some photos taken at the Dr Joaquín Balaguer International Airport, which is a tiny alternative that can accommodate small airplanes and helicopters servicing Greater Santo Domingo, as she was headed to El Salvador. One photo is of the small group of Dominicans that went to the airport to wish her luck. https://www.diariolibre.com/revista/...iverso/2512170
Quote:
Furthermore, she pointed out that she could have represented other countries in the competition but chose to represent her mother’s homeland. “I could have also represented the United Kingdom or the United States, but I wanted to be here, representing the Dominican Republic,” she added. “I am Dominican by blood; my mom is from Cotui, and I feel it in my roots,” she affirmed, stating that “the children of Dominican migrants who left in search of a better quality of life also have the right to represent our country.”
The previous Miss Dominican Republic was Andreína Martínez, born in the Dominican Republic but lives in New York City. The almost won the Miss Universe, but came in 2nd place. She would had been the second Dominican Miss Universe after Amelia Vega who won in 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre%..._Mart%C3%ADnez
For the first time ever the Dominican baseball teams Águilas Cibaeñas (from Santiago, DR) and Tigres de Licey (from Santo Domingo, DR) will be having three games at Citi Field in Queens, NY. According to the article in the Listín Diario newspapers, already the tickets are on sale. The games will be on November 10, 11 and 12.
While anyone can attend these games as spectators, the reason they will be held is the Dominican diaspora in New York City and vicinity. Each game will end with an "artistic spectacle."
I think the cold has affected attendance. This is torture to tropical people. lol Two more matches are left, one later today and one tomorrow. It's the weekend, so maybe that will help in increasing the crowd.
This was either on Thursday night or Friday night.
Santiago (yellow) vs Santo Domingo (blue). The teams were flown mid-week from the DR in an airplane by SkyCana, one of the Dominican airlines.
Regarding the game in the previous post, attendance was actually better than I thought. This article was published in today's Listín Diario, which is the main newspaper in the Dominican Republic.
Among the things it states includes:
- As happens with official LIDOM* baseball games in the DR, attendance was rather light at the beginning of the game but more people arrived as the game went on. Eh, Dominicans being late. Nothing out of the ordinary, it's in the culture.
- A total of 25,343 spectators went to the game. That's a small town. lol For comparison, this year the average game in CityField was 32,994. Spectators of the Dominican game were 77% of that figure. Not bad considering the CityField average is for the warm months while the Dominican games are in a rather cold ambiance.
- The amount of spectators in the first Dominican game is actually the greatest ever registered during the Dominican baseball winter season. The second highest was in 1981 during a game in Florida with total spectators amounting to 25,138.
- Tickets sold from $45 to $400.
- Raquel Peña, the Vice President of the DR, threw the first ball.
Another twist. The CitiField baseball game included a mini concert. lol This young guy "El Rubio Acordeón" is currently having his moment of fame with Merengue Típico. Very popular in the DR and Dominican communities in the USA to the point his dedicated concerts tend to be sold out in both countries. Right now the guy and his band are making money like crazy.
For those not in the know, the Merengue Típico is actually a more original version of Merengue, the latter has gain an international popularity especially in Puerto Rico, Venezuela and a few other countries. The USA and Spin has a following, mostly within carious Latino communities in the USA and in Spain it gets a more general following. Mny artists from other nationalities have made a career from singing in Merengue. But Merengue Típico didn't really expanded much beyond the Cibao region of the DR (where it was originally created in the 1800's) with presence in Santo Domingo due mostly to Cibao people that moved there and select places where many Cibao people have moved to in recent years such as New York City. Although when landing in Dominican airports such as Punta Cana there is a small band playing Merengue Típico, in reality it isn't heard much in that area, very unlike to places like Santiago, San José de las Matas, Moca, San Francisco de Macorís, Jarabacoa, Tamboril, etc.
Originally the Merengue Típico had three basic instruments: the acordeon which was introduced to the DR by German immigrants in the 1800's (almost all settled in Puerto Plata and Santiago). This replaced the guitar. The tambora which cones from Africa. The güira which comes from the Taino indians, though in the DR it has "industrialized" in recent years, now the güira is more often made of a metallic material. In Puerto Rico they still use the original güira from the Tainos. So in essence, instruments wise this represents the three major branches that have influenced the most Dominican culture: Europe, Africa, The Americas. Now many Merengue Típico bands also includes other instruments, but those original three are always.
Fernandito Villalona was another one whose musice appeared in the "concert" at CitiField. He sings in the more internationally known Merengue style. You can hear the contrast with the previous type.
Total spectators during the three days of games was over 90,000. The people went to CitiField from everywhere in the tri-state area and from beyond such as Massachussetts and even from Florida.
I was also shocked by the number of well known and famous Dominicans that went. The first ball was thrown by the Vice President of the DR, the catcher was David Ortiz (aka Big Papi). The Mayor of Santo Domingo was there when the Águilas were given the winning trophy. Pedro Martínez was also there and many other people. They even had fireworks.
This was a success by every measure. I think it will be repeated in the following years.
As expected, the following article in the Listín Diario says that Dr Rafael Lantigua (the furthest to the right in the photo) says that he is confident that the Tigres de Licey team will be back for the next year Titanes del Caribe games. This is proof that what was seen before will be repeated.
The irony is that Lantigua is a very old last name tied to the Santiago-La Vega-San Francisco de Macorís area in addition to another branch in Puerto Plata (that's "newer" descending from a couple of Venezuelan immigrants in that area in the late 1840's +/-). The original one's from the Cibao Valley go back to colonial times. Nowadays there are a handful in Santo Domingo and even in places as far as Punta Cana, all either they moved from the Cibao or their parents did. Dr Rafael Lantigua himself is a native of Santiago, so it's ironic he comments about the Tigres de Licey from Santo Domingo and not the Águilas Cibaeñas from Santiago. Hmm...
This is not do much a service from the Dominican government, but a new Dominican airlines that started to fly on September 2022. The review (in English) starts at 4:00 and covers the Mexico City - Santo Domingo and the Santo Domingo - Bogotá routes. At the point where he is discussing what he learn from the President of Arajet he mentions how important the Dominican diaspora is for this airline. However, what it doesn’t say is that the new airline is targeting becoming one of Latin America’s connecting airlines similar to Copa Airlines based in Panama, except Arajet is using Santo Domingo as its hub. Once the connections are made they are expecting ridership to increase, especially because of their prices which are lower than other Latin American airlines on their routes.
Other aspects not mention is that one of the investors of this new airline is the Boston, Massachusetts hedge fund Bain Capital which I forgot how many billions of US dollar will be invested, but it’s the largest of its kind in the history of Latin America. Another detail not mention is that all the airplanes in Arajet’s fleet are new from Boeing’s factory in the USA, the first time an airline in Latin America starts with all new airplanes.
The following are printscreens from the videos with explanations by me.
All Arajet airplanes are new straight from the Boeing factory in Washington state, USA.
All Arajet airplanes are named after Dominican places and registered with the Dominican aviation code (HI which is for the DR, in reality stands for Hispaniola) plus the Dominican flag which further means it’s an airplane registered in the DR.
Typical appearance inside the cabin. They are ahead of the curb as airlines are starting to move away from individualized TV’s and simply enabling Wifi capability so passenger’s entertainment can be had via their smart phones and/or tablets.
One of the interesting things is their usage of some Dominican shortening of certain words when speaking. Notice it says “pa’” instead of “para” which mean to. lol
Not very common to see in airplanes, even those servicing the DR, are Dominican products on board. Here is Presidente, the main Dominican beer brand. Again, notice it says “vamo’ arriba” instead of “vamos arriba,” typical Dominican dropping the final S on words. lol
Rica is another Dominican brand of juices, milk, chocolate milk, etc. One of the best things from Rica is that they use actual fruits for their juices, none of the “fruit flavor” from other brands. This is key why they have among the best taste and quality. Although Coca Cola is an American brand, the ones they carry at actually made in Coca Cola’s plant in Santo Domingo.
All their stewards are also Dominicans. Their routes to the USA and Canada starts in 2023.
Whoa! The Dominican airline Arajet wins "Best Start-up Airline of the Year 2013" beating all other new airlines in the world.
CEO and founder of the airline, Dominican Víctor Pacheco, yesterday with the accolade.
The start of a globally recognize greatness coming from the Caribbean and specifically from tiny Dominican Republic.
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