The Italian Legacy In The Dominican Republic

EDITED BY ANDREA CANEPARI

any stories of the richness and depth of the history of friendship and ties between Italy and the Dominican 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.

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN 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 reviewed 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 cultural 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 influence 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 engagement in international dialogue since its foundation.

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC History Architecture Economics Society

Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic

SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY PRESS 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131 610.660.3402 email: sjupress@sju.edu www.sjupress.com

351205_Ambasciata_Italia_S_Dom_Vol_Italian_Legacy_COP_ok.indd 1

Saint Joseph’s University Press

Saint Joseph’s University Press

28/05/21 09:23

To my children Bianca and Matteo and to my wife Roberta, who has accompanied me in the discovery of the Dominican Republic and in writing the fascinating story of its relations with Italy

© 2021 by Andrea Canepari All rights reserved No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.

Printed and bound in Italy

by Grafiche Antiga spa Crocetta del Montello (Treviso) - I First edition ISBN 978-0-916101-10-7 Published by Saint Joseph’s University Press 5600 City Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19131 U.S.A. www.sjupress.com Saint Joseph’s University is a member of the Association of University Presses.

Cover Inside the dome of the National Palace designed by the Italian engineer Guido D’Alessandro. © Thiago Da Cuhna Project Editor Roberta Fusaro Canepari Spanish texts coordination José Chez Checo Copy Editor Andrea Campana Design and layout Marianna Antiga Cinzia Mozer Translation David Auerbach

EDITED BY ANDREA CANEPARI

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC History Architecture Economics Society

Saint Joseph’s University Press

View of the Port of Genoa.

The first Italian traders and investors in the Dominican Republic came from Genoa and Liguria. © Andrea Vierucci

Contents THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC History, Architecture, Economics and Society

Foreword Luis Abinader President of the Dominican Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Preface Rev. Joseph F. Chorpenning O.S.F.S., S.T.L., Ph.D., Editorial Director, Saint Joseph’s University Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Preliminary Remarks Luigi Di Maio Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Carmen Heredia de Guerrero Minister of Culture of the Dominican Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Dario Franceschini Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities of Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Carolina Mejía Mayor of the National District of Santo Domingo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Luca Sabbatucci Director General for Global Affairs of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. . . . . . . . . . . 22 José Chez Checo President of the Dominican Academy of History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Antonella Cavallari Secretary General of IILA (Italo-Latin American International Organization). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Introduction

Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

• HISTORY GENERAL SUBJECTS

1. The Italian Presence in Santo Domingo, 1492-1900 Frank Moya Pons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2. Italian Immigration to Santo Domingo and to the Southern and Eastern Regions of the Dominican Republic Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3. The Italian Presence in the Cibao Region and in Santiago de los Caballeros Edwin Espinal Hernández . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 COLUMBUS AND THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

4. Christopher Columbus: A Man between Two Worlds Gabriella Airaldi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

5. Alessandro Geraldini vs. Rodrigo de Figueroa: The Dominican Church, the Encomenderos, and the Issue of Indigenous Peoples Edoardo D’Angelo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 6. From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The Itinerarium ad regiones sub Equinoctiali plaga constitutas (Itinerary) of Alessandro Geraldini d’Amelia Edoardo D’Angelo and Rosa Manfredonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 7. Homily Given to Commemorate the Quincentennial of the Arrival of the First Resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini.

Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor (First Cathedral of the Americas), September 17, 2019 Monsignor Francisco Ozoria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 8. Italian Clergy and the Catholic Church: Biographical Summaries José Luis Sáez, S.J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 9. Ricardo Pittini: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santo Domingo (1935-1961) Michael R. Hall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137 POLITICAL HISTORY

10. Duarte and Mazzini Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 11. Juan Bautista Cambiaso (1820-1886), Founder of the Dominican Navy and First Admiral of the Republic Juan Daniel Balcácer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

12. Francisco Gregorio Billini, President and Author Roberto Cassá . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 13. Diplomatic Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic PART ONE. Notes for a Chronology: 1844-2017 Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 PART TWO. Diplomatic Relations in the Present: 2017-2020

Andrea Canepari. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 14. Contemporary Italian-Dominican Relations Michael Kryzanek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 15. Juan Bautista (“Chicho”) Vicini Burgos Bernardo Vega. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209 16. The Provisional Government of Juan Bautista Vicini Alejandro Paulino Ramos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 17. Amadeo Barletta Bernardo Vega. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213 18. Antonio Imbert Barrera Rescued: Italian Families Serving the Nation Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217 19. The Choice of Freedom: Ilio Capozzi and the 1965 April Revolution Giancarlo Summa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 20. Origins of the Strong Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic (Testimonial) Victor Manuel Grimaldi Céspedes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227

• ARCHITECTURE COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE

21. Portò Firenze al Nuovo Mondo: The Viceregal Palace of Diego Columbus in Santo Domingo (1511-1512) Julia Vicioso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 22. The Walls of Santo Domingo and Documentation of the Construction Projects by the Antonelli Family Sandro Parrinello. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239 23. The Funerary Monument to Alessandro Geraldini at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo Virginia Flores Sasso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251

24. The Italian Influences on the Catedral Primada de América Esteban Prieto Vicioso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 MODERN ARCHITECTURE

25. The Italian Engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi and the Construction of the Dominican National Palace Emilio José Brea García . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267 26. The Dome of the Dominican National Palace and Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi Jesús D’Alessandro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283 27. The Italian Training of Modern Dominican Architects, 1950 - 2019 Gustavo Luis Moré. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291 28. Altos de Chavón: A Mediterranean Village Nestled in the Caribbean Alba Mizoocky Mota López. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 29. The Influence of the Porto Rotondo Marina on the Casa de Campo Marina, La Romana Diego Fernández. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311

• LITERATURE AND THE ARTS 30. Marcio Veloz Maggiolo: A Writer of Italian Descent at the Very Heart of Dominican Literature Danilo Manera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 31. Italy and Literature (Testimonial) Manuel Salvador Gautier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 32. Italy’s Influence on Dominican Art Jeannette Miller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329 33. Italian Sculptors in the Dominican Republic Myrna Guerrero Villalona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 34. The Italian Legacy in Dominican Music and Culture Blanca Delgado Malagón. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359 35. The Dominican Audiovisual Approach to the Italian Film Experience Félix Manuel Lora. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

• ECONOMICS AND SCIENCE 36. Italian Investment in the Modern Dominican Economy Arturo Martínez Moya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381

37. The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce Celso Marranzini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .397 38. Science and Environmental Protection in Agricultural Development: Dr. Raffaele Ciferri’s Contributions in the Dominican Republic Raymundo González . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .403 39. The Italian Contribution to Mining Development in the Dominican Republic Renzo Seravalle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .429 40. Frank Rainieri Marranzini: Creator of Dreams Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .433

• JOURNALISM, LAW AND SOCIETY 41. Italian Journalists Antonio Lluberes, S.J. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 42. Chief Justice Milton Ray Guevara on Italy’s Contributions to Dominican Constitutional Law (Summary of remarks by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic at a conference held on October 25, 2018) Wenceslao Vega Boyrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 43. Angiolino Vicini Trabucco (1880–1961)—An Immigrant Who Never Forgot His Homeland (Testimonial) Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .467 44. A Brief History of the Casa de Italia, Inc. in Santo Domingo Renzo Seravalle and Rolando Forestieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473 45. The Bonarelli Family. The Flavors of Italy in the Dominican Republic Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .481 46. Considerations on the Relationship between the Dominican Republic and Italy (Testimonial) Víctor (Ito) Bisonó Haza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .487 47. Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic in the Context of Covid-19 (Excerpt of remarks by His Excellency Roberto Álvarez, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic, at a conference held on September 22, 2020) Roberto Álvarez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .491

The Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .497 Indexes of names and places. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .513

View of Samaná. In the background, the bridges that connect the Linares and Vigia keys to the mainland, designed by the Italian architect Guillimo Bertalleri, at the end of the 1960s. © Thiago da Cunha

11

Foreword Luis Abinader President of the Dominican Republic

n the life of any nation, historical coordinates trace lasting links, which touch upon the social and cultural life of its peoples. Over the course of a long pilgrimage of events and developments, the figurative essence of a nation is forged. We are, to a certain extent, links in a long chain of thought that are inserted within the heritage of a plural memory, the testimony of formative presences, projects, and common legacies.

This publication, which is titled The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic: History, Architecture, Economics and Society, is an essential contribution to the knowledge and identification of the common links between Italy and the Dominican Republic. It is not an enumeration of facts or events, but a living and intellectual association of the plural processes of historical coalescence, whose illustrative value and contributions of approaches in various areas add to the recognition of the values ​​of the past and the mobilizing perspectives of the cooperation between our peoples, mutually rewarding us with the milestones and cultural breakthroughs that permeate us with beauty and delight.

Beautifully designed and organized, this work, through its research and analyses, covers the most complex spaces of culture, from Frank Moya Pons’s “The Italian Presence in Santo Domingo 1492-1900” to a study on “Italian Immigration to Santo Domingo and to the Southern and Eastern Regions of the Dominican Republic,” by Antonio Guerra Sánchez, passing through “The Italian Presence in the Cibao Region and in Santiago de los Caballeros,” by Edwin Espinal Hernández, as well as the essay titled “Christopher Columbus: A Man between Two Worlds” by Gabriella Airaldi.

The texts on ecclesiastical history contain a wealth of information, with more recent insights provided in the Homily delivered on September 17, 2019 by Monsignor Francisco Ozoria to commemorate the Quincentennial of the arrival of the First Resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Alejandro Geraldini, who also spearheaded the construction of the First Cathedral in the Americas. The ensuing chapters focus on the political history and historical ties between our peoples, such as the essay by Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, “Duarte and Mazzini,” “Diplomatic Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic,” by Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben and Andrea Canepari, a text by Bernardo Vega on Amadeo Barletta, several essays on Dominican families of Italian origin, as well as a piece on Ilio Capozzi, the Italian military veteran hired by the Trujillo regime to train the specialized military corps of “frogmen,” an elite naval force, who died in combat during the events of the 1965 constitutional revolution.

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This is a study sketched by historians, scholars and intellectuals, with incisive details, such as those contained in “Italy’s Contributions to Dominican Constitutional Law,” offered by Dr. Milton Ray Guevara, and “A Brief History of the Casa de Italia in Santo Domingo” by Renzo Seravalle and Rolando Forestieri. The chapter on the Bonarelli family, who have been intimately linked to our country and who are responsible for introducing “the tastes of Italy” in the Dominican Republic through their involvement in various aspects of production, cuisine, and good taste, is sublime.

As stated by Ambassador Canepari, there are key individuals on the Economic Council of the Italian Embassy ​​who, without bearing Italian names or being of Italian origin, have joined in the mutual initiatives of those with Italian surnames in our country, such as Miguel Barletta, Giuseppe Bonarelli, Juan Antonio Bisonó, Celso Marranzini, Manuel Pellerano, Frank Ranieri, Felipe Vicini, María Amalia León, and Pepín Corripio.

I have cited only some of the essential texts in this delightful work that is presented to us through the efforts of historians, intellectuals, communicators, and citizens of both Italian and Dominican origin; however, I can assure you that what is depicted here in demonstrative brushstrokes reflects individually and collectively the positive cultural influence and the ties between our country and Italy.

As His Excellency, the Ambassador of Italy in the Dominican Republic, Andrea Canepari, writes, this book on the Italian cultural heritage in the Dominican Republic “is a work that aims to highlight the unity and shared culture that have been created over the course of the centuries by Italians and Dominicans.” And for me, in particular, this work represents a universe of beauty and historical and cultural discoveries, which reinforce our ties and forge principles and values of ​​ solidarity and brotherhood between our nations and their representatives.

Let us create culture, strengthen our common bonds, and continue to write beautiful pages of history together.

Thank you very much. Grazie mille1.

1

In Italian in the original Spanish text.

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Preface Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S. Editorial Director, Saint Joseph’s University Press

ne of the most salient facets of the diplomatic career of Andrea Canepari, presently the Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic, is that he has been/is insisting in documenting the rich cultural heritage of Italy in the places where he serves. His service at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C. (2006-2010), saw the publication of The Italian Legacy in Washington, D.C.: Architecture, Design, Art and Culture (Milan: Skira, 2008). His tenure as Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia (2013-2017) produced The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People and Ideas, which is scheduled for release by Temple University Press in 2021. Also being published in 2021 is the present book, undertaken during Ambassador Canepari’s current assignment: The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic: History, Architecture, Economics and Society.

Carmen Robert Croce, Director of Saint Joseph’s University Press, and I are delighted to be counted among the contributors to The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia. Saint Joseph’s University Press is even more pleased to be, in collaboration with Allemandi Editore in Turin (Italy), the publisher of the English edition of The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic, which will also appear in Spanish and Italian editions.

For this book, Ambassador Canepari has assembled an impressive team of forty-five scholars, intellectuals, and historians from the Dominican Republic, Italy and the United States, to produce the most thorough examination to date of the rich cultural heritage of Italy in the Dominican Republic. As with its predecessors, The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic serves to make better known and appreciated the important contributions by the Italian community to places far from its homeland. Saint Joseph’s University Press is proud to participate in this very worthwhile project.

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Acknowledgments

INSTITUTIONS AND COLLECTIONS ASSISTING ON THIS PUBLICATION: Embassy of Italy in Santo Domingo; Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Archbishopric of Santo Domingo; Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic; Dominican Academy of History; Dominican Navy; General Archive of the Nation; House of Italy (Casa de Italia); Mayor’s Office of the National District of Santo Domingo; Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic; Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of Dominican Republic; Casa Mella Russo Museum; Museum of Modern Art of Santo Domingo; and the Presidency of the Dominican Republic.

ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATING IN THE CULTURAL INITIATIVES OF THE EMBASSY OF ITALY IN SANTO DOMINGO: APEC University; Ar.Vi.Ma., Pavia’s Civic School of Art; San Ramon Art and ASR Design; Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD); Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD); Babeque Cultural Center; Banreservas Cultural Center; BlueMall Shopping Center Santo Domingo; Brera Academy of Fine Arts; Caribbean Cinemas; Catholic University of Cibao (UCATECI); Catholic University of the Northeast; Catholic University of Santo Domingo (UCSD); Center for Higher Studies in the Spanish Language; Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania; Coffee Bar and Bookstore Mamey; Higher Community Technical Institute (ITSC); Dominican College of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors (CODIA); Dominican Culture and Convention Center of UTESA; Dominican Episcopal Conference; Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce; Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD); El Catador; Fernando Peña Defilló Museum; Friends of the Museum of Royal Houses Foundation; General Directorate of the Dominican Republic’s Border Development (DIGEFRONT); Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (FUNGLODE); Ibero-American University (UNIBE); INCE University; Institute of Higher Education Specialized in Diplomatic and Consular Training (INESDYC); Italian Cuisine Academy; Italian-Latin American Organization (IILA); León Center of Santiago de los Caballeros; Los Remedios Chapel; Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT); Montecristi Business Club; Museum of the Royal Houses; National Council of Private Enterprise (CONEP); National Meeting of Schools and Faculties of Architecture (ENEFA); Natural History Museum of Santo Domingo; Office of the First Lady; Opera Lovers of Dominican Republic; Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC); Pedro Henríquez Ureña University (UNPHU); Mother and Teacher Pontifical Catholic University (PUCMM); Quinta Dominica Gallery; Region of Emilia Romagna; Renovación Center of Puerto Plata; University of the East (UCE); Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC); Sartirana Art Foundation of Pavia; School of Design of Altos de Chavón; Schools and Faculties of Architecture of the Dominican Republic (EFA-RD); Sinfonía Foundation; Technological University of Santiago (UTESA).

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THIS BOOK HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE THANKS TO THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF

Italian Embassy in the Dominican Republic

With special thanks to: Corripio Media Group Diario Libre Group Ghella Grupo Puntacana Inicia Simpex Farmacia Carol Listín Diario Group Giovanni Savino www.giovannisavinophotography.com for kindly donating photographs from his collection Andrea Vierucci www.andreavierucci.com for creating a video photographic project

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Preliminary Remarks

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Luigi Di Maio Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic

talian-Dominican relations have been woven together by virtue of the work of the Italian community that has settled in the Caribbean country.

This book, The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic. History, Architecture, Economics and Society, reveals the salient role played by Italians in the Dominican Republic and, for the first time, systematically highlights the network of fertile exchanges developed over the centuries between our two countries.

Many Italians have been afforded the opportunity to establish themselves after following pathways in various fields such as politics, economics, and culture in the Dominican Republic. Dominican business, education, publishing, journalism, architecture, and design have therefore and certainly all benefited from the influence and contribution of our compatriots.

Alessandro Geraldini, first resident bishop, who arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1519, was Italian.

The first chair of Dominican-Italian studies in the Dominican Republic, instituted at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), was named after Geraldini, an important humanist.

Giovanni Battista Cambiaso was also Italian. This merchant of Genoese origin, Dominican national hero, founder of the Dominican Navy, and finally Italian Consul wrote important pages in the history of the Dominican Republic, which in 2020 celebrated the bicentenary of his birth.

In turning the pages of this book, to which important Dominican intellectuals have contributed interesting essays, the solidity of Italian-Dominican relations—and their still unexpressed potential—become evident.

This project is not only testimony to an important past but also a stimulus for reinforcing the links between our two countries.

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Carmen Heredia de Guerrero Minister of Culture of the Dominican Republic

he cultural exchange and dialogue between Italy and the Dominican Republic extends back to a long tradition of goodwill and solidarity. The ensuing cultural legacy, the product of diplomatic and historical relations between the two nations, also encompasses a vocation of love for literature and the arts.

From its role as the cradle of the Renaissance, that great period that sought to revive the Classical Greco-Latin past, to the present, Italy always fascinates and seduces us, for the ancestral richness of its culture, for the magic of its mythology, for its distinguished men and women of letters and the arts, and for its great thinkers.

This wonderful publication will serve as a reference for present and future generations, who will be nourished by the wisdom and knowledge that spring from the intellects that have contributed to the pages of this volume. It is a splendid encyclopedic endeavor and a laudable initiative that will contribute to enriching both cultures.

History, architecture, literature, the arts (cinema, music, and sculpture), economics, science, journalism, law, and society are the areas and aspects that engage, in their conceptual depths and scholarship, the authors who grace this beautiful book with their insights.

It is enough to read the texts and the profiles of the highly prestigious historians—the architects, writers, and intellectuals that make up the theoretical body of the essays that this volume brings together—to recognize the historical and cultural value of this work.

I invite every Dominican—as well as every lover of knowledge, letters, arts, and history—to read this formidable work, which has an inestimable value, and which urges us to explore the legacy of Italy in Dominican culture and understand how the culture of both countries is shared, in a process of foundation and ongoing transformation, which spans the centuries of history and fellowship between the Italians and Dominicans.

This work has an extraordinary significance, because it will enable our country to be seen, known, and recognized in that great cultural homeland which is Italy and, therefore, throughout Europe and the rest of the

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world. The European reader will be able to realize that, beyond the beaches and the beauty of our landscape and our people: “There is a country in the world that follows the same path under the sun,” as the Dominican Poet Laureate Pedro Mir has observed.

Thus, the relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic have a beautiful history that enriches their cultural memory in a reciprocal way. Many of the pioneering Dominican families of Italian origin have contributed, from a commercial, political, or religious perspective, in promoting development and stimulating economic, material, intellectual, and social progress in our country.

The fact that this work appears in an English edition, published by the distinguished Saint Joseph’s University Press, and also in Spanish and Italian editions, published by the prestigious Umberto Allemandi publishing house, guarantees further dissemination and greater reach. This book is therefore a testimony and an unprecedented legacy to the shared cultural history of both countries and a contribution to present and future generations who wish to nourish their minds with its content.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Italian Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, H.E. Andrea Canepari, for undertaking this bold and challenging initiative.

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Dario Franceschini Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities of Italy

ll over the world when speaking of Italy, one immediately thinks of beauty and history. This book, The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic. History, Architecture, Economics and Society, illustrates how the Dominican Republic has been positively influenced and permeated by Italian culture, which has brought with it not only beauty but also science, technology, and economic development.

Individuals like Christopher Columbus and Alessandro Geraldini, first resident bishop of Santo Domingo, man of letters, intellectual, and diplomat, contributed significantly to the diffusion of our culture in this splendid country. The book shows how culture was transported by Geraldini not only through construction of the beautiful Santo Domingo cathedral but also through defense of the natives. These are little known pages of world history, written by Italians in the Dominican Republic and subsequently followed by many others in which the central figures are Dominicans alongside their Italian friends.

The Italian presence in the Dominican Republic is found not only in the humanist, artistic, musical, and cinematic cultures, but also in the areas of science and technology. Indeed, at the end of the nineteenth century Genoese merchants brought fundamental agricultural innovations to the Dominican Republic, which transformed the country’s economy, while the Salesians, still remembered by the people with gratitude, established an effective system of widespread education in the country, teaching as well the professional skills needed to carry out different activities. Various institutions were also set up by Italians: the first Dominican daily newspaper was founded by Italians in 1889, as was the Navy, by a Genoese merchant and hero of Dominican independence, Giovanni Battista Cambiaso.

There have also been important mutual exchanges in the field of architecture: from the first palace inspired by the Italian Renaissance in the Americas to the so recognizably Italian model of the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo, designed by an Italian engineer. Many Dominican architects are remembered for having studied in Italy.

By virtue of this book, the Dominican Republic’s Italian community itself will gain a better knowledge of its origins. If there is an awareness of this shared history, of this new culture created owing to the contribution of Italian culture, new opportunities for trade and investment may arise. Indeed, the shared knowledge of our cultures cannot but lead to a new and more intense relationship, along with the desire to write new pages of this history together.

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Carolina Mejía Mayor of the National District of Santo Domingo

he history of the Dominican Republic and its capital city, Santo Domingo, is also the history of ongoing migration, a process in which the Italian people have unquestionably left their mark. At each decisive stage in our past, it is possible to identify the ever-constructive role of this hardworking, visionary, and creative community. The Italian immigrants who found a home and family in our land have selflessly served us in many ways. Their role in the dynamization and diversification of our industry, as well as in the expansion of our cultural heritage, is clearly deserving of special attention. It is also important to underscore how this community, with its own unique past, has an impact on our present and future. Their Dominican descendants continue to participate actively in national life every day, following the example of sacrifice set down by their parents and grandparents.

I wish to congratulate the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo, and His Excellency Ambassador Andrea Canepari, for this invaluable work of research, which reflects upon the legacy of the Italian people in our country and for the outstanding ways in which they have integrated that legacy among the people of our nation.

This text, produced within the framework of the celebrations of the quincentennial of the arrival of Alessandro Geraldini in our country, will undoubtedly inform present and future generations of Dominicans and Italians about our invaluable shared history.

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Luca Sabbatucci Director General for Global Affairs of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation

taly and Latin America share a long history and close cultural links created by the vast Italian communities that gradually settled in the region and which have contributed to the development of Latin American countries in the economic and cultural spheres—as well as to the enrichment of the civil society of a region where people characterized by strong affinities with Italy and Europe now live.

One of the most obvious examples of these very lively and current cultural and social relations is certainly that between Italy and the Dominican Republic, a country whose link with Italy—forged over past centuries— has since been consolidated. Genoese merchants brought ideas, technology, and capital to the Dominican Republic, transforming the agricultural and mercantile sectors and contributing to the country’s economic development. Along with this, they also transferred knowledge, professional skills, and values that facilitated the creation and consolidation of the most important Dominican institutions, first and foremost the Navy, founded by Giovanni Battista Cambiaso, a Genoese merchant who took part with his fleet in the Dominican Republic’s struggle for independence and who subsequently took on the role of Italian consul.

Other sectors in which an Italian imprint is still clearly visible are those of economics, education, journalism, art, architecture, film, and literature. Italians have written important pages of Dominican history, which we have endeavored to ensure are properly appreciated and known within the communities of Italian descendants resident in the country. We may certainly say that Italians and Italian culture have ensured a fundamental contribution to defining the “genetic heritage” of the Dominican Republic, decisively taking part in the formulation of a new and shared culture.

This book—promoted by the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo—sets the interesting objective of including and ordering in a single frame significant stories of friendship and cooperation until now unknown or only partially and sporadically known, finally circulating them to the general public, to create a greater awareness in the Italian communities of their role in the Dominican Republic and the opportunities still to be taken, both in traditional areas of cooperation and in other sectors to be opened to new synergies.

As Director General for Globalization and Global Affairs, I would particularly like to note that this book is highly appreciated by the Dominican Minister of Culture and that the following have taken part in this collaborative work with their valued contributions: the Foreign and Industry Ministers, the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, and other prominent Dominican figures, such as the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, who has lent his support to the resumption of relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

The invitation to enter into an even more ambitious alliance, by virtue of the strong historical roots that unite Italy and the Dominican Republic, is also reiterated by the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, who in the Foreword invites us to further strengthen “our common bonds, and continue to write beautiful pages of history together.” The wish that new pages be written together and our bilateral relations enriched with new opportunities, not only economic, is also the desire—and assured commitment—of Italy.

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José Chez Checo President of the Dominican Academy of History

raditionally, Dominican historiography has been characterized by emphasizing research and highlighting political and diplomatic aspects, while glossing over or ignoring other facets such as the economic, social, and cultural. There have been noteworthy exceptions, as is the case with the work of Pedro Francisco Bonó in the nineteenth century, who documented, among other matters, the country’s social classes.

The final decades of the last century witnessed the emergence of certain historical works that sought to construct a more global approach to our past, with the work of Harry Hoetink titled El Pueblo Dominicano 1850 - 1900. Apuntes para su Sociología Histórica (1971), serving as one of the most eloquent contributions in terms of explaining the events that occurred in the Dominican Republic during that period.

One of the aspects that has not been given due attention is the role that immigration has played in the country. This would seem strange, since, with the exception of the indigenous peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus—who were entirely obliterated by the first decades of the sixteenth century—our country and its people have been shaped by various waves of immigrants who, over the course of time, have left their respective marks on society.

Although there are monographs that focus on the contributions of immigrants such as the Spaniards, Africans, Haitians, Middle Eastern peoples, Jews, and others, there is still much to be written, and that should certainly pose a point of departure for future research, as the historian Frank Moya Pons has highlighted in his work La otra historia dominicana (The Other Dominican History).

In this sense, the present work, The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic: History, Architecture, Economics and Society, will serve as an instrumental and invaluable example for understanding the contributions of immigrants who have left deep imprints in the shaping of Dominican society.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of Ambassador Andrea Canepari—whose fruitful labors over the course of two years of uninterrupted work have contributed to the strengthening of diplomatic relations—this text is now available for the general public. The numerous essays contained in this volume are authored by prominent historians and Dominican and Italian writers, as well as immigrants and their descendants, and focus on history, architecture, literature, the arts, economics and science, journalism and law, and cultural institutions, thereby showcasing the contributions made over the course of more than five centuries by people originating from that Mediterranean peninsula.

The Dominican Academy of History, whose mission is to contribute to the study, understanding and dissemination of our past, is delighted that a work of this caliber has finally seen the light of day. It will undoubtedly serve to foster a greater understanding of the contributions of the prolific Italian migration and to occupy a prominent place in modern Dominican historiography.

Congratulations!

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Antonella Cavallari Secretary General of IILA (Italo-Latin American International Organization)

irst of all, my warmest congratulations to Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari for having brought about this work with enthusiasm and exemplary dedication. I would define it as “encyclopedic” on the Italian influence in the Dominican Republic and the very long, fraternal relations between the two countries. Indeed, the precious, detailed information offered to the reader makes an essential framework for anyone wishing to look more closely at this fascinating relationship - an important tessera in the vast mosaic of the Italian presence in Latin America - and this journey through history, from Columbus to our own days.

I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know some of the people featured in these stories, from our contemporaries, now a point of reference for Dominican society as much as for the Italian community, such as the Vicini, to heroes of the recent past whose history we also recently recalled at the IILA. I am referring to the unforgotten Commander Ilio Capozzi, for example. I got the impression of a close link between Italy and the Dominican Republic, which goes beyond the people concerned, transcends epochs, and merges into a feeling of mutual affection that I would like to call love.

Over the years the IILA has helped forge this sense of closeness between the two countries through significant projects of cooperation, especially in the sphere of agriculture and SMEs, but also by stimulating the development of new technologies - I recall for example the Cooperation Agreement between the Dominican Republic’s Foreign Ministry and the IILA for the creation of a Scientific, Technological and Innovation Diplomacy Program - and offering scholarships to worthy Dominican students and researchers. Recently, in 2019, we had the pleasure and honor of receiving a visit from then President Medina and of having the Dominican Ambassador to Rome, Peggy Cabral, as Vice President of our organization. The presentation of the historic IILA exhibition at the Foreign Ministry in the Dominican Republic in early 2020 made our role as a bridge between Italy and the Dominican Republic better known to the Dominican people. The cultural relations are fertile. To cite only the most recent, I recall in 2017 the participation of the singer Cynthia Antigua in the concert “Musiche dall’America Latina” and the photography exhibition on the Mirabal sisters. In 2018 there was the screening of the documentary “Las sufragistas” by the Dominican director Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo and the participation of the painter, stylist, and entrepreneur Grey Est in our “RedTalentosLatinos” at the first meeting of Latin American talents in the cultural field, along with the participation in the IILA-FOTOGRAFIA prize of Alejandro Cartagena, previous winner of the 2012 award, and the presentation of the documentary “Mujeres dominicanas en la historia 1821-1942” by Jocelyn Espinal. The Dominican Republic has taken part

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in “Castello Errante. Residenza internazionale del Cinema” since 2019, represented by a film student who, along with a troupe of other Latin American and Italian students, makes an audio-visual product that is then distributed internationally. In 2020 seven Dominican children and teenagers took part in “Desde mi ventana.

Image slam COVID-19,” a competition for the best drawings illustrating this difficult period of closure and social distancing.

So, we too have our stories of Italo-Dominican friendship to tell, and perhaps this book will be a stimulus for doing so!

I end with a firm wish: many of the lives portrayed in this splendid book are “film lives”; it would be wonderful to see them scroll across the big screen as the result of an Italo-Dominican cinema co-production.

Port of Genoa. Some of the most noteworthy Italians, who transformed the Dominican Republic by writing new pages of history together with the Dominicans, came from Liguria: Christopher Columbus, Giovanni Battista Cambiaso, the Pellerano family, Giovanni Battista Vicini Canepa, and Angiolino Vicini Trabucco. © Andrea Vierucci

Introduction by the Editor Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy in Santo Domingo

t has been my distinct privilege to serve as the editor of this book, which is long overdue. The descendant of a hero of national independence, a former Dominican ambassador to Rome, and a leading Dominican intellectual, Marcio Veloz Maggiolo (after whom Milan University named the first chair of Dominican studies in Italy in 2019) published an article entitled “Italians in Dominican Life”1 in 2001 in which he reviewed the most illustrious Italians in the Dominican Republic. He pointed out that, although his discussion did not presume to be exhaustive, it 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.”

After arriving in Santo Domingo as Ambassador in 2017, during the critical reopening of the Embassy after several years of closure, I realized that the Italian community in the Dominican Republic had indeed been “fundamental to the nation’s life, history and character,” exactly as Maggiolo had written. It became clear to me that the Italian community had been instrumental in forming a number of the identifying characteristics of the country, helping to build the political, social, economic, and cultural structures that played a part in molding the current Dominican Republic.

Italians together with their Dominican friends have written fundamental pages of the Dominican Republic’s history and in some cases of world history. Italians were present at the most critical junctures during creation of the Dominican state, from 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—through such symbolic monuments as the National Palace, the Columbus house, the marina and Altos de Chavón in Casa de Campo, and Punta Cana—influencing agriculture and trade; and sketching the borders of culture through art, cinema, music, and literature. Although this compendium of riches that binds the two countries was well-known in part, it was not appreciated in its entirety, and I perceived a lack of awareness of the significant bridges built by Italians in the development of the Dominican Republic right from its very start. Though in a series of meetings I had experienced emotional and respectful responses with regard to the subject, I was nevertheless aware that the import and potential of this Italian legacy was not fully or uniformly understood here by either the Dominicans or Italians of early immigration, nor by the more recently arrived community.

I would like to share one particularly poignant moment. While the lunch guest of Grupo Puntacana founder Frank Rainieri and his lovely wife Haydée, the conversation turned to the subject of Italian influence in the Dominican Republic, and I listened intently to Mr. Rainieri tell the story of an Italian hero and leading figure in Dominican independence—Giovanni Battista Cambiaso. I later discovered that few knew the story of Cambiaso, a Genoese merchant who established the Dominican Navy and saved the country by assembling

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

a naval fleet where none had previously existed, making his ships and those of another Italian, Giovanni Battista Maggiolo, available to defend the independence of the Dominican Republic. In my chapter on diplomatic relations (Chapter 13, Part Two: “Diplomatic Relations in the Present: 2017-2020”), I recount how my newly found marvel and appreciation led to the joint annual celebration of the Italian Embassy and Dominican Navy in the National Pantheon, and how, in 2018 at the Italian national celebration, the Navy choir sang with visible emotion its anthem, a hymn that names precisely these two illustrious Italians, Cambiaso and Maggiolo.

Looking more closely into Cambiaso’s story, I found that his descendants, the Porcella family, had kept Admiral Cambiaso’s full-dress uniform with love and pride. Enrique Porcella León, a descendant of the admiral to whom I was introduced by the doyenne of the consular corps, Clara Reid, allowed me to have the uniform and Cambiaso memoirs photographed by the Italian photographer Giovanni Cavallaro (the photos appear in Chapter 11). The discovery of these artifacts is one of the many curiosities and peculiarities to emerge while I have been inlaying the varied pieces of this splendid mosaic—designed by our many contributors—which holistically images the country’s Italian characteristics with flair and precision.

In order to create new relationships and once again cross the bridges built by the Italians who came here over the past centuries, though, it is necessary to recognize these bridges. I therefore thought it important to devote myself to the conception of a book that would seriously recount the various expressions of Italian influence in the Dominican Republic. It was a pleasure not only to meet so many scholars and to work with universities and cultural institutions but also to acquaint myself with many distinguished Dominican leaders, including the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Milton Ray Guevara; the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Francisco Ozoria Acosta; the Foreign Minister, Roberto Álvarez; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Micro, Small and Medium Businesses, Ito Bisonó; and the President of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, Celso Marranzini, who were keen to take part in this project and offer their authoritative and insightful viewpoints. All is crowned by the sovereign voice of the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, who in his distinguished Foreword shows how the message of strengthening relations with Italy and rediscovering the roots of past cooperation to create future opportunities is also the guiding principle of the new government. This goal was also articulated by the eminent Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Álvarez, as speaker and guest of honor at the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce on September 22, 2020, in the first speech by a Dominican minister at an international event in Santo Domingo.

On that occasion the Foreign Affairs Minister publicly announced his commitment to resuming relations with Italy, making this one of the political priorities of President Abinader’s government. (The Dominican Foreign Ministry press release was significantly titled “Canciller Roberto Álvarez reafirma compromiso de RD en relanzar relaciones con Italia.”) In order for the Dominican aim of strengthening ties with Italy to meet with success, it is imperative to appreciate the historical links forged between the two countries over the centuries.

This is why I am convinced it is truly relevant that so many esteemed authors wanted to record the past by taking part in the creation of this book, contributing to its success.

Many stories have been brought back to light, with no small gratitude to the work of this book’s 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, that which is found here is not a dead ruin but a living résumé of the cultural, political, religious, educative, economic, technological, and social histories of real individuals that still today constitute one of the cornerstones of the Dominican Republic’s cultural identity.

The book opens with a fresco crafted by Frank Moya Pons, “The Italian Presence in Santo Domingo. 14921900,” which contextualizes the importance of the various Italian contributions to the development of the Dominican Republic, bringing to light the important role played by Genoese merchants over the centuries, including the fundamental contribution of Giovanni Battista Vicini and his family, to whom the introduction of technology for agricultural development is owed. This discussion is followed by two in-depth studies deriving from the local archives by Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez, “Italian Immigration to Santo Domingo and to

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

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the Southern and Eastern Regions of the Dominican Republic,” and Edwin Espinal Hernández, “The Italian Presence in the Cibao Region and in Santiago de los Caballeros,” which highlight the continuity of Italian emigration, the roots of Italian families in the country, the number of emigrants, and the importance of these families and their surnames in every aspect of their histories.

From the very beginning of this project, I have believed the great starting point should be remembered: the Genoese Christopher Columbus and his companions were the first to interact with this island nation. Although there are some who criticize the memory of Columbus, forgetting that he was a man of his time and a builder of transatlantic connections, his contribution, his Italianism, and the fact that he changed the history of the world cannot be ignored.2 Columbus’s very Italianism is at times doubted in the Caribbean region, given that the name adopted for him, Colón, emphasizes the Hispanic. But he was a deeply Italian figure, as such by birth, and also multifaceted as well as archetypal of the globalization of the fascinating period that links the Middle Ages to the modern age.3 In this perspective, the contribution by Gabriella Airaldi entitled “Christopher Columbus. A Man between Two Worlds” makes known the great navigator’s Italian dimension, as a Genoese, along with several of his symbolic legacies, such as the name he bestowed on the beautiful Dominican island of “Saona,” now in the Eastern National Park, in memory of one of Admiral Columbus’s companions, Michele da Cuneo, and derived from the Ligurian city of Savona.

This discussion is followed by the story of the Italian clergymen and the Catholic Church, and their influence in the country. It begins with one of the most symbolic and prominent figures, the first resident bishop of Santo Domingo, Alessandro Geraldini: an important diplomat, man of letters, clergyman, friend of Columbus, and builder of the First Cathedral of the Americas. He was a central figure in epic pages of Dominican history, including those devoted to his clashes with the Spanish governor, one of which involved a confrontation over the condition and treatment of the natives, brought to consideration by Edoardo D’Angelo’s article titled “Alessandro Geraldini vs. Rodrigo de Figueroa: The Dominican Church, the Encomenderos, and the Issue of Indigenous Peoples.” D’Angelo is also the author, with Rosa Manfredonia, of “From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. The Itinerarium ad regiones sub aequinoctialis plaga constitutas (Itinerary) of Alessandro Geraldini d’Amelia,” in which the figure of Geraldini the writer is understood in completely new terms. Professor D’Angelo’s original discoveries show that the book by the first resident bishop was indeed written by him and is not the result of a Renaissance invention attributed to him. The figure of Geraldini is then rounded out by the very authoritative reflections of his successor, the Archbishop of Santo Domingo Monsignor Ozoria, in the “Homily Given to Commemorate the Quincentennial of the Arrival of the First Resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini, First Cathedral of the Americas, September 17, 2019” on the occasion of the Te Deum celebrated by Monsignor Ozoria to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first bishop’s arrival.

His words allow Geraldini’s intellectual and spiritual wealth and complexity to be fully appreciated. As I have learned while visiting the country, Italian clergymen have made a fundamental contribution to the formation of the Dominican educational system, as told to me by many former students whose lives were changed by the education they received from such Italian clerics as the Salesians. The strength of the ties between the Dominican and Italian Churches was also pointed out to me in conversations with Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez; Archbishop Francisco Ozoria; the Rector of the Catholic University of Santo Domingo; the auxiliary Bishop of Santo Domingo, Benito Ángeles; and the Bishop of Higüey, Jesús Castro Marte. Some of the important ties between the Church of Santo Domingo and Italy are described in the chapter by José Luis Sáez, “Italian Clergy and the Catholic Church. Biographical Summaries,” which describes significant and still beloved figures like Brother Rocco Cocchia, Father Fantino Falco, and Archbishop Pittini.

The political history section begins with an essay by Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, “Duarte and Mazzini,” which includes not only the words of a great Dominican intellectual but also makes known the symbolic ties between two individuals who played a major part in the independence of the two countries: the founder of the Dominican Republic, Duarte, and one of the leaders of the Italian Risorgimento, Giuseppe Mazzini. In his essay titled “Juan Bautista (Giovanni Battista) Cambiaso (1820-1886), Founder of the Dominican Navy and

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

First Admiral of the Republic,” Juan Daniel Balcácer explains the Genoese merchant’s historical importance, highlighting his family’s significance in the independence and development of the Dominican Republic.

I believe the Italian ancestry of two presidents of the Republic, Francisco Gregorio Billini and Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos, is hugely relevant. Roberto Cassá as author of the chapter titled “Francisco Gregorio Billini.

President and Author” points out not only Billini’s political and patriotic but also cultural interests. The other president of Italian ancestry, Giovanni Battista Vicini Burgos, is the subject of essays by Bernardo Vega, “Juan Bautista (Chicho) Vicini Burgos,” and Alejandro Paulino Ramos, “The Provisional Government of Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos.”

Diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic are studied in the chapter in which MuKien Adriana Sang Ben reviews the events that took place between the foundation of the Republic and the reopening of the Italian Embassy in 2017—“Diplomatic Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic: Notes for a Chronology: 1844-2017”—while I examine more recent developments in “Diplomatic Relations in the Present: 2017-2020.”

Returning to the intersection of Italian stories in the Dominican Republic with the major junctures of international politics and world history, the events involving Amadeo Barletta must be taken into consideration. When I met his descendant and heir, Miguel Barletta, an entrepreneur with history studies at Princeton behind him and one of the first to have appreciated and supported the idea of this book when I presented it to him, Miguel told me the extraordinary story of Amadeo Barletta and his family. This is recalled in the chapter titled “Amadeo Barletta” by Bernardo Vega in which the weft of politics, diplomacy, and great entrepreneurial capability is brought to light.

The subsequent chapter also stems from a conversation, this one with the founder of Punta Cana, Frank Rainieri, who told me an extraordinary story involving his father and the Italian diplomats who played a crucial role during the turbulent and compromising moments following the death of the dictator Trujillo. I was immediately convinced that this story should be told in the book, and I am grateful to Antonio Guerra for having interviewed Frank Rainieri in Chapter 18: “Antonio Imbert Barrera Rescued: Italian Families Serving the Nation.”

I am indebted to the Italian ambassador to Mexico Luigi De Chiara for having introduced me to Giancarlo Summa, a United Nations official engaged in studying the history of the “frogmen,” who were trained by former Italian soldiers and who died in Santo Domingo defending the constitutional cause. He wrote an interesting piece on this also little-known event, despite it being well recorded in the diplomatic archives of the United States, Italy, and Great Britain, which he studied and then published in this book “The Choice of Freedom: Ilio Capozzi and the 1965 April Revolution.”

The testimony of Víctor Grimaldi, Dominican Ambassador to the Holy See for eleven years, entitled “Origins of the Strong Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic,” takes us out of Santo Domingo and into the observational eye of Rome, allowing us to see how the restart of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the importance of these relations were perceived from the Italian capital.

The strength of the links forged over the course of the political, military, religious, and diplomatic history shared by the two countries is also reflected in the dialogue concerning architecture. These ties facilitated exchanges of individual professionals as well as ideas that have profoundly influenced the construction of buildings and the business of urban planning in the Dominican Republic. In this sphere, too, there are little known, if not entirely unknown, stories brought by this book to the visibility their importance deserves. While speaking to the Dominican diplomat Julia Vicioso, I discovered that one of the most symbolic buildings in Santo Domingo owes its existence to Italian inspiration. Indeed, the section on architecture in the colonial period opens with the surprising results of a study conducted by Julia Vicioso through The Medici Archive Project, “He brought Florence to the New World: The Viceregal Palace of Diego Columbus in Santo Domingo (1511-1512),” presented at the 62nd Annual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America in Boston in 2016, according to which the famous Colombo house is the first work of the Italian Renaissance on the American continent.

Another little-known story of cultural cross-pollination between Italy and the Dominican Republic in-

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

31

volves the Spanish fortifications of Santo Domingo. The contribution made by the Antonelli family to the Santo Domingo city fortress walls has been examined by Professor Sandro Parrinello, who at the beginning of 2020 carried out onsite research promoted by the Italian Embassy and whose results are presented in his article “The Walls of Santo Domingo and Documentation of the Construction Projects by the Antonelli Family.”

A visit to the cathedral with Virginia Flores Sasso and Esteban Prieto allowed me to discover the important Italian roots of this extraordinary monument, the first cathedral in the Americas, and of its place in world history. They introduced me to the figure of Alessandro Geraldini, explaining his importance to Santo Domingo and to the world. With gratitude to both, and due to their assistance, the academic basis was established for the subsequent celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident bishop, Alessandro Geraldini, in Santo Domingo; as part of these celebratory activities, the current Archbishop of Santo Domingo Monsignor Ozoria celebrated a Te Deum in the cathedral to mark the 500th anniversary of Geraldini’s arrival.

In “The Funerary Monument to Alessandro Geraldini at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo,” Virginia Flores Sasso describes the chapel and monument of the first resident bishop Alessandro Geraldini, contextualizing it in time and in Renaissance funerary art. In the essay titled “The Italian Influences on the Basilica Church of Santa María la Menor, First Cathedral of the Americas,” Esteban Prieto Vicioso studies the lasting impressions left over the centuries by Italian architects and artists on the Santo Domingo cathedral.

The Italian contribution to architecture is rich and multifaceted and also of the modern age. The section on modern architecture opens with two essays concerning a symbolic Santo Domingo building, the National Palace, designed by Guido d’Alessandro. The chapter by Emilio José Brea, “The Italian Engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi and the Construction of the Dominican National Palace,” outlines the figure of Guido D’Alessandro, the palace, and its construction, while in “The Dome of the Dominican National Palace and Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi,” his grandson Jesús D’Alessandro, Dean of Architecture at UNIBE University and head of the Town Planning Department in the municipality of Santo Domingo, agreed to my request to write about the Italian influence on the style of the palace dome. Interestingly, he highlights the line of inspiration followed by his grandfather Guido, who started from important models of the past, and recalls previously unknown anecdotes of family history relating to the construction of the building.

Gustavo Luis Moré in “The Italian Training of Modern Dominican Architects, 1950-2019” retraces the influence of Dominican architects whose studies were conducted in Italy, bringing to light the continuous thread linking important buildings in the Dominican Republic to what was learned during their Italian studies.

The Italian influence on one of the most famous tourist complexes in the Caribbean, and an authentic icon of the Dominican Republic, Casa de Campo, is studied in two chapters that describe the contribution of Italian ideas to Dominican beauty. Alba Mizoocky Mota López explains the Italian origins of the medieval-inspired complex of Altos de Chavón in the chapter “Altos de Chavón: A Mediterranean Village Nestled in the Caribbean,” while Diego Fernández describes the Italian inspiration of the Casa de Campo marina and the role of the architect Gianfranco Fini in the chapter titled “The Influence of the Porto Rotondo Marina on the Casa de Campo Marina, La Romana.”

The section on literature and the arts opens with an essay by Danilo Manera entitled “Marcio Veloz Maggiolo: A Writer of Italian Descent at the Very Heart of Dominican literature.” It was Professor Manera himself who introduced me to leading Dominican intellectuals with whom we discussed this book, many of whom subsequently became its authors. I am indebted to Professor Manera for introducing me to Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, who was the first to open discussions about twenty years ago on the need to publish such a book. It must be remembered that it was precisely at the urging of Danilo Manera and the then-Dominican ambassador in Rome, Peggy Cabral, that Milan University dedicated the first Italian chair in Dominican studies to Marcio Veloz Maggiolo in the 2019-2020 academic year. The section is concluded by the winner of the Dominican National Literature Prize of 2018, Manuel Salvador Gautier, who wrote the chapter titled “Italy and Literature” in which he offers interesting testimony of his years in Rome as a student of architecture and of how the beauty of Italy subsequently influenced his writing career.

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Italy has also left a significant mark on Dominican figurative art, sculpture, music, and cinema. In her chapter titled “Italy’s Influence on Dominican Art,” Jeannette Miller recalls Dominican painters of Italian origin and others with close relations to Italy, such as the director of the Hombre Dominicano Museum, Christian Martínez. Myrna Guerrero discusses the Italian nature of important Dominican sculptural works, from the doors of the Higüey Basilica to the equestrian monuments of Luperón, in the chapter “Italian Sculptors in the Dominican Republic.” Blanca Delgado Malagón presents the rich dialogue of the musical field, describing Italian musicians who have come here and their contributions in the chapter titled “The Italian Legacy in Dominican Music and Culture,” also enriched by pictures from her collection donated to the Archivo General de la Nación. The Italian mark made on the cinema sector can be perceived right from its birth in the Dominican Republic, as Félix Manuel Lora writes in his article titled “The Dominican Audiovisual Approach to the Italian Film Experience,” in which he brings to light pages unknown to most on connections in the world of film. His chapter is particularly relevant at this time: the Dominican Republic is seeking to become a filming destination, while the two countries signed an agreement for cooperation in this industry in February 2019.

Although Italy is universally known for its artistic and cultural heritage, whose contribution to the Dominican Republic is presented in the previous sections, Italians have also played an important role in the economic and scientific world, though this dimension is less well known. Relations between the two countries have been strengthened in the Dominican Republic precisely due to the economic and scientific contributions made by

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

Ceremony to launch the commemorations of the birth bicentenary of Admiral Giovanni Battista Cambiaso, at the esplanade of the Ministry of Defense, with the participation of the leading military authorities of the country. Santo Domingo, December 4, 2020. From the left: the children of the Ambassador of Italy, Matteo and Bianca; the wife of the Ambassador of Italy, Mrs. Roberta Canepari; the Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari; Vice Admiral of the ARD Joaquín Augusto Peignand Ramírez, Vice Minister of Defense for Naval and Coastal Affairs; Major General of the ERD Víctor Mercedes Cepeda, Vice Minister of Defense for Military Affairs. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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Italians, who have in this way benefited the development of the Caribbean country. Such contributions are looked at jointly, simply because the country’s economic development has always been accompanied by an Italian technological and scientific contribution, as recently acknowledged by the Dominican Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Álvarez in a speech made on September 22, 2020 entitled “Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic in the Context of Covid-19” when he noted: “In terms of cooperation, the Dominican Republic has benefited mainly from the advanced Italian technology applied to the agricultural and craft industry. The scholarships, professional and academic training of our young people have been extremely valuable.”

The section on economics and science looks at an important area of Italian influence, explaining how and in what sectors these disciplines have produced tangible outcomes in the development of the Dominican Republic. The section on economics opens with a fresco painted by Arturo Martínez Moya on large and small Italian investors and companies (“Italian Investments in the Modern Dominican Economy”), followed by the history of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, written by its president, Celso Marranzini, one of the most respected entrepreneurs in the country, who in the chapter “The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce” also talks about his family and its role in the development of the country.

The article by Raymundo González, “Science and Environmental Protection in Agricultural Development: Dr. Raffaele Ciferri’s Contributions in the Dominican Republic,” discusses the founder of Dominican agrarian science, the Italian Raffaele Ciferri. I am grateful to Roberto Cassá, Director General of the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) and author of an essay in this book, for having introduced me to Raymundo González, who conducted research on Ciferri as part of the AGN scientific program. There has also been an Italian contribution to the mining sector, one of the Dominican Republic’s principal exporters, described by Renzo Seravalle in “The Italian Contribution to Mining Development in the Dominican Republic,” while Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben in her essay “Frank Rainieri Marranzini: Creator of Dreams” focuses on one of the most popular tourist destinations worldwide—Punta Cana—and its founder Frank Rainieri.

The last section of the book looks at various Italian contributions to important institutions, such as the media and the legal industry, that are essential for a country’s development as a protector of liberties and its cohesiveness as a society, as well as Italian influences on Dominican society in general and its identity. Antonio Lluberes retraces the founding of the first newspaper in the Dominican Republic 132 years ago (on August 1, 1889) and the contribution of Italian journalists and publishers in his essay titled “Italian Journalists.”

Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Milton Ray Guevara, who gave an authoritative lecture on Italy’s contributions to International Constitutional Law, and Dominican law in particular, at UNIBE University on October 25, 2018, as part of the celebrations of the 120th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic, inspired the essay in this book entitled “Italy’s Contributions to Constitutional Law,” written by Professor Wenceslao Vega Boyrie and based on this important speech by Milton Ray Guevara.

I had the privilege of awarding the honor of Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy to Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini during the national holiday of 2019. This significant honor recognizes the contribution of the lawyer Rodríguez Vicini to the cause of Italianism in the Dominican Republic and his continued support of the country’s Italian institutions. I asked him to write a testimonial, which is included in this book as “Angiolino Vicini Trabucco (1880-1961)—An Immigrant Who Never Forgot His Homeland,” because I had remembered with emotion a letter that he allowed me to read and which had been written by his grandfather, Angiolino Vicini Trabucco, to his own father in which Trabucco recalled his departure from Italy. The letter is a poetic, poignant text that I believe is important for this collection; I also have decided to formally dedicate to Angiolino Vicini the new Residence and Embassy that will be built on the land he donated to Italy on Calle Rafael Augusto Sánchez, in the Naco district of Santo Domingo.

The President of the “Casa de Italia,” Renzo Seravalle, along with Professor Rolando Forestieri authored a piece on this vital organization, which brings together the community and which stepped in to carry out certain functions of the Embassy while it was closed in 2013, significantly promoting and preserving the Italian spirit and protecting the Italian community during this time period. Next, Professor Mu-Kien Adriana Sang

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Ben delights the palate with a piquant discussion of the Italian influence in cuisine, noting its expression in the country’s social institutions, such as the iconic “Vesuvius” restaurant, a long-time favorite still remembered with nostalgia by many as a weekend highlight, while also making known Italian gastronomy and wines through an account of the Bonarelli family’s business activities (“The Flavors of Italy in the Dominican Republic”).

The last two chapters offer the words of two members of the current government. In the penultimate chapter, “Considerations on the Relationship between the Dominican Republic and Italy,” the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Micro, Small and Medium Businesses, Ito Bisonó, speaks authoritatively on economic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic, his friendship, and his commitment to building even stronger relations between the two countries, while recalling his parents’ familial ties with Italy. The last chapter contains the excerpt of an important speech made by Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Álvarez at the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce on September 22, 2020.

The book is richly illustrated: Italian and Dominican photographers worked together to portray the visual signs of Italy in the Dominican Republic. An important archival set of pictures was compiled by identifying early texts and images that testify to the depth of the relationships described in the chapters. It was a pleasure to speak with such outstanding photographers as the Italian Giovanni Savino, now in New York, who I met through an introduction by Professor Robin (Lauren) Derby of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), with whom he has worked on academic publications. Giovanni Savino has spent many years carrying out photographic and documentary research in this country, focusing mainly on Dominican traditions but also documenting the countryside; I thank him for having donated the photos that appear in this book. The dialogue between Italy and the Dominican Republic is always built in symbiosis, the two national components proceeding in parallel: Dominican photographers, including Thiago da Cunha and Ángel Álvarez, bring out the Italian character of this country in their shots, while, returning to Italy, Andrea Vierucci presents images of the places of origin of iconic Italians in the Dominican Republic, which are included in an important public diplomacy project that I had the privilege of promoting.

The celebration of Italian cultural heritage in the Dominican Republic found itself at the center of a multifaceted public diplomacy project at the end of 2020, inspired by the 200th anniversary of the birth of Juan Bautista (Giovanni Battista) Cambiaso, citizen of an Italian state and consul of the Republic of Genoa, founder of the Dominican Navy, first admiral of the Republic, and hero of Dominican independence. The project encompassed not only publication of this elegantly illustrated book, which contains 47 essays in three separation translations to reach Hispanic, Italian, and international readerships. Its iconic stories were then brought to life through a number of other channels in parallel to its presentation: a professional digital edition, a graphic novel for fifth-grade students distributed to schools in the Dominican Republic, a presentation on digital channels, and a weekly half-page in the printed edition of the most widely circulated Dominican newspaper, Diario Libre.

The graphic novel was created by professional set designers, scriptwriters, and cartoonists with the aim of entering the collective imagination by framing stories fundamental to the Dominican Republic through episodes and characters that symbolize the historical-cultural relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

Another outlet was created through a video, made in Italy by photographer Andrea Vierucci, who taped the places of origin in Italy of selected historical figures from the book and graphic novel. There is also a real and virtual photography exhibition that joined the Italian historical figures highlighted in this book with places and portraits of the same people in the Dominican Republic, their association with Italy having been rediscovered thanks to the stories written and issues studied by the authors and presented here.

This book has thus become the cornerstone of a broader, more ambitious public diplomacy program that I hope will take relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic to a new level. I am convinced that appreciation of the Italian cultural heritage in this country, focusing on the exemplary stories of famous Italians who have changed the history of the Dominican Republic, is also important as a source of pride for our community, those of early and of more recent emigration. Both can identify with the significant Italian

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

Greeting of Ambassador Andrea Canepari and ViceAdmiral Joaquin Augusto Peignand Ramirez, Vice-Minister of Defense for Naval and Coastal Affairs, upon the arrival of the former at the ceremony honoring the birth bicentenary of the first admiral of the Dominican Navy, Italian Giovanni Battista Cambiaso.

Santo Domingo, 4 December 2020. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

35

contribution to the country’s growth and engage in closer relations with each other, and between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

I am convinced that the contributions, images, and texts from such different voices, from the Academy to the institutions, from the religious to the cultural, political, and economic worlds, collectively compose a symphony of Italianism in the Dominican Republic and allow us to understand the essence of the Italian cultural heritage here in the country. I am similarly convinced that through the lens of Italianism, a picture emerges of the Dominican Republic as a country with structures forged by centuries of communication with Italian immigration and as a country capable of creating opportunities at an international level, owing to its engagement in international dialogue since its foundation. In this process of creating closer international relations, starting from Italy, I am certain that the Italian community of early as well as recent immigration to the Dominican Republic can play a decisive role.

I am grateful to all the authors of the book who accepted my invitation to participate, generously offered important written contributions, and with great patience have at times been willing to supplement their work in order to highlight and clarify points that I believe are fundamental for illustrating the iconic stories of the cultural marriage between Italy and the Dominican Republic. I would also like to express my deepest thanks to Dr. Frank Moya Pons, Professor Danilo Manera, and architect Virginia Flores Sasso for their initial ideas and enthusiasm during the conception of this book. Many thanks also to the President of the Academia Dominicana de la Historia, José Chez Checo, for the continuous dialogue and work of organizing the texts.

Special recognition for their support goes to the various Dominican government officials and institutions, starting with the Foreign Affairs Minister, Roberto Álvarez, that accepted my invitation to take part in the projects to illuminate the Italian cultural heritage in the Dominican Republic: the various cultural events held to celebrate the 120th anniversary of diplomatic relations, the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident bishop in Santo Domingo Alessandro Geraldini, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of the first admiral and

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

founder of the Dominican Republic’s Navy, Giovanni Battista Cambiaso. These events and celebrations were important moments in making the shared history known, and they allowed fruitful contacts to be established with cultural institutions and the academic world of this country, facilitating participation in the book.

Many thanks to the prominent figures who agreed to honor this project with their authoritative introductory words: the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader; the Minister of Culture, Carmen Heredia; the Mayor of the National District of Santo Domingo, Carolina Mejía; and the President of the Academia Dominicana de la Historia, José Chez Checo. I am also very grateful for the introductory remarks written by distinguished Italian government officials, including the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hon. Luigi Di Maio; Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities, Hon. Dario Franceschini; the Director General for Global Affairs of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luca Sabbatucci; and the Secretary General of the Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA), Antonella Cavallari.

I am thankful to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for having supported, by funding the extraordinary vivere all’italiana program, projects arising out of this book, such as the graphic novel with ten iconic stories derived from it, published in printed and digital editions and distributed in Dominican schools.

I would finally like to thank the sponsors, Santo Domingo Motors-Grupo Ambar, ACEA, DOMICEM, Rizek Cacao, Grupo Inicia, and Grupo Puntacana for having believed in and supported publication of this book.

It was a pleasure to work with Father Joseph Chorpenning and Carmen Croce of Saint Joseph’s University Press, who immediately grasped the importance of an American academic edition enriched with essays by American professors. I am very happy that authors from the United States decided to participate as well, thus contributing to the success of this work.

Dr. Michael R. Hall, in his contribution “Ricardo Pittini: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santo Domingo (1935-1961),” sheds light on two important Italian figures of the Dominican Republic Church. They are Bishop Ricardo Pittini and the Apostolic Nuncio Lino Zanini. Monsignor Pittini is an important figure in the Dominican Republic church in that he contributed to safeguarding the church during politically difficult times. Bishop Zanini as Apostolic Nuncio played an important role in allowing the Vatican diplomacy to send decisive messages to the Dominican government, thus changing history.

Dr. Michael Kryzanek offers interesting reflections on the diplomatic relationships between Italy and the Dominican Republic in his essay titled “Contemporary Italian-Dominican Relations.” He highlights how past diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic can now be renewed today due to the preparatory work of recent years and how the vast preparatory work translates into greater opportunities for the two countries in the economic, cultural, and political spheres.

It was a pleasure to work with Andrea Campana, and I thank her for her dedication and important help in copy editing the collection. It has also been a pleasure to meet the Italian publisher Umberto Allemandi, who believed in this project from the start and decided to publish the Italian and Spanish editions of a book that is as technically rich and complex as the history it recounts.

I am convinced that this book will help nurture an awareness of past history, and I hope to promote new opportunities, while at the same time fostering further research on a subject that deserves closer study. As can be seen from this Introduction, I discovered many of these fascinating and enlightening stories through individuals I was privileged to meet and who felt it important to share them with the Italian Ambassador. I, in turn, felt it was my duty to present them in a scientific and unified manner, wishing to involve readers, starting with the Italian community but also including all Dominican friends of Italy, in what I learned.

I hope this volume will also be of value to those interested, in general, in the contributions of Italy and Italian communities around the world, as well as in the cultural, social, economic, and political dialogues aris-

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR

37

ing from this influence. This is a subject dear to me and a contemplation deepened through my role as editor of two other volumes—The Italian Legacy in Washington D.C.: Architecture, Design, Art, and Culture, published

by Skira in 2008, and The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas, Temple University Press, 2021. The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic: History, Architecture, Economics and Society builds on that framework as the third of an ongoing multi-volume series that aims to enhance our understanding of the significance of the Italian presence in other societies.

I wish everyone a good read and discovery of the richness and depth of the history of the friendship and ties between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

ENDNOTES

Following pages: Las Damas Street, Colonial Zone, Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro

1 Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, “Italianos en la vida dominicana,” El Siglo, October 27, 2001, 6E. 2 The debates over Columbus are ongoing in many parts of the world. For an analysis of how Columbus is perceived in the Italo-American community, particularly in the Philadelphia region and his significance to that community, see A. Canepari, “Ciao Philadelphia: Creation of an Italian Cultural Initiative and Volume,” in The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas, ed. A. Canepari and J. Goode (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021). In the United States there are those who forget the role played by Columbus, since the time of his celebration at a federal level, in linking an oppressed minority to the foundation of the United States. On May 21, 2020, an article written by Gilda Rorro and published on the front page of the New Jersey newspaper The Italian Voice under the title “Preserve

Columbus Statues: A legacy for the Ages” ended as follows: “Columbus’ statuary serve as physical monuments of bygone eras, which are a precious legacy for this and future generations. Preserve them as a resource to unite all people through education and mutual understanding. In closing, I remember the former Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia, and current Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic, His Excellency Andrea Canepari, saying about Columbus in 2016: ‘His statues stand as a symbol for an oppressed minority to be recognized through him as part of the dna of the Delaware Valley.’”

3 For some considerations on the passage and on the continuity between the Middle Ages and the modern age, see A. Tenenti, L’età moderna. La civiltà europea nella storia mondiale, II (Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino, 1981) and J. Huizinga, L’autunno del Medioevo (Rome: Newton Compton, 1992).

HISTORY

General Subjects • PAGE 41 Columbus and the Sixteenth Century • PAGE 101 Ecclesiastical History • PAGE 109 Political History • PAGE 143

• CHAPTER 1

The Italian Presence in Santo Domingo, 1492-1900

By Frank Moya Pons Former Professor of Latin American History at Columbia University; research director of the Institute of Dominican Studies of the City College of the City University of New York

t is very well-known that the initial contact between Europeans and Native Americans came about through a Genoese sailor, as Liguria native Christopher Columbus undertook the quest of attempting to reach Asia by means of the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus did not accomplish his goal, because his geographic model included an error by Florentine cartographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, whose navigational map of the Atlantic erroneously showed that the distance between Japan (Cipango) and the Canary Islands was approximately 3,000 nautical miles; in fact, it was closer to 10,000.

In the midst of that expansive area of the planet, an unexpected continent lay in Columbus’s path, and he died without ever reaching Asia, despite having attempted to do so four times on his exploratory journeys. To finance the costs of the first trip, Queen Isabella I of Castile contributed 1,140,000 maravedíes—just over half the funds required—in expectation of the benefits promised by Columbus. He, in turn, invested 500,000 maravedíes, an amount that had he acquired through a loan from Juanoto (Giannotto) Berardi, a notable Florentine businessman established in Seville in 1485.1 Berardi was a member of a thriving Florentine community residing in Seville that traded in enslaved Africans, silk and other fabrics, wood, lichens and other herbs and who lent money to other merchants as well as monarchs and nobles. The names of some of those Florentines are known, among which many friends of Columbus were included: Amerigo Vespucci (closest of them all), Francisco de Bardi, Simón Verde, Francisco Ridolfo, Jerónimo Rufaldi, and Lorenzo de Rabata. Many of them assisted with Lorenzo Francesco de Medici’s business ventures and maintained correspondence with him, as has been well documented by the Sevillian historian Consuelo Varela in her book Colón y los Florentinos.

Consequently, some historians have speculated that “it is likely that Columbus, as an individual, personally received a loan from the Medici Bank, and therefore indirectly from Lorenzo de’ Medici, through his representative in Seville, Giannotto Berardi.”2 In any event, what remains certain is that the funds contributed

by Berardi helped Columbus to contribute his part toward the financing of the first trip, which resulted in the discovery of the Antilles, whose name was derived from a mythical island (Antilia or Ante Illia) that some Europeans believed was located near other smaller islands in the middle of the ocean to the southwest of the Azores along the same latitude as the Canary Islands.

From among the islands discovered by Columbus, he selected the second largest on which to establish a trading post similar to those founded in Africa, which he had visited years prior together with Portuguese sailors and merchants. He called this island Española, and ordered the foundation of a city on a majestic river port located at the mouth of a river called the Ozama by the indigenous people who lived on this island. This city was given the name Santo Domingo.

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The large meeting room of Casa Vicini is the second floor’s main room: the company’s business has been handled here for decades.

Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro / Casa Vicini / Inicia

Prior to that, on his second journey Columbus was accompanied by a young compatriot, Michele da Cuneo, a native of Savona, a town close to Genoa, who seeking adventures asked to join that expedition in his capacity as mere curious traveler. Cuneo wrote an account of his arrival in the Antilles, and in it he recounts that Columbus in honor of him christened a small island to the southeast of Española with the name of Saona (the Ligurian variant for Savona). Michele da Cuneo was the first European “tourist” to visit the New World.

The shipowner for that second voyage was Juanoto Berardi, to whom the monarchs entrusted the responsibility of preparing a ship for Columbus to return to the Antilles. This assignment resulted in the organization of a fleet composed of sixteen ships. For the financing of this fleet, Berardi lent 65,000 maravedíes, which were paid to him by the Crown during the following summer.

Another Italian friend of Columbus who acted as his confidant and repository for information gathered during his first two voyages was the Milanese Pedro Martir de Anglería (Pietro Martire d’Anghieria), the author of the famous Décadas del Nuevo Mundo, one of the earliest chronicles about the presence of Europeans in Española.

As Columbus’s partner and financier, Berardi acted as his agent until the latter’s death in 1495. Following that, his business remained under the responsibility of Vespucci. Ten years later, Columbus died, and his son Diego was appointed governor and viceroy of the lands discovered by his father, which would be governed from Santo Domingo. Diego moved to this newly founded city in 1509 with his wife, María de Toledo, and a small entourage of European noblemen and women sent by the Crown to “ennoble the land.”

Columbus left Diego with a vast inheritance. With those resources and the labor of numerous Indigenous slaves, between 1511 and 1512 this new governor built an imposing viceregal palace with obviously Renaissance Florentine architectural features. We still do not know the name of the designer of this beautiful building incorrectly referred to today as the Columbus Alcazar. However, it has already been clearly determined that its architecture is Italian, as has been established by researcher Julia Vicioso, who has been studying this

Opening page: Oil portrait of Giovanni Battista Vicini Canepa inside the large meeting room of Casa Vicini. © Giovanni Cavallaro / Casa Vicini

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO, 1492-1900

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building for over twenty years. According to Vicioso, “The symmetrical layout of the architectural plan and the double-arched loggias on both façades of the palace add a particularly Renaissance feel to the structure, which can be considered the first work of the Italian Renaissance in the Americas.”3 A decade later, the construction of another emblematic building in the city of Santo Domingo was initiated upon the orders of the first resident bishop in this city, Alessandro Geraldini, a native of Amelia, Umbria, a town located in the center of the Italian Peninsula. Geraldini was appointed bishop of Santo Domingo by King Charles I of Spain, on November 23, 1516. He arrived in this city on September 17, 1519, and he died on March 8, 1524. Consequently, he was never able to see completion of the cathedral that he planned as his episcopal see, the model for which followed late Gothic architecture, as such a unique example of its type in the Americas.

Among his many letters, Renaissance man Geraldini left an account of his voyages (Itinerarium ad regiones sub aequinoctiali plaga constitutas) which contains vivid descriptions of the exploitation of the indigenous peoples by the Spanish encomenderos. Struck by the cruelty with which the natives were treated, he fell into conflict with the governor of the island, Rodrigo de Figueroa, and he wrote numerous letters to the Pope denouncing these many cruelties and injustices.

Geraldini’s arrival in Santo Domingo coincided with the coronation of the new emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V, who three years prior had been crowned Charles I, the monarch of all Hispanic kingdoms, at the young age of sixteen. For his first coronation, then-prince Charles traveled to Spain from Flanders where he had been raised, accompanied by a large retinue of Flemish courtiers. In August of 1518, this new monarch granted one of these courtiers, Laurent de Gouvenot, a monopoly license to import 4,000 African slaves to Española and the West Indies to offset the labor shortage caused by the accelerated decimation of the indigenous population.

Gouvenot sold that license to some Genoese slave traders, the merchants Adán Vivaldo and Valián de Forne, who in turn ceded it to the Casa Centuriona company established in Spain, the owners of which were also Genoa natives: Gaspar, Esteban and Jácome Centurión. This is the reason why this operation was known as the “Asiento of the Genoese.” With this authorization, these Genoese men became the primary importers of African slaves in the Americas for over a decade, despite the fact that the Spanish Crown did not honor the monopoly and granted other licenses to individual dealers, among them the German company belonging to the Welser family.

In addition to trafficking slaves, the Centurións were also involved in the sugar business in Española. One of them named Melchor owned a sugar cane mill in the outskirts of Santo Domingo that was operated by administrators residing on the island.

There is information that the Centurións and other Genoa natives served as lenders to the owners of the sugar cane mills on the island and that they operated as sugar brokers, assuming responsibility for the exportation of this commodity to Northern Europe. These slaves were essential for the expansion of the sugar industry that began to develop in 1518, just as the labor force was showing signs of its final extinction. A lending policy to those encomenderos who wanted to switch from mining to sugar production encouraged many to become manufacturers of candies. Due to the licenses granted by the king, slave labor was guaranteed.

In 1520, the authorities in Española reported the construction of six new mills, three of which were already producing sugar. These first plants used enslaved labor composed of a few hundred indigenous people that were exploited by their owners and several hundred enslaved Africans imported, beginning in 1518. By 1527, there were already twenty-five plants operating at full capacity. Their owners had made various deals to amass the necessary capital. In addition to the loans granted by the Crown, some investors sold properties.

Some joined together into companies of up to four shareholders, while others became indebted to Genoese merchants from the Casa Centuriona company established in Seville.

The connection with this company is explained by the fact that the Genoese had experience selling Mediterranean sugar throughout Europe. Slaves were a very important component in the investment for estab-

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lishing a factory, and the Genoese were willing to finance their importation to the Caribbean. These Genoese traders were very capable of providing the labor force that the new planters in Española needed, since their allotment of 4,000 slaves was exhausted far before the eight years for the license expired. Charles V granted new licenses to various courtiers, as well as members of the colonial elite of Española. The King granted them the privilege of importing African labor through his own resources, which ranged in number from a dozen to 400 slaves. Nevertheless, the Genoese continued to be the primary brokers of Caribbean sugar in Northern Europe. There were various Genoese last names found throughout Santo Domingo during those years, in addition to the Centurións and the Vivaldos, including the Castellóns, Grimaldis, and the Justiniáns. All were connected with the sugar business and slave trade.

The human cruelty that occurred in Central America and the Caribbean, and foremost in Española, did not go unnoticed by Girolamo Benzoni, a young Milanese adventurer who resided in Santo Domingo between 1542 and 1544. His memoirs titled Historia del Mondo Nuovo narrate his experiences as a traveler accompanying various explorers and Spanish conquistadors throughout South America and the Caribbean. Although it was poorly written and contained obvious factual errors, Benzoni’s text had thirty editions, translations, and reprints during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it has continued to be used as a valuable source on the atrocities committed during the Conquest of the Americas.

In his book, Benzoni confesses that because he came from a poor family, he did not receive an academic education. However, he learned how to compensate for his lack of schooling with a wide range of experiences during his trips throughout Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean. Due to his significance, his biography was published in 1992 by the Dominican Society of Bibliophiles with a scholarly preface.

Benzoni opens his work with the following words: “Being young, only twenty-two, and desiring to see the world like so many others, and having heard word of the new countries many call the New World, I decided go and set off from Milan in the year 1541 with the aid of the Lord our God, ruler of the universe.”4 After many years of traveling throughout Central America and the American continents, Benzoni came to Española, to which he dedicated a substantial description in his account. His naïve approach to the island’s nature and his acceptance of an oral history alive in the memory of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo offer the readers a firsthand view of early Dominican colonial life that complements that of other chroniclers of the Americas.

During the two centuries following Benzoni’s stay, aside from the visit in 1589 to Santo Domingo by the famous military engineer Battista Antonelli to examine and propose a reform to the city’s fortified walls, there are no other mentions of any Italians within Dominican historiography. Yet there were of course others, though their presence remained hidden within the archives, and it was necessary to wait until the middle of the nineteenth century to again discover them. This lapse would seem justifiable, since the Spanish colony fell into a long period of decline that lasted the entire seventeenth century. Rather than attracting new immigrants, the pervasive suffering forced colonists to try to leave the island. Not even the slow economic recovery of the colony during the eighteenth century was able to attract other immigrants aside from Spaniards.

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and its aftermath of over fifteen years of wars, military invasions, changes in government, and massive emigration acted as a deterrent to European immigration until at least after 1822. During that year, the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo ceased to exist due to being annexed by the Republic of Haiti, which is a very well-known fact. For the ensuing twenty years, the island’s population, reduced during previous decades by wars and emigration, started its demographic recovery while the economy entered into a phase of structural transformation. At that time, sugar cane, cotton, and indigo had disappeared as important items for exportation. In their place, tobacco, wood and coffee became the primary products exported.

Even though engagement in trade in Haiti was legally prohibited to foreigners, little by little European and American merchants began to establish themselves and to buy these products intended for exportation at the main maritime ports such as Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haïtien, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Plata. In turn, these merchants imported manufactured goods from both the United States and Europe. Most of the coffee pro-

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO, 1492-1900

The central patio of Casa Vicini. The exit overlooks Isabel la Católica Street (Isabella the Catholic Street, formerly known as Del Comercio Street (Commerce Street) Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro / Casa Vicini / Inicia

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duced on the island—virtually all of it harvested in the western part—was sent to North America. Meanwhile Europe received shipments of cacao, as well as timber (mahogany and other trees, including guaiacum, which was rather favored by the shipbuilding industry). Almost all of the tobacco and a large portion of the timber came from the eastern part of the island populated by Dominicans.

In the aforementioned maritime ports, small trading settlements began to take hold and were made up of individuals of different nationalities, including Sephardic Curaçaoan, North American, English, German, Dutch, and Genoese merchants. The Genoese population in Santo Domingo controlled the timber trade and was solidly established in the export and import business. Many of its members were the owners of schooners and brigantines with which they crossed the ocean to carry mahogany and guaiacum, leather, tallow, and wax primarily to the ports of Genoa and Liverpool. Most goods of all sorts came mainly from Europe, especially those manufactured in Italy such as olive oil, wine, utensils, ironware, and textiles.

In 1844, the year of the foundation of the Dominican Republic, the most prominent Genoese in the small commercial world of Santo Domingo were the brothers Juan Bautista and Luis Cambiaso, Juan Bautista Maggiolo, Nicolás and Antonio Canevaro, and all of the owners of schooners. Juan Batista Pellerano Costa, a renowned government lender, was also eminent.

When the Haitian army invaded the Dominican territory in March of that year, to attempt to prevent the separation of the eastern part of the island, Cambiaso, Maggiolo and Juan Alejandro Acosta lent their ships

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

to the service of the fledgling Dominican nation, and with them they established the first flotilla consisting of three ships for the Dominican Navy. The Provincial Governing Board selected Juan Bautista Cambiaso to lead it and appointed him as an admiral with such incredible success that on April 23, 1844, the Dominican ships fought a successful battle against several Haitian vessels at the site of Tortuguero, in Ocoa Bay, sinking three of them.

Cambiaso commanded the schooner named the Separación Dominicana; Maggiolo, the schooner María Chica; and Acosta, the schooner Leonor. (Acosta was a Dominican Criollo born in Baní.) Ten years later, in 1854, under the command of Cambiaso, these three sailors with three new ships (named Cibao, Merced, and General Santana), brought the navy to the northern coast of Haiti to provide support for the Dominican troops that were preparing for the famous Battle of Beler.

Among other Ligurian merchants established in Santo Domingo, special mention is due to the brothers Nicolás and Antonio Canevaro, natives of the town of Zoagli, near Genoa, who were also the owners of multiple schooners, and were closely connected to the Cambiaso brothers. Nicolás de Canevaro dedicated himself to the exportation of leather and precious timber and to the importation of European goods. Others, like the brothers Luis and Juan Bautista Cambiaso and Juan Bautista Maggiolo were owners of schooners and brigantines. Still, others like Juan Bautista Pellerano, were government moneylenders, and others were dedicated to commerce and artisanal products.

Canevaro also had ships and was a well-known merchant in the capital of the nascent Dominican Republic. In the books and records of the General Treasury Division kept as of 1853, there are many notes about Canevaro’s commercial and naval exploits. In these documents, it states that Canevaro was the owner of at least one schooner and two brigantines that made continual trips abroad, exporting mahogany and carrying goods. These ships operated for many years. The schooner was named “Dos Amigas,” and the brigantines were named “Sardo Palestra” and “Julio César.”

The Cambiaso brothers were partners at a company named Cambiaso y Ventura. As can be gleaned from the ledger books for the Ministry of the Treasury—which recorded sales of provisions to the government—they also had considerable commercial influence during the First Republic. The Cambiasos continued with this business after the Dominican Restoration War, as did Canevaro, who continued operating as a shipowner, importer, exporter, and occasional supplier for the government. In April of 1869, the Cambiasos went a step further and asked the government for the long-term lease agreement for a depot at the old customs office for the port of Santo Domingo. Having their own depot as customers gave the Cambiasos a clear operational advantage.

In that year, Juan Bautista Cambiaso was the owner of numerous seafaring vessels. One of them was the schooner Dos Amigas, formerly the property of Canevaro. The others were the schooners Rodolfo and Citania, and the brigantine Rodolfo, as well as the three-masted schooner Luis Cambiaso, which made trips with timber to Genoa. The schooners Rodolfo and Citania had a load capacity of 68 and 53 tons respectively. Years later, the Cambiasos were also agents for the first steamships that operated in the port of Santo Domingo. Being the owner of ships contributed to the fact that Canevaro and the Cambiasos were able to offer goods at lower prices than other merchants, since they could sell their shipments without incurring certain brokerage costs.

Casa Vicini served as the headquarters for all companies owned

by Juan Bautista Vicini, as well as partner companies, for four generations of the family. Meetings were held there since before 1879. The house was connected to the warehouses in the port of Santo Domingo, by means of a tram, which eventually extended all the way to calle El Conde. © Giovanni Cavallaro / Casa Vicini / Inicia

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO, 1492-1900

Zoagli, Liguria, where the Vicini family originates. © Andrea Vierucci

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The Treasury books show that the government purchased various items from Canevaro that included goods as varied as scales, reams of paper, twine, wheat flour, and jugs of oil. Canevaro, like other foreign merchants, imported goods from Genoa, Curaçao, Paris and elsewhere in France, England, and Saint Thomas. An example of the variety of items that the Casa de A. Canevaro y Cía company sold to the public is an advertisement about “novelties” published in the Official Gazette on March 28, 1872, in which it stated that these goods had been imported from France and England via Curaçao and that they had arrived aboard the schooner Isabel. The list is rather varied: panseburro woolen hats, children’s shoes, boots for women, slippers, spools of yarn, colored muslin, white and colored linens, “Prussian” style garments, white madapollam, yellow cotton, towels, white cotton stockings, spools of thread, Bogotá-style garments, cotton blankets, stiff drilling, superior white drilling, children’s stockings, various sorts of men’s stockings, stockings for women, white cotton shirts for men, handkerchiefs, as well as a wide variety of items and edible goods, that they have in stock in their warehouse. In the earliest documents that we have found, Canevaro was carrying out his business under the company name Nicolás Canevaro y Cía, which he later changed to A. Canevaro y Cía.

The importance of the Canevaro brothers, and Nicolás in particular, is not only based on their wide range of business that they carried out in Santo Domingo and Genoa, but also for having been responsible for the arrival in the Dominican Republic of a young man born in Zoagli in 1847, who would later become the founder of the country’s main corporate dynasty: Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa, known more familiarly as Giobatta.

Giobatta arrived in the Dominican Republic somewhere between twelve and thirteen years of age (between

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1859 and 1860). He spent the next five years as an apprentice at the company Nicolás Canevaro y Cía., and he started to work independently at age eighteen when his guardian retired from the business and made him a partner in the company. When Vicini reached that age, an advertisement was published on June 5, 1865, in the Gaceta de Santo Domingo that read: “We are hereby notifying the public that by mutual agreement, the company that operated in this area under the company name Nicolás Canevaro & Compañía will continue its same business under the company name Antonio Canevaro y Cía., as Nicolás Canevaro retired from it and Juan Bautista Vicini became a new partner. Santo Domingo, June 1, 1865. N. Canevaro y Cía.”

At that time the country had recently emerged from the Dominican Restoration War, launched by the Dominicans to put a stop to Spain’s annexation of the Dominican Republic. The Spanish troops left the country in July of 1865, and in October the new national government created a committee responsible for supervising the printing of the first bills for the national currency that would replace Spanish notes, as well as the old Dominican currency that was still in circulation. In January of the following year, at just nineteen years of age, Vicini, along with five other adult citizens, was signing the records for this committee that supervised the printing of the 40, 20, and 10 Dominican peso banknotes.

Two years later, at age twenty-one, Giobatta appears for the first time in the books of the Treasury as a personal creditor of the Dominican Government for the amount of one hundred pesos recorded on a sheet for payments for miscellaneous items. This appears to be the first commercial transaction by Vicini Cánepa as an individual, not as an employee or representative of the Canevaro companies. In that transaction, his name was recorded as Juan Bautista Bichini. From that time onward, Vicini Cánepa never ceased to expand his business.

The exportation of timber generated continuous surpluses of hard currency that he learned to use to make loans to the Dominican Government, as other foreigners were doing in Santo Domingo, and also to meet the growing demands for loans from the civilian population during an era in which there were no banks.

Gradually, and through his unwavering discipline and incredible sense of organization, Vicini Cánepa was becoming one of the main moneylenders in the city while never ceasing to work as an exporter and importer, and also maintaining the original business that sold all types of domestic and imported merchandise. In 1880, he was also operating as an associate investor at various credit boards, as the unions of organized moneylenders were referred to in the major cities (Puerto Plata, Santiago and Santo Domingo) to lend funds to the Government, almost always with the guarantee from customs-related income.

Vicini Cánepa took part in the start of a “sugar revolution” promoted on behalf of the nation by the leaders of the Partido Azul party, since he acted as an individual lender to multiple foreign investors that wanted to establish themselves within the country to take advantage of the franchises and tax privileges that the state was granting to financiers that wanted to invest in the construction of sugar refineries. Vicini Cánepa entered the sugar industry as a financial backer and sugar broker by around 1880. To facilitate his sugar and honey shipping operations, Vicini Cánepa acquired a steam-powered ship that year to replace the schooners that his company was sailing between Santo Domingo and New York.

Excited about the good business results and the boom created by the sugar revolution, in 1883 he decided to build his own plant called Italia on his property located in the outskirts of Yaguate, the municipality of San Cristóbal, in the area called Caoba Corcovada. He bought the equipment and machinery for that factory in France, among them a large still for the production of alcohol, including rum and brandy. On February 28, 1883, Vicini requested authorization to build a railroad from the Italia plant to the Port of Palenque, which was granted.

When the major crisis hit sugar prices in 1884, many of Vicini Cánepa’s debtors went bankrupt, and they paid their debts to him by transferring their plants and foreclosing on their mortgages. Consequently, almost overnight he suddenly became an industrial entrepreneur who owned numerous sugar mills and cane and herb plantations, among them the refineries named Constancia, Santa Elena, Angelina, Ocoa and Bella Vista, and the La Encarnación, Santa Elena, Asunción, and Las Damas mills, some of which were later converted to sugar cane plantations. Vicini Cánepa simultaneously continued expanding his sugar business and financial

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO, 1492-1900

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operations, lending money to the Dominican government as well as individuals. The foreclosure of mortgages enabled him to build a vast real estate portfolio in the city of Santo Domingo. Moreover, the increasing profits obtained through his refineries allowed him to expand his plantations in the south and southeast of the country, by means of land purchases. By the time of his death on February 23, 1900, he held the largest fortune in all of the Dominican Republic; his assets were three times the size of the national budget that year.

Other Ligurians who immigrated to the country during the years in which Vicini was expanding his commercial and industrial empire were his cousin Angelo Porcella, his brother Andrea, and his first cousin Angiolino Vicini, who arrived in 1894. Also, from Zoagli, Angelo was brought by him to the Dominican Republic in 1878. Since then, the Porcellas and the Porcella-Vicinis have been important business families in the country, and many of their family members have stood out as prominent professionals.

Among other families of Italian origin that came to Santo Domingo in the nineteenth century are the Billinis. They are the descendents of a Piedmontese soldier who came with the troops sent by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to stifle the revolt by the slaves on the western part of the island. Having survived the military disaster that took the lives of over 50,000 soldiers, this serviceman named Juan Antonio Billini y Ruse took refuge in Baní, where he married a young Criollo woman with whom he had a large family. Among them were two priests (Miguel and Francisco Javier) and several patriots who became soldiers, politicians and writers.

One of his grandchildren, Francisco Gregorio, was the president of the Dominican Republic for nine months in 1884 and author of a celebrated novel of manners, Baní o Engracia y Antoñita, and two plays, in addition to numerous collaborations in the main newspapers from the era.

Until the end of the nineteenth century, the few Italian immigrants that established themselves in the city of Santo Domingo came from the north of Italy, almost all of them from Liguria. Other cities, such as Puerto Plata, Santiago and La Vega also welcomed some immigrants, but it was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that their presence became significant. Edwin Espinal will discuss them after this chapter. We know that the massive Italian immigration to North America and Latin America began with the inhabitants of the northern regions of Italy following Italian Unification, and it was only after 1880 that the populations from the south (so-called “Mezzogiorno”) started to leave their regions of origin.

With the gradual collapse of the feudal order following Italian Unification, the massive departure of poor Italians to the United States, Brazil, and Argentina began. At that time, the population of the countryside and towns in the south of Italy were mired in an unfortunate reality: the lack of arable lands, as well as malnutrition and diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and pellagra that made life intolerable. This is the reason that, despite the initial efforts by the authorities to prevent the labor force from going abroad, the Italian population was seduced by popular stories that sold the idea of America as a land of plenty. Consequently, approximately five million Italians left their homeland between 1876 and 1900, and roughly eight million did so between 1900 and 1915.

Most of the families of Italian origin currently residing in the Dominican Republic are the children of this massive migratory movement, especially from the wave during the first two decades of the twentieth century.

In some cases, there were towns that lost a significant part of their population as their residents came to this country, as is the case of the Calabrian town of Santa Domenica Talao, which brought to the city of Puerto Plata an enterprising group of families that contributed to the economic and social growth of both this city and the Dominican Republic as a whole.

ENDNOTES 1 See Consuelo Varela, “La financiación del primer viaje colombino,” in Cristóbal Colón y la construcción de un mundo nuevo. Estudios, 1983-2008 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2010).

2 See Gabriel Barceló, Colón y su empresa de Indias: ¿Comercio, descubrimiento o cruzada? (Barcelona: Editorial Arpegio, 2019).

3 See Chapter 21 by Julia Vicioso, “Portò Firenze al Nuovo Mondo The Viceregal Palace of Diego Columbus in Santo Domingo (1511-1512).”

4 Girolamo Benzoni and Robert C. Schwaller, The History of the New World: Benzoni’s Historia del Mondo Nuovo, trans. Jana Byars (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2017).

Santa Domenica di Talao, Italian municipality from which many Italian Dominican families originate. © Fotografo Francesco Campagna https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Scorcio_di_Santa_Domenica_Talao.jpg

• CHAPTER 2

Italian Immigration to Santo Domingo and to the Southern and Eastern Regions of the Dominican Republic

By Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez Director of the Engineering Laboratory and member of the UNPHU Academic Committee

mmigration to the Dominican Republic from the various regions of present-day Italy dates back to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Immigrants traveled to the island for various reasons: some came as members of religious orders or as soldiers in military detachments and others for motives more economic and intellectual. As with other waves of immigration from other places, every era brought a continuous flow from different regions, almost always due to family ties. As can be seen in the Dominican Republic at the outset of the nineteenth century, Italians generally came from the Piedmont region around Turin. By the middle of the century, they arrived from Liguria (Genoa and its environs); by the turn of the century, they were arriving from Campania and Calabria, southern Italy. With the sugar and coffee boom, families with French citizenship but Italian background arrived from Corsica.

The following list begins with immigrants from Piedmont, many of whom arrived in either the Spanish or French armies.

Juan Antonio Billini Ruse (1787–1852), from Alba Pompeia, Cuneo, Piedmont. He arrived in Santo Domingo in 1805 as a solider in the service of France. He was the son of José Antonio Billini and Ana Dominga Ruse. His last name must have been changed to Villin, and he became a merchant and was married for the first time on May 27, 1811, at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo to Juana Mota Arvelo,1 a resident of San Carlos and a native of the Canary Islands. After the death of his wife, he married Ana Joaquina Hernández-Cuello González2 on February 6, 1820. Famous descendants of Juan Antonio Billini include: the priest Francisco Xavier Billini Hernández, founder of several charitable organizations; Hipólito Billini Hernández, a prominent figure and signer of the Separation Act of January 16, 1844;3 José Altagracia Billini Mota, another prominent figure in the Separation Act of 1844; Francisco Gregorio (Goyito) Billini Aristi, President of the Dominican Republic from 1884–1885 and author of the novel Baní o Engracia y Antoñita. The Billinis lived primarily in Santo Domingo, Baní, and San José de los Llanos (San Pedro de Macorís).

The Bona family descends from Lorenzo Bona, a sergeant in the Regimiento Fijo de Puerto Rico and a native of Genoa, Italy.4 He married Merced Pérez Díaz-Morales, a resident of San Carlos originally from the Canary Islands in 1798. Their son Vicente Ignacio Bona Pérez (circa 1800–1844) was a retail merchant, and also signer of the Separation Manifesto on January 16, 1844. Ignacio Bona appears as the godfather of many Febrerista movement members in the baptismal records of the Cathedral of San Carlos. In a will dated September 4, 1844, before the notary José María Pérez, Ignacio Bona stated that he had nine children: Concepción (who created the first Dominican flag); Manuel; Agueda; Francisco; Balbina; Merced; Antonio; Rafaela; and Altagracia.5 The Bonas had their home on Calle El Conde, almost in front of the Baluarte del Conde bulwark, the patriotic site where the first flag was hoisted on that memorable night of February 27 when the war for in-

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dependence began. The house was sold on April 7, 1864, to Esteban Pozo by Gregorio Ramírez, who had previously purchased it from the Bona family.6 Another Bona family, but without any documented kinship with the above-mentioned family, is made up of the descendants of Joseph Antoine Bona and Marie Steffani (Felícitas), both natives of Corsica. They were the grandparents of the contractor and architect Henri Jean Edward Gazón Bona, who designed various projects throughout the 1940s and 1950s.7 The Piantinis descend from José Eugenio Piantini circa 1791–1871, and while he has always been believed to be Italian, no documentation substantiates this. He lived with Florina Blanchard, a native of Bánica and a descendant of the vegan Raimundo del Orbe Bocanegra. He later married Ignacia Arjona Ramos, widow of the Piedmontese Juan Antonio Mazara), and he also lived together with Victoria Tejera.

We know that José Eugenio Piantini was a gunsmith, and that he died in San Carlos de Tenerife outside of the walls of Santo Domingo. Several of his children emigrated to different regions of the country: 1) Zeferino Piantini Blanchard married Josefa Díaz Vargas8 in Santa Cruz del Seibo on October 1, 1840. They are the Piantinis of Mata de Palma, an area formerly named Hato Del Prado, which was the property of General Pedro Santana Familias and his wife Micaela Antonia Rivera de Soto, widow of Febles.

2) Valentín Piantini Blanchard, who married María de la Paz Núñez in La Vega on October 20, 1841.9 Valentín also had children in that city with Manuela Carreño and with Manuela Núñez.

Most of the Piantini families in San Carlos and Santo Domingo descend from José Eugenio’s sons Secundino and Delfín Piantini Blanchard. Ensanche Piantini neighborhood in Santo Domingo derives its name from them.10 The Mazara family originated with Juan Antonio Mazara, a native of Prado Sesia, Novara, Piedmont, a veteran solider of the Third Company but the army is not mentioned. He married Ignacia Arjona Ramos in 1812. Presumably he died, because, as we noted above, she later married José Eugenio Piantini. The children of Antonio Mazara, including Ramón Remigio11 and Domingo Mazara Arjona,12 moved to the Mata de Palma area (Hato del Prado) in El Seibo where they married and had a large family comprised of the Mazaras from El Seibo and the Mazaras from San Pedro de Macorís.13 Juan Patricio Mazara Arjona, a blacksmith by profession, had children with Victoriana de Soto in Santo Domingo and in San Cristóbal.

José Campillo Bit, the son of Domingo Campillo and Dominga Bit, a native of Maret, Piedmont, married Ramona Arjona Ramos (1788–1864) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on April 6, 1812, and she was the widow of the Italian citizen José Pigni.14 She and her sister Ignacia were the daughters of Gregorio Arjona López and Dolores Ramos. Ignacia first married the Italian Juan Antonio Mazara, who presumably died. She then married José Eugenio Piantini. Ramona had married José Pigni, and upon becoming a widow she married the Piedmontese José Campillo Pit. The families had close ties. José Campillo died in Santo Domingo on April 8, 1812,15 without a will but with nine children. The best known branch of the family branch stems from his daughter María Gregoria Campillo Arjona, who had children with Faustino de Hoyos. These children retained her surname of Campillo. Her descendants include Julio Genaro Campillo Pérez, attorney, historian, politician, and professor, as well as a member of the Dominican Central Board of Elections (1979–1985), president of

Today’s epicenter of the city of Santo Domingo, the area enclosed between the avenues: Gustavo Mejía Ricart, Abraham Lincoln, 27 de Febrero, and Winston Churchill. In the mid1930s, this was an area of pastures and uncultivated vegetation mainly used for cattle breeding. © Public domain

José María Bonetti Ernest, ancestor of the Bonetti Burgos family (La Nación, December 8, 1951). © Antonio Guerra

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The building “Corporativo 2010,” which was designed by the architect Jose Horacio Marranzini of Italian origin, located in the modern business district of Santo Domingo “Piantini,” and named after an illustrious Italian family. © Alejandro Marranzini

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the Dominican Institute of Genealogy (1992–1995), president of the Dominican Academy of History (1995–2001), secretary of Ministry of Industry and Commerce, (1977) and a member of Congress (1957–1958).

A common last name primarily in San Carlos de Tenerife, outside the city walls of Santo Domingo, and in Baní is Vittini, Bitines or Bitini. Variations of the name appear in different documents in the nineteenth century. Family tradition claims it is an Italian last name though the genealogist and historian Carlos Larrazábal Blanco does not provide any details.16 Meanwhile, historian Dr. Vetilio Manuel Valera Valdez17 of Baní states that the family descends from Pedro Vittini Chiossone, son of Tomás Vittini and Ana Chiossone, both natives of Narba, Piedmont. In 1792, he married Aurora Prandi Santerro, daughter of Carlos Prandi and Rosa Santerro, both natives of Savona, Liguria. The latter can be documented. From this union come the Vittini families of Baní, Santo Domingo, San Cristóbal and San Pedro de Macorís. The best known figure from this family is Dr. Mario Antonio Read Vittini (1926–2010), who was president of the Partido Dominicano in San Cristóbal (1948–1951). In 1960 he sought asylum at the Embassy of Brazil during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1891-1961). He was a co-founder of the Christian Social Revolutionary Party (1961) and served as Secretary of State (1963), governor of the Central Bank, ambassador to Washington (1969–1970), and consultant to the Executive Branch of the Government (1986–1988).

The aforementioned Prandis descend from José Prandi Santerro, a native of Savona, Liguria (near Genoa), the son of Carlos and Rosa. He was born sometime around 1782, and was married to Victoria de Fuentes Pérez-Guillama18 from San Carlos at the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor on September 7, 1808. After her death he married a French citizen María Teresa Collot de Bruli19 at the same cathedral on April 20, 1819. He was widowed yet again. His third marriage was in Baní to María Teresa Pujol Clanxet,20 a member of a family with close relations with Patricio Juan Pablo Duarte. José Prandi Santerro left a will in Baní on February 15, 1835.

The Prandis established roots predominantly in Santo Domingo and in Baní.

Sometime around 1805, Juan Nepomuceno Bonetti Judijo arrived in Santo Domingo. Born in approximately 1784 in San Remo, Liguria, he was the son of José Bonetti and Angela Judijo. In 1810, he married María de las Angustias Garoz Cruz (1795–1845) of Santo Domingo. Juan Nepomuceno appears to have been a sailor and boat captain by profession in 1831; he was also a retail merchant.21 One of his children, José Ramón Bonetti Garoz, was married on November 25, 1848, to Julia Ernest Copens,22 a descendent of immigrants from Guadalupe in the French Antilles. After José Ramón’s death, she married his brother José María Bonetti Garoz,23 Director of Public Works (1884), on January 1, 1862. The Bonetti Ernest descendants are the largest branch of this family.

Notable members of this family include postmaster José María (Chiro) Bonetti Ernest, father of the Bonetti Burgos family that excelled in public administration, diplomacy and were also successful entrepreneurs.

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María del Carmen Bonetti Garoz (1814–1883) married a fellow townsman Juan Bautista (Gio Batta) Pellerano Costa (1806–1880) on October 19, 1852, at the Cathedral de Santo Domingo. Meanwhile, Clara Bonetti Ernest married the prominent attorney, writer and public figure Juan Nepomuceno Publio Scipión Emiliano Tejera Penson on May 7, 1879, in Santo Domingo,24 to mention only a few important connections between this family with other Dominican and Italian ones.

At the end of 1834, Juan Bautista (Gio Batta) Pellerano Costa arrived in the Dominican Republic from Santa Margherita Ligure, Genoa, where he was born on August 23, 1806. He was the son of Benedetto Pellerano Bertollo and Maddalena Costa. Gio Batta’s first wife María Teresa Costa, with whom he had two children, Vicenzo Benedetto (Benito) and Maddalena, died. On October 19, 1852, Gio Batta was married for the second time at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo to María del Carmen Bonetti Garoz25 (mentioned above). On October 5, 1859, Vicenzo Benedetto (Benito) Pellerano Costa, born in Genoa, married María de Belén Alfau Sánchez,26 the half-sister of the Febrerista party members Felipe and Antonio Alfau Bustamante. Together they had a son Arturo Joaquín Pellerano Alfau, the founder of the Listín Diario newspaper (August 1, 1899).

Rosa Pellerano Costa, one of Gio Batta Pellerano’s sisters, was married in Genoa to Juan Bautista (Gio Batta) Maggiolo Maggiolo. Gio Batta Maggiolo and Gio Batta Pellerano were partners at the Maggiolo & Pellerano company. This firm was located at Calle del Comercio in Santo Domingo in 1850, and both owned the María Luisa schooner active in the Azua region during the Dominican War of Independence against Haiti. Gio Batta Pellerano died at age 74; his wife Carmen Bonetti predeased him. The priest Eliseo Sandoli27 performed his funeral rites.

The Pelleranos produced successful entrepreneurs as well as famous intellectuals, e.g. the writer and poet Arturo Bautista Pellerano de Castro (March 13, 1864–May 5, 1916), the “Dominican Byron.” Another Pellerano family settled in Santiago de los Caballeros. They are the descendents of Gierolamo Pellerano and Colombina Cuneo, also natives of Santa Margherita Ligure in Genoa, Italy.

Brothers José Bartolo and Juan Bautista (Gio Batta) Maggiolo Maggiolo also came from Genoa, Liguria. In many documents this last name appears as Mayolo and even Mayoyo. They were the sons of Girolamo (Gerónimo) Maggiolo and Maddalena Maggiolo. Juan Bautista Maggiolo married fellow townswoman Rosa Pellerano Costa, and he was the business partner of her brother, Gio Batta Pellerano. As the captain of a schooner, Gio Batta was involved in the Dominican War of Independence. He left the country permanently in 1856 for unknown destinations. His children Bartolomeo and Maddalena Maggiolo Pellerano, both born in Italy, remained in Santo Domingo. From them the Maggiolo Gimeli, Maggiolo Ravelo, Maggiolo Pimentel, Maggiolo de Castro, and Maggiolo Núñez families descend.28 José Bartolo Maggiolo Maggiolo married María del Carmen Vidal Henríquez at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on July 17, 1858.29 In 1858, he worked as a coachman; in 1886 he resided at Calle Consistorial in the Santa Bárbara neighborhood of Santo Domingo. He had many children with María del Carmen Vidal, Amelia Pereira, and Agustina Landestoy. Baní native Eudocia Maggiolo Landestoy (1869–1949) was a child of José Bartolo Maggiolo Maggiolo and Agustina Landestoy. Eudocia Maggiolo lived with Juan Francisco (Papi) Sánchez Peña (1852–1932), son of Patricio Francisco del Rosario Sánchez.

The “Empress,” Ms. Evangelina Bonetti, and a group of friends attending the sumptuous picnic given in her honor the previous Sunday at Mr. Juan Bautista Vicini Perdomo’s villa.

LETRAS Magazine #22 of 1917. © Antonio Guerra

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Giacomo (Santiago) Cambiaso arrived from Genoa, Liguria, with his children Catalina, Juan Bautista, Luis Francisco, and Giuditta Cambiaso Chiossone. Their mother Rosa Chiossone never followed. Giacomo Cambiaso died in Santo Domingo on December 11, 1858.30 His children married in the Dominican Republic and played roles in the nation’s momentous history.

Catalina Cambiaso Chiossone married her townsman Antonio Ventura Terola in 1850. More information will be provided about his family later. In 1862, Giuditta Cambiaso Chiossone married another townsman Miguel Ventura Danielli, to whom we will return as well.

Juan Bautista Cambiaso Chiossone was born in Genoa on September 12, 1820. He married Isabel Sosa (Cotes), illegitimate child of Juan Cotes and María Luisa Sosa, at the Santa Bárbara Church in Santo Domingo on June 11, 1843. Together they had eight children who, in turn, had many children of their own. Juan Bautista, a merchant and a general, was also the founder of the Dominican Navy. He purchased his business on March 15, 1845, in the vicinity of the Reales Ataranzas, which had formerly belonged to Juan José Duarte Rodríguez,31 the father of Patricio and Juan Pablo Duarte Díez. He also maintained cordial relations with the Trinitarians. He died in Santo Domingo on June 23, 1886.32

Juan Bautista Cambiaso (1820 – 1886), from the José Gabriel García collection, National Archives. © Antonio Guerra

Luis Francisco Cambiaso Chiossone (1830–1907), brother of the aforementioned Juan Bautista Cambiaso Chiossone, another native of Genoa, married Robertina Robert at the Legation of Italy on November 9, 1868. After her death, he married Bertina Latour Crane (1858–1944) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.33 He also had children with Paula Burgos. He was a merchant, and served as chargé d›affaires of Italy in the Dominican Republic and Consul General of King Victor Emmanuel II (1820–1878; r. 1861-78) in 1877 and Umberto I (1844–1900; r. 1878-1900) in 1894. In association with Salvador Cambiaso, he owned the Cambiaso Hermanos company. He also owned, among other properties, the San Luis ranch in the Pajarito sector (Villa Duarte) which was seized in 1887 as well as property located at Calle Mercedes No. 9, Unit 21.34 Antonio Ventura Terola was another immigrant from Genoa. The son of Michelangelo Ventura and María Terola, he married Catalina Cambiaso Chiossone at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on June 9, 1850 as mentioned above.35 Six children are recorded, but nothing is known about them.

Giovanni Battista Ventura, another Genoese, married Catherina Danielli. They arrived in Santo Domingo with three children, Miguel, Giovanni, and Luisa Ventura Danielli, during the 1860s. Miguel Ventura Danielli, born around 1839; he married Giuditta Cambiaso Chiossone (mentioned above) on May 3, 1862.36 One of their children, Adriana Rosa Catarina Ventura Cambiaso, married her relative and fellow townsman Antonio Sturla Chiossone.

Giovanni Ventura Danielli, born in Genoa around 1854, married Juliana Herminia Campillo Linares (1869–1897), great-granddaughter of Genoese immigrants, in Santo Domingo on November 15, 1884.37 Upon her death, he married Josefa Lamarche Pérez-Guerra, the granddaughter of Patricio Juan Isidro Pérez, on August 12, 1900.38 Luisa Ventura Danielli married the Genoese Angel Nicolás Dodero Villabona, son of Jacobo Dodero and Maddalena Villobona, on October 7, 1882; they did not have any children.39 No kinship between the Ventura Terola and the Ventura Danielli families has been established, even though both come from the same area.

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We have no records of the parents of Simón Corso (1795–1873) of Genoa. He was a naval officer. He fought in the War of Independence under the leadership of Juan Bautista Cambiaso, and he commanded the General Santana schooner.40 He married Mercedes Luis Sosa of Santo Domingo.

One son, Manuel María Corso Sosa was a second lieutenant in the military in 1862. On February 10, 1861, he had granted some land to help found the town of San Pedro de Macorís. The Corso family established itself in the east of the country. One of Simon Corso’s brothers, Juan, a Genoese sailor married American citizen Jean Wilson.

The merchant Cristoforo Sturla and Jeronima Chiossone, both natives of Arenzano, Genoa, arrived in the Dominican Republic circa 1878 with their children Adelaida, Antonio, Juan Bautista, Ercilia, and Ludovica. Their respective families later flourished in Samaná, Santiago de los Caballeros, San Francisco de Macorís, and Santo Domingo.

Adelaida Sturla Chiossone married a fellow townsman with the last name Pizzoni; Antonio Sturla Chiossone was an agent in Samaná of the Cambiaso & Cia. Company.41 He had children with X. Lavandier but married Adriana Rosa Catarina Ventura Cambiaso (mentioned above) in approximately 1885.42 Juan Bautista Sturla Chiossone (1856–1891), a merchant, owned J. B. Sturla & Co. In Santo Domingo on May 12, 1882, he married to María Luisa Adelina Cambiaso Latour,43 daughter of the aforementioned Luis Francisco Cambiaso Chiossone and Bertina Latour Crane.44 Notable among their children are Salvador Arquímedes Sturla Cambiaso (1891–1975), a great composer and musician. Ercilia Sturla Chiossone (1860–1950) married Genoese Juan Bautista Podestá Podestá, whom we will discuss later. Ludovica Sturla Chiossone married her townsman Francisco Calcagno. Their family, as we shall see, set down roots in Azua.

The Genoese Juan Bautista Podestá Podestá (1854–1905), son of Carlos and Adelina, married Ercilia Sturla Chiossone (1870–1950) in Santa Bárbara de Samaná. Juan Bautista died on October 27, 1905.45 Ercilia died on September 27, 1950.46 Only one son, Carlos Podestá Sturla, survived. From him descend all with that surname in the Dominican Republic.

Francisco Calcagno, a native of Arenzano, Genoa and a merchant in Azua, married his townswoman Ludovica Sturla Chiossone in 1885. Their family established roots in Azua de Compostela. 47 Salvatore Pasquale Pittaluga Marsano (1844 – 1899) from Sampierdarena, Genoa, and the son of Giovanni Pittaluga and Rosa Marsano, was a merchant that owned the El Gallo store on Calle El Comercio (presently Calle Isabel La Católica) in Santo Domingo. He married Elisa Cambiaso Robert48 on November 9, 1868; he also had children with Inocencia Pujol. His descendants are in Pittaluga Nivar, Lovatón Pittaluga, Mejía Pittaluga.

Giovanni Battista Serrati (?–1876), Genoese, married Severa Capriles in 1865. Their son Francisco (Queco) Serrati Capriles was married to Enriqueta Mella de la Peña on September 22, 1910.49 Another son, Luis Amadeo Serrati Capriles, operated a mine.50 Bartolo Bancalari Bruno,51 the Genoese son of Giovanni Bancalari and María Bruno and a merchant, settled in Samaná. He married Ana Gisbert González from Santo Domingo on July 28, 1883, in Santa Bárbara de Samaná.52 The children of Juan Bancalari Gisbert and

Photograph taken during a conference in Puerto Plata of Ulysses Heureaux’s General Council. Among those present was Luis Francisco Cambiaso Chiossone (1830 1907), brother of Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso. © Archivo General de la Nación

ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO SANTO DOMINGO

The Sturla family during an outing in the early twentieth century (José Gabriel García collection, the National Archives). © Antonio Guerra

Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa (1847 – 1900), from the José Gabriel García collection, the National Archives. © Antonio Guerra

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Rosa Consuelo Delgado Brea descend from to this family.

Bartolo Bancalari built the Samaná pier and shed in 1894.

He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on May 22, 1907.

The children of Angelo María Vicini and Anna Cánepa were Giuseppe, María (1837–1926), Juan Bautista-Gio Batta (1847–1900) and Andrés (1848–1928), all natives of Zoagli, Genoa. The Vicini and Porcella families of Santo Domingo descend from them. Giuseppe married María Trabuco in Zoagli, and only one child, Angiolino Vicini Trabuco, travelled to the Dominican Republic after having been summoned, like so many other relatives, by their uncle Juan Bautista (Gio Batta).53 Angiolino Vicina married San Carlos native Dilia Ariza Lapuente in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on September 8, 1928.54 María Vicini Cánepa married Andrea (Andrés) Porcella fu Giacomo in Zoagli. One child Giovanni (John) lived in New York, where he died on August 16, 1954.55 Another was Angelo Porcella Vicini, who was invited to come to the Dominican Republic by this uncle, Gio Batta, and he established a family in Santo Domingo (further information about this family appears later on).

Juan Bautista (Gio Batta) Vicini Cánepa came to Santo Domingo in 1860 at the age of twelve to work with Nicola Canevaro, a native of Zoagli. He married Mercedes Laura Perdomo Santamaría at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on November 29, 1872.56 He also had children with María Dolores Burgos Brito, one of whom, Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos (1871–1935), served as president of the Dominican Republic from 1922 to 1924. Andrés Vicini Cánepa settled in the country57 and married Isabel Perdomo de Soto, a relative of his sister-in-law, Mercedes Laura, at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on August 8, 1879.58 The Mena Vicini, Keller Mena, and Vicini Castillo families descend from Andrés.

Angelo Porcella Vicini (1864–1927), from Zoagli, Genoa, was the son of Andrea Porcella fu Giacomo and María Vicini Cánepa. He was a merchant, a consul and chargé d’affaires for the King of Italy in 1924. He married Tomasa Leonor Cohen de Marchena (1865–1924) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on December 12, 1886. She was a native of Santo Domingo and had a Sephardic Jewish ancestry background.59 They had ten children and over twenty grandchildren, whose descendants established roots in the Dominican Republic and in North America.

Marcelino Origlia Serra (?–1881), in the records consulted he appears with the surname Orillia. A native of Liguria and the son of Giovanni Origlia and Antonia Serra, he married María del Socorro Negrete Gutiérrez (1830–1869) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on May 16, 1863.60 As a widower, he married María Altagracia Bona Hernández (1843–1902) again at Cathedral of Santo Domingo on February 20, 1871.61 Since he only had daughters, his surname has disappeared.

Aurelio Octavio Napoleón Ortori (1864–1935) made significant contributions to meteorology and navigation in the Dominican Republic. Born in Genoa and the son of Ottavio Ortori, he graduated as a navy commander in 1886. He arrived in the country in 1892 at the helm of the schooner La Gaviota owned by the commercial firm of Juan Bautista Vicini. He served as a captain in the Dominican Navy, first officer of the Presidente cruiser in 1900, and Director of Meteorological Services in 1924. He guided the nation during the devastating Hurricane San Zenón in 1930. He married Dominican citizen Graciela Díaz (1880–1936); they four children.62 He became a naturalized Dominican citizen in 1933.63

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Luis Rotellini Fago (1820 – 1864) came to the Dominican Republic from Rome. The son of Pedro Rotellini and Serafina Fago, he became a physician.64 He married Gregoria Manuela (Evelina) Coen Mansuit, a Santo Domingo native with Sephardic Jewish ancestry, on April 2, 1848, at the Cathedral of Cathedral of Santo Domingo.65 Antonio Romano de Rivera, a native of Montecalvo, Avellino, Campania and the son of Iacomo (Santiago) Romano and Teresa de Rivera, he married María Josefa Díaz Félix on February 14, 1814 at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.66 They are the progenitors of the Romano de Azua family of Compostela, from whom the Romano-Noble, Lambertus-Romano, Romano-Pou,67 Báez-Romano and Pellerano-Romano families, among others, descend.

Carlos Demallistre, a native of Piedmont (the names of his parents are not known), a baker by profession, and the widower of Juana Inés Montero, married María de la Encarnación Hinojosa Siancas, a Santo Domingo native and the widow of Antonio Garrido Abreu (whom she had married on April 12, 1825) on April 26, 1829 at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.68 One child, Juan Francisco Demallistre Hinojosa (1830–1890), became a prominent primary school teacher sometime around 1850.

The family of Angelo Porcella Vicini and Leonor Cohen de Marchena in the early twentieth century (Photo provided by the Porcella descendants). © Antonio Guerra

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Group photo. From left: Luis Tejera Bonetti, Emiliano Tejera, Luis Cambiaso, Colombina Pittaluga, Alejandro Llenas, and Emilio Tejera Bonetti. © Archivo General de la Nación

Margarita Porcella Cohen, LETRAS 22, 1917. © Antonio Guerra

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Ciriaco Landolfi Juliana (1856–1941), a native of the Avellino region of Campania and son of Carmen Landolfi and Amalia Juliana, travelled to the Dominican Republic for the installation of the organ at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. He was an organ maker by profession. He married a Santo Domingo native, María Dolores Beauregard Troncoso (1859–1938), in the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor on February 26, 1886.69 Their offspring include a grandson, the historian, writer, diplomat, and university professor Ciriaco Landolfi Rodríguez (1927–2018).

Agustín Baldisseri Magnani, a native of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Tuscany, son of Angelo Petro Baldisseri and Catalina Magnani, and a musician, married El Seibo native Gautreau Santín at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on June 30, 1863.70 Felice (Félix) Spignolio Fasana (1824–1888), a native of Milan, Lombardy, son of Luis Spignolio and Arcangela Fasana, and a storekeeper, he married Baní native María Salomé Garrido Aristati in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on November 13, 1866.71 The family established roots in Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata.

Miguel Fittipaldi Perce entered the country in 1903 via Santo Domingo. A coppersmith by trade, he arrived with his wife Dominga Carbucci and their five children. In 1944 at the age of 94, he lived at Calle Padre Billini No. 103 in Santo Domingo. Most of this family emigrated to the United States, and only the Fittipaldi-Viler family remains in the Dominican Republic.

José Nicolás Milanesse Roboti (1867 – 1932), a native of Solero, Alessandria, Piedmont, son of Giovanni Milanesse and Camila Roboti, and an ironsmith by profession, married María Julia Caminero Báez in Baní on May 1, 1895. Upon her death, he married María Josefa Bove Rivas in Azua de Compostela on September 23, 1901.

Vicente Bove Farrana, son of Domingo Bove and María Josefa Farrana and presumably a native of Campania, married María Encarnación (Mariquita) Rivas Santamaría on March 29, 1886 at the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Church in Azua.72 They were the progenitors of the Andújar-Bove, Bove-Navarro, Milanesse-Bove (mentioned above), and Pimentel-Bove families established in Azua. The last name Bove also appears written as Boves and even Bobe.

Nicolás María Ciccone Vitiello (1876–1940), a native of Teora, Avellino, Campania, and son of Salvatore Ciccone and Concepción Vitiello, married El Mate native Carolina Celia Ramírez Aquino on June 21,

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1894 at the Santa Lucia de Las Matas de Farfán Church.73 Their descendants in Azua are the Ciccone-Comas, the Ciccone-Recio, etc.

Rocco Capano, a native of Santa Lucia di Serino, Avellino, Campania, arrived in the country with his wife Rosina Mosca sometime around 1905, evidently from Cap-Haïtien (their second son Antonio74 was born in that city). Another son named Rocco (Roquito) was born on April 18, 1904, in Santa Lucia.75 Their daughter Rafaella was born in 1909 in Azua. Rocco was the founder of the Novedad Italiana company in Azua in 1910.

A street in Azua bears their name. The Capano-Ogando and Noboa-Capano families settled in Azua, whereas the Capano-Santoni established roots in Santo Domingo.

Paulino Cavallo Arnao, a native of Piedmont and son of Giuseppe Cavallo and Margarita Arnao, emigrated to Puerto Rico where he lived in 1886, and worked as the keeper of an estate in the coffee-producing area of Yauco. There he married Puerto Rico native Genara Rodríguez Santos; they lived in Barahona. Paulino Cavallo is credited with the scientific cultivation of coffee in the Polo, Barahona region (Official Gazette No. 1514 of October 10, 1903). They had 12 children and many descendants in Barahona and Santo Domingo.

The children of Felice Salvucci (or Salvuccio) and Angela del Giudijo, both natives of Palermo, are Donato Salvucci del Giudijo;76 Francisco Salvucci del Giudijo,77married to Gaetana María Gesualdo Milod in Santo Domingo on February 19, 1897;78 Cristóbal Salvucci del Giudijo who married Victoriana Soriano in 1886.

Nicolás Alterio Cerosueli (1873-1942) a native of Naples, Campania and son of Cosimo Alterio and Enmanuella Cerosueli, married Gaetana María Gesualdo Milod in Santo Domingo on December 21, 1912.79 Their descendants include, among others, the Alterio-Guerrero, De Lillo-Alterio and Di Carlo-Alterio families.

Angel Daneri Regonne (1875 – 1942),80 son of Giovanni Daneri and Rosa Regonne, married Mercedes Martínez Noboa in Azua. Their family is well-established, and their descendants include the Daneri-Matos and the Daneri-Calderón families.

Héctor Tamburini Compartico,81 native of Venice and son of Eugenio Tamburini and Teresa Compartico, married Azua native Josefa Isabel Roca Suero on January 28, 1899, at the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Church in Azua.82 Their son Héctor Tamburini Roca married Gloria María Díaz Capobianco in September 1940. These families established roots in Barahona, San Pedro de Macorís, and Santo Domingo.

Genaro Valentino Germarelli, native of Avellino, Campania and son of Giuseppe Valentino and Carmen Germarelli, married his compatriot Marina Sardi Sardi at the Nuestra Señora de Regla Church of Baní on April 9, 1893.83 Their son Emilio César Valentino Sardí was editor-in-chief of the Macorís newspaper in 1940, and the registrar for the Office of Vital Records in San Pedro de Macorís in 1946.

Esteban Rossi (1829–1889),84 a farmer by profession, married Baní native Catalina Cabral Casódo, a descendant and relative of the Cabral Aybar and Cabral Luna families, who were heroes of Dominican independence, at the Nuestra Señora de Regla Church of Baní on October 27, 1856. The Rossi family is very prominent in El Maniel and San José de Ocoa.

José Schiffino Catanzariti, native of Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria and son of Mateo Schiffino and Rosa Catanzariti, emigrated to the Dominican Republic via Puerto Plata in 1891. He was a forest inspector and the head of botanical affairs at the Ministry of Agriculture in 1946. As a botanist, he classified 175 species of trees belonging to Dominican flora. He married Baní native Agueda Mercedes Blandino

Mr. José Schiffino Catanzariti’s sawmill, Renacimiento 138, 1918. © Antonio Guerra

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Cabral85 on February 22, 1902 at the Nuestra Señora de Regla Church in Baní. This family settled in San Pedro de Macorís along with other Schiffino relatives (e.g., the Schiffino Cosentino family).

Humberto Pezzotti Schiffino (1895–1968),86 native of Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria, and son of José Antonio Pezzotti and Filomena Schiffino, arrived in the country in 1912, and married his cousin Rosina Schiffino Blandino. He was later widowed and subsequently married Baní native Micaela Blandino Pimentel.

This family established roots in Baní. Another brother, Atilio Pezzotti Schiffino had children with Mercedes M. Burt Caminero (in Barahona), with Rosa Montes de Oca (in San Pedro de Macorís), and with Maximina de los Santos (in Santo Domingo). Their older brother, Genaro Pezzotti Schiffino (1894–1983), arrived via Puerto Plata in June 1909; he married María Hernández Hernández in 1918. They settled initially in Moca and later in Santiago.

The children of Orazio Marranzini D’Piano and Carmina Ingino Vitale came to the Dominican Republic from Santa Lucia di Serino, Avellino, Campania. Their son Antonio Gaetano Marranzini Ingino (1867–1964)87 married Teresa Petranilla D’Piano Orpaja (1870–1960) in Santa Lucia di Serino on September 20, 1892. Another son, Orazio Michele (Grazielo) Marranzini Ingino (1870–1947)88 married his compatriot Inmacolata Lepore Rodia (1873 – 1960) in Santa Lucia di Serino on June 13, 1896. These families originally settled in San Juan de la Maguana. The children of Liberato Marranzini and Concepción D’Amore were their cousins and also natives of Santa Lucia di Serino, Avellino, Campania. Constantino Marranzini D’Amore (1897–1953)89 married a Dominican citizen of Lebanese descent, Amelia Jorge-Risk Assis. Pascual Marranzini D’Amore90 married local resident Ofelia Aristy Méndez on July 17, 1917, in Azua.91 Fioravante Marra Marranzini (1876–1955),92 native of Santa Lucia di Serino, Avellino, Campania, Italy, and son of Samuel Marra and Maria Giusseppa Marranzini, married Rafaella Velli (1874-1953)93 in 1895 in Avellino. The Marra family is related to the Marranzinis. Another brother, Samuel Marra Marranzini, married María Antonia Aquino Valdez in San Cristóbal on October 22, 1894.94 He does not have any known descendants.

Miguel Dimaggio (Di Maggio) Carrafiello (1866–1944)95 married María Carminella Massuci (1872–1960) on September 8, 1894 in Santa Lucia di Serino, Avellino, Campania. They arrived and settled in San Juan de la Maguana in 1897. The Dimaggio-Salcié, Dimaggio-Matos, Monge-Dimaggio and Ramírez-Dimaggio families descend from them. There is no documentation found that substantiates the tradition claiming that this family is related to the Major League baseball star Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio (Joe Dimaggio), whose parents were from Sicily.

Giuseppe Antonio Ronzino,96 a native of Vibonati, Salerno, Campania, married Cristobalina Santil Pérez in San Juan de la Maguana. His brother Dante Ronzino97 married San Juan de la Maguana native Austria Elena Matos Piña. Dante was a founder of the San Juan de la Maguana Fire Department.

Cayetano Sarubbi Schiffi,98 a native of Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria, married Paula Antonia Rodríguez Ranger. On October 7, 1932, with fellow countryman Francesco Trifilio, he founded the Colmado Italiano, an Italian grocery store located at Calle El Conde and the corner of Calle Santomé (Reported in La Opinión dated October 7, 1932). The Ureña-Sarubi, Camarena-Sarubi and Solano-Sarubi families descend from this marriage.

Francesco Paolo Trifilio Gilisbert (1898–1970), a merchant, native of Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria, and co-founder of Colmado Italiano, married Emelinda Estévez. The Trifilio-Hernández, Trifilio-Abreu, Trifilio-Ibarra, Zaiter-Trifilio, Scalley-Trifilio, Báez-Trifilio and De La Vega-Trifilio families of Santo Domingo descend from him.

Giuseppe Barletta,99 a native of San Nicola Arcela, Cosenza, Calabria, married Filomena Barletta. They were the parents of Vicenzo Barletta Barletta (1885–?),100 Rafaelle Barletta Barletta (1887–1982),101 Amadeo Barletta Barletta (1894–1975) and Antonio Barletta Barletta (1902 –?).

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1925, Amadeo Barletta, Santo Domingo. © Miguel Barletta

Amadeo Barletta Barletta was consul of Italy in Santo Domingo, a successful merchant and industrialist, and a representative and shareholder of General Motors.102 He fled to Cuba during the Trujillo dictatorship; there he built a flourishing business. He married Nelia Ricart Castillo, daughter of Alejandro T. Ricart and Delia Castillo, at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on April 17, 1920.103 He was the founder of Santo Domingo Motors, distributor for General Motors in the Dominican Republic.

Antonio Barletta Barletta, brother of Amadeo, arrived in the country via the port of Santo Domingo on June 14, 1920. In 1940 he lived on Calle César Nicolás Penson; later, in 1949, he lived at Ave. Bolívar at the corner of Calle José Contreras. He was president of the Dominican Soap Co. in 1939. On April 8, 1942, he married María Altagracia (Mayú) Rainieri Franceschini, daughter of hotelier Isidoro Rainieri Carrara, whose family will be discussed in the section about Italian immigrants in El Cibao.

Bruno Palamara,104 native of San Nicola, Arcella, Cosenza, Calabria, arrived in the Dominican Republic with his wife Angélica Margarita and his son Battesimo Bruno Palamara Margarita (May 16, 1902 –?) in December 1908. The latter was married in Santo Domingo to Celeste Aída Mieses Vicioso, a Santo Domingo native, on December 23, 1923. Battesimo headed the Italian Fascist Party in the Dominican Republic. He was a merchant and he resided at Av. Bolívar No. 68 in Santo Domingo with telephone No. 1290. The descendants of this family own the Pala-Pizza chain of pizzerias.

Francisco Svelti traveled from Florence, Tuscany, to Santo Domingo in 1889 with his wife Palmira Bardi Visconti. One of his children, Francisco Svelti Bardi (1904–1983),105 founded Casa Svelti at Calle Las

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Mercedes, a store specializing in fine stationery and lithographic supplies. Their descendants include the following families: Svelti-Bardi, Svelti-Veloz, Svelti-Caminero, Svelti-Paulino, Svelti-Valerio, Ferraro-Svelti (established in New York), Masturzi-Svelti, and Henríquez-Svelti, among others.

Antonio Masturzi Rutelli (1854 –?) a native of Avellino, Campania and the son of Angel Masturzi and María Rutelli, he married María Visconti Guerrieri (1861–?) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on May 26, 1887.106 In that year, he owned a grocery store. His brother Miguel Masturzi Rutelli married Olimpia Mosca. This Masturzi last name has essentially disappeared from the country due to the lack of male heirs and emigration.

The sons of Casimiro Felice Bolonotto Vallauri (1869–1951)107 and Maria Gioconda Lanteri Pastorelli (1877–1947),108 both natives of Morignole, La Brigue (Alpes-Maritimes, France) are Pietro Constantino Bolonotto Lanteri (1903–1976) and Constantino Bolonotto Lanteri (1916–1990). Pietro arrived in Santo Domingo on the SS Borinquen in 1931. He devoted himself to manufacturing sweets and candies. In 1943, he resided at Calle Barahona No. 272 in Santo Domingo. He married French citizen Monique Marie Madeleine Dumont. Constantino Bolonotto Lanteri arrived in Santo Domingo on September 11, 1946. He worked at Calle Barahona No. 272 (at his brother Pietro’s candy store). He married El Seibo native Evangelista (Angélica) Vidal Tejeda (1929–2005). They are the founders of the Dulcera Dominicana de Bolonotto Hermanos company.

The children of Pasquale Di Carlo and Maria Giuseppa Schiffino arrived in the Dominican Republic from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria. Silverio Di Carlo Di Carlo (1889–1966)109 married fellow Italian Venerina Brisindi Miranda. In 1925 he established the Di Carlo jewelry store in San Pedro de Macorís at Calle Sánchez No. 149. His brother Vicente Di Carlo Di Carlo (1894–1975) married Vicenzina María Luisa Alterio Gesualdi. He had arrived in the Dominican Republic via Puerto Plata on June 9, 1909.110 Another Di Carlo is Giuseppe Antonio Di Carlo Schiffino, who married Puerto Rican María Casimira Acevedo Rodríguez (1887–1967). He settled in Puerto Plata even though one of his children, José Antonio Claudio Di Carlo Acevedo111 was born in Santiago de Cuba. There is no certain connection between these two Di Carlo families. Their descendants are the Santana-Di Carlo, Di Carlo-Gómez, and Di Carlo-Palacio families.

Pasquale Prota Vita (1888–1973), a native of Morigerati, Salerno, Campania and the son of Demetrio Prota and Rachele Vita, married Fortuna Vita. They arrived in San Pedro de Macorís in 1908 where he founded the La Diadema jewelry store. In 1910 he moved to Santo Domingo and founded the Prota jewelry store at Calle El Conde. He also established Restaurante Roma on that same street in 1918 and the Olga jewelry store in 1944.112 Pietro Vincitore Steffano (1889–1967),113 son of Emanuele Vincitore Natalia Stefano, married María Stella Giannone (1886–1966). Both were both natives of Ispica, Ragusa, Sicily. Pietro arrived in the Dominican Republic on September 15, 1919. In 1942 he resided at Calle Luis A. Bermúdez in San Pedro de Macorís. His son Manuel Vincitore Giannone,114 a native of Messina, Sicily, married Yolanda Margarita Prota Vita on December 21, 1947. He was the director of the Dr. Marión Military Hospital in 1953, a lieutenant colonel in the Dominican National Army in 1962, and the director of the Medical Corps and Military Health Unit. His siblings include Natalia Palmira Adriana Vincitore Giannone (1914-2010), married to Carlos Eugenio Saladín Vargas; Yolanda; and Pedro (1917–1953).

Eduardo Pío Cristóforis Blois (1877–1966), native of Calabria and son of Vicenzo Cristofori and María Teresa Blois, married Azua native Caridad (Lalá) Fernández Soñé in 1902. He arrived via Puerto Plata in 1900, and in 1951, he lived in the Batey Central de Ingenio Porvenir section of San Pedro de Macorís where he was a chief engineer.

José Oliva Currari (1870–?) a native of Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria, married Elisa García (1882–1967)115 in Santo Domingo on December 28, 1897. José Oliva was the founder of the Fire Department of San Pedro de Macorís and also Chief of the Santo Domingo Fire Department in 1939 and 1947. He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on May 7, 1935 (Decree No. 1278, Official Gazette No. 4796). Many families are descended from him.

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The children of Giovanni Battista Ferrúa and Maria Damilano were all natives of Cuneo, Piedmont.

Their son Gerónimo (Gerolamo) Ferrúa Damilano (1888–1949)116 married Santo Domingo native Josefa (Niní) Barruos Álvarez on May 20, 1923. Gerolamo came to the Dominican Republic at the age of 26 on June 23, 1913. He was a lithographer by profession, and he was the vice president of the magazine La Opinión and its artistic director in 1925. He was the president of Litografía Ferrúa in 1939, a company formerly known as Litografía Lepervanche C x A. Juan Bautista (Nino) Ferrúa Damilano (1895–?) married Vitalia Lluberes in Santo Domingo on January 21, 1932. Nino arrived in the Dominican Republic on February 21, 1927 via Puerto Plata. He was a lithographer by profession, and in 1943 he resided at Calle José Reyes No. 31, and in 1951 he lived at Calle La Vega No. 18 in Santo Domingo.

Antonio Ferrúa Damilano (1899–?) married Santo Domingo native and the sister-in-law of his brother, Vicenta Teresa Barruos Álvarez on May 20, 1928. Antonio Ferrúa came to the Dominican Republic via the port of Santo Domingo on December 6, 1922. In 1943 he resided at Calle José Reyes No. 31 in Santo Domingo. Like his brothers, he was also a lithographer by profession. This family ventured into dairy production, producing Quesos San Juan.

Orlando Pannocchia Martinelli (1893–1955),117 son of Luigi Pannocchia and Amalia Martinelli and native of Balbano, Lucca, Tuscany, arrived in the Dominican Republic on the SS Caravelle via the port of Santo Domingo on January 24, 1906. He married a Montecristi native, María Eneria Álvarez Arias,118 niece of General Desiderio Arias Álvarez, at the Church of San Fernando de Montecristi on January 9, 1915. In 1925, Orlando Pannocchia owned an import and export company in Montecristi. In 1946 he resided at Calle José Reyes No. 54 in Santo Domingo. The family settled in the capital around 1930.

Pasquale Forestieri Alario (1906–1986),119 son of Felice Forestieri and Rosina Alario Sarubbi and native of San Nicola Arcella, Cosenza, Calabria, arrived in the country in November 1921 via Puerto Plata. He married Fedora Altagracia Sanabia Villaverde in her hometown of Santo Domingo on September 12, 1936.

His brother was Francesco Forestieri Alario (1912–1983),120 who married a San José de Ocoa native of Curaçaoan origin, Violeta Schotborgh Herreran, in Santo Domingo on January 19, 1946.121 Another brother was Domenico Forestieri Alario (1903–1999), who arrived via Puerto Plata on November 11, 1921. In 1953 he lived in Jayabo Adentro, Salcedo. It is not known whom he married, and he died on November 23, 1999, at 96 years of age in Scalea, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy.

Giuseppe Grimaldi Caroprese (1891–?), a native of Scalea, Cosenza, Calabria, married Mercedes Suriel Liranzo in La Vega. He was a merchant, and his descendants in Santo Domingo are the Grimaldi-Núñez, Grimaldi-Céspedes, Mieses-Grimaldi, and Grimaldi-Silié families.

Luigi Baldassare Guaschino Barbaglia (1898–1950),122 a native of Frascarolo, Pavia, Lombardy, married Beniamina Zella Corsino. He arrived in the Dominican Republic on October 24, 1924 via Puerto Plata. He was a senior officer of Ingenio Angelina in San Pedro de Macorís. His brother Ercole Giovanni Guaschino Barbaglia (1901–1969) arrived on September 12, 1924 via Puerto Plata. He married Margarita Consuelo Venegas in San Pedro de Macorís in 1931. In 1953 he worked at Ingenio Angelina in San Pedro de Macorís. These Guaschino families worked in the sugar industry in the east of the country.

Rocco Manlio Atilio Gustavo Del Guidijo Pagano (1877–1957),123 a native of Ispani, Salerno, Campania, married Celia de Marchena López (1889–1977), a native of this province, in 1907 in San Pedro de Macorís. Descendants include Dr. Pedro Barón del Giudijo de Marchena124 and the economist Víctor Antonio Canto del Giudijo. A relative of Rocco or “Roque” was Italo Del Giudice (1895 –?), also a native of Ispani, Salerno, Campania. In 1922, Italomarried Adelaida Herrera (1899– 1992) in San Pedro de Macorís, a native of the aforementioned province.

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Alfonse Cáffaro settled in San Pedro de Macorís. He married Puerto Rican Rufina Samuel. One child was Alfonso Nicolás Cáffaro Samuel (1907–?). Alfonso Nicolás married Lourdes Violeta Durán Ponce de León (1914–2010), a native of San Pedro de Macorís. They were the parents of Erasmo Alfonso (Niní) Cáffaro Durán, a famous singer and businessman.125 Giuseppe Perrotta Benedetto (1886–1953),126 a native of Cosenza, Calabria and son of Antonio Perrotta and María Benedetto, arrived via Puerto Plata in September 1895. He married fellow compatriot María Generosa Miraglia Zaccara. He settled in Puerto Plata before moving to Santo Domingo. He was a 33rd Degree Freemason, and was initiated at the Masonic Lodge of Puerto Plata. He was the progenitor of a large and prestigious family from Santo Domingo, among which include Lieutenant Colonel Juan Antonio Perrotta Miraglia, assistant to the President of the Dominican Republic in 1943 and 1946.

Giovanni Brisindi (1872–?) and Angela Miranda (1875–?)127 were both natives of Cosenza, Calabria. Their children were Venerina Brisindi Miranda, married to her countryman Silverio Di Carlo Schiffino; Angelina Brisindi Miranda, who married Lazzaro Gervasi Fiscina128 in Santo Domingo on January 1, 1950; and Antonino Brisindi Miranda,129 who married Sebastiana Gennaro Miranda130 in Santo Domingo on October 14, 1950.

In 1958 Antonino Brisindi was the owner of the Sublime pizzeria and gelateria located at Calle El Conde No. 29 of Santo Domingo. His gelato was made with Pernigotti cream imported from Italy.131 Annibale Bonarelli Izzo (1922–2002)132 a native of Naples, Campania and son of Vicenzo Bonarelli, married townswoman Immacolata Pascale Landi (1924–2014), and he arrived in Santo Domingo from New York in May of 1953. He established the El Vesuvio (Vesubio in Spanish) restaurant and pizzeria on January 21, 1954, at Ave. George Washington No. 145. It was a famous locale, frequented by international celebrities for more than 60 years. He was decorated by the Italian Government with the Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana award on January 13, 1972 (Order No. 108993 s. 1) by Italian President Giovanni Leone.

He was also decorated with the Cavaliere Ufficiale award on June 18, 1998 (Order No. 27759 S. IV) by Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. In the Dominican Republic, he was awarded the Timón de Oro Tourism award in March of 1983. The children and grandchildren of Annibale and Inmacolata Bonarelli maintain the tradition of great pizzas with the Pizzarelli restaurant chain along with fine wine from El Catador.

In 1959, the gelateria and pizzeria named Sorrento133 owned by Angelo Grosso was established in front of Parque Independencia in Santo Domingo. There is no information about his family relatives and descendants in the Dominican Republic.

Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi (1895–1954), a native of Bovino, Foggia, Apulia, was a mechanical engineer who graduated from Politecnico di Torino134 in 1927. He designed and built the National Palace (1944– 1947) and many other public works. He was the son of Luigi D’Alessandro Lucarelli (1865–1958)135 and Emilia Lombardi. He married Carmen Isabel Tavárez Mayer,136 a native of Montecristi, in her hometown on April 26, 1930. She was the daughter of the senator and governor Isabel Mayer Rodríguez. One of his brothers was Armando D’Alessandro Lombardi who died in Milan on October 21, 1959.137 His sons Armando José D’Alessandro Tavárez (1929–2009) and Guido Emilio (Yuyo) D’Alessandro Tavárez (1932–2011) were prominent politicians, diplomats and businessmen.

Cesare Augusto Rimoli Caffaro (1903–?) a native of Potenza, Basilicata and son of Giuseppe Rimoli and Marietta Caffaro,138 arrived in the country via Puerto de Sánchez, Samaná, in 1921. He married Moca native Ana Silvia (Nena) Villavizar Bello (1916–2005) in Santo Domingo on October 29, 1944.139 His brother Humberto Rimoli Caffaro married Santo Domingo native Fiordalisa Martínez Félix. This family later settled in Brazil where another brother Francisco Rimoli, who was a lieutenant in the Brazilian Army in 1941, ultimately remained there.

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Padre Sebastián Cavalotto (1918–1997), a native of Montfort d’Alba, Cuneo, Piedmont, arrived in Santo Domingo as a priest in Santo Domingo in 1958. He began his ministry at the Santa Teresa de Jesús Church, in the Villas Agrícolas sector of the capital. In 1968, he moved to La Romana province where he founded churches, schools, and hospitals.

He was referred to as “The Devil’s Priest” by Rafael Herrera of Listín Diario140 in one of his famous editorials. This epithet highlighted his tremendous penchant for work and his defense of those most in need.

Many streets and charitable organizations in La Romana bear his name, and he was declared a “Most Honorable and Distinguished Son” of the city.

Giovanni Archetti Bonardi (1922–2001), a native of Peschiera, Maraglio, Brescia and son of Steffano Archetti and Teresa Bonardi, arrived in the Dominican Republic to help build the armory for the Dominican Armed Forces in San Cristóbal. He had prior experience at the Fabbrica D’Armi Pietro Beretta S.p.A. de Brescia. He married Bienvenida Rodríguez in her hometown of San Cristóbal, and later became the production manager for Dominit S. A. Nino Ieromazzo Iracci (1906–1977), a native of Naples, Campania and son of Ettore Ieromazzo and Cleofe Iracci, married Altagracia Soriano Matos. He had arrived in the country on March 29, 1940, from Havana on the SS Cuba steamer and devoted himself to commerce. His son Héctor still runs the Pochy Ieromazzo air conditioning company with numerous branches throughout the Dominican Republic.

Giovanni Abramo (1911–2010), a native of Tortorella, Salerno, Campania, was a clockmaker by profession. He began working at Joyería Prota jewelry store in 1949. Later on, he owned his La Veneciana workshop and jewelry store at Calle El Conde at the corner of Calle José Reyes. He was married to Giuseppina Bruno. He designed the enormous floral clock at the entrance of the Santo Domingo Botanical Garden, as well as many of the clocks in church towers and town halls.

Mario Cavagliano Broglia (1913–2003) a native of Vercelli, Piedmont and son of Giuseppe Cavagliano and María Broglia, married Dirce Strozzi (1919 – 2008). He was the consul of Italy in Santo Domingo in 1961.

Antonio Imbert Barrera took refuge in his home after taking part in the execution of Dictator Rafael L. Trujillo. This family risked its safety by offering protection to many people who were persecuted due to their resistance to the regime.

Vincenzo Mastrolilli Bastiani (1928–2014) a native of Naples, Campania and son of Michele Mastrolilli and Anna Bastiani, was a businessman and the president of Ron Siboney rum distillery. He was president of Casa de Italia in Santo Domingo for more than 20 years. He married Dominican citizen Ana Luisa Nicolás Galván in New York on October 18, 1953.141 He later married another Dominican citizen, María Victoria Irizarri. “Enzo” was an advocate of literature in the country, creating the award Premios Siboney for poetry, essays, and literature.

Antonio Cestari Romano (1930 – ?) a native of Montesano, Salerno, Campania and son of Rafael Cestari and Rosa Romano, married San Pedro de Macorís native Georgina Elsa Carbuccia Pereyra on March 29, 1952, in Santo Domingo.142 His son Jorge Amauri de Jesús Cestari Carbuccia is an urban planner, architect, and restorer of historic buildings.

From left to right: Liliana Cavagliano Strozzi de Peña, her parents Mario Cavagliano Broglia and Dirce Strozzi de Cavagliano, officials of the Italian Embassy (Photo from El Siglo). © Antonio Guerra

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Renzo Seravalle Innocenti, a native of Santa Fiora, Grosseto, Tuscany, a civil engineer, and son of Terenzio Seravalle (1897–1969)143 and Giuseppina Innocenti, married Neydi Altagracia Pons Cabral. He served as the president of the Casa de Italia. His sister Lilia Seravalle Innocenti returned to Italy with her husband Benito Verdi.

Ciro Cascella Baldoni (1938–2011) a native of Naples, Campania and son of Antonio Cascella and María Baldoni, married Anna Pariso Fortuna. They both established Restaurant Da Ciro at Ave. Independencia No. 38, which serves traditional Italian food and features music played by Aris Bueza on the violin, Giovanni Marinelli on the piano, among other entertainers.144 Sebastiano (Nello) Cardella (1927–2005), a native of Sicily, married Zora Argentina Rodríguez Caamaño, and owned one of the most well-known butcher shops in Santo Domingo.

Giuseppe Traverso, a native of Imperia, Liguria, married Baní native Amparo Antonia Soñé Ortiz in 1954. He opened the Italo Suiza jewelry store on Calle El Conde, which is currently known as Joyería Traverso and Traverso Joyas.

Angelo Carmelo Viro Emmi, a native of Catania, Sicily, the son of Orazio Viro and Maria Emmi, was married to Dr. Rosario Mañón Mena. He arrived in Santo Domingo in 1977, and after multiple jobs he decided to establish Cerarte, one of the biggest companies for the sale of flooring, paneling, façades, and bathrooms. He has served as president of the Dominican Rotary Club, the Italian Center of Santo Domingo, the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, and the National Union of Entrepreneurs (UNE), among others.

Alfredo Delfino Novati, a native of Carcare, Savona, Liguria, married Piedmont native Lorenza Mazzone Clerico. He is the president of Consorcio Remix, a consortium dedicated to the construction of highways and infrastructures and one of the most important producers of asphalt, with three plants in the tourist areas Macao, Verón, and Cape Cana.

Luigi Martina Ferrero, married Rossina Bonin. In 1971 they founded Productos Alimenticios Nacionales (PANCA), a manufacturer of sweets and candies, which included Panca gummies.

Pietro Pablo Tolari Spanu (1929–2010), a native of Iglesias, Sardinia, arrived in Santo Domingo in 1956.

He married Hilda Jacobo Fayad, a San Pedro de Macorís native of Middle Eastern background.

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ENDNOTES Archives of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Book of Marriages, year 1811, folio 51. The officiating priest was José Ruiz and the witnesses Juan Antonio Mariscote, Juan Morales. The groom appears with the last name “Bollino.”

2 Archives of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Book of Marriages, year 1820, folios 117-118. The officiating priest was Agustín Tabares and the witnesses Martín Hernández-Cuello, Ramón López, María de los Dolores Hernández. The groom was a widower, and his last name appears as Villin. Ana Joaquina Hernández-Cuello was born in Bayamo, Cuba, where her father Martín Hernández-Cuello Fernández had sought refuge due to the Haitian invasions.

3 The Dominican Republic had secured its independence from Spain in 1821, but in the following year it was annexed by Haiti.

It regained its independence in 1844 after a war of independence.

4 Information obtained from his descendant, genealogist Olga Gómez Cuesta.

5 National Archives, 703400, Notarial Registers of José María Pérez, year 1844, record 37 (108).

6 National Archives 701753, Notarial Registers of Bernardo de Jesús González, year 1864, volume I, record 41.

7 La Nación detailed his projects on December 24, 1949.

8 Iglesia de la Santa Cruz, Seibo, Marriage Register, year 1840, folio 231.

9 Iglesia de La Concepción (Cathedral) de La Vega, Marriage Register, year 1840, record 250, folio 57.

10 Toponimia y Genealogía: Ensanche Piantini, https://www. idg.org.do/capsulas/abril2007/abril200714.htm 11 Ramón Remigio Mazara Arjona married María de la Cruz Reyes Gil in Santa Cruz del Seibo on November 28, 1835 (Iglesia de la Santa Cruz, El Seibo, Marriage Register, year 1835, record 538, folio 153).

12 Domingo Mazara Arjona married El Seibo native Victoria Vidal Vidal in Santa Cruz del Seibo on May 30, 1840 (Iglesia de la Santa Cruz, El Seibo, Marriage Register, year 1840, record 668, folio 234).

13 Act by which José and Remigio Mazara granted usage rights to two pieces of property to Victoriano Ramírez in the regions of La Yeguada del Sur and Mata de la Palma for the amount of 50 pesos (National Archives, Royal Archive from El Seibo.

14 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Registers, year 1812, folio 84. The officiating priest was Agustín Tabares.

15 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Burial Register record for José Campillo dated April 4, 1858, record 40. The officiating priest was Calixto María Pina.

16 Last name Bitine, Carlos Larrazábal Blanco, “Familias Dominicanas, vol. 9 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nacion, 1980), 303 –304.

17 Vetilio Valera Valdez, Baní, Raíces Históricas, Genealogías de Familias Banilejas (Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1998), 475-476.

18 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Registers, year 1808, folio 21. The officiating priest was Priest Pedro de Prado and the witnesses, Francisco Aubert and María Olalla de la Torre.

19 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Registers, year 1820, folio 103; the officiating priest was Pedro Ml. de Tellería. The parents of Patricio Francisco del Rosario Sánchez were married on that same date and place.

20 Vetilio Valera Valdez, Baní, Raíces Históricas, Genealogías de Familias Banilejas (Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1998), 374.

21 On June 19, 1856, María del Carmen Bonetti and her husband Juan Bautista Pellerano were authorized by General Carmine 1

Cervette, a native and resident of Genoa, to use his name in their claim to assets and properties belonging to the late Juan Bonetti, a native of San Remo, Genoa, Italy. In this claim, there were also involved: José María Bonetti, Julia Ernest widow of Bonetti and her minor children José Ramón and Clara Bonetti (Notarial Registers of José María Pérez and Bernardo de Jesús González, year 1856, book 1-1, record 71, file from the National Archives 701649).

22 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Registers, year 1848, folio 148.

23 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Registers, year 1862, record 66, folio 86. The officiating priest was Fernando Arturo de Meriño. Their marriage license was dated November 25, 1860, National Archives, Marriage Licenses, 1851-1889, Santo Domingo, record No. 85.

24 A civil marriage took place in the presence of the registrar Alejandro Bonilla on March 8, 1879 with Juan Nepomuceno Tejera and Julia Ernest de Bonetti as witnesses, and José María Bonetti, Enrique Bonetti, José R. Bonetti, uncles and brothers of the bride in attendance (National Archives, Marriage Register, Parish of the Cathedral or 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, E-157, years 1874-1880, No. 18).

25 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Registers, year 1852, folio 188. A civil marriage took place in the presence of the municipal mayor and the registrar José María Reynoso with José Mateo Perdomo, Felipe Perdomo, and Pedro Rotellini as witnesses (National Archives, Marriage Register, 1848-1852, E/419-1, book 2=44, page 46).

26 National Archives, Book of Marriage Pledges, year 1851-1889, Santo Domingo, record No. 76. The witnesses included D. León Hijo, Fernando Pou, Andrea de Peña, Silveria M. Guerrero, M. Santamaría, Apolinar de Castro H., Manuel de Heredia, E. Perdomo, M. Guerrero, and Ramírez.

27 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Register of Deaths, 1880, folio 295, record 13. His death and burial were reported in El Eco de la Opinión newspaper on November 19, 1886 (No. 379).

28 Mercedes Rosa Maggiolo Núñez was the mother of the scientist Marcio Enrique Veloz Maggiolo.

29 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1859, folio 24, record 27. The officiating priest was Carlos M. Piñeyro, and the witnesses Diego Hernández and Petronila Vidal. See also National Archives, Book of Marriage Pledges, 1851-1889, Santo Domingo, record No. 63.

30 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Burial Register, December 11, 1858, record 118, folio 100. The officiating priest was Calixto María Pina.

31 On March 18, 1845, in the presence of the notary Benito Alejandro Pérez, appeared: Manuela Díez, widow of Duarte; General Felipe Alfau from Santo Domingo, attorney for Vicente Celestino, Rosa, Filomena and Francisca Duarte; the former (Rosa) on behalf of her brother Juan Pablo Duarte and Manuel Duarte, an emancipated minor accompanied by his guardian Juan Nepomuceno Ravelo, commander and aide to General Manuel Jimenes, who sold a house with low walls partially covered by tiles and by shingles, built on their own land to Juan Batista Cambiaso, Colonel of the Navy, Squadron Chief. The house in question was purchased from Mr. Francisco Pou in the presence of the notary José Troncoso on February 1, 1837. (Notarial Protocols of the notary Bernardo de Jesús González, file from the National Archives-703332, book B433, year 1845, folio 82).

32 Death record No. 71: “General Juan Bautista Cambiaso, age 65, a native of Genoa, Italy, died on June 23, 1886, at 9 p.m. He

ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO SANTO DOMINGO

married Isabel de Sosa, a native of Santo Domingo. Reported the following day by Juan Cruzado, a day laborer.” His death and burial were reported in the El Eco de la Opinión newspaper on June 25, 1886 (No. 363).

33 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1873, record 26, folio 206. The officiating priest was Francisco Xavier Billini.

During the marriage, Luis Francisco Cambiaso’s illegitimate children were recognized.

34 Official Gazette 674 dated July 23, 1887.

35 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1838-1855, folio 161.

36 Permission granted after three announcements were made for them to enter into marriage on March 12, 1862; both spouses were natives of Genoa, Italy. Permission was granted for the wedding to take place at the bride’s house. Civil Marriage, dated February 24, 1862, in the presence of the Civil Registrar Fernando Gómez. Witnesses: Juan Bautista Ventura; Jacinto de Castro, Head Judge of the Royal Court; Manuel Delmonte, merchant; Pedro Delgado, professor of medicine. (Record No. 69, Book of Marriages, Parish of the Cathedral, Santo Domingo, 1860-1877, file 421-3, National Archives, book 11).

37 National Archives. Marriage Register, 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, E/226-2, 1884-1887, page 40. This civil marriage was in the presence of the registrar Isidoro Pérez on November 15, 1884.

The witnesses were Manuel Campillo, tailor; Bartolomé Ferreccio, Salvador Pittaluga, both merchants; Leopoldo Damirón, a public employee; Federico Acosta, merchant.

38 National Archives, Marriage Register, the Parish of the Cathedral, Santo Domingo, E-364-1, 1899-1901, folio 58. This civil marriage was in the presence of the registrar Federico Velásquez, on August 12, 1900. Wedding witnesses: Ildefonso Osterman Lamarche, Filomena Bonetti de Espinal, Ramón Espinal, José Lamarche, President of the Supreme Court of Justice.

39 National Archives, Marriage Register, Santo Domingo, E/327-2, book 50, 1875-1884, record 137, folios 82-85. The registrar was Isidoro Pérez and the witnesses Andrés Vicini, a native of Italy; Lino Jiménez, from Cuba; José de Jesús Brenes; Mariano Montolío.

40 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Service Records of the Dominican Army 1844-1865, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Editora del Caribe, 1976).

41 There was a suit against Antonio Sturla, a representative of Cambiaso y Compañía, for violating patent law from March to May 1880 in Samaná (National Archives, Court of First Instance of Samaná, JPI.1.9.AO29-05).

42 Adriana Ventura filed a request to take possession of the assets of her deceased husband Antonio Sturla on March 5, 1908 (National Archives, Justice of the Peace for the Court of First Instance Samaná, JPI.1.6.03-06).

43 National Archives, Marriage Register, 1875-1884, E/327-2, book 91, folio No. 89. They were married on May 1, 1880 with Isidoro Pérez as registrar. Wedding Witnesses: Luis Cambiaso and Elisa Cambiaso de Pittaluga.

44 A civil suit was filed for violation of a commercial contract, regarding sale of wood, between J. S. Lawrence and J. B. Sturla & Co in December of 1887 (National Archives, Court of First Instance of Santo Domingo, JPI.1.6.28-29).

45 Death Register, Iglesia de Santa Bárbara de Samaná, 1862 1910, record 881, folio 306.

46 The death was reported in the obituary section of the La Nación newspaper on September 29, 1950.

47 The civil suit related to the dispute between the Municipality of Azua and Roque Capano, Abraham Jorge and Francisco Calcagno for the payment of taxes lasted from April 30, 1911 through

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April 25, 1913 (National Archives, Court of Appeals of Santo Domingo, CA.2.01.C-67/file761).

48 This civil Marriage was in the presence of the registrar Alejandro Bonilla on September 29, 1877. Please note: the couple was originally married on November 9, 1868 at the Italian consulate with Luis Cambiaso, Consul, officiating. Eugenia, born to Salvador Pittaluga Marsano and Inocencia Pujol, was legitimized (National Archives, Marriage Register, Parish of the Cathedral, the 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, E-157, 1874-1880, No. 20).

49 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1910, folio 117, record 2. The bride was the niece of Patricio Ramón Matías Mella Castillo.

50 By means of Resolution Number 3975 (Official Gazette No. 1340) dated April 21, 1900, authorization is granted to Italian citizen Luis Serrati (Capriles) to operate a copper mine with sections of silver and gold at the mouth of the Cuallo River, the municipality of San Cristóbal. On September 17, 1904, its operation was transferred to Luis Cambiaso (Resolution No. 171, Official Gazette No. 1559). http://www.consultoria.gov.do/consulta/ 51 Decree No. 3183. Resolution of the C.N. [National Council] recognizing Mr. Bartolo Bancalari as a creditor of the State for the sum of thirty-two thousand Dominican pesos. March 9, 1892 (Collection of Laws). http://www.consultoria.gov.do/consulta/ 52 Marriage Register, Iglesia de Santa Bárbara de Samaná, 1883, record 1, folio 41. The officiating priest was Luis Petilli and the witnesses, Juan Bancalari and Antonio Sturla.

53 At the age of fourteen, he arrived in Santo Domingo on the schooner Blanca Espacia in June 1884, and was received by his uncle Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa. At the age of forty, he appears to have travelled from Genoa to New York in 1910 on the S.S. Duca Defli Abruzzi steamer. He was a merchant (Records from Ellis Island) https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-details/ czoxMjoiMTAxNDcyMTIwMjMxIjs=/czo5OiJwYXNzZW5nZXIiOw==. In 1944 he lived at Calle Canela No. 1 Santo Domingo.

54 Marriage Register, 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, 1927-1928, record 111, folio 271, image 137. They were divorced on November 13, 1948, but remarried on June 21, 1950 (Marriage Register, 2nd Circuit of Santo Domingo, 1950, record 164).

55 Reported in the obituary section of the La Nación newspaper on September 6, 1954.

56 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, record 22, folio 203. The officiating priest was Francisco Javier Billini, and the witnesses Luis Cambiaso and Dolores Valverde. Marriage Registry for the 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, National Archives, E-340, years 1868-1874, folio 319-320.

57 Death reported in Policial magazine, June 30, 1928.

58 Ecclesiastical Marriage by the priest Eliseo Sandoli, Best man and maid of honor Benito Pellerano and Josefa Perdomo, Francisco Javier Billini, José Mateo Perdomo, Antonio Ricart, Juan Bautista Cambiaso, and Luis Cambiaso (Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, record 41, folio 32).

59 National Archives, Marriage Register, 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, 1884-1887, E/226-2, page 39. They were married in the presence of the registrar Isidoro Pérez on December 12, 1886 with best man and maid of honor: Juan Bautista Vicini and Emilia de Marchena widow of Cohén. And as witnesses Eugenio de Marchena, Manuel Muñoz, Enrique Cohén, Rafael Leyba. For the church wedding, see Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1886, record 92, folios 176-177. The officiating priest was Carlos Nouel.

60 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register,record 20, folio 141. The officiating priest was Bernardo Pichardo. His wife María del Socorro died in 1869.

70

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

61 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1871, record 9, folios 176-177. The officiating priest was Antonio Hernández, and the witnesses Juan Bautista Vicini and Concepción Bona (her sister).

62 Obituary for Aurelio Ortori in the Listín Diario newspaper on October 22, 1935.

63 Decree Number 723 of April 20, 1933.

64 He granted a will on August 6, 1864, at his house on the corner of Calle de Los Mártires and Calle de La Merced, a native of Rome, Italy, a doctor of medicine, 2nd Military Health Assistant (Notarial Protocols of José María Pérez, year 1864-1865, file from the National Archives 703750, record 61); he stated that he was married to Maria Norberta Coen.

65 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, shelf B, 18361855, folio 150. The officiating priest was Antonio Siguíez.

66 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1814, folio 7. The officiating priest was Agustín Tabares. The bride’s parents were from Azua (image 301).

67 The children of César Augusto Romano Martínez graduated with degrees in dentistry (1912); others became attorneys and a judge.

68 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1829, folio 190. The witnesses were Manuel Guesca and Mercedes Simancas.

The groom was the widower of Juana Montero and the bride the widow of Antonio Garrido.

69 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1883, record 8, folio 89; National Archives, Marriage Register, 1st Circuit of Santo Domingo, E-333, 1880-1884, record 8, folios 99-100.

70 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register, 1863, record 38.

71 Cathedral of Santo Domingo, Marriage Register book XII, record 98. folio 104.

72 Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, Azua, Marriage Register, record 447, folio 222. The officiating priest was Pedro Ramón Suazo.

73 Iglesia Santa Lucía, Las Matas de Farfán. Marriage Register, 1894, record 234, folio 103.

74 Antonio Capano, a naturalized Dominican citizen by means of Decree No. 1356 dated December 5, 1941.

75 Rocco Capano, his son, a naturalized Dominican citizen by means of Decree No. 1263 dated October 13, 1941. A merchant and industrialist, the owner of the company Capano & Cia. company that produced Catelli spaghetti and Dubble Bubble chewing gum.

76 A merchant, who worked from his residence at Calle Del Mercado No. 34 in Santo Domingo in 1886. Death record No. 83: “DONATO SALVUCCI, age 44 years old, single, a merchant, a native of Palermo, Italy, he died on August 1, 1886, at 1:00 a.m.

The legitimate son of Félix Salvucci and Ángela Finduí, both deceased. Declared by professor Moisés García.”

77 He too was a merchant who guarded Donato’s assets at this death in 1886.

78 National Archives, Parish of the Cathedral, Santo Domingo, 1895-1899, E-430-2, folio 104. The civil marriage was in the presence of the registrar Isidoro Pérez on February 19, 1897. Gaetana María, being widowed, married Nicolás Alterio Cerosueli in 1912.

79 National Archives, Narriage Register Marriages of Santo Domingo, 1911-1913, book E-320-2, record 77, folio 165. Gaetana, widow of Félix Salvuccio, was thirty years old, and Nicolás thirty-nine.

80 His death was reported in the obituary section of La Nación newspaper on January 3, 1943.

81 He became a naturalized Dominican citizen by means of Decree No. 3674 dated August 3, 1896.

82 Iglesia Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, Azua, Marriage Register, 1899, record 135, folio 54.

83 Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Regla, Baní, Marriage Register, 1893, record 1, folio 140.

84 According to family tradition, he was from Palermo, Sicily, and his mother’s last name was Solis. His marriage record is illegible. He died in San José de Ocoa on December 2, 1889 (National Archives, Death Register, Civil Registry of San José de Ocoa, 1889, record 22, folios 65-66).

85 Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla, Baní, Marriage Register, 1902, record 144, folio 74. The betrothal was reported in El Día newspaper on January 27, 1902.

86 In addition to Hotel Italy in Baní, he also owned the Hotel Saboya in San Pedro de Macorís.

87 He arrived in the Dominican Republic in November 1894 via the port of Santo Domingo. In 1943 he lived at Calle President Trujillo No. 28 in San Juan de la Maguana. Antonio Marranzini, a native of Santa Lucia di Serino, arrived in New York from Naples on March 31, 1899, at the age of 32, on the steamer EMS (information from Ellis Island: https://heritage.statueofliberty. org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiNjAzMDYxMTEwMDYxIjs=/ czo5OiJwYXNzZW5nZXIiOw==).

88 He arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1897 from Haiti. In 1942 he lived at Calle 16 de Agosto at the corner of Calle Mella in San Juan de la Maguana. His death was reported in the obituary section of La Nación newspaper on January 6, 1947. Funeral home at Calle Luisa Ozema Pellerano at the corner of Calle Seibo in Santo Domingo.

89 He died on December 27, 1953 and was buried in San Juan de la Maguana.

90 He arrived in the country on November 7, 1907 via the port of Santo Domingo. In 1953 he lived in Padre de las Casas.

91 Marriage reported in Renacimiento magazine dated July 21, 1917.

92 In 1944 he resided at Calle Uruguay No. 9 in Santo Domingo.

His death was reported in the obituary section of the La Nación newspaper on January 1, 1956.

93 Rafaella Velli’s death was reported in the obituary section of La Nación newspaper on September 15, 1953. He was 79 years of age at his death in the International Hospital. He had resided at Calle Uruguay No. 9 in Santo Domingo.

94 Iglesia de San Cristóbal, Marriage Register, 1894, record 80, folio 135. The husband stated that he had been living in the country for six years.

95 In 1907 Miguel Demaio appears to have been residing at Calle Duarte in San Juan de la Maguana. (Enrique Deschamps, Commercial Directory and Guide for the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo: Editora Santo Domingo S.A., 1974).

96 He arrived in the country on October 16, 1926, via Puerto Plata. He came as a farmer and then purchased land; he also brought his brother Dante from Italy. In 1951 he lived at Calle Julia Molina in San Juan de la Maguana.

97 He arrived in the country on September 27, 1937 via Puerto Plata. In 1944 he resided at Calle Santomé No. 34 in San Juan de la Maguana.

98 In 1948 he resided at Calle Arz. Portes No. 23 in Santo Domingo.

99 It seems that he arrived in New York from Naples on July 20, 1912, on the S.S. San Guglielmo. He was 54, a “dealer” by profession, and accompanied by his 18-year-old son Amadeo. He lived at Calle Méndez Vico No. 64, in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He married Filomena, and he had a brother named Vicenzo. Another Barletta named Raffaele also appears (information from Ellis Island: https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-details/ czoxMjoiMTAwOTU1MTQwMjU3Ijs=/czo5OiJwYXNzZW5nZXIiOw==).

ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO SANTO DOMINGO

100 Consul of Italy in Puerto Rico during the government of Benito Mussolini, he arrived in Puerto Rico between 1898 and 1900.

He was Inspector General for the company Carlo Erba in Central America and the Caribbean and Consul of Panamá in Puerto Rico in 1939. The Barletta de Añasco family in Puerto Rico descends from them.

101 He settled in Puerto Rico where he married Eudosia Blasini Olivieri. In 1940 he resided in the La Candelaria neighborhood of Mayagüez.

102 He arrived in New York from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on October 31, 1918, at the age of 24. He was a native of San Nicola Arcela, Italy; Giuseppe Altieri arrived with him; he stated that he had a relative in Puerto Rico named Vicente Barletta (information from Ellis Island). He seems to have arrived in New York on July 12, 1922, on the S.S. Puerto Rico from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He was described as a merchant (shoe store), with a scar on his forehead and a height of 5’6” (information from Ellis Island: https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-details/ czoxMjoiNjA1MTYxMDEwMTIwIjs=/czo5OiJwYXNzZW5nZXIiOw==).

103 According to the marriage license, Amadeo was 26 years old.

The civil service was witnessed by Julio de la Rocha Ricart. The marriage reported in Letras magazine No. 153, April 4, 1920. The witnesses of the wedding were Eduardo Ricart and Ulises Alvino; religious ceremony by Monsignor A. Nouel.

104 Death reported in La Opinión newspaper on April 17, 1940.

He had left the country in 1910 for his homeland. He left his son Battessimo in Santo Domingo.

105 In 1942 he resided at Ave. Independencia No. 103 in Santo Domingo.

106 Cathedral of Santo Domingo. Marriage Register, 1887, record 118, folio 193; they legitimized his two-month-old daughter Carmen.

107 His death was reported in La Nación newspaper on January 3, 1952.

108 His death was reported in La Nación newspaper on April 2, 1947.

109 He arrived in the country in 1909; by 1944 he had moved the Di Carlo jewelry store to Calle El Conde No. 23.

110 In 1941 he worked at a jewelry store at Calle Sánchez No. 149 (Di Carlo jewelry store).

111 Baptized in June of 1918, the Parish of Nuestra Señora de Dolores (Santa Lucia), Cuba. Godparents: Claudio Messacasó and Zenaide Cavallo de Balario (book 18, folio 25, entry 15).

112 Pascual Prota resided in 1942 at Calle Dr. Delgado No. 60 in Santo Domingo, telephone number 2336. He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on June 28, 1941 (Decree No. 1099, Official Gazette No. 5610).

113 He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on December 30, 1955 (Decree No. 1378, Official Gazette No. 7937).

114 He arrived in the Dominican Republic on October 3, 1921.

In 1940 he resided in San Pedro de Macorís at Calle Luis A. Bermúdez No. 30. He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on December 4, 1952 (Decree No. 8778, Official Gazette No. 7504).

115 His 51st wedding anniversary was reported in La Nación newspaper on December 29, 1948.

116 He resided in 1942 at Ave. Bolívar No. 34 in Santo Domingo. His death was reported in the obituaries section of La Nación newspaper on September 9, 1949. He was authorized to establish residency in the Dominican Republic on May 17, 1941 (Decree No. 1043, Official Gazette No. 5596).

117 His death was reported in the obituaries section of the La Nación newspaper on May 1, 1955.

118 Iglesia de San Fernando, Montecristi, Marriage Register, re-

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cord 1, folio 130.

119 A merchant, he had his store at Calle El Conde No. 55 in Santo Domingo. In 1942 he lived at Calle Rosa Duarte No. 3 in Santo Domingo.

120 He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on August 9, 1941 (Resolution No. 1160, Official Gazette No. 5627).

121 The marriage was reported in La Nación newspaper on January 24, 1946.

122 His death was reported in El Caribe newspaper on May 31, 1950.

123 He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on March 22, 1916 (Resolution No. 252, Official Gazette No. 2696).

124 He was granted a doctorate of Jurisprudence in 1943. He served as Secretary of the Court of Appeals of San Pedro de Macorís in 1945.

125 He won the 1st Popular Dominican Music Festival (1968) with the song “Por amor” by the composer Rafael Solano.

126 He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on May 14, 1946 (Decree No. 3534, Official Gazette No. 6444). His death was reported in La Nación newspaper on June 12, 1953.

127 In 1941 they resided at Calle José Trujillo Valdez in La Romana.

128 Marriage Register, 2nd Circuit of Santo Domingo, 1950, record 2, folio 5.

129 He arrived in the country on August 9, 1923 via San Pedro de Macorís from Bordeaux.

130 The marriage was reported in La Nación newspaper on October 16, 1950. At the Iglesia San Juan Bosco, the reception was held at the residence of the groom located at Calle Dr. Báez No. 4 in Santo Domingo.

131 El Caribe newspaper dated March 3, 1958 (page 3).

132 He emigrated from Naples to New York on October 27, 1949 aboard the steamer Neptunia.

133 See “La Pizza Plato casi Universal” by José F. Penson, in the second section of El Caribe dated August 22, 1961, where his photo appears. At that time three Neapolitan pizzerias existed in Santo Domingo: Vesuvio (Vesubio), Sublime, and Sorrento.

134 His professional industrial mechanical engineer license was granted on November 12, 1941 (Decree No. 1323, Official Gazette No. 5669).

135 He was Honorary Consul of the Dominican Republic in Milan (Decree No. 250 dated October 20, 1931). His death was reported in La Nación newspaper on June 3, 1958.

136 Godparents at this wedding were General Desiderio Arias, General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, and the Dominican Vice President Rafael Estrella Ureña (we do not have any documentation).

137 Death reported in El Caribe newspaper on October 22, 1959.

138 Marietta Caffaro died in Belem, Pará, Brazil, on October 6, 1956 (death reported in La Nación newspaper on October 13, 1956.)

139 The marriage was reported in La Nación newspaper on October 30, 1944.

140 Father Cavalotto was a frequent contributor to the editorial page of the Listín Diario newspaper.

141 The marriage was reported in La Nación newspaper on July 27, 1953.

142 The marriage was reported in La Nación newspaper on March 31, 1952.

143 He arrived in Santo Domingo in January 1949 with his wife and two children. He was a mining technician. In 1951 he resided at Calle Isabel La Católica No. 38.

144 This was announced in the Listín Diario newspaper dated September 15, 1976, page 2-A.

Coffee Shop La Gioconda and Theater La Progresista, La Vega. © Edwin Espinal

• CHAPTER 3

The Italian Presence in the Cibao Region and in Santiago de los Caballeros

By Edwin Espinal Hernández Lawyer, notary, and author of historical and genealogical works

“Questa terra (...) dai tempi della scoperta di Cristoforo Colombo e dopo, di Alessandro Geraldini, il primo Vescovo residente di Santo Domingo, si sente profondamente vincolata con il vostro paese.”1 Archbishop Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, in the opening homily at the monument to Father Fantino in Santo Cerro, La Vega, January 11, 1998.

ominican life has been profoundly affected by the influx of various groups of foreigners who have settled in the country since the time of the Spanish conquest. Among these groups, the Italians, although not the most numerous, have exhibited certain characteristics of adaptation to and fusion with the Dominican land and people that merit further examination. Within this mosaic of influences, the Italian presence is particularly significant, because, as Marcio Veloz Maggiolo has observed, it has proven fundamental in the construction of Dominican life, history, and national consolidation.

The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the annexation of Venice in 1866, and the conquest of Rome in 1870 were events that introduced overwhelming changes in the history of Italy. These pivotal moments in the independence movement promoted by figures such as Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Garibaldi completed the project of unifying the nation.2 From then on, the difficult task of building a self-image in the social, economic, and cultural fields introduced new variables that changed the relationships between regions of the old states formed in the Middle Ages; at the same time, the homogenization of a territory as diverse politically as economically generated a distancing between the Center-North, which was more developed from an economic standpoint, and the South, which was structurally weaker.3 The indiscriminate application of the administrative, legal, and fiscal structures of Piedmont, a region to which all of central Italy, Romagna, and the Midi had been annexed to constitute the Kingdom of Italy,4 as well as the introduction throughout the country of the free regime change and the adoption of customs tariffs, helped to accentuate the differences between the northern and southern regions. In the North, industrial, commercial, and agricultural activities showed a fairly balanced development, based on an efficient and modern structure and a significant availability of capital, whereas in the South, agriculture tended to be more regressive and dominated by large estates.5 These economic realities of the new State, combined with the drop in prices in foreign markets and the poor development conditions of much of the countryside, which also suffered from the scourge of malaria, led to notable difficulties.6 The crisis that affected this sector given the new political/territorial framework fueled the migratory flow of peasants and the poorest classes from the regions with the greatest demographic concentration from the 1870s onward.7 The exodus, which depopulated entire rural areas, continued, except during the hiatus resulting from World War I, until the first years after that confrontation.8

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At first, the wave of emigration flowed toward neighboring countries (France, Switzerland, Tunisia); in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, it was directed at America. In the period from 1875 to 1925, approximately ten million people left Italy, of whom almost half returned.9 Between 1876 and 1880, emigrants numbered fewer than 50,000; between 1881 and 1890 the number approached 100,000, while for the period from 1891 to 1900, emigrants totaled 150,000.10 As José Del Castillo indicates, the Dominican Republic was not “an important point of reference for the great international migratory movements coming from the old continent,” because “other poles of attraction attracted the great flows of European settlers.”11 In the case of Italian migration, the preferred destinations were the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.12 Most of the Italians who settled here came from the southern part of Italy,13 specifically from towns near the key port of Naples. Another less numerically significant group arrived from various places in northern Italy, and was made up of people with different educational levels and already developed business skills. Why would this be the case? Simply because the South was most affected by the collapse of the agricultural sector, which forced the unemployed rural population to embark by tens and hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, southern Italy was—and still is—very different in terms of economic wealth, when compared with the north-central regions. It is the least favored region in terms of natural resources and the one where the imbalance in the distribution of urban centers is most noticeable.14 These difficulties have been accentuated by the physical environment: the Apennines, the geological backbone of the long and narrow peninsula, dominate the morphology of the terrain, with cities having developed in the numerous valleys and plains alternating between the mountainous slopes.15 Nicolás Pugliese Zouain notes that the Italians left “when they had completed their compulsory military service; normally at the beginning of the year, after the September harvest and after the harvesting of the olives (in November and December), once the oil was stored for family consumption over the course of the year.” And they set off, […] in cargo ships that plied a route along the Tyrrhenian Sea to the port of Naples, where they boarded the ‘steamer’ that would take them to Barcelona. The most fortunate, if they arrived on time, embarked on the Piróscafo, an ocean liner or ‘bastimento’ (as it was called in Italy) that sailed directly to America, which would take about a month and a half. Those who failed to align their schedules with the departure of the ocean liner had to wait for the next one to arrive, which further aggravated their already precarious economic situations.

With regard to their luggage, of either a material or sentimental nature, he notes: Since they wore the cashmere suit they used on Sundays and holidays, in their minds they had the firm intention of abandoning the state of poverty that they left behind with their family, their young wives and their children. In their hearts, they carried an immense burden of pain, and around their necks, hung the blessed rosary of the “mamma”; in rough hands, the cardboard suitcase tied with rope and inside, the photos of relatives, one clean change of clothes, and some food to be consumed during the trip. The money they had borrowed in town was in their suit pockets, next to their passports.16

Church of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes in Santo Cerro, La Vega, where Father Francisco Fantino Falco carried out his pastoral work. © Edwin Espinal

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

Giuseppe Russo Cino delivers the opening speech at the inauguration of the park dedicated to Father Fantino Falco in La Vega for his philanthropic endeavors in this city. © Casa Mella Russo

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In the interior of the Dominican Republic, the Italian presence was definitive at various points in history. In the process of the development of various communities and cities, we find a substantial contribution of various Italians, who arrived mainly from the second half of the nineteenth century onward. Regarding the Cibao region, however, most of the Italian migration began to manifest itself from 1886 onward,17 although there were Italians beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century. For example, on January 27, 1830, a wedding was celebrated in the parish of Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Moca, between Féliz Butin, son of Pablo Butin and María Frirna, a native of Italy, and Manuela de la Cruz, daughter of Ignacio de la Cruz and Merchora Morel, and widower of Agustina Pérez.18 This bit of information is very interesting, because it leads us to the conclusion that the Italian presence in the northern region is much older than previously thought.

In the case of Santiago, Juan Antonio Alix, in his tenth “El Niño de Atocha” (undated), refers to the importation by Italians of carvings of saints, a task in which they were already engaged “in the memory of Father Solano,”19 (in reference to the Fr. Domingo Antonio Solano, who died on May 20, 1862).20 Juan Rossi21 lived in the city as early as 1863,22 and by the 1870s and the first half of the 1880s, about twenty Italians had settled there. Among the members of that group, we should mention Silvestre Pierri or Pieri (1870);23 Víctor Merlano (1877);24 Esteban Piola (1878),25 the founder of this important surname in the city; Cesare and Quilico Agostini (1878);26 Vittorio and Pilade Stefani (1878);27 Sebastián Cestaro or Cestari (1881),28 musician; Nicolás Francisco Buzzoni (1883);29 Rafael Cardona (1883),30 a peddler; José Farine (1883);31 Leonardo Melfi (1883);32 Ángel Pellerano (1883);33 Mateo Senise (1885);34 Francisco Bacchiani (1885);35 and Juan Fabiani, a priest from the city of Naples who died in Guayubín on October 17, 1881.36 Of these, Leonardo Melfi and Ángel Pellerano lived in Altamira in 1883, before residing in Santiago. There they were donors for the construction of the Catholic church that served this community.37 The year 1879 marked the arrival of the person that could be referred to as the “patriarch” of the Italian community, Francisco Bloise,38 whose house was the deathbed of several compatriots39 and refuge of other peasants who, working as traveling clothes salesmen, had arrived in Santiago for a few days.40 Likewise, Bloise’s business establishment served as a refuge for other compatriots.41 Along with Santiago and Moca, La Vega, Monte Cristi, Salcedo, San Francisco de Macorís, Pimentel, Puerto Plata, and Samaná were noteworthy centers for Italian migrants. In La Vega and Santo Cerro, Fr. Giovanni Francesco Fantino Falco (1867 - 1939), a Piedmontese from Borgo San Dalmazzo,42 in the province of Cuneo, is fondly remembered as a priest, and a monument to his memory was unveiled on January 11, 1998. He initially settled in San Pedro de Macorís at the end of 1899.43 In La Vega he went on to found the San Sebastián school (1903)44 and the San Vicente de Paul children’s home and school, as well as the Padre Las Casas School in Santo Cerro.45 A descendant of Italians, and one of the earlier members of the Italian community in La Vega, Valentín Piantini Blanchard (b. 1811) was the son of José Eugenio Piantini and Flora Blanchard. Piantini Blanchard married Mariana de la Paz Núñez in that same city in 1841. At the end of the nineteenth century, the significant nucleus of Italians in La Vega also included Alfredo Giuseppe Scaroina Montuori (1864 - 1950), who was born in Avelino; Scaroina Montuori, a respected engineer and founding member of the La Vega and Santo Domingo fire departments;46 Luis Francisco Paonessa Cavalcanti (b. January 5, 1873), a native of Santa Domenica Talao;

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Giuseppe Grimaldi (b. 1891), from Scalea, Cosenza, ancestor of the journalist and diplomat Víctor Grimaldi Céspedes; the spouses Blas Montesano Caputo and María Minervino Cavalieri, natives of Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza; Victor María Rossi; Carlos Arístides Cámara Bandini, a native of Florence; spouses Luis Sorrentino and Adelaida Visone; and José Russo Cino (1890-1980), a native of Santa Domenica Talao, province of Cosenza, Calabria, who installed the first power plants for the lighting service in the city and in Moca. He also served as consul general of Italy, and later founded the Rivoli theater. Others were spouses Ricardo Eduardo Longo Campagna and Vicenza Antonia Minervino, and Dante Evaristo Pezzotti Salterucci, born in 1886 in Scalea, Cosenza province, Calabria; he was the father of Blas Pezzotti Tejeda, pharmacist, alderman, and president of the Chamber of Commerce of La Vega whose name also graces an important park in that city.47 In La Vega, the brothers Antonio, José and Attilio Russo Cino brought the first Ford brand vehicles to that city;48 Alejandro Leonetti and José Russo were promoters of cinema;49 and in the field of medicine, the names of Felipe Héctor Biondi and the aforementioned Dante Evaristo Pezzotti Salterucci stand out, the former as a physician and the latter as a pharmacist. Biondi was a graduate of the University of Naples School of Medicine. He first settled in Santiago; however, his greatest contributions as a physician were in La Vega, where he worked from 1870 to 1899. He returned to Italy in early 1905, where he died shortly after becoming paralyzed, the result of advanced syphilis.50 Another immigrant in the area, Evaristo Pezzotti, held a degree in pharmacy. Born on April 4, 1885, in Scalea, Cosenza, he first settled in Salcedo; by 1920 he lived in Sánchez, and in 1923 he was based in La Vega.

He owned the Central pharmacy, and later, in association with Carlos De Moya and under the company name of Moya Pezzotti, he owned the Esmeralda pharmacies in Santo Domingo, Central in La Vega, and San José in Sánchez. He died on May 12, 1929.51 In La Vega the admiration for Italy was evident: there was the Hotel Italia; Rafael Martinez Alba’s orchestra, the country’s first to feature mandolins, bore the name of La Napolitana;52 and the famous restaurant of the spouses Francisco Soñé (Pancho) and Virita Garcia de Soñé, founded in 1911 across from Duarte Park, was called La Gioconda as an allusion to the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, a copy of which hung prominently on the wall of this establishment.53 Italians also shone in the civic life of La Vega. Lina Magdalena Longo Minervino served for decades as one of the directors of the Instituto Comercial Vegano and the Padre Fantino Falco and Senda de Santa Teresita companies. A street in that city, of which she was declared Adoptive Daughter, bears her name.

Also, in La Vega, Enrique García Godoy Ceara (1887 - 1947) was one of the most renowned artists in Dominican art history. His Italian identity was particularly manifested in the academic aspects of his work.54 The Salesian brother Rosario Pilonero Milazzo (May 13, 1926, Canicattì, Agrigento - La Vega, November 9, 2017), who arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1950, is also worthy of mention. Distinguished for his talents in the field of agronomy, and considered one of the greatest agronomists in the country, he was professor and later administrator of the Salesian Agronomic and Technical Institute (IATESA) in La Vega and treasurer at the Aspirantado Salesiano and the Noviciado Salesiano Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Jarabacoa. In the field of cooperativism, he was co-founder of the Cooperativa Vega Real in La Vega, and founder of the Centro de Salud Obra Social Salesiana and the Cooperativa Don Bosco in Jarabacoa. He was awarded the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella in the distinctions of Knight (1975) and Official (2001).55 In terms of architecture, the urban contours of La Vega were enriched by the construction of the public market, a replica of a Venetian market, the work of the engineer Alfredo Scaroina Montuori, who also built the city halls in Moca (destroyed in the earthquake of 1946) and San Cristóbal.56 In the second half of the 1870s, the spouses Saverio Russo, a native of Orsomarso, and María Francesca Cino, born in Santa Domenica Talao, arrived in Moca along with their children Domingo (1872-1942), who was the founder of the first pharmacy that existed in Bonao,57 Alejandro, Angelo, Giovanna, Antonio, Attilio58 and José Russo Cino, the latter three already mentioned and based in La Vega. Two decades later, they were

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

Hotel Italia, by Petruccio Schiffino, on the corner of Núñez de Cáceres and Duvergé Streets in La Vega. © Edwin Espinal

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followed by their first cousins ​​Mariangela, Pedro Domingo, Francisco María Domingo, María Josefa, and Anna Russo Di Puglia, children of Pedro Carmelo Russo and María Teresa Di Puglia, and Pedro and Antonio Russo Latuffo, children of Alejandro Russo and Filomena Latuffo.

Rafael Ciferri (1897 - 1964), born in Fermo, Ascoli Piceno, taught at the Agricultural School in Moca, between 1925 and 1932. Considered one of the most revolutionary mycologists in the world, he was an esteemed professor of botanical and forest centers in Alba, Pavia, Florence and Palermo. In the Dominican Republic, he focused on problems inherent to plant pathology and the selection of plants for use in agriculture.59 He lived in Quinigua and Santiago for a time, hosting the eminent Swedish botanist Erik Leonard Ekman from the time of his arrival in the country in 1929 until his death in 1931.60 In Montecristi, the business establishments of Lorenzo D’Aste, Orlando Pannocchia, and J.B. Richetti contributed to the city’s economic development during the so-called Campeche Era.61 Decades later, the engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi (Bovino, Foggia, 1895-Santo Domingo, 1954), who arrived in the country in 1927 motivated by the Italian consul to the Dominican Republic, Amadeo Barletta, designed the port facilities for Ciudad del Morro. He also erected the Model Market on Avenida Mella in Santo Domingo (1944), and designed the National Palace, seat of the Executive Branch, which was completed in 1947. He was married in Montecristi in 1930 to Carmen Tavárez Mayer.62 Also, in the Northwest Line, in Sabaneta, Father Pedro A. Acelli, native of Ajaccio, Corsica, who served his parishioners for over 25 years, died in 1892.63 The Bloise, Caputo, Forestieri, Pezzotti, Palamara, Trifilio, Schiffino, and Vigniero64 families settled in Salcedo, along with others of Italian descent, all of whom contributed to the economic development of that municipality. Juan Rossi, the town’s first apothecary,65 a resident of Santiago in 1863 as already mentioned, relocated to Moca in 1871.66 He was the great-grandfather of Porfirio Rubirosa Azira, a diplomat, race-car driver and bon vivant. Meanwhile, Evaristo Pezzotti, who was employed as a pharmacist beginning in 1915,67 became the city’s alderman in 1919, as did Felice and Giuseppe Forestieri, who arrived via Puerto Plata from San Nicola Arcella, Cosenza, for the first two decades of the twentieth century. The Forestieri brothers68 and their cousins ​​Pietro and Vicenzo devoted themselves to the coffee and cacao trade.69 Francisco Bloise, a merchant, who initially settled in Santiago in 1879, moved to Salcedo in 1897, where he went on to serve as a council member, vice president and president of the city council on several occasions; he also served as a member of the construction board for the cemetery that was started in 1898.70 Alejandro Vigniero established a power company in 1927 along with Tobías Cabral and Porfirio Montes de Oca.71 In Salcedo, the merchant Juan Bautista Bloise, son of Francisco and Filomena Bloise, was married at the age of 20 on December 19, 1903 to Alejandrina del Carmen Guzmán from Moca, then 19 years old, daughter of Ramón Guzmán and Felítica Veloz. They were the parents of twelve children: Francisco, Verónica Felcita, Juan Bautista, María Filomena, Annia Francisca, Amada Concepción, Victorio Tomás, Yolanda Mercedes, Juan Ramón, Giovanni, Dolores Ludovina, and Humberto Dante Bloise Guzmán.

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There was also an Italian community in the province of Duarte. The city of San Francisco de Macorís was home to various families, including the Negrettes, Simeolis,72 Richettis, Finizolas and Sturlas. The Minervinos, meanwhile, lived in Tenares.73 In 1910 in San Francisco de Macorís, the Italian colony was formed by, among others, Antonio Fabrasile, Vicente Malvarosa, Luis and Vicente Simeoli, Tomás Olivieri, Chichí Olivieri, José Pugliese, Francisco Schiffino, Lázaro Finizola and Juan Canónico.74 A grandson of Antonio Sturla, initially based in Samaná and later in the city of Jaya, Amadeo Sturla Richetti (Mallín), went on to become a senator, and his nephew Amadeo Conde Sturla died heroically in the Dominican Civil War (1965).75 In Pimentel, we find Gaetano Pellice, owner of the Hotel Venecia, which he built in 1915,76 whose building, known as “The Stone House,” was destroyed by the 1946 earthquake;77 Luigi Bruno (1865-1917), born in Santa Domenica Talao, who arrived in Puerto Plata in 1895 and husband of María Cino Senice (1874-1963), whom he married in Italy;78 and Alejandro Capobianco, husband of Angiolina Divanna Majolino, both natives of Santa Domenica Talao, who settled there in 1914 with her son Silverio Capobianco Divanna (1902-1981), the latter of whom later relocated to Puerto Plata.79 Puerto Plata has the distinction of being the birthplace of the cinema in the Dominican Republic, due to the Italian Francesco Grecco, who on August 27, 1900, projected eleven films from the Lumière brothers, made between 1895 and 1899, at the Teatro Curiel. Grecco had acquired a projector and a camera directly from the Lumières, and he traveled the Caribbean exhibiting his devices and his films over and over again. The films were shown in Santiago, at the Teatro Palmer, in La Vega, and in Santo Domingo at the Teatro La Republicana.80

City Council of Moca, built by the engineer Alfredo Scaroina Montuori. © Edwin Espinal

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Agricultural School of Moca (1928), where Dr. Raffaele Ciferri worked. © Edwin Espinal

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The Italian community comprised more than thirty families in this coastal city during the republican period in the nineteenth century. Two families who trace their ancestry to the first half of that century were the Arzenos, first with Sebastián Arzeno (1781 – 1851), a native of Zoagli, and husband of María del Carmen Rodríguez,81 and the Bonnellys, with the Corsican Francisco Ulises Bonnelli Coutín (1825-1870), who emigrated from Saint Thomas and married Buenaventura Carmen Arnaud Portes (1848 - ?) in Santiago, giving rise to the family of this surname in the country.

President Carlos Morales Languasco was the grandson of Agustín Languasco, a native of Oneglia (today Imperia) in Liguria,82 who had already settled in Puerto Plata in 1810, where he was a landowner.83 One of his sons, Teófilo Languasco Subalier84 or Chevalier, was the first president of the Sánchez city council in 1886.85 Another noteworthy figure in Puerto Plata of Italian descent was the businessman Frank Rainieri Marranzini, grandson of Isidoro Rainieri Carrara and Bianca Franceschini Galletti, natives of Emilia-Romagna (the former from Ronchetti, San Secondo Parmense, Parma, and the latter from Castello d´Argile, Bologna), and Orazio Michelo Marranzini Inginio and Inmaccolatta Lepore Rodia, both from Santa Lucia di Serino, in southern Italy. President of the Punta Cana Group, Rainieri Marranzini owns a famed resort in the town of that name in the eastern end of the country, which has put the Dominican Republic on the world tourism map.

From his grandfather Isidoro Rainieri he inherits his connection with the hotel industry; Isidoro Rainieri was involved in the hospitality industry in Puerto Plata and Santiago beginning in 1898 with the Hotel Europa. It is worth noting that Isidoro Rainieri had come to Puerto Plata from Colombia (where he was married in Bogotá in 1896) with his wife Bianca Franceschini in 1898. Later, in 1908, he opened the Hotel del Comercio in Puerto

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Plata, in the three-story building belonging to the La Fe en el Porvenir Society. In the spring of 1908, after a long sojourn in Europe with his wife and children, he went to Santiago to take over his new establishment, the Hotel Rainieri, which he managed until his death in New York in 1912, where he had gone to deal with health-related issues.86 Several representatives of the Italian community contributed to the architecture of Puerto Plata, as was the case with Juan Grisolía and Vicente Sarnelli, the former with the construction of a large residence and the latter with a neoclassical building, works by the Spanish architect Martín Gallart y Canti.87 Anselmo Copello, a resident of Santiago of Ligurian ancestry, built a Prairie-style residence88 in the second half of the 1930s. The Teatro Curiel theater (later, the Teatro Municipal) showcased Italian theater companies that were touring the country.

Two iconic Italian surnames in Puerto Plata are Sangiovanni, whose roots in the Dominican Republic can be traced back to Juan Sangiovanni and Josefa Russo—natives of Santa Domenica Talao who settled in Puerto Plata in 191989—and Pappaterra, originally with the brothers Francisco, José Antonio and Fortunato Pappaterra (1869 - 1957), natives of Santa Domenica Talao and sons of Blas Pappaterra and Angela Scaldaferri.

Francisco married Angela Domínguez; José Antonio entered into nuptials with Magdalena Sangiovanni; and Fortunato married his countrywoman María Anunciata Bloise Depuglia (Santa Domenica Talao, November 12, 1882 - Puerto Plata, 1979), daughter of Ángel Bloise and Angiolina Depuglia. All three brothers had numerous children and grandchildren.

Other Italian surnames in Puerto Plata include Russo, Divanna, Oliva, Conte, Villari, Ciriaco, Nardi, Nicodemo, Vineli, Micheli, Saco, Dipino, and Capobianco. Another important Italian immigrant who settled in the city, and who was considered the “dean” of the Italian community, was Blas Di Franco Russo (1896 - 2000),

Bust of Raffaele Ciferri by sculptor Mario Gatti. Inaugurated on May 25, 1967, it represents a fundamental figure of the Botanical Garden of the University of Pavia. A testament to his ability to face a difficult post-war period and to set in motion research projects and the current layout of the structure. (Paolo Cauzzi). © Andrea Vierucci

Duarte Park in Montecristi, with its emblematic clock. © Edwin Espinal

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

Doroteo Antonio Tapia Street in Salcedo. © Edwin Espinal

Corner of San Francisco Street and Santa Ana Street in San Francisco de Macorís. © Edwin Espinal

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from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza. He arrived together with his uncle Domingo Francisco Russo in 1908.

He first married Inmaculada Sangiovanni Russo in 1924, and in 1950, he married Zaida Carolina Bentz Castán (1910-2000).90 Nicolás Perrone León (1900-1986) settled in the Puerto Plata municipality of Altamira. Another native from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, he arrived in Puerto Plata in 1925 and married María Dolores Polanco, with whom he had various children and grandchildren.91 Finally, as regards Puerto Plata, it should be noted that the Puerto Rican grandchildren of the Milanese native Félix Spignolio Fasana92 (1824 - 1888), Fernando Alberto and José Antonio Spignolio Mena,93 participated in the military defenses at Luperón in 1949 and Constanza, Maimón, and Estero Hondo in 1959,94 respectively, and that the painter Jaime Colson, a practitioner of pictorial modernism in the Dominican Republic, is “an heir to the Italian Renaissance,” in the words of Marianne de Tolentino. The notable art critic recognizes the Italian affinities of this master in his drawings and paintings, which evidence his admiration for Andrea del Castagno; Benvenuto Cellini; Caravaggio; Filippo Lippi; Leonardo da Vinci, whose Treatise on Painting serves him as a veritable bible; Michelangelo, his greatest inspiration in frescos; as well as Amadeo Modigliani, Giacometti and Giorgio de Chirico.95 Of course, we cannot ignore that in the Second Republic there was a place for Italy in the heart of a son from Puerto Plata: Gregorio Luperón, the “First Sword of the Restoration,” rubbed shoulders in Europe with the great Giuseppe Garibaldi.96 At the dawn of the democratic opening after the death of Trujillo, a descendant of Italians, Carlos Juan Grisolía Poloney (Grisco) (1914-2005), was elected senator of the province of Puerto Plata by the National Civic Union in the elections held on December 20, 1962. Attorney General, deputy, municipal trustee and provincial governor, he was the brother of the outstanding and brilliant Puerto Plata pianist Vicente Grisolía.97 In Samaná, the Italian presence can be found in surnames such as Messina, Bancalari, Sangiovanni, Caccavelli, and Demorizi. Pedro Messina Galleti, son of Angelo Messina and María Galleti, originally settled in Sabana de la Mar, where he served as mayor. After moving to Samaná, he became the owner of the El Limón plantation, the most important agricultural project on the peninsula, where he also specialized in the production of cheese and butter. His son, Ángel María Messina Pimentel (1903-1967), was the founder in 1936, together with Dr. Edmon Sevez, of the Santa Bárbara clinic in Samaná. His sister Ana Messina Galleti married the Lebanese immigrant Antonio José, who also settled initially in Sabana de la Mar and relocated to Samaná in 1893.

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Bartolomé Bancalari, president of the city council of Samaná in 1893 and member of the literary and recreational society Unión Samanés in 1887, was the owner of the first motor boat that sailed the bay of Samaná at the beginning of the twentieth century, baptized the “Rosa Consuelo.”

Domingo Sangiovanni, established in Samaná in the last decade of the 19th century together with his wife María Rosa Grisolía and their children Bonifacio, Paulino and Vicente, began as a traveling jeweler, an occupation that he was already engaged in by 1896. In 1904, his sons founded the Hermanos Sangiovanni establishment, an import-export enterprise. Of these, Paulino Sangiovanni was the owner of the first Samaná ice factory and the Colón cinema.

The Caccavelli brothers held prominent positions at the local level: Marcos Aurelio was a parish priest; Noel was deputy consul of France and Antonio served as a merchant. His nephew Francisco María (+1952), a native of Ajaccio, Corsica, was the owner of the Vencedora lemonade, soda and liquor factory. He was the father of Professor María Leticia Caccavelli Clark.

Finally, José Demorizi, also a Corsican, was founding councilor of the Sánchez community in 1886, while his son General Evaristo Nicolás Demorizi Deloup (1850-1926) was president of the Samaná city council, deputy, governor and Secretary of State for War and the Navy during the government of President Ulises Heureaux. Our greatest historiographer, Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi,98 is one of his descendants.

In the Santiago area, among the numerous social ties that intimately bind Italy and this city, we should acknowledge the many contributions of industrious and enterprising Italian immigrants as one of the most positive factors to influence Dominican history of foreign origin. Several cases merit particular attention: Angelo Rusterucci, pastor of the church of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia,99 was one of the principal overseers in the construction of Parque Colón in 1892,100 and in that same year served as a member of the Commission for the celebration of the IV Centenary of the Discovery of America, together with Francisco Bloise.101 The resident Anselmo Copello, who is commemorated by a street in the La Joya sector, served as president of the city council and director of the Recreation Center and the Compañía Anónima Tabacalera. He served as Dominican ambassador to Washington, D.C., and brought the first Cadillac “Super Six” model to the country in 1924.102 Aquiles Zorda103 was also a noteworthy figure, exceling as a poet, actor, and painter. Oreste Menicucci Chiardini (1876-1950), a native of Fucecchio, Tuscany, contributed to Santiago’s architecture with his works in granite and his prefabricated facades.104 Aurelio and Salvador Cucurullo—the latter being the most visionary foreigner to come to the country after Eugenio María de Hostos, according to Félix Evaristo Mejía105—natives of Santa Domenica Talao, were esteemed educators. Their compatriot, Dr. Vicente Grisolía, was one of the most outstanding surgeons to have practiced in this city. Another man from the same town, Vicente Anzelotti Cosentino, was one of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce and Production in 1914.106 Enrique Sas-

Hotel Venecia, by Gaetano Pellice. © Edwin Espinal

The Faith in the Future Society in Puerto Plata, where Isidoro Rainieri’s Hotel del Comercio was previously located. © Edwin Espinal

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

H.E. Ambassador of the SOM Francisco Rainieri, during the reception offered in honor of the visit of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, at the National Palace, on May 31, 1976. © Rainieri Family

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sone Maimone (1883-1962), also born in Santa Domenica Talao, served as the Italian consul in the city and was the founder of the society “Sons of Italy for the orphans of war,” which he created to help the children who lost families in World War II, and which earned him the decoration of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in the rank of Knight in 1957.107 Finally, the siblings Vicente (d. 1963) and Flor Sarnelli (d. 1968), natives of Bracigliano, Naples, were the founders of the traditional bakery that bore their surname, after having founded a similar establishment in Puerto Plata.108 In the recent past, it should be mentioned that the priest Juan Artale Gnolfo (1927-1996), a Salesian born in Sicily, was the initiator of the Salesian Polytechnic of Santiago (IPISA) in 1988;109 María Victoria Menicucci Mella, granddaughter of Oreste Menicucci, was the first woman to hold the presidency of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce and Production (20102014);110 and Orlando Menicucci Morel, the grandson of Oreste Menicucci, dedicated the Biennial of Visual Arts 2018.111 A descendant of Italians, Mario Pezzotti brought the first bicycle with gear change and handlebar brakes that was known in Santiago.112 A grandson of Genaro Cantisano (Maratea, March 21, 1869 - Santiago, January 7, 1928), Dr. Rafael Cantisano Arias (1927-2017), recognized as a Master of Dominican Medicine, was the founder of the Northern Italian Center in 1997, promoting the naming of Calle Italia in the Reparto del Este sector; a founding member and president of the Medical Association of Santiago (1962-1963) and the North Regional Dominican Medical Association (1963-1964); president of the Dominican Medical College (1964); president of the Dominican Red Cross (1965-1966); and co-founder of the School of Medicine of the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra.113 Juan Héctor José Stefani, better known as Bullo Stefani, was a grandson of the Piedmontese Pedro Stefani.

A sports chronicler, promoter and organizer, he was also an athlete and the first secretary of the Association of Sports Writers of Santiago. He was elevated to the status of Dominican sports legends in 1992.114 A close relative, María Stefani Espaillat (1884-1972), daughter of Pilade Stefani Virgani and Sofía Espaillat Espaillat, was the author of various zarzuelas, chairwoman and board member of the Ladies Club, queen of the Santiago carnival in 1911, the inspiration for the first Mother’s Day celebration in 1926, cofounder of the Santiago Country Club in 1931, and the first Dominican woman to direct films, as evidenced by her films on the inauguration of La Otra Banda irrigation canal by President Horacio Vásquez, the delivery of the resolution of the Santiago city council by the ruling “Adopted Son” (1928), the welcome accorded by the city of Santo Domingo to the famous Basque boxer Paulino Uzcudun, and the actions of the Dawes mission in the Vásquez government (1929).115 A well-known son of Alberto Campagna Pezzotti in Santiago was Dr. Aníbal Campagna García. An attorney, he was also a candidate senator for the province of Santiago on behalf of the Unión Cívica Nacional in the December 1962 elections, the first democratic elections held in the country after the fall of the Trujillo dictatorship. He was conscripted into the Italian army, in compliance with compulsory military service, prior to the Second World War. He served as Senate majority leader during the constitutional government of Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamano Deñó.116 The daughter of Genaro Pezzotti Schiffino (1894-1983), Filomena Teresa Pezzotti Hernández (1921-2019), better known as Minucha, arrived from Santa Domenica Talao through Puerto Plata in 1910. She was the owner of the Irma children’s shoe factory, as well as popular radio announcer, and the wife of broadcaster

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Ramón de Luna since 1955. Doña Minucha began her radio shows in 1954 and was declared a Distinguished Daughter by the Santiago City Council in 1983.117 Elena Annunziata Campagna was another prominent woman from Santiago who placed great importance on her Italian roots. The daughter of Arístides Amadeo Campagna and María Mercedes Abréu Penzo, she was born in Santiago on January 14, 1921. She was married on July 15, 1939 in Santiago to Pedro Pablo Read, son of Carlos Alberto Read and Ozema Herrera. A member of the Santiago Provincial Committee of the National Civic Union in 1961, she was appointed governor of the province of Santiago by the Triumvirate by decree 61 of October 9, 1963. She was later appointed Dominican ambassador to Italy and permanent representative of the Dominican Republic before the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) by President Antonio Guzmán in 1981. In 1983, she was ratified as ambassador to Italy and designated as concurrent Dominican ambassador to Egypt, based in Rome. For her diplomatic service, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in the rank of Knight of the Grand Cross.

It should also be noted that the first Italian à la carte food establishment in the city of Santiago, the Ristorante Ostería, was opened in 1982 by an Italian-Dominican, Nicola Giuseppe Pugliese Zouain (Nicolino) (1931-2011), who was born in Vibonati, Salerno, the son of Vincenzo Pugliese Giffoni and María Antonia Zouain Diaz. Pugliese Zouain served as Italian consular representative for the northern region of the country from 1971 and honorary vice consul of Italy in Santiago between 1978 and 2003. He was also owner of the decoration and gifts store Kakey. In recognition of his service to his native land, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in the degrees of Knight (1978), Officer (1985) and Commander (2003).118 In the particular case of Santiago, it should be noted that the networks forged through family, friends, and common place of origin after the arrival of the first immigrants in the 1870s reflect a considerable involvement of residents from southern Italy, specifically populations near the important port of Naples. As noted earlier, this was due to the collapse of the agricultural sector, which forced the unemployed peasant population to leave the country by the tens and hundreds of thousands each year.

Through further study of the situation of the Italian community in Santiago, we have discovered a very interesting detail: although the places of origin pertain almost entirely to southern Italy, they also correspond to the western slope of the Apennines facing the Tyrrhenian basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Cities located on the Adriatic side of the Mediterranean are not represented among the population of Santiago.

The rural community of Santa Domenica Talao, in Calabria, topped the list of places of origin with the highest number of representatives (Anzelotti, Bloise, Campagna, Capobianco, Caputo, Cino, Cozza, Cucurullo, Divanna, Ferzola, Finizola, Grisolía, Leogaldo, Leone, Longo, Marino, Perrone, Pezzotti, Riggio, Russo, Sabatino, Sassone, Schiffino, Sollazzo and Senise), followed by Naples (Petito), Vibonati (Pugliese), Maratea (Cantisano), Campanello (Generazzo) and Serra Pedace (Leonetti). The presence of northerners was less prominent, with places such as Fucecchio (Oreste Menicucci), Livorno (Hugo Pardi), Genoa (Vittorio Merlano), Barga (Pilade and Pedro Stefani), and Santa Margarita Ligure (Carlos Lorenzo Pellerano and Esteban Piola Frugone) represented.

Family networks and kinship and friendship channels created by some of the early immigrants served as a determining factor for the large presence of Italians from Santa Domenica Talao. Upon examination of the surnames, we discover that, in effect, multiple links exist, both in terms of paternal and maternal lineage.

Thus, we find patronymic combinations such as Bloise Depuglia, Russo Depuglia, Bloise Pugliese, Pezzotti Bloise, Longo Campagna, Campagna Divanna, Campagna Pezzotti, Campagna Schiffino, Riggio Schiffino, Schiffino Cosentino, Anzelotti Cosentino, Cucurullo Senise, and Senise Schiffino. This repetition of surnames suggests that the inhabitants of Santa Domenica Talao comprised a closely knit group that was inwardly drawn, characteristics abandoned by those who lived in Santiago, with few exceptions.119 Settlement by the Italians in this city occurred at a slow pace. In 1893, there were 30 (28 males and two females)120 residents of Italian origin. In 1904, when the population reached 10,935, 536 were of foreign origin.

Of these, 33 were Italian men. Although the number of females is not specified, it is noteworthy that in ten

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Queco Rainieri Honorary Consul of Italy in the Dominican Republic and his family when he was conferred the medal of “Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia” at the Italian Ambassador’s Residence, March 29, 1966. © Rainieri Family

years their number increased by only three.121 As early as 1916, 49 Italians resided in Santiago of a total population of 14,774 inhabitants.122 The bulk of this immigration was predominantly composed of younger men123—of an average age below 30—from both inland towns and cities near the coast. Despite this elevated male percentage, we do find exceptions, as with the two immigrant siblings José Domingo and María Anunziata Bloise, children of Angel Bloise and Angela Depuglia and natives of Santa Domenica Talao.124 José Domingo married Lucía Margarita López Fernández on October 14, 1906; María Anunziata married on August 17, 1905 with her native Fortunato Pappaterra Scaldaferri,125 already mentioned.

Despite the immigrants’ largely rural origin, very few were engaged in agriculture. As far as we know, only Rafael Biaggiotti (1857-1893), a native of Barga, settled and farmed in Gurabo,126 where he married Rita Adelaida Andreu. The main professional activity for these immigrants was commerce, although there were several exceptions in the city: Sebastián Cestaro or Cestari,127 musician; Pilade Stefani,128 agricultural engineer and surveyor; Salvador Cucurullo (1872-1926), professor at the normal schools for boys and girls, director of the secondary school, professor at the Professional Institute, Provincial Mayor of Education, recipient of the title of Adoptive Son of Santiago in 1917, and leading figure in the educational and cultural work of the city; Ricardo Godeluppi, orchestra teacher, violinist, instrumentalist and music teacher;129 and Angel Schiffino, a native of Santa Domenica Talao, who although a merchant, also worked as a journalist and politician.130 Other exceptions to the general professional profile of business were Garibaldi Campagna, a pharmacist at the University of Naples and professor of pharmacy there, who filled prescriptions at Ulises Francisco Espaillat Julia’s pharmacy in 1905;131 Antonio Pagani, bookkeeper at the same establishment (d. 1905);132 the physicians Carlo Felipe (Félix) Cozza, from Santa Domenica Talao, authorized to practice medicine through a 1905 presidential decree;133 Vicente Grisolía, also from Santa Domenica Talao, a surgeon and graduate of the University of Naples, who arrived in the country in 1911;134 and Emmanuelle (Manuel) Senise, a Neapolitan, also a surgeon graduated from the University of Naples,135 a former intern at the Maternidad de los Incurables clinic and a specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and dermosyphilopathy.136 Two of the more renowned figures in the field of the visual arts were Oreste Menicucci and Hugo Pardi, natives of Livorno, Tuscany,137 who used the Nardi patronymic.138 They were professional painters, portraitists, decorators, and gilders.

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The majority of Italians established businesses dedicated to the import trade139 and some workshops of relative significance,140 while also engaging in a range of service-related occupations and craft activities,141 such as clothing salesmen, produce salesmen,142 peddlers,143 jewelers,144 shoemakers,145 bricklayers,146 silversmiths,147 and photographers.148 Of these professions, the first Italian immigrants were initially engaged as peddlers, as were immigrants from the Middle East. In this activity, which did not require training, capital, or language skills,149 they used regional mobility as their principal strategy, locating themselves in the cities where the greatest opportunities were to be found. In 1889, in a session of the City Council, it was pointed out that peddlers and traveling jewelers made Santiago the “place of their residence and center of their trade,” which reveals a preference for development of this profession.150 Attracted by these favorable conditions, in 1891, and armed with peddlers’ licenses issued by the La Vega municipality, Santiago Santos Garlotte, Pascual Marino, Luis Paonesa, José Rossi, Alejandro Caputo, and Carlos Grisolía arrived in Santiago.151 There were also some Italians employed by third parties,152 as well as by tailors,153 shoemakers,154 umbrella stands,155 watchmakers,156 artisans,157 gardeners,158 mercers,159 and grocers.160 Some went on to form small manufacturing companies of some significance, such as Las Tres Estrellas shoe factories, operated by the Barrella brothers, and later by Barrella and Fersola (1908),161 on Calle General Cabrera,162 which produced shoes with an iconic three-star insignia on the sole,163 and La Marchantón owned by the Pugliese brothers (Vicente and José)—named after the nickname of his father Nicolás Pugliese, who founded it in 1899—on Calle Duarte, next to the notary office of Joaquín Dalmau.164 The most important Italian commercial establishments in Santiago were the Divanna, Grisolía y Co., established in 1885, which was headquartered in Puerto Plata and dedicated to the export of coffee, cacao, tobacco, and wax, and the import of European and American provisions and merchandise, and the Grisolía, Cino y Co., founded in 1897, also based in Puerto Plata, and importer of merchandise and provisions.165 The assets and liabilities of the Divanna, Grisolía y Co. in Santiago were assumed in 1907 by Pedro Russo Dipuglia, native of Santa Domenica Talao,166 who eventually renamed it under his own name,167 and with such success that the enterprise was expanded to Moca.168 After Russo died in Santiago in 1909,169 his corporate suc-

Anselmo Copello.

Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the United States. © Edwin Espinal

Anselmo Copello and his wife Argentina de Soto with President Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina and his wife María Martínez at the Santiago Recreation Center. © Edwin Espinal

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Sarnelli Bakery of Flor and Vicente Sarnelli on the corner of the Del Sol Street and Benito Monción Street in Santiago. © Edwin Espinal

cessors continued the business under the name of “Pedro Russo Sucesores” until 1912, when it was absorbed by “Miguel B. Perellada y Ca.,” with his widow, Gertrudis (Tula) Perellada, as a limited partner170 but who left for Banes, Cuba, with his children in 1913.171 Grisolía, Cino & Cía., which appeared as a novelty establishment in 1904,172 ceased operations in November 1905; its establishment was occupied by D.T. Russo y Ca.173 The operations in Puerto Plata were dissolved in 1908, due to the death of its partner Carlos Grisolía; the company “Cino Hermanos,”174 owned

by Francisco y Angel Cino, took over the company’s assets and liabilities. In Santiago, the new house operated for some time in the Central Casino, until the Cino brothers decided to move to Puerto Plata,175 closing their operations in January 1909.176 Another prominent establishment was Campagna Hermanos, owned by the brothers Alberto, Luis and Aquiles Campagna Pezzotti, natives of Santa Domenica Talao; founded around 1906, the company, which was located on the corner of Calle Comercio (today España) and Calle Exconvento (General Cabrera),177 supplied retailers in Tamboril, Moca, Salcedo, Mao, Jánico, and San José de Las Matas.178 The latter company sold—and possibly produced—Campagna rum, one of the best and most popular rums in the city,179 as well as Plá rum,180 produced by Divanna, Grisolía and Plá, from Puerto Plata.181 Other noteworthy businesses include the shop of Domingo Francisco Russo Dipuglia, brother of Pedro Russo, opened in 1905 on the corner of Calle Libertad and Calle Comercio182 (today Máximo Gómez and España), and which later moved to Calle Del Sol;183 and the Hotel Garibaldi, established in 1907 by Luis Schiffino184 Perrone, also from Santa Domenica Talao, and which formed a regional hotel complex with the Hotel Europa in Puerto Plata,185 the Hotel Marconi in Moca (owned by the Schiffino brothers and which opened its doors in 1909186), and the Hotel Italia in La Vega, across from the railway station and next to the national post and telegraph office,187 and owned by one of the brothers Peruccio,188 who purchased the Hotel Inglaterra in San Pedro de Macorís in 1913.

Also worth mentioning is a café-restaurant that would become iconic during an entire era in the city’s history: El Edén, owned by Aquiles Campagna Pezzotti, who would also become the owner of the Hotel Garibaldi as a result of its acquisition from Luis Schiffino189 before he left for Italy in mid-1915 to enroll in military service with his brother Petruccio,190 who lived in San Pedro de Macoris.191 Campagna Pezzotti commissioned

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Parque Colón in Santiago, created by the efforts of Angelo Rusterucci, the parish priest of the church of Nuestra Señora of Altagracia. © Edwin Espinal

the great architect José Casanova with the construction of this restaurant on the northern side of Calle Del Sol192—across from the Hotel Garibaldi—in October 1916.193 Classified as “the first of its kind in the entire republic,”194 it was inaugurated on February 18, 1917, Carnival Sunday.195 Because most of these immigrants did not have much capital, their finances and savings were tied directly to the success of their businesses, which they began quite modestly, the evolution of which is evident from the operating licenses under which they were classified. The cases of Vicente Anzelotti Cosentino (Santa Domenica Talao, 1870 - Santiago, October 21, 1956196), Genaro Cantisano Limongi (Maratea, March 21, 1869 - Santiago, January 7, 1928), Anselmo Copello Ducassou (Saint Thomas, September 18, 1879 - Washington, December 9, 1944), and the brothers José (Vibonati, October 6, 1886 - Santiago, June 7, 1960) and Vicente (1898-1932) Pugliese Giffone reveal their considerable rise from street-based marketing and small retail businesses to large, consolidated operations.197 Italian businesses focusing on import and export activities led to more European-oriented shifts in local consumption habits with regard to food, beverages, and fashion among the urban population. The products that they introduced included pasta, cheese, olives, olive oil, various sweets, canned fruits, wines, canned goods, sausages, salchichón, and salami. Fashion accoutrements became more nuanced with contributions such as Borsalino felt hats, sold by Vicente Anzelotti198 at his establishment on the corner of Calle Comercio and Calle General Cabrera.199 The need to mitigate the difficulties of being uprooted and nostalgia for their homeland, combined with other economic and social motivations, prompted many Italian immigrants to associate with their compatriots. By 1900, an “Italia Unita” society was already in existence. In that year the society chose a new board of directors composed of Salvador Cucurullo200 as chairman; Enrique Ferroni, deputy chairman; José Antonio Divanna, treasurer; Carlos Grisolía, auditor; and Francisco Schiffino, secretary.201 As its name may indicate (United Italy), it was principally devoted to the causes of mutual assistance and relief.202

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María Stefani Espaillat. © Edwin Espinal

Pilade Stefani. © Edwin Espinal

Outside of this nucleus of associations, the positive currents of social empathy the Italians gave and received helped them to integrate easily into Santiago society, and without having to live in a separate area in order to preserve their identity. Having common roots, such as speaking a Latin-derived language, was a catalyst for the fusion of values. Contrary to the case of the Middle Eastern immigrants, there were practically no cultural barriers or prejudices against the Italians, although, like all immigrants, they suffered through processes of adaptation.

This integration with the native Dominicans, as opposed to forced isolation, was manifested even among the elite, who opened the doors of their clubs and lodges to the Italians. Their acculturation, however, rarely translated into a need to transmit the Italian language to their children. Although Italian could be their natural mode of communication, and could be understood by their descendants, parents did not demand that their ancestral language be learned and used, which led to a generalized use of Spanish. On the other hand, their love for the homeland and its traditions, combined with a natural tendency to remember with nostalgia the towns and villages of their childhood or youth, led some to retain their nationality and baptize their children with names like Italia, Roma, Víctor Manuel, and Patria.

Worth noting as unique contributions by the Italians in the Cibao during the second half of the twentieth century are the construction, around 1958, of the Nagua-Sosúa and Guananico-La Isabela roads, in the provinces of María Trinidad Sánchez and Puerto Plata, for the Conti Alasi company; of the Puerto Plata cable car by the Ceretti e Tanfani company in 1972;203 and of the aqueduct for the city of Santiago in 1977 by a company known as Italconsult.

Many Italians participating in these works subsequently settled in the Dominican Republic, including Giuseppe Cavoli Marchetti, who was born in Vignola, Modena, in 1934, and who came to the country from Venezuela in 1955 as a heavy machinery mechanic for Conti Alasi for the construction of the Nagua-Sosúa highway. He married Rosa Delia Balbuena, a native of Río San Juan, and died in 2010. They were the parents of Jorge Hugo Cavoli Balbuena (Santo Domingo, December 11, 1969), who was elected mayor of the munic-

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Oreste Menicucci. © Edwin Espinal

Shoe shop La Marchanton, on the corner of Duarte Street and Beller Street in Santiago. © Edwin Espinal

ipality of Cabrera, in the province of María Trinidad Sánchez, for three terms: 2002 - 2006, 2006 - 2010 and 2016 – 2020.204 As can be seen, in the Cibao, Puerto Plata and Santiago there has been a general recognition of the Italian contributions, with various streets and roads bearing the name Italia. In the case of Santiago, the designation of the main street in the Kokette district as Calle Italia took effect on May 15, 1997, as part of an initiative promoted by the Centro Italiano del Norte, which was chaired by the renowned doctor Dr. Rafael Cantisano and which included many members of the Italian community residing in Santiago, as well as descendants of the first immigrants who arrived in that city.205 The Cibao continues to welcome Italian nationals to this day. Those who arrived in the 1970s, when Italy first emerged as a so-called “economic miracle,” that great phenomenon that brought it to the level of the

Interior view of the shoe shop and factory La Marchanton of the Pugliese brothers in Santiago. © Edwin Espinal

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Eden Coffee Shop, of Aquiles Campagna, on Del Sol Street in Santiago. © Edwin Espinal

world’s great industrial powers, tended to be trained in and knowledgeable about various fields, and were often associated with companies in construction (Impregilo, Coggefar, Recchi, Fiat, Italconsult) or involved in Dominican-Italian educational and cooperation activities.

The most recent arrivals have been lured by tourism, after being captivated by a particular place, thing, or person, ultimately making the decision to settle in the country for the long term. They have shown a marked interest in investing in the Dominican Republic, as evidenced in the restaurants, small hotels, travel agencies, pastry shops and cafés, clothing and footwear factories, food supply agencies, ceramic factories, and factories for machinery for industrial and artisanal production which they have established.206 Given this overall dynamic, we find marriages between Italians and Dominicans, although the opposite has also occurred, in some cases, due to travel and study among Dominicans in Italy, who subsequently decide to remain in that country.

Overall, among those immigrants of yesterday and today, there is a common thread that prevails: a fond memory for their beloved Italy, that patria lontana, but also a great satisfaction and sense of happiness for living in the Dominican Republic, which so many years ago generously opened its doors.

There is, of course, much more to relate about the influence of Italy in the Cibao; these notes highlight only some of the vast number of ties. We wish to acknowledge Italy and the Italians for their many contributions and the close bonds they have secured with the people of the Dominican Republic.

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ENDNOTES “This land from the time of its discovery by Christopher Columbus, and later, with Alessandro Geraldini, the first resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, has felt deep ties to your country.”

(Trans.)

2 Italia, Ministero Affari Esteri/Instituto Geográfico de Agostini (Novara, Italy: Officine Grafiche, 1988), 145.

3 Ibid., 146.

4 Ibid., 145.

5 Ibid., 68.

6 Ibid., 147.

7 Ibid., 69.

8 Ibid., 49.

9 Ibid., 49.

10 Ibid., 52.

11 José Del Castillo, “Las inmigraciones y su aporte a la cultura dominicana (finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX,” in Ensayos sobre cultura dominicana, rev. ed. (Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana / Museo del Hombre Dominicano, 1988), 184-85.

12 Ministero Affari Esteri / Instituto Geográfico de Agostini, op. cit. p. 49. See also, Mario C. Nascimbene, Italianos hacia América (1876-1978) (Buenos Aires: Museo Roca / Centro de Estudios sobre Inmigración, 1994).

13 Del Castillo, op. cit., 175. In general terms, the immigration to America was fundamentally southern. Nascimbene, op. cit., 14.

14 Ministero Affari Esteri / Instituto Geográfico de Agostini, op. cit. p. 55.

15 Ibid., 23, 26.

16 Nicolás Pugliese Zouain, Lecture, May 5, 1998, in conjunction with the “Italia Presente” exhibition, Casa de Arte, Santiago.

17 Nascimbene, op. cit., 27.

18 L. 1 Mat., f.28, a.562, Our Lady of the Rosary parish, Moca.

19 Juan Antonio Alix, “Décimas,” vol. 2, in “Colección Pensamiento Dominicano - Poesía y Teatro,” vol. 1 (Santo Domingo: Banco de Reservas de la República Dominicana - Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 2008), 371.

20 Carlos Dobal, “Nuestra Catedral” (Santiago: Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (UCMM), 1986), 137.

21 ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.105, August 5, 1902.

22 ANSR, PN: NR, a.n.1, October 21, 1863. Rossi was born to Magnus, son of Francisco Rossi, and Maria Antonia Basaneli. He was married in a religious ceremony on January 2, 1863 and in a civil ceremony on January 30, 1867 to Juana de Paula Silvestre, natural daughter of Emergirda Silvestre (sic) and native of San Juan de la Maguana; in 1867 he was 40 years old and his wife 31 (L.1 Mat., f.87, a.86, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

23 Pierri was the son of Pedro and Juana Pierri. He died in Santiago at the age of 39 and was buried on February 22, 1870 (L.1 Def., f.4, a.25, Cathedral).

24 Victor (Vittorio) Merlano was born in Genoa as the son of Benedetto Merlano and Anna Bregaro. He married Abelina de la O Curiel, daughter of Manuel Maria Curiel and Maria del Amparo Inoa on April 28, 1877 (L.1 Mat., f.88, a.242, Church of Our Lady of Altagracia). She died in Santiago on November 6, 1887 at the age of 47 (L.2 Def., f.101-102, a.592, Oficialía de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

25 Native of Santa Margarita Ligure. Son of Santiago Piola and Teresa Frugone. He married Cristina Valverde, daughter of José María Valverde and María del Carmen Morel, in Santiago on November 1, 1878 (L.2 Mat., f. 247, a.621, Catedral de Santiago).

1

Between 1877 and 1879 Esteban Piola, his brother Manuel, and Víctor Merlano promoted the “V. Merlano y Cía.,” a merchandise and supplies store established to expand the operations of the “Piola Hermanos” firm in Puerto Plata (ANSR, PN: SP/JD, a.n. 22, May 14, 1877. Constitution of the company “V. Merlano y Cía.” between Esteban and Manuel Piola and Víctor Merlano.

See also, ANSR, PN: SP, a.n.25, July 12, 1879. Act of Dissolution of said company).

26 ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.62, July 15, 1878.

27 ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.62, July 15, 1878. Vittorio and Pilade were born in Barga, Lucca and were the sons of Juan Bautista Stefani and Filomena Virgani. An agricultural engineer, Pilade lived at 32 Del Sol Street in 1883. He opened on March 1, 1883 (AL, ECP, March 4, 1883) courses in geometry and algebra; reasoned, flat and solid arithmetic; linear geometric, architectural and industrial drawing; trigonometry, topography and lessons in surveying and agronomy (AL, ECP, February 25, 1883). He also directed a mathematics course at the El Salvador School (AL, ECP, March 4, 1883). In 1892 he was qualified as a public surveyor (AL, EDi, August 26, 1892), being designated as the person in charge of indicating the line to which the new constructions in the city should be submitted (AHS, BM 140, August 30, 1892, a.s. July 12, 1892) and Director of Public Works of the city council (AL, EDi, October 1, 1892 and AHS, BM 144, December 8, 1892, a.s. September 10, 1892 and BM 146, December 22, 1892, a.s. October 27, 1892).

He still held this position in 1893 (AL, LP, November 21, 1893).

He was the Italian Consular Agent in Santiago in 1904 (Enrique Deschamps, La República Dominicana - Directorio y Guía General [Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 1974], 187). He married Sofia Espaillat, 28, daughter of Ulysses Francisco Espaillat and Eloísa Espaillat Rodríguez on September 4, 1880 at the age of 26 (L.6 Mat., f.34, a.103, Civil Status Office of the Third District of the Municipality of Santiago). Their children were María Octavia, María Electa, María Adela and Juan Bautista.

He died on December 23, 1928 at the age of 74 (L.1 Def., f.65, a.128, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Segunda Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

28 Cestaro was born in San Lorenzo Minore, Benevento, region of Campania. Musician. He died in this city on December 28, 1881 at 28 years of age, being married to Carmela Ferreri (L.1 Def., f.39, a.592, Cathedral).

29 Buzzoni was born in Milan, in the Lombardy region. He died in Santiago on November 8, 1883 (L.3 Def., f.169-170, a.7-139, Oficialía de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). Because Buzzoni died without any known relatives, the Constitutional Mayor’s Office put his personal effects up for sale in a public auction (ANSR, PN: SP, a.n.70, November 13, 1883 and AL, ECP, March 30, 1884).

30 Cardona, a peddler, was born in Naples, in the Campania region (L.3 Def., f.169-170, a.7-139, Oficialía de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

31 Farine, peddler, was born in Benevento, Campania (L.3 Def., f.169-170, a.7-139, Oficialía de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

32 L.3 Def., f.169-170, a.7-139, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago. Melfi lived in Altamira before residing in Santiago in 1883. There he was a donor for the construction of the Catholic temple in that town (AL, ECP, June 17, 1883). He was commercially associated with Manuel Figari, a relationship that was dissolved in 1882 (ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.41, 1882).

94

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

33 Pellerano lived in Altamira before settling in Santiago in 1883.

There he was a donor, together with Leonardo Melfi, for the construction of the Catholic temple in that town (AL, ECP, June 17, 1883). He was patented as a merchant in Santiago in 1889 (AL, ES, March 7, 1889).

34 AL, ECP, May 10, 1885. Mateo Senise, born in Santa Domenica Talao, was the son of Etanislao Senise and Maria Josefa Schiffino. Married to Angela Durán. He died at the age of 35 on December 18, 1891 (L.6 Def., f.118, a. 4, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

35 AL, ECP, August 23, 1885.

36 AL, LVS, October 23, 1881.

37 AL, ECP, June 17, 1883.

38 Bloise was patented as a mixed store owner in fifth scale in 1885 (AL, ECP, August 23, 1885). In 1889 he was patented as a merchant (AL, ES, March 7, 1889).

He lived in Salcedo in 1897, where he was a member of the cemetery’s factory board in 1898 and president of the city council in 1906 (Polanco Brito and Hugo Eduardo, Salcedo y su historia, rev. ed. [Santiago: UCMM, 1980], 127, 152, 156, 229). He was born on July 8, 1851. He married Edelmira Disla. Descendants.

39 Nicolás Leone died at home in 1897 (AL, LP, 11 September 1897).

40 In 1893, Luis Trifilio, who sold gold and silver clothing, watches, bracelets, earrings and superior garments, was at the service of his clients in Bloise’s house while he was in Santiago. After a few days, he would travel to Moca, Salcedo and San Francisco de Macorís (AL, LP, October 18, 1893). Nicolas Leone, a seller of gold and silver clothing, watches, bracelets, earrings and superior garments, was also temporarily in Bloise’s house in 1893; then he would go to other cities (AL, LP, December 9, 1893). In 1895, Luis Trifilio, seller of gold garments, watches, chronometers, diamonds, silver bracelets, head ornaments and chains also settled in Bloise’s house (AL, LP, January 2, 1895).

41 Filippo Hectori Biondi, a physician who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Naples in 1876 (Reynolds Jossef Pérez Stefan, Historia de los servicios de salud en La Concepción de La Vega [Santo Domingo: Susaeta, 1993], 54), offered his services in Santiago in 1889 and received “orders” at the establishment of Francisco Bloise, next to the apothecary of Dr. Pedro Pablo Dobal (AL, ECP, March 22, 1889).

42 Monseñor Antonio Camilo González, “Presentación del libro del padre José Luis Sáez titulado: el padre Fantino,” Camino, March 2, 1997.

43 Niza Campos, “El apostolado a la iglesia dominicana del sacerdote Fantino Falco, visto desde la óptica del padre Chelo,” Diario Libre, June 5, 2014.

44 Jovino A. Espínola Reyes, La Vega Histórica, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Ediciones Ferilibro, 2009), 169.

45 “Arzobispo dice padre Fantino fue consciente de su misión,” Listín Diario, July 11, 1989, 859.

46 La Casa de Italia y las familias italianas en la República Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Casa de Italia, June 1996).

47 Milcíades Núñez, “Presencia italiana en La Vega,” Hoy, Areíto, July 29, 2017 and August 5, 2017.

48 Jovino A. Espínola Reyes, La Vega histórica, vol. 1 (Santo Domingo: Dirección General de la Feria del Libro, 2005), 39-40.

49 Jovino A. Espínola Reyes, La Vega histórica, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Dirección General de la Feria del Libro, 2009), 34.

50 Reynolds Jossef Pérez Stefan, “Historia,” 54.

51 Pérez Stefan, op. cit., 132-133.

52 Reynolds Jossef Pérez Stefan, Guía romántica de La Vega y su pasado (Santo Domingo: Susaeta Ediciones Dominicanas, 1994), 98.

Espínola Reyes, op. cit., 179-182, and Pérez Stefan, op. cit., 94.

Danilo De los Santos, Memoria de la pintura dominicana – Impulso y desarrollo moderno, 1920-1950, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Grupo León Jimenes, 2003), 51-57.

55 “Fallece el padre Rosario Pilonero Milazzo en La Vega,” Diario Libre, November 9, 2017. See also “Sepultan al maestro salesiano Rosario Pilonero en Jarabacoa,” El Nacional, November 11, 2017.

56 Casa de Italia, op. cit.

57 Graciela Azcárate, “De Calabria a Santo Domingo. La familia Russo Cino,” http://sites.rootsweb.com/~domwgw/Flia-Russo-Cino.htm.

58 Ángel Russo Gómez, Club Montañés, sus proyecciones sobre La Vega de ayer y de hoy. Datos autobiográficos sobre aspectos y vida nacional. Familiares sobresalientes y personalidades.

59 Ruggero Tomaselli, “Raffaele Ciferri” (Pavía: Universitá degli studi di Pavia, Industrie lito-tipografiche Mario Ponzio, s.p.a.).

60 José de Jesús Jiménez Olavarrieta, Dr. Erik Leonard Ekman. Memorias botánicas (Santiago: Editora Central, 1996), 75-76, 79, 82, 91 and Jurgen Hoppe, Grandes exploradores en tierras de La Espyearla (Santo Domingo: Grupo León Jimenes, 2001), 72, 75, 81.

61 Elpidio José Ortega Álvarez, Ensayo histórico y arquitectónico de la ciudad de Monte Cristi (Santo Domingo: Museo del Hombre Dominicano – Fundación Ortega Álvarez, Inc., 1987), 134-135.

62 José Chez Checo, El Palacio Nacional 50 annos de historia y arquitectura, rev. ed. (Santo Domingo: Secretariado Administrativo de la Presidencia, 2008), 53-61. See also, Casa de Italia, op. cit.

63 Msgr. Dr. Rafael Bello Peguero, Necrologías 1884-1979 Boletín Eclesiástico de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2009), 48.

64 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 152.

65 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 152.

66 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 199.

67 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 199-200.

68 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 156, 159-161.

69 Casa de Italia, op. cit.

70 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 127, 152, 156, 229.

71 Polanco Brito, op. cit., 172.

72 Ramón Alberto Ferreras, Jayael - El hijo del Jaya, vol. 1, rev. ed.

(San Francisco de Macorís: Editorial del Nordeste, 1901), 167.

73 Ferreras, op. cit., 171.

74 Ramón Alberto Ferreras, Jayael - El hijo del Jaya, vol. 2, rev. ed. (San Francisco de Macorís: Editorial del Nordeste, 1991), 322.

Ferreras quotes in this group Amadeo Sturla, but he was Dominican, son of Antonio Sturla, founder of the surname.

75 Ferreras, op. cit., tomo I, 195.

76 Information provided by architect Virgilio Hoepelman.

77 Manuel Mora Serrano, “Un número de la revista L. durante la ocupación yankee,” Acento, August 15, 2018, https://acento.com. do/opinion/numero-la-revista-l-la-ocupacion-yankee-8596705. html.

78 Casa de Italia, op. cit.

79 Casa de Italia, op. cit.

80 José Luis Sáez, “Papeles de comunicación - Cien years del cine dominicano,” El Siglo, May 21, 2000 and José Luis Sáez, “Historia de un sueño importado - Ensayos sobre el cine en Santo Domingo,” in Ediciones Siboney (1982), 25. See also, Tomás Casals Pastoriza, “Fragmentos de vida,” La Información, October 9, 1989; Filiberto Cruz López, Historia de los medios de comunicación en República Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Editora El Nuevo Diario, 1998), 180-181; Jovino A. Espínola Reyes, La Vega histórica, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Ediciones Ferilibro, 2009), 31; and Constancio Cassá, Escritos de Luis E. Alemar, 1918-1945 (Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 2009), 130.

53 54

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

81 Arthur Sosa, Luis and Arthur Nouel, and Víctor José, “La familia Arzeno,” Hoy, Areíto, Cápsulas genealógicas (July 2, 2005).

82 González Hernández, July Amable “Unique surnames (5 of 8),” Hoy, Areíto, Cápsulas genealógicas, July 7, 2012. See also, González Hernández, July Amable “Inmigrantes italianos a Quisqueya (5 of 9),” Hoy, Areíto, Cápsulas genealógicas, April 28, 2019.

83 Federico Carlos Álvarez, “Inquietudes of a Genealogy Aficionado,” Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía, Boletín Raíces, no. 6 (July-December, 1994): 8.

84 González Hernández, Ibid.

85 Héctor Moya Cordero, Apuntes para la historia de Sánchez (Santo Domingo: Editora Alfa y Omega, 1986), 34 and Mercedes Mata Olivo, et al., Sánchez (cien years de vida municipal) (Santo Domingo: Editorial del Nordeste, 1986), 35.

86 Graciela Thomén Ginebra, “Rainieri, divino tesoro,” Hoy, Areíto, Cápsulas genealógicas, February 8, 2020; February 15, 2020; February 22, 2020; February, 29, 2020; March 7, 2020; March 14, 2020; March 21, 2020; March 28, 2020; April 4, 2020; and April 18, 2020.

87 José Augusto Puig Ortiz and Robert S. Gamble, Puerto Plata: la conservación de una ciudad. Inventario. Ensayo histórico-arquitectónico (Santo Domingo: Editora Alfa y Omega, 1978), 213-214.

88 Puig Ortiz and Gamble, op. cit., 188.

89 Casa de Italia, op. cit.

90 Autobiographical notes of Blas Di Franco Russo, 1998. Archives of the author. See also, Juan Ventura, “Don Blas Di Franco,” Acento, March 31, 2019, https://acento.com.do/opinion/ don-blas-di-franco-8665423.html.

91 Information provided by Mateo Perrone Polanco.

92 Félix Spignolio, son of Luis Spignolio and Arcangela Fasana, married Salomé Garrido, then 33 years old, in Santo Domingo on November 13, 1886 at the age of 42. She was the daughter of Juan Garrido and Trinidad Aristi, born in Baní (L.13 Mat., f.104, a.98, Santo Domingo Cathedral).

93 The Spignolio Mena brothers were children of Pedro Spignolio Garrido and Cornelia Mena, daughter of Miguel Antonio Mena and Adelaida Steinkopf, married in Santo Domingo on June 24, 1905 (L.16 Mat., f.56, a.2, Santo Domingo Cathedral).

94 Juan Ventura, “Historians from Puerto Plata, members of the Dominican Academy of History,” Dominican Academy of History, Clio, no. 173 (January-June, 2007): 226.

95 Marianne De Tolentino, “Impulsos creativos y energía,” Colson errante exhibition catalog, Bellapart Museum (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2008), 125.

96 José Chez Checo, Ideario de Luperón: 1839-1897, rev. ed.

Comisión Permanente de Efemérides Patrias (Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1997), 24, 286.

97 Juan Ventura, “Carlos Grisolía: first senator of Puerto Plata, after the execution of Trujillo,” Acento, April 7, 2019, https:// acento.com.do/opinion/carlos-grisolia-primer-senador-puerto-plata-despues-del-ajusticiamiento-trujillo-8668174.html.

98 Gregorio Elías Penzo, Men and women of note and benefactors of Samaná (1493-1910) (Santo Domingo: Editora Búho, 2003); and Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Samaná, pasado y porvenir (Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Geografía, 1973).

99 Miguel José Vásquez and Gladys Jacobo, La Altagracia en sus 140 años. Apuntes para su historia (Santo Domingo, 2014), 32.

100 LP (October 7, 1892), quoted by Antonio Camilo, “Programa de la celebración del Cuarto Centenario en Santiago,” Listín Diario, October 14, 1992.

101 AL, EDi, August 29, 1892.

102 “The first Cadillac that came to the country was brought in

95

1924 by Anselmo Copello,” Hoy, October 23, 1999.

Tomás Hernández Franco, “Aquiles Zorda,” in Obras completas, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 2019), 529-34.

104 Casa de Italia, op. cit.

105 Joaquín Balaguer, “Speech when receiving the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic,” January 9, 1995, Listín Diario, January 10, 1995, 8. This opinion is expressed by Félix Evaristo Mejía.

106 Danilo de los Santos, Cámara de Comercio y Producción de Santiago historia centenaria 1914-2014 (Santo Domingo: Cámara de Comercio y Producción de Santiago, 2016), p.38.

107 Information provided by his daughter Australia Sassone and his great-grandson Joel Carlo Román.

108 Edwin Espinal Hernández, “Inmigración,” 91.

109 “Institutional Philosophy. History of IPISA,” file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Filosofia%20Institucional.pdf.

110 De los Santos, op. cit., 762, 770.

111 Severo Rivera, “Orlando Menicucci: The National Biennial of Plastic Artists is our heritage,” Diario Libre, November 2, 2017, https://www.diariolibre.com/revista/cultura/orlando-menicucci-la-bienal-nacional-de-artistas-plasticos-es-nuestro-patrimonio-BI8497740.

112 César A Franco, «Beginnings of Cycling in the City of Santiago de los Caballeros,” El Siglo, Ciudad Corazón, June 25, 1997.

113 Edwin Espinal Hernández, “Doctor Rafael Cantisano Arias: in memoriam,” Hoy, Areíto, Cápsulas genealógicas, November 11, 2017.

114 “Juan Héctor José - Bullo - Stefani,” https://www.pabellondelafama.do/exaltados/juan-hector-jose-bullo-steffani.

115 Edwin Espinal Hernández, “María Electa Stefani Espaillat, first woman filmmaker of the Dominican Republic,” Third National Film Congress, Directorate General of Film (DGCINE), February 6, 2020.

116 Modesto Rodríguez, “Guerra del 24 de abril - Campagna niega versión de Jottin Cury y le advierte que se retracte,” Listín Diario, May 4, 2007.

117 Miguel Ponce, “Locutora Minucha Pezzotti de Luna Dies,” El Caribe, May 29, 2019, https://www.elcaribe.com. do/2019/05/29/fallece-locutora-minucha-pezzotti-de-luna.

118 Information provided by his daughter María Raquel Pugliese Martínez.

119 Edwin Espinal Hernández, “Aspecto genealógico de la inmigración italiana en Santiago,” Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía, Raíces, no. 6, July-December, 1994.

120 AHS, BM 162, August 22, 1893.

121 Deschamps, op cit., 271. Some Italians were nomads: Antonio Palomo was in the city for fifteen days in the tobacco shop El Fénix, in Bonilla and Ca., offering his services as gilder, silversmith and nickelsmith, and his specialty in revolvers, cutlery, bells and bicycles (AHS, LE, 8 and 10 October 1901), while Antonio Cernicchiaro, gilder and silversmith, specialist in lamps, candlesticks, lanterns, ecclesiastical ornaments and musical instruments, stayed in front of the railroad station, on the premises of the former hotel Tres Antillas (AHS, LE, 9 November 1901).

122 “Censo,” 42.

123 Ministero, op. cit., 50. The departure of the man caused a void in the family and affected the demographic structure of Italy: in 186l 50.9% of the population of Italy was made up of men, while by 1911 this sector represented 50.4%.

124 Angelo Bloise was already living in Santiago in 1892 (ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.37, February 17, 1914. Ratification of the sale of two ropes and 16 sticks of land in San Francisco de Quinigua in fa103

96

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

vor of Marcelino Colón, Marcos Ventura and Andrés Ventura by María Angela Dipuglia Vda. Bloise and Francisco Bloise, by themselves and on behalf of Fortunato Pappaterra, married to María Anunciata [sic] Bloise. Angelo Bloise had bought the land from Juan Inocencio Domígnez on April 23, 1892, according to an act executed by the notary Joaquín Dalmau).

125 L.13 M., f.332, a.76, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago.

126 AL, LP, October 17, 1893. Biaggiotti, a native of Barga, died on October 14, 1893 (L.4 Def., f.146, a.173, Oficialía de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). His son Antonio (AL, LP, October 31, 1893) died on the 30th of the same month.

He had married at the age of 35 on January 13, 1892 with Rita Adelaida Andreu, 31 years old, daughter of Bruno Andreu and Rita de Castro (L.2 Mat., f.274, a.393, Iglesia de La Altagracia).

Rita Andreu, widow, married Etanislao Díaz, 53 years old, on February 2, 1895. He was the widower of Celia Andreu and the son of Santiago Díaz and Isabel Siant, from Gurabo (L.9 Mat., f.102, a.11, Oficialía de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). Two daughters were born to the Biaggiotti-Andreu couple: María Altagracia, married to Francisco Toimil, and Ana Celia, wife of Ramón Donhert (ANFR, PN: IPR, a.n.77, f.475-484, 14 May 1929).

127 L.1 Def., f.39, a.592, Cathedral.

128 AHS, ED, June 20, 1910. Pilade Stefani offered his professional services at 30 Del Sol Street.

He was the director of Public Works of the city council in 1898 (AHS, BM 289, September 30, 1898, a.s.August 9, 1898. See also, AHS, BM 289, September 30, 1898, a.s. August 20, 1898). In 1901, Councilman Agustín Acevedo denounced that he was illegally practicing as a surveyor because he was not a Dominican, but Stefani argued that his title had been correctly issued by the President of the Republic (AHS, BM 364, 21 August 1901, a.s.4 May 1901). In 1902 he was awarded the “proventos” on urban and rural leases of the common (AHS, BM 385, 15 May 1902, a.s. March 18, 1902. An excerpt of the contract appears in AHS, BM 386, 31 May 1902. See also, AHS, BM 400, February 25, 1903, a.s. November 2, 1902). In 1903 he was re-elected as a “rentier” of said provinces (AHS, BM 401, 30 March 1903, a.s. January 6, 1903 and AHS, ED, 19 February 1903). He also performed that function in 1906 (AHS, BM 530, February 7, 1907, a.s. January 7, 1907). In 1907 Francisco Villanueva replaced him (AHS, BM 529, January 30, 1907, a.s. January 4, 1907). In 1908 he was appointed municipal surveyor (AHS, ED, May 22, 1908).

129 Godeluppi died on April 17, 1898 at the age of 48. He was a member of the Military Band (L.8 Def., f.168, a.66, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). He arrived in the city in 1896. He announced himself as a professor of vocal and instrumental music, violin, viola, double bass and wind instruments; orchestra teacher, violinist and instrumentalist (AL, LP, September 30 and January 15, 1897).

130 In 1908 he was the administrator of the magazine of the society Amantes de la Luz (AHS, ED, January 9, 1908), which he had joined in 1907 (AHS, ED, November 28, 1907); and in 1910 he was one of the directors and editors of the newspaper Ego sun (AHS, ED, November 22, 1910. See also, AHS, ED, November 21 and 23 and December 5, 1910), and in 1913 he edited the political newspaper El Demócrata (AHS, ED, July 26, 1913). A follower of Juan Isidro Jimenes (AHS, ED, March 17, 1913), on the provincial board of the Jimenist Party he was vice president (1914) (AHS, ED, November 18, 1914) and general secretary (1916) (AHS, ED, October, 17 and 30, 1916). He had literary inclinations, as revealed by some of his poems published in 1908 (AHS, ED, Jan-

uary 15, 1908; February 22, 1908; March 3, 1908; and October 5, 1908), but his livelihood was based on trade: he was patented as a merchant in 1903 (AHS, BM 402, April 23, 1903) and a jeweler in 1906 (AHS, BM 509, September 12, 1906). Between 1908 and 1909, he joined José Francisco Taveras in the Taveras y Schiffino commercial company, which operated between 1908 and 1909 (AHS, EN and ED, December 28, 1908, and ED, April 12, 1909).

He became engaged in 1907 to Virginia Castro (AHS, ED, April 15, 1907), who he married in 1912 (AHS, ED, September 16, 1912 and L. 5 Mat., f. 127, a.195, Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia Church). In December 1914 he was appointed Municipal Inspector of Alcohol (AHS, BM 816, February 6, 1915, a.s.December 30, 1914), but he resigned that position in February 1915 when he accepted a post in Puerto Plata (AHS, BM 831, April 22, 1915, a.s.February 19, 1915). He died on May 26, 1932 in San José de Las Matas, where he had gone in search of health (L. 18 Def., f.

13, a.73, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago and AGN, LI, May 27, 1932).

131 AHS, ED, September 27, 1905.

132 AHS, ED, September 30, 1905.

133 CL, t.18, p.623. Cozza agreed to return to his country in 1917 together with Dr. Manuel Senise and the young Blas Di Franco Russo, to be part of the troops that would serve in the European war (AGN, LD, May 26, 1917). However, the news of the sinking of the Italian steamer Giuseppe Verdi in the outskirts of New York made them desist (Blas Di Franco Russo’s autobiographical notes, 1998. Author’s archive).

134 Grisolía revalidated his degree from the University of Naples Medical School at the Professional Institute (AHS, ED, October 27, 1911). The Executive granted him an exequatur for the exercise of his profession the same year of his arrival (CL, t.21, p.333).

He was a general surgeon, specializing in urinary tract and female diseases (AHS, ED, December 12. 1911). He was an officer in the Italian army and practiced his profession in Puerto Plata until 1919. He died in his native Santa Domenica Talao in 1941, the year in which he served as honorary consul of the Dominican Republic in Naples (AGN, LD, February 19, 1941).

135 AHS, ED, June 6, 1911. Senise was authorized to practice as a doctor by an exequatur granted the same year of his arrival (CL, t.20, p.344).

136 AHS, ED, January 26, 1912.

137 His marriage certificate allows us to establish that Pardi was his real surname (L.6 Mat., f.46, a.136, Santiago Cathedral).

138 Nardi married Aurora Valdez Ramírez of San Juan de la Maguana on November 3, 1907 (AHS, ED, November 4, 1907 and L.6 Mat.) He lived in concubinage with Angelica Pichardo, wife of Jose Oguis Estrella, who divorced her for adultery in 1910 (AHS, ED, May 17, 1910). Nardi died in Santiago on August 17, 1919 (L. 4 Def., f.119, a.612, Santiago Cathedral). Aurora Valdez Ramírez died in Santiago on October 1, 1942. They had only one daughter, Roma Selene del Carmen (Carmela) Pardi Valdez (Santiago, 1908 - Santiago, 1979), who married Cándido Angel González Díaz (Santiago, 1900- Santiago, 1986), who in turn had three children: Rhina Mercedes Aurora (n.1932), Hugo Francisco (f.1962) and Víctor Ramón González Pardi. (f.1960).

139 In his establishment, located at 52 Del Sol Street, Francisco Bloise sold Italian wine, Bologna sausage, vermouth, brandy, sardines, anchovies, apricots, pears, peaches, cherries, and olives (AL, EDi, July 29, 1891). In 1893 his haberdashery and grocery store were located at 69 Del Sol Street (AL, LP, October 18, 1893). Lorenzo Pellerano in Comercio Street No.17 (AL, EDi, July 29, 1891) sold Monferrato table wine, imported from Genoa (AL, EDi, August 12, 1891), while Francisco Pellerano, located in

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

front of the Market, sold figs and raisins and had a cloth store (AL, EDi, January 11, 1892), such as linen, cheesecloth, percale and muslin, as well as trimmings, parasols, black and colored coats, colored and white laces, woolen slippers and embroidered strips (AL, EDi, April 20, 1892). In 1893, José Divanna opened a store at 54 Exconvento Street, in front of the Market (AL, LP, November 21, 1893), in part of the house that was occupied by Palmer Hermanos, to sell American, French (AL, LP, November 7, 1893) and German (AL, LP, November 21, 1893) merchandise. Joseph Divanna was born in Santa Domenica Talao, province of Cosenza, region of Calabria. Son of Silverio Divanna and Maria Giuseppa Majolino [sic]. He married on June 9, 1894 at the age of 25 with Maria Sanchez, 15, daughter of Francisco Sanchez and Fredesvinda Rodriguez (L.9 Mat., f.37, a.36, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). Residing in Dajabón, his son Jesús Silverio was born on July 27, 1896 (L.3 de Nacimientos, f.30-31, a.32, Oficialía del Estado Civil de Dajabón).

“Grisolía y Cino”, an establishment dedicated to imports on Del Sol Street, was already announced in 1897 (AL, LP, January 7, 1897). It still existed in 1906, as shown in Deschamps, op. cit. Its co-owner was Mario Cino.

140 In his workshop, Pedro Stefani produced plaster images (AL, LP, November 15, 1895), plaster and cement ornaments, candy molds, silverware, and tinned metal pans and repaired machines of any kind (AL, LP, February 17, 1897). Another reference of Stefani as a manufacturer of molds for candies is found in AL, LP, April 27, 1895.

Pedro Stefani was the son of Juan Bautista Stefani and Maria Elena Morcini and half-brother of Vittorio and Pilade Stefani. He was popularly known as “Pedro el Santero.” He left descendants procreated with Ana Dilia Pérez and Altagracia Santos. He died in Santiago on December 6, 1944 at the age of 95 (L.5 Def., f.481, a.467, Cathedral).

141 Vicente Perazzo, Félix Forestieri (AL, ES, March 7, 1889), Schiffino Dipulia, Forestieri Hermanos and José Sabatino (AHS, BM 150, February 20, 1893) were patented as weavers.

142 Francisco Pezzoty (sic), José Russo, Luis Cino and Vicente Anzelotti (AHS, BM 150, February 20, 1893) were patented as fruit brokers.

Luis Cino was 20 years old in 1894 and Francisco Pezzotti, a native of Santa Domenica Talao, 30 (L.9 Mat., f.37, a.36, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago. Marriage certificate of José Divanna Majolino and María Sánchez Rodríguez).

Vicente Anzelotti was born in Santa Domenica Talao, province of Cosenza, region of Calabria. Son of Vito Anzelotti and Maria Angela Cosentino. He arrived in the company of his son Pascual, dedicating himself to commerce, being the owner of the fabric store “La Italiana,” on the Calle del Comercio corner of Ex Convento street. He married on October 2, 1909 with Candelaria (Cayaya) Contín (L.6 Mat., f.103, a.307, Santiago Cathedral); their children were Patria, María Ana Italia, Roma Altagracia, América, José Reinaldo, and Víctor Vicente. He died in Santiago on October 21, 1956 at the age of 86.

143 Italians are classified in different categories as peddlers: Archimedes Senise (AL, ES, March 7, 1889) Constantino Conte (AL, ES, March 7, 1889), C. Grisolía (AL, ES, May 17, 1889) and Mateo Senise (AL, ECP, May 10, 1885), are patented as peddlers of trinkets by the Constitutional City Hall, while Francisco Bacchiani, as a traveling peddler (AL, ECP, August 23, 1885) and Nicolás Pollesa, third class peddler (AL, ES, March 7, 1889). In 1888, however, Archimedes Senise and Nicolas Pollesa appear patented simply as peddlers of trinkets (AHS, BM 57, April 30, 1888).

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Mateo Senice died on December 18, 1891 (AL, EDi, December 19, 1891).

Constantino Conte was the adopted son of Luigi Conte and Teresa Armintano and was born in Papasidero, Cosenza. In 1894 he sold in Santiago to Annibale Campaña [sic], from Santa Domenica Talao, “a rural land fund with a house attached to the farm” in Foroaldo, Orsomarso, inherited from his father (ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.206, f.291-220, a. October 19, 1894).

144 José Senise appears patented as a mobile jeweler in 1887 (AHS, BM 38, June 30, 1887). He had two brothers, one living in Santo Domingo and the other in Puerto Plata (ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.19, February 28, 1888).

In 1893, Nicolás Leone, advertised himself as a seller of gold and silver garments, watches, bracelets, earrings and superior garments (AL, LP, December 9, 1893).

He was born in Santa Domenica Talao, province of Cosenza, region of Calabria. Son of Vicente Leone and Maria Rosa Lagreca.

He died on September 11, 1897, at the age of 35 (L.8 Def., f.103, a.167, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción).

He was a Mason of the New World Lodge No.5 (AL, LP, September 11, 1897).

145 Pascual Petito was a shoemaker. He was born in Naples, Campania. He married on March 17, 1889 at the age of 25 with Felicia Castellanos, widow of the Puerto Rican Ignacio Rosó, daughter of Juan Castellanos and María de Peña (Libro de Matrimonios de 1899, f.468-469, a.20, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

The Pugliese were shoemakers and tinsmiths. Nicolás Pugliese, a native of Vibonati, province of Salerno, and husband of Francesca Giffone, established in 1899 the famous shoe store “La Marchantón,” on the street of Cuesta Blanca No. 30, in the stretch between Libertad and Traslamar streets. At the beginning, he was accompanied by his cousin Arcangelo Tedesco, who manufactured the shoes he sold.

Before settling in the Dominican Republic, Nicolás Pugliese was in Rio de Janeiro. A temporary migrant, he made trips to the country until 1919. He died in Italy in 1920. On one trip he brought his cousin José Pugliese, who came with his son Vicente; they dedicated themselves to tin-smithing. On a later trip he came with his brother-in-law Vito Giffone. Nicolás’ sons, José and Vicente Pugliese Giffone, inherited the trade from their father.

146 Benito Octaviani and Cimmi Farina appear as masons in 1897.

Farina was born in San Eustaquio and lived in Palmarejo. He was the son of Antonio Farina and Maria Figlisolia. He married in Santiago on January 12, 1897 at the age of 26 years with Ercilia Engracia Hernández, 18, daughter of Felipe Hernández and María Engracia Reyes (L.11 Mat., f.223-224, a.3, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). She worked in the construction of the civil works of the Dominican Central Railroad.

In 1909 he was a foreman of the Ferrocarril Central Dominicano; he was nicknamed Llimi (AHS, ED, April 26, 1909). He died on March 9, 1916 in El Túnel, Las Lagunas (AHS, ED, March 10, 1916), victim of 11 stab wounds that Genaro Toribio, a laborer under him, was supposed to have inflicted before running away (AHS, LI, March 10, 1916).

147 Blas Russo was a gilder, silversmith, and varnisher of all kinds of metals (AL, LP, August 8, 1895).

148 José Frisiani is registered as a photographer in a state of the patents issued by the Alcadía Constitucional de Santiago in July 1889 (AL, ES, September 4, 1889).

149 Inoa, Orlando, op. cit., 60.

150 AHS, BM 83, 20 march 1890, a.s. November 29, 1889.

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151 AHS, BM 121, October 16, 1891, a.s. September 5, 1891. The city council allowed them to practice with the patents issued by the La Vega town council - for which they paid a minor fee - until they provided for those issued in Santiago. From this group, Paonesa returned to La Vega in 1892, leaving Prospero Amado Maiolino as her representative in Santiago (AL, EDi, September 17, 1892).

152 Angel Logardo [sic] was a janitor at Club Santiago (AHS, ED, December 11, 1909); Enrique Ferroni was the manager of the sawmill La Fe, owned by Augusto Espaillat Sucesores, in 1907 (ANSR: PN: JD, a.n.44, May 31, 1907, annex) and partner and traveler of the cigar factory La Matilde in 1909 (AHS, ED, April 6, 1909) and Blas Logaldo corriere of the Hotel Garibaldi (AHS, ED, May 8, 1911).

Blas (Biagio) Logaldo de Antonio was born in Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Italy, in 1892. He married America Mercedes Minervino, daughter of Francisco Minervino. He was the brother of Angel Logaldo (Information provided by grandson Biagio Logaldo Forestieri Minervino, June 24, 2019).

153 Among these were Francisco Schiffino, awarded in the Industrial Competition of the Liceo del Yaque in 1903 (AHS, ED, June 6, 1903), undoubtedly the same F. Schiffino patented as the owner of a tailor’s shop in 1899 (AHS, BM 328, April 10, 1900, a.s.

December 30, 1899), and Vittorio Zaltron, owner of the Tailoring shop Italo Dominicana, located in Ex Convento Street, next to Campagna Brothers (AHS, ED, June 12 and July 9, 1907. See also, AHS, ED, August 24, 1907).

154 Italian shoemakers were Pascual Petito (AHS, EC, December 18, 1900, LE, January 11, 1902, and ED, January 3,1907), Domenico Villari (AHS, ED, October 19, 1911) and N. Farsola (AHS, ED, March 30, 1912).

155 Among these are Perrone Hermanos, established at 36 Cuesta Blanca Street, and those who fixed umbrellas, beds, sewing machines and fine furniture (AHS, ED, August 1 and 12, 1905) and Luigi Perroni, who lost his mind in 1907; by then he had been residing “for several years” in the city (AHS, ED, October 21, 1907).

The umbrella maker Luis Perrone moved from Comercio Street to Beller Street, in front of the Alianza Cibaeña, in 1907 (AHS, ED, December 9, 1907).

156 José Leonetti installed his watch shop El Vesuvio in 1906, on the corner of Comercio and Santa Ana streets. He fixed all kinds of watches of all brands: living room, pocket and men’s and women’s (AHS, ED, August 9, 1906. See also, AHS, ED, January 3, 1907).

157 Pedro Stefani, in his workshop on La Amargura Street, made artificial stone vases for flowers and candy molds (AHS, EC, February 5, 1901); he repaired sewing machines, chain stitchers, double stitchers, hand and foot sewing machines (AHS, ED, June 24, 1907); he silvered objects, tinned pots, and made molds for candy, plaster and Roman foundation work, and factory moldings (AHS, ED, July 3, 1905. See also, AHS, ED, July 6, 1905).

158 Fernando Viggiani is cited as a pledge. He died on September 10, 1910. He was staying at the Hotel Garibaldi (AHS, ED, September 12, 1910).

159 Among the Italians patented as handworkers are Eugenio Leonetti and Luis Ciliberti (AHS, BM 402, April 23, 1903). Ciliberti also appears in AHS, BM 386, May 31, 1902.

160 Italo de Angelis is designated as such (AHS, ED, April 17, 1914). In 1915 he decorated El Colmado (AHS, ED, December 10, 1915). He died in Santiago on November 3, 1931 at the age of 55. He was the husband of Sofía Sánchez and son of Galletano de Angelis and Luisa de Senada (L.1 Def., f.95, a.238, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Segunda Circunscripción del municipio de

Santiago). Under the patent of grocery store appear Francisco Pezzotti (AHS, BM 333, May 31, 1900 and BM 389, July 12, 1902), J. Garibaldi Caputo (AHS, BM 365, August 28, 1901) and Angel Oliva (AHS, BM 387, June 10, 1902).

Lorenzo Pellerano, owner of the Central Bakery for 1899, in front of the Central Park and the Consistorial Palace (Vetilio Alfau Durán, “Contribution to the bibliography of the great Dominican popular poet Juan Antonio Alix,” in Incháustegui, ed. Arístides and Delgado Malagón Blanca; “Vetilio Alfau Durán en Anales ”, 158), appears patented as a grocer and baker in 1900 (AHS, BM 322, January 31, 1900). J.G. Caputo, who we assume is the same J. Garibaldi Caputo, was already listed as a merchant in 1902 (AHS, BM 389, July 12, 1902). In 1907 José Caputo, perhaps the same J. Garibaldi Caputo, appears with a patent of grocery store (AHS, BM 534, February 28, 1907).

Son of Gerolamo Pellerano and Colombina Amco (sic). He married Julia Perelló in Santiago and died in this city on April 26, 1903 at the age of 33 (L.12 Def., f.16, a.82, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Tercera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago).

161 Barrella and Fersola, shoemakers, are cited as partners in 1908 (AHS, ED, July 16, 1908), but by the end of that same year the shoe store was spinning under the name Barrella Hermanos (AHS, ED, 2 December 1908). Miguel Barrella took over the assets and liabilities of the shoe store in 1911 (AHS, ED, January 24, 1911. See also, AHS, ED, May 29, 1911), but in 1916 it was referred to as owned by Barrella and Fersola (AHS, ED, March 27, 1916), the same as in 1923 (ANFR, PN: IPR, a.n.108, May 19, 1923). Miguel Barrella’s partner was Salvador Fersola (AHS, ED, October 28, 1915 and January 20, 1916 and ANFR, PN: IPR, a.n.108, May 19, 1923). His brother was Nicolas Barrella (AHS, ED, November 30, 1909 and January 2, 1911).

162 The shoe store moved to General Cabrera Street in 1908 (AHS, ED, December 2, 1908) and was between Mr. Mota’s silverware store and Campagna Hermanos (AHS, ED, January 2, 1909. See also, AHS, ED, January 21, 1909 and September 16, 1910).

163 AHS, ED, March 27, 1916.

164 AHS, ED, May 6, 1911. In 1916, La Marchantón was in a highrise house owned by the Pascualita Collado estate (AHS, ED, Sept. 1, 1916).

Between 1913 and 1917, the shoe store is identified as owned

by Pugliese and Giffoni [sic] (AHS, ED, April 26, 1913, LI, November 17, 1915 and January 2, 1917 and BC, November 18, 1915. See also, ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.219, November 20, 1916. Act of delivery of goods made by the executor Pbro. José Eugenio Collado to the succession of Pascuala Collado. It is worth remembering that Nicolás Pugliese brought his brother-in-law Vito Giffone on one of his trips to accompany him in the development of his shoe factory. In 1917, Giffone left for Italy to join his country’s army in connection with the First World War (AGN, LD, May 26, 1917).

165 Cestero, op. cit., p.122. One of the founders of the Divanna, Grisolía y Co. in Puerto Plata was Silverio Dipuglia, who died in Santa Domenica Talao in 1913 (AHS, ED, February 15, 1913).

166 L. 3 Def., f. 22, a.29, Cathedral of Santiago. We assume that Pedro Russo became its associate, because in 1907, the establishment known as “Los Russo” was a branch of the Divanna, Grisolía y Co. (AHS, EP, January 27, 1907).

167 AHS, ED, April 9, 1907. He died as a proxy for the Divanna, Grisolía y Ca., of Puerto Plata (AHS, ED, July 30, 1909). He arrived in the country in 1899 to work in that house (Casa de Italia, op. cit.).

In 1918, La Divanna, Grisolía y Ca., of Puerto Plata, established a sugar mill with 7,500 sugarcane fields in Boca Nueva, 40 minutes

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN THE CIBAO REGION AND IN SANTIAGO DE LOS CABALLEROS

from Puerto Plata. It had a power plant, a railroad and a labor force of 1,200 workers (AHS, ED, 20 September 1918).

168 AHS, ED, July 28, 1909.

169 AHS, ED, July 28, 1909. Died July 27, 1909. See also, L. 3 Def., f. 22, a.29, Santiago Cathedral. He was buried in the mausoleum of the Glas and Pou families, (AHS, ED, July 29, 1909). See also, AHS, ED, July 30, 1909. He was born on October 30, 1874 in Santa Domenica Talao (Casa de Italia, op. cit.).

170 AHS, ED, August 26, 1912. It was patented as a mixed store in 1911 (AHS, BM 674, June 14, 1911).

171 AHS, ED, May 19, 1913. Gertrudis Perellada, daughter of Spanish immigrants initially living in Cuba, married Pedro Russo on September 13, 1901. Their children were Pedro Carmelo, María Teresa, Miguel Angel and Víctor Manuel Russo Perellada (Casa de Italia, op. cit.).

172 AHS, ED, April 2, 1904 173 AHS, ED, November 8, 1905.

174 AHS, ED, February 3, 1908.

175 AHS, ED, January 13, 1909.

176 AHS, ED, January 5, 1909.

177 AHS, ED, July 3, 1906 and EP, January 27, 1907. It was quoted in 1916 that the warehouse of the Campagna Brothers was on February 27 Street (AHS, ED, August 12, 1916). Luis Campagna was managing partner in 1908 (ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.177, July 4, 1908).

178 AHS, ED, July 15, 1907. In Moca they had a rented house in front of the market next to P. Diep (AHS, ED, February 9, 1912).

179 AHS, ED, May 13, 1910. La Campagna Hermanos appears patented in 1908 as a mixed store, speculator and wholesaler of liquor (AHS, BM 585, 16 May 1908). In 1909 it appears in this last sector (AHS, BM 608, April 22, 1909).

180 AHS, ED, August 1, 1907.

181 AHS, ED, October 12, 1907. From 1909 this house was known only as Juan Plá & Co. (AHS, ED, March 2, 1909).

182 AHS, ED, September 9, 1905. Originally it was indicated that the establishment, opened in front of J.M. Franco Sucesores, belonged to Russo Hermanos (AHS, ED, September 1, 1905).

183 AHS, ED, August 7, 1913. About their products, see AHS, ED, December 28, 1916.

Domingo Russo married Josefa Altagracia Victoria on January 20, 1912 (AHS, ED, January 19, 1912 and Libro de Matrimonios corresponding to 1911-1913, f. 85, a.2, Oficialía del Estado Civil de la Primera Circunscripción del municipio de Santiago). She was the daughter of Eduardo Victoria and Adriana Guzman and niece of then-President Eladio Victoria (AHS, ED, January 20, 1912. See also, AHS, ED, January 10-11, 1912).

184 AHS, ED, September 11, 1907.

185 ANSR, PN: JD, a.n.118, June 23, 1910. Sale of land in Joya Grande, Licey, La Vega, by Elías Brache son in favor of Fr. Manuel Z. Rodriguez. Attached is the power of attorney of Elías Brache, son to Abelardo Viñas, dated June 13, 1910, in a sheet stamped by Schiffino Hermanos, which mentions his hotels.

186 AHS, ED, December 18, 1909. It was inaugurated on December 17, 1909.

Its construction began in 1908 and would be established “in combination” with those of Santiago, La Vega and Puerto Plata (AHS, ED, June 11, 1908). In Puerto Plata there was also the hotel “Cibao,” of Cino, Caba and Schiffino, which, located on the main commercial street of that city, was announced in “The Dominican Republic - Directory and General Guide” of Enrique Deschamps.

The Schiffino brothers were Luis, Francisco and Pedro. They were the sons of Javier Schiffino, who died in Santa Domenica

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Talao on May 12, 1911 (AHS, ED, June 13, 1911). Of them, Francisco (Pancho) Schiffino opened a restaurant in Moca in 1911 (AHS, ED, April 5, 1911).

187 AHS, ED, December 1, 1910. See also, AHS, ED, December 28, 1910.

188 Petruccio Schiffino is referred to as the “former owner” of the Hotel Italia in La Vega in 1913, the year he bought the Hotel Inglaterra in San Pedro de Macoris (AHS, ED, 22 October 1913).

Another reference to him—on his return from a trip to Italy—is found in AHS, ED, February 8, 1912.

189 AHS, ED, September 9,1915. The sale was made on September 7, 1915. Campagna assumed only its assets. It would operate under the name A. Campagna & Co. and included José Ranero as a partner.

Advertisements for the hotel, already owned by A. Campagna & Co., appear in AHS, ED, October 2, 1915, BC, December 18, 1915 and LI, March 1, 1916.

190 AHS, ED, September 1, 1915. Schiffino left as his proxy Víctor F. Thomén (AHS, ED, September 2, 1915).

191 AHS, ED, August 25, 1915.

192 AHS, ED, October 5, 1916.

193 AHS, ED, October 11, 1916. Sobre su construcción, AHS, ED, December 19, 1916.

194 AHS, ED, February 22, 1916.

195 AHS, ED, February 20, 1916.

196 AL, LI, October 18, 1961.

Information provided by his grandson Marlon Anzelotti González, September 23, 2019.

197 Francisco Antonio Finizola, born in Vibonati and son of Nicolas Vicente Finizola and Maria Francesca Cazulla, and Maria Brigida Pugliese Giffone married in Vibonati on March 3, 1915.

Nicolás Vicente Finizola died in the municipality of Pombal, state of Paraiba, Brazil, on January 20, 1899.

On her side, Maria Francesca Pugliese (Vibonati, December 10 1905 - Vibonati, February 12, 1983), married Lazaro Finizola in Vibonati in 1929 (marriage certificate of the Finizola-Pugliese couple, birth certificate of Maria Francesca Pugliese Giffone and death certificate of Nicolas Vicente Finizola, provided by Dr. Jose Tallaj Almanzar, August 26, 2019).

198 AHS, ED, September 1and November 2, 1916. Anzelotti also sold panama hats, cashmeres and shoes.

199 AHS, BC, December 18, 1915.

200 AHS, ED, April 12, 1907.

201 AHS, EC, September 22, 1900.

202 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Sociedades, cofradías, escuelas, gremios y otras corporaciones dominicanas (Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 1975), 56.

203 Manuel Gilbert, “El salitre destruye el Cristo de la loma Isabel de Torres,” El Siglo, October 1, 1999, 2B. 204 Information provided by Jorge Hugo Cavoli Balbuena, 2017.

205 Edwin Espinal Hernández, “A buon´ora: la calle Italia,” La Información, May 26 – 27, 1997. See also, “Síndico inaugurará vía nombre Italia,” La Información, May 12, 1997.

206 Norys Sánchez, “Un pedazo de Italia en RD,” Rumbo 1, no. 20 (June 13, 1994): 11.

Statue of Cristopher Columbus in Columbus Park, in front of The First Cathedral of the Americas, Santo Domingo. © Thiago da Cunha

• CHAPTER 4

Christopher Columbus: A Man between Two Worlds

By Gabriella Airaldi Professor of Medieval History at the University of Genoa

ven to this day, there are those who question whether Columbus was truly Genoese. Some would prefer him to be Catalan, Portuguese, Corsican, from Savona or other coastal areas, or from Piacenza or Monferrato; these theories have been developed mainly from late sources and are linked to arguments resulting from the “pleitos” [lawsuits] between the Castilian Crown and the admiral’s heirs. Some would even like him to be Marrano or Islamic, in reference to a possible reconquest of Spain by Jerusalem, while others believe Columbus belonged to the minor lineage of a Genoese “albergo”1—or was even the son of a pope.

But these theories are untenable. In the first case, his origin would be clear, because the surname of one born into the founding family of a famous “albergo” would serve as indication; in the second case, it must be considered that popes at that particular point of history certainly did not keep any secrets regarding their offspring.

In fact, those who might doubt whether, at that time and in that society, the son of a wool weaver could set out to sea, become an admiral, and marry a Portuguese aristocrat, reveal their little familiarity with Genoese history. Though these life circumstances might seem an unusual itinerary, the life of Columbus was very possible for an emigrant from a city of international preeminence and excellence at the time, and who was educated in a particular context of the republican regime2 that would guide his actions throughout life. Columbus, who nevertheless defined himself as “a poor foreigner” at critical moments, was born and raised in a city that had been continually led by great clans of global importance who controlled political and economic opportunities both inside and outside its walls. Yet he steadfastly rejected and fought against any monocracies, those from outside and those, with the name of Lordships and Principalities, that appeared on the peninsula. The role of Genoa, as the main port in the Mediterranean and locale of the first European treasury, had made it an attractive place of business for neighbors such as France, Milan, and Savoy.

The Genoese and Ligurian expansion, which during the Middle Ages was the largest in the East and West, followed an elastic model that did not necessarily rely on direct settlements, but rather employed subtle forms of acculturation which favored the primacy of the market, money, and investment over rigidly socioeconomic or cultural incursions, effective proof of a globalization that began from afar. Columbus exported the features of the original city-State, which invented and used its own legal, institutional, and social instruments, adapting them to different systems, with substantial freedom of action that responded to a “neutrality” typical of the Genoese of any time, and willing to go beyond any ideological frontier or official pact. This expansion favored a constant migratory process that allowed the variation and development of settlements which extended from the Black Sea to the Iberian Peninsula, from Flanders to China and the Americas.

Members of the Genoese elite, who represented the hub of a diffusion involving many migrants, played an essential role inside and outside the city walls. This is the only way to understand the history of Columbus, his

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youthful years, and the Portuguese and Castilian experiences, as having taken place in the shadow of the factions present for centuries in this and other European and non-European Courts—essentially the big-business lobby, as in the Court of Queen Isabella—whose members constantly faced off with each other in Genoa but who were responsible for both internal political management and public debt administration through the powerful Banco di San Giorgio, which subsidized the State, and the conception of variables to be implemented within the framework of a global strategy that was constantly being modernized and restructured. Since the eleventh century, the deep involvement of both lay and religious people within an elite willing to migrate temporarily or permanently together with the key technicians and workers, and the people who accompanied them, was quite palpable. These were groups and individuals operating at risk, but who knew that they could benefit from social and economic protection at all levels through vertical and horizontal solidarity.

Columbus’s bond with them, and their family branches naturalized elsewhere, served as a model that lasted through time. This formula or modus operandi, which made the family the axis of Genoa’s political, economic and social system, was quickly consolidated with the creation of the “albergo”3 an institution that continued to be the basic structure of the political-institutional variants of this city-State and that was also proposed in the management of the Banco di San Giorgio. This was the reality that framed Columbus’s experience.

Columbus (Colombo) was born in Genoa in 1451. His family originated in the lands of the powerful Fieschi, who were continually present in their lives. His father Domenico, the son of Giovanni de Moconesi de Fontanabuona, who moved to Quinto (Genoa), was a wool weaver and also guardian of the Porta dell’Olivella in the town of Santo Stefano; a few years later he moved to Porta Soprana, which became, after various events, the permanent residence of the family. Columbus’s mother, Susanna Fontanarossa, was originally from Val Bisagno.

Christopher had four siblings: Giovanni Pellegrino, Bartolomeo (Bartholomew), Giacomo (later Diego), and Bianchinetta. According to a very common custom in all social circles of the Genoese and Ligurian area, and although he learned the first rudiments of crafts in the family environment, he embarked when still very young.

Despite the meager information available about his youth—spent partly in Genoa and partly in Savona, where his family moved between the 1470s and 1480s—records indicate that he sailed throughout the Mediterranean and areas of the Atlantic that were closest to the continent.

Columbus’s activities, directed by the needs of the Genoese international network, continuously ranged between war and trade—from the island of Chios, in Genoese hands until 1566, to Flanders. In the disputes of the time, in which the great Genoese and Ligurian families (including the della Rovere and Cibo families, to which the pontiff of that time belonged) played an important role, Columbus participated in military activities on the Angevin-Aragonese front lines before reaching Portugal perhaps in 1476, if not earlier. The last document recording Columbus’s presence in Genoa, briefly involving a matter with regard to a Madeiran sugar shipment between the great Centurion and Negro clans, dates from August 25, 1479.

Thereafter, the rest of his life would be linked to the Iberian Peninsula, where for centuries a noteworthy Genoese and Ligurian presence made itself known through hundreds of renowned and other families. Among other examples, beginning in 1317, the Pessagno family played a very important role in connecting different powers, controlling the Portuguese Admiralty and the maritime activity of twenty so-called “experts of the sea,” which contributed to the cooperation of the Genoese and Portuguese in the enterprises of “discovery” and Atlantic colonization. In Lisbon, Columbus met up with his brother Bartholomew and with many of his friends, well-known Genoese protégés, who were also present in the contiguous Andalusian zone and in the Atlantic islands, where they focused principally on the monopoly of the sugar market and the slave trade.

Records indicating voyages to Iceland (1477), Madeira (1478-79), and the Elmina Castle along the Gulf of Guinea (1482) date back to this period. In 1479, Columbus married Felipa—the daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrelo, originally from Piacenza, a member of the Order of Santiago and a “donatary captain” from Porto Santo— who bore their son Diego. It was during these years in the late 15th century, when the Portuguese expeditions to the African coast were being carried out and colonization of the Atlantic islands was under way, that Columbus, between ocean navigation studies and trips from the far north to Guinea, developed his project of searching for

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Partial view of Saona Island. The famous “Bella Saonese” of Columbus takes its name from the city of Savona, where the businessman Michele de Cuneo was born, a very dear friend of Christopher Columbus, who during his second voyage (1493-1496), decided to donate and dedicate the island to him. © Thiago da Cunha

the East through the West, a quest with an important precedent in 1291, when the Genoese Vivaldi brothers attempted to venture “ad partes Indie.”

It is difficult to determine the extent to which these early adventurers impacted the development of Columbus’s project, and to assess the influence of the direct experiences of and contact with Atlantic experts at the Portuguese Court, the exchange of information with the Florentine geographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, and reflections on texts and maps later collected in his numerous journals and correspondence regarding the texts of Marco Polo, Pierre d’Ailly, Pope Pius II, Pliny, and others.

The rejection of his project of a voyage to the Indies by the Portuguese King John II, also supported by the constant success of the Portuguese expeditions to the Indies and later confirmed by Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama, was followed in 1484-1485 by a dark period, which ensued after a sudden trip by Columbus to Andalusia in the company of his only son Diego (his wife had probably already died). This “flight” seemed the consequence of the unfortunate outcome of a conspiracy organized by the Order of Santiago against King John II in which Columbus was—apparently—at least indirectly involved (his wife was related to the Braganzas). In Andalusia, Columbus was welcomed by a protective family network of powerful Italian and Spanish laity—including the Genoese, who were already the most faithful and powerful “asientistas”4—Spanish and Italian clerics of equivalent prestige from powerful religious orders (in particular, the Franciscan Order).

While his brother Bartholomew approached the English and French Courts in search of possible support, Columbus set forth on a new itinerary that has often been colored in romantic tones. In those years the Crown of Castile, linked to the Crown of Aragon only by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, was involved in operations of great importance, including the final “settlement” of Jewish and Islamic issues, two secular and important presences in Iberian history, as well as in the attempt of a possible opening to Atlantic colonization, which found

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its axis in the Canary Islands and which, by the Treaty of Alcáçobas with Portugal (1479), fell at that time into the Castilian control zone. In turn, the Aragonese Crown had various ongoing problems on the Italian peninsula.

The Court preoccupations effectively stalled his project.

Seven long years passed, of which little is known, before Columbus’s project was realized. In 1488, he had a second son (Ferdinand) by the Cordoban Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, who later became a renowned bibliophile and the guardian of his father’s memory. The matters in which the Spanish Crown was involved were not settled until 1492, when the Jewish and Islamic issue was resolved through the expulsion of these groups, and finally, Columbus obtained the desired support for his journey.

On April 17, 1492, at the royal encampment at Santa Fe, Granada, the monarchs signed the Capitulations, which also led to the granting of titles, benefits, and rights. From then on, the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the islands and lands that were being discovered, Columbus was slated to enjoy a series of important financial privileges reaped from his discoveries: one-tenth of the net profits and one-eighth of the trading profits obtained. On August 3, 1492, the two caravels, the Niña and the Pinta, and the ship Santa María were loaded and armed, leaving Palos de la Frontera on their first journey. A mandatory stop in the Canary Islands ended up delaying the voyage. However, on October 12, the so-called New World was finally reached with the sighting of an island in the Bahamian archipelago, Guanahani, which the admiral renamed San Salvador. This was followed, in subsequent months, by the discovery of a series of islands which would be renamed after the royal family or saints. Following were the discoveries of Juana (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Haiti) and the establishment of the first European settlement, with thirty men, at the fort of La Navidad. From that moment onward, new peoples, new cultures and ecosystems were discovered, all vastly different from those of the Old World.

On January 16, 1493, the return voyage began with only two caravels (the Santa María was wrecked on Christmas Day). That was a fundamental moment in history, because it blazed the path for the rise of an empire on which—as Charles V would later say –“the sun never set.”

During the voyage, and on the occasion of a terrible storm, the admiral drafted a letter and threw it into the sea in a barrel; perhaps it was the same one that he later sent to the monarchs, to Luis del Santángel (who, together with the Genoese Pinelli provided much of the financing for the voyage) and Gabriel Sánchez, in which he summarized all of his experiences. His first voyage to the New World ended on March 4, 1493, when he arrived at the mouth of the Tagus aboard the Niña. After a challenging encounter with the Portuguese king, the admiral finally arrived in Barcelona in April. Immediately printed and disseminated throughout Europe, unlike his journal that was kept secret at that time, his letter was the first official document on the “Discovery,” which was also the focus of discussions among many diplomats and businessmen. Important papal bulls followed, intended to validate what seems to be better defined in the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which Columbus helped to develop.

The first great division in the world was born from the new pact agreed to by the Crowns of Castile and Portugal, which stipulated the “dividing line” at 370 leagues from Cape Verde.

During the second voyage (1493 - 1495), which began in Cádiz with 17 ships and approximately 1,200 crew members, and which was financed by the Genoese, Columbus came upon many islands in the Caribbean, arriving in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. While the first descriptions of the New World were being prepared, and while the admiral—who was still vainly searching for the Cathay (China)—made his men swear that Cuba was not an island but part of a main body of land, problems arose with the discovery of Spanish corpses at La Navidad. This event was followed by ongoing and increasingly violent conflicts between the indigenous peoples and the Spaniards. From that moment onward, the construction of a series of fortresses began, and, ultimately, a growing slave trade ensued. Gold was finally found in the splendid Vega Real and Cibao regions, but, at the same time, complications in managing the first city founded in Hispaniola arose. In fact, the second settlement of La Isabela was soon abandoned due to environmental and meteorological problems. Two years later, in 1496, Santo Domingo assumed the role of the first European urban center in the Americas and became the cornerstone of the nascent empire.

Back in Spain, where he began to encounter a range of difficulties, Columbus, who received ever greater sup-

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port from the Genoese network, made a fundamental act toward ensuring his own Spanish legacy, establishing in February 1498 a mayorazgo in favor of his eldest son Diego and thus defining succession and inheritance. In the mayorazgo, (“... root and foothold of my lineage and memory of the services which I have rendered for Your Highnesses, that being born in Genoa I came to serve you here in Castile ... and I discovered in the West the sign of land of the Indies and the aforementioned islands ... ”), he did not forget to mention the Genoese branch of the family, with whom he maintained contact, recalling his native city and also directing the income to be invested in the Bank of San Giorgio (“there in San Jorge [San Giorgio] any money is very safe, and Genoa is a noble and powerful city by the sea ...”). In the same year he gathered the necessary documentation for drafting his Book of Privileges. Meanwhile, the Crown granted other travel permits but prohibited their issuance to foreigners. This obviously did not affect the branches of the Genoese families who, like Columbus, had become naturalized. In Seville alone, 23 of the 28 Genoese “alberghi”5 were represented.

The third voyage (1498-1500), in which Genoese participation was substantial, both financially and operationally, marked a fundamental point in Columbus’s life, while a Genoese cousin of his also made the journey this time. Columbus continued with his discoveries but remained stubbornly faithful to an inaccurate picture of existing geography, which he himself altered by declaring that he was in the “Earthly Paradise” when he was sailing before the immense delta of the Orinoco and how an “other world” seemed to reveal itself. When he returned to Hispaniola, he found a potentially explosive situation, which he tried to resolve through the application of the encomienda, a brutal system in which the natives were entrusted to a settler who, in exchange for protection and Christianization, collected taxes and imposed mandatory labor.

However, by now the situation had worsened. Both he and his brothers were faced with damning accusations from the Franciscans, who called them “pharaohs” and asked that they be removed. What did the friars really mean when they wrote that Columbus wanted “to give the island to the Genoese”? Beginning in October 1499, Genoa fell under French rule. Perhaps Columbus really intended to do the “French” side of his powerful friends a favor? What did the financial group supporting him really want? What did the renewed contact of Columbus with San Giorgio and Genoa suggest; and later the letters that the admiral sent to some Genoese associates, such as Gianluigi Fieschi? Finally, what did Bartolomeo Fieschi’s lifelong intimacy actually imply? Although the Genoese elite cherished their neutrality, in Genoa the Fieschis still belonged to a de facto pro-French “party.” Thus, did Christopher Columbus not admit to being a corsair for the House of Anjou?

In fact, in August 1500 the Columbus brothers were imprisoned. The order was given by Investigating Judge Francisco Bobadilla after a sham trial. The three Columbus brothers landed in Cádiz in chains. The following year, a new governor, Nicolás de Ovando, arrived in Hispaniola.

As early as 1498, however, Columbus had begun to vigorously defend himself through memoirs and letters, with the Book of Prophecies, in which the “Discovery” was woven into a fabric filled with apocalyptic and messianic themes, reminiscent of Gioacchino da Fiore (Joachim of Fiore). The admiral also sought the support of many friends, both laymen and priests, and thus a series of Genoese and Ligurian names began to dance around him while he continued preparing for the wedding of his son Diego with María de Toledo, niece of the Duke of Alba.

He always carefully guarded his documents (of which a partial catalogue remains) with Fray Gaspar Gorricio de Novara, in whose hands was also a copy of the Book of Privileges of 1498 (now in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville), while another, certainly in Hispaniola and now lost, was the basis of the reworking to which, between 1501 and 1502, Columbus proceeded, adding other documents.

He wrote to his friends and sent to Genoa some copies of the Book of Privileges. He also wrote to Gianluigi Fieschi, and the day before leaving on the fourth voyage, on April 2, 1502, he wrote a famous letter to the trustees of the Banco di San Giorgio in which, as was the tradition of the great names of the Genoese elite, he left a legacy to extinguish the public debt. “Although my body is here, my heart is always near you [...] the results of my undertaking are already being seen, and would shine considerably if the darkness of the government does not conceal them,”6 he wrote.

On April 3, 1502, “the noblest journey began,” as he himself described it. The royal authorization was accom-

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panied by flattering words, and his will was certified to preserve his privileges; however, Columbus was no longer governor, and he was prohibited from disembarking in Santo Domingo. With him were his son Ferdinand, his brother Diego, and his most faithful friend, Bartolomeo Fieschi, who was captain of the Vizcaína. The expedition, which included significant investment of Genoese capital, as well as Genoese crew members, sailed along the Caribbean coast of Honduras, then to Veragua in present-day Panama (which was later dubbed Columbus’s Duchy) and again Jamaica (July 25, 1503), where Columbus, who was prohibited from landing in Hispaniola, had to remain for a long and very difficult year due to the shipwreck of his caravels. From there, after a successful expedition in search of help from the faithful Bartolomeo Fieschi and Diego Méndez, he was able to leave on June 28, 1504. Marked by disastrous events and experiences, the story is narrated in Lettera Rarissima, in which the Admiral of the Ocean Sea tells us everything: the terrible hurricane in Santo Domingo, which only he had foreseen, in which his enemy Bobadilla perished, and in which a cache of gold and inflammatory documents against Columbus also sank, while the admiral’s own stash of gold was saved. Columbus spent the dreadful last year as a castaway in Jamaica, sick, without provisions, and with the last two ships languishing at the bottom of the sea.

On November 7, Columbus finally landed in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Queen Isabella’s death on November 26, 1504, meant the elimination of vital support for his endeavors. In fact, the audience with King Ferdinand in May 1505 turned out to be quite frosty. Returning from his voyage, on December 27, 1504, Columbus wrote another letter to his friend Nicolò Oderico. This interesting missive seemed to confirm a possible change in perspective. In it, the navigator recalled having spoken at length about a project, and having sent him, through his friend de Riberol, the Book of Privileges and various correspondence, as well as two other letters to the Banco di San Giorgio. Although de Riberol told him that everything had arrived in perfect condition, he never received a response. And he added that, before leaving for his voyage, he had left another copy of the Book of Privileges in Cádiz in the hands of Franco Cattaneo, “the bearer of this,” to send to him. He also commented that, while he was away, he had written letters to the monarchs, one of which was returned to him (and that he had sent it along with the book and with the report of the voyage in another letter, specifying that Oderico should deliver it “to Sir Gian Luigi with the other containing advice”). Finally, he said he expected letters from his friend to speak cautiously about his purpose.

On the same day he also wrote to Gianluigi Fieschi, to whom he wrote of his return from the Indies in extremely poor health, and of his being quite consternated due to this situation. He continued: “I believe that you have a good memory of the book that I gave you in Callis [Cádiz] and even of the notice that we have left, if it is, there it is all written. Still, Miçer Francisco, bearer of this letter, can tell you about this, so that it can also serve as a supplement [...].” He asked Fieschi to write more extensively about it. Columbus recalled at that point in the letter that he was related to Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, who, after entering victoriously in the Alhambra in 1492, and at that time Governor of Andalusia and Superior Judge in the jurisdiction of Seville, became Marquis of Tarifa in 1514. Don Fadrique, who had gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, visited Genoa in 1519, leaving an entry of his journey in his diary.

Columbus grumbled that he had received no response from the Banco di San Giorgio to the offer of onetenth of his income from trans-Atlantic voyages to reduce the local tax on food. He did not even know anything about the promises made to his son Diego by the monarchs, and that made him suffer even more. Instead, he made no reference to the fact that Giuliano della Rovere had ascended the papal throne; Julius II was a powerful pope, whom he and his family knew well and to whom he wrote himself while the pope complained that he had never heard from him again.

The admiral’s life ended in Valladolid on May 20, 1506. The day before, Columbus, who had gone there to meet the new monarchs, had to once again face his past. In the testamentary codicil of May 19, he returned to what he had established in 1498 and resumed in 1505, never failing to remember the women who accompanied him in the three pivotal periods of his life: his Genoese mother, his Portuguese wife, and Beatriz, his Spanish companion. He also decided to pay other debts. The names that appeared were almost all Genoese: the heirs of Gerolamo da Porto, due to the parental debts of his youth; Antonio Basso, a Genoese who lived in Lisbon; a Jew who

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: A MAN BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Genoa, Italy: House of Christopher Columbus and San Andrea (St. Andrew) towers.

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lived by the gate of the “Jewish Quarter” in Lisbon; the heirs of Luigi Centurione Scotto, a Genoese businessman, and the heirs of Paolo di Negro; Battista Spinola, son-inlaw of the centurion and son of Nicolò Spinola di Luccoli di Ronco, who was in Lisbon in 1482 (or his heirs, if he had already died). As during all the important moments of his life, Bartolomeo Fieschi was by Columbus’s side.

For a period of time, no one spoke about Columbus.

But one thing is certain: from the time of his voyages onward, a new West had begun to take shape. Immediately thereafter, in fact, the world was opened up to the European powers, who, in the construction of their mythography, may have qualified this important link between the Mediterranean world and the subsequent rise of the Western Hemisphere, although they could never deny the contribution of the man from the “most Atlantic” of Italian cities and the acts by which he “founded” a new trans-Atlantic world. It is not by chance that in 1688 Christopher Keller, professor at the University of Halle, in the first edition of his Historia Universalis (1685) introduced the tripartition between Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, establishing that the Middle Ages ended with certain fundamental events: the fall of Constantinople, the invention of the printing press, the Protestant Reformation, and the “discovery” of the Americas.

Columbus, the hero, or Columbus the murderer; Columbus, the son of a wool weaver, or heir to a line of admirals and corsairs; Columbus, mystic or even Templar; Columbus, not Genoese but Catalan, Portuguese, or from who knows what origin. Over time, the powerfully magnetic allure of this figure has generated immeasurable scholarly, literary, and artistic production and, despite so many controversies, once again exalted the mythical dimension that has always accompanied the history of humankind. In fact, in cultures of all places and times, the navigator who explores unknown routes, the “inventor” of new lands, assumes in the collective memory a double physiognomy: the historical and mortal and the heroic and mythical. The man without whom the notion of “discovery” would not exist becomes not only a part of rational and documentary memory, but also of consciousness and collective memory in which, much more than historical fact, the eternity of myth prevails, along with the ritual, the foundational gesture7, and, at the same time, the memory of the man-hero who created it.

Among these myths—which societies of all ages continuously embrace as a way to justify their own experiences, needs, desires, encounters, and confrontations—is the figure of the Genoese admiral who, like a knight errant seeking his fortune, will always seem to be the man of impossible challenges and dreams. But myths are not born overnight. On the contrary, the gesture performed8 immediately overlaps the figure of the man, reconfiguring it and even erasing it, making his image almost indefinable—until the New World, detaching itself from the Old World, decides to introduce it again.

ENDNOTES It is an artificial aggregation of families that all take the same surname. It is a well-known Genoese institution typical and unique in history.

2 A particular form of republican regime that privileges in every age freedom from any sovereign control.

3 See note 1.

4 The “asiento” was a contract granted by the Spanish Crown to an individual or company allowing the holder exclusive rights in trade, often with the colonies or in transporting slaves, which 1

sometimes extended for centuries and, increasingly, financed a tremendous number of initiatives.

5 See note 1.

6 William Eleroy Curtis, ed., The Authentic Letters of Columbus, translated by José IgnacioRodríguez (Chicago: Field Columbian Museum, 1895), 115.

7 In this particular case gesture means “act of discovery.”

8 See note 7.

• CHAPTER 5

Alessandro Geraldini vs Rodrigo de Figueroa: the Dominican Church, the Encomenderos, and the Issue of Indigenous Peoples

By Edoardo D’Angelo Professor of Medieval Latin Philology at the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa

here were only three dioceses—suffragan or subordinate to the Archdiocese of Seville—in the Spanish Antilles at the beginning of the sixteenth century: Santo Domingo, Concepción de la Vega (both on the island of Hispaniola),1 and San Juan on the island of Puerto Rico.

Alessandro Geraldini, an Italian from Amelia in the region of Umbria, was the first resident bishop of Santo Domingo, as will be summarized in this chapter. Francisco García de Padilla, O.F.M., formerly bishop-elect of the short-lived Diocese of Bayuna (1504–1511), had been appointed but was never ordained.2 Padilla was bishop (only on paper) of the capital city from 1511 to 1515, when he died.

However, the papal bull appointing Padilla never took effect. At the time, King Ferdinand II of Aragon sought to clearly define bishops’ rights to taxes and income that these new dioceses could collect from the territories.

On August 8, 1511, Pope Julius II issued a new bull, Romanus Pontifex, which reassigned the jurisdictions of these dioceses of the Americas. On August 13 of that same year, Padilla was appointed to the Diocese of Santo Domingo by way of the Diocese of Bayuna,3 which was simultaneously eliminated. The ordination took place on May 2, 1512, and as previously mentioned, the Franciscan held this post until his death in 1515.

Padilla’s successor, Alessandro Geraldini,4 who was bishop of Vulturara Appula in the Apulia region of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Naples, was appointed bishop of Santo Domingo by Pope Leo X on November 23, 1516.5 At the time, and by order of the pope himself, the bishop was engaged in meetings with rulers from northern Europe to promote crusades against the Ottomans (ep. 2.4) and was therefore unable to travel.

However, he responded with a letter (ep. 2) dated September 13, 1517, to the commission of the Order of Saint Jerome—who were eager for the newly elected bishop to begin his assignment—sent to Hispaniola by Cardinal Cisneros, who was overseeing the work of the royal officials on the island. In that same letter, he was awaiting the dispatch of two of his vicars, his sister Tullia’s son Onofrio and his servant Diego del Río (ep.

2.8). With another letter from London dated September 13, 1518, exactly one year later (ep. 1), he thanked the members of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo for having received them, promising that he would be arriving soon.

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His arrival, however, would take some time. In fact, it would be another year before the bishop of Santo Domingo would set foot on the island of Hispaniola. As he mentions in ep. 7.11, his first letter written in Santo Domingo—dated October 6 and addressed to Charles V—he had finally arrived on September 17, 1519.

Alessandro Geraldini seemed to have a rather clear conception of his new diocese’s issues, even before he physically got there. Beyond the pages of the Itinerarium, which he obviously wrote after arriving in Santo Domingo (the “official” date on record is March 19, 1522: Itin. XVI 40), he addresses various Dominican issues in his letters, especially in ep. 9, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, and 25 (16 and 19 are memoralia, requests from the diocese itself). Of these, 9, 15, 17, and 20 are dated before his departure. The issues, and the proposed solutions, are summarized in the following table (each concession is attributed to Geraldini’s specific petitions for authority or other things for himself and/or the diocese):

ISSUES

SOLUTIONS

the general economic poverty of the diocese and the bishop

• • • • • • •

the lack (or poor condition) of the bishop’s palace

• granting of a palace by Charles V: ep. 15.2–4, 20.3

granting of indulgences: ep. 9.14 granting of a jubilee: ep. 19.3, 19.12 granting of García de Padilla’s income: ep. 16.5 all regions of the diocese must pay tithes: ep. 16.12 granting of the Legatus Natus office: ep. 19.30, 23.9 granting of fees to his nephew Onofrio: ep. 22 granting of fees to Alfonso de Espejo: ep. 16.8

the lack (or poor condition) of the cathedral

• • • •

the lack of a hospital

• granting of funds: ep. 19.11–12

Spanish violence and exploitation of indigenous peoples

the education of indigenous peoples

• • • • • •

granting of 8000 ducats by King Ferdinand II: ep. 15.6, 20.4–5 petition to build a stone cathedral: Itin. XIII 37–40 shipping the relics of martyrs: ep. 19.7–8, 23.9 permission to use gold for the payment of indulgences by those who committed acts of violence against indigenous peoples: Itin. XVI 32, ep. 19.24

cruelty of the Spanish: Itin. XVI 16–30 accusation of genocide: Itin. XVI 27, ep. 19.22 charges against Figueroa: ep. 25 theft and oppression: ep. 25.2–3, 25.7 permission to choose baptized slaves: ep. 16.1 slavery of indigenous peoples contributes to the spread of Christianity: ep. 19.26–27

• permission to appoint a schoolteacher: ep. 17.1 • permission to educate the children of caciques (indigenous nobility): ep. 16

Opening page: Alessandro Geraldini de Amelia, Archbishop of Santo Domingo, author unknown. © Image from the Episcopology of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, by José Luis Sáez, S.J., Archbishopric of Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo 2011.

Page 109: Alejandro Geraldini, oil painting by Vaquero Turcios.

Royal Houses Museum Collection, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. © Source: “Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo,”(Santo Domingo: Arzobispado de Santo Domingo y Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial, 2011), 105.

ALESSANDRO GERALDINI VS RODRIGO DE FIGUEROA

Amelia (Terni), eastern panorama. © Andrea Vierucci

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Geraldini’s positions on the relationship between the native Antillean population and the Spanish who landed in the Americas are interesting to ponder.

A man of his time, Alessandro Geraldini could not be, and was not, opposed to slavery as a theoretical concept. In fact, he considered it useful from a “methodological” standpoint: enslaving indigenous peoples enabled Europeans to convert them to Christianity, which was otherwise impossible (ep. 19.26–27). He therefore asked the Council of the Indies to put him, as bishop, in charge of delegating slaves who were already baptized, on the pretext that terrible crimes had been committed by those who were responsible at that time (ep. 16.1). The issue that arose was that the children of caciques, the rulers of the indigenous peoples, needed an education. Royal officials normally entrusted this to private teachers, but he argued that “these teachers [did] not act out of any concern for their students, but only in accordance with their salary.” The bishop thus asked for permission to manage and intercede in the teachers’ work (“to be permitted to correct the teachers if they [did] not perform their jobs well and, if they [were] totally inept, to eliminate them,” ep. 16.4).6 On the other hand, he fully perceived the socioeconomic advantage of low-cost work in that difficult and complicated world. As a bishop with considerable debt, he asked the Council of the Indies to “grant him up to one hundred native slaves” (ep. 16.5) and for permission “to bring thirty or forty Ethiopians to the island,” that is, slaves from Africa (ep. 16.6). He also asked his niece Elisabetta,7 who had just moved to Hispaniola with her husband, to consign him slaves owned by a man named Ávila, who had collaborated with the commission of the Order of Saint Jerome and remained on the island (ep. 18).

Geraldini was strongly opposed to the prevailing slave administration methods and to the handling of Native American affairs, in general. Even in his literary work, he had no shortage of words condemning slavery, as we see clearly, for example, in Itin. V 33.

His grievances in this regard are severe and explicit. He speaks of nothing less than genocide (one million deaths!) perpetrated by the Spanish against the indigenous peoples: “… by God, eternal and immortal, they have exterminated over one million men: a previously unknown crime, a crime unheard of before, a crime that had never been seen!” (Itin. XVI 27); “The Spanish, since the Ligurian Columbus died, discoverer of the equatorial regions, have killed more than one million of these good people, who would have converted to our faith with due diligence” (ep. 19.22). The affliction of the indigenous peoples mostly stemmed from the struggles, labor, and hunger they suffered in the mines where they were forced to work; however, it also derived from so much gratuitous violence itself: “Another constituent of these men, on the other hand, was taken to remote places in the mountains [where they] fed only on crabs [and] died under stress, or with no rest throu-

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ghout the long workday, they suddenly exhaled their souls, or they were murdered by the thrust of a sword at the hands of the leaders of those miserable people” (Itin. XVI 19). “And I add, in God’s immortal name—in fact, since I was a child, I have abhorred the rumors many of our Spanish men, who have nothing in common with nobility of the mind, when they wanted to test whether the blade of the swords was sharp or dull, would cut a leg or arm or the naked bodies of those innocent men!” (Itin. XVI 24).

Rodrigo de Figueroa, a judge sent to Santo Domingo by the Council of the Indies on August 19, 1519,8 was first tasked with examining the behavior of Alfonso de Zuazo, his predecessor to the governorship of Hispaniola,9 and quickly took office. Figueroa’s administration was very predatory. He was associated with numerous business initiatives that involved the extreme exploitation of slaves: the pearl trade from Venezuela, along with Mayor Antonio Flores, Juan de Córdoba, and Juan de Herrera de Huelva; the new Buenaventura mines in Hispaniola; the Azua sugar industry, along with Gutiérrez de Aguilón; and the plantations in the northern part of the island, along with Juan de León. Upon the arrival of the new viceroy Diego Colón in 1520, Figueroa was prosecuted by Judge Cristóbal Lebrón10 and convicted of many abuses. He then appealed to the Council of the Indies and returned to Seville. In 1525, he received a preliminary sentence as a precursor to a pecuniary sentence and an exclusion from public services.

On September 17, 1519, when Alessandro Geraldini landed in Santo Domingo, Rodrigo de Figueroa was the Spanish political authority. Their colossal clash is fully detailed in letter ep. 25, addressed to Cardinal Adriano.11 It was an utter condemnation of the Spanish misconduct on the island and specifically of Figueroa for “not pursuing the public good as ancient Roman governors had done, but rather stealing from everyone, taking all of their assets, [and] even looting the towns on the island” and that “those very unfortunate territories [were] completely devastated, and that he [did] not seek equality, but rather profit” (ep. 25.1–2). Diego Columbus himself, along with Alonso de Zuazo, was also a victim of the tyranny and slander. “Figueroa, an obviously cruel and heartless man, went above and beyond. Upon hearing that, from their public pulpits in the region, the Franciscans had denounced his family’s well-known income—which they had stolen from the island and that Figueroa himself reaped the benefits—he considered killing some of them, hitting some others with the lashes that are given to the Black men, and exiling others” (ep. 25.7).

The Roman Gate (formerly Busolina Gate) in Amelia. © Andrea Vierucci

The coat of arms of Geraldini inside the Chapel of St. Anthony of St. Francis Church in Amelia. © Andrea Vierucci

Tomb of Angelo Geraldini inside the Chapel of St. Anthony of St. Francis Church in Amelia. © Andrea Vierucci

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On the night of April 25, 1520, there was a terrifying occurrence. The governor of Santo Domingo, backed by a team of police, ordered the capture of Father Manrique Totalora, who was grabbed by the hands and feet and dragged out of the church through the city streets. Figueroa then went to the cathedral where he captured a child who was participating in a ritual under the guidance of Bishop Geraldini: ‘After kicking down the door, he took a small boy, adorned with a crown of thorns who was in [the] church tower [and] said he was doing those things on the bishop’s orders … and then fled through the most secret internal passages of the church; however Figueroa broke down the doors and dragged him out. Amidst the turmoil, when a priest in the chapel simply informed him that those things would not please the bishop, the heretic loudly proclaimed that he would hang the bishop and the other priests, traitors, and drunks! Immediately following, he [attempted] to hang the child, [and] a few elite aristocrats from Santo Domingo, aware that the man was wicked, covered their faces and released the child before he died’ (ep. 25.10–12). A few weeks later, Figueroa also wrote a letter to the Council of the Indies, offering his own version of the incident—which he minimized—and asked the archbishop of Seville to determine that the bishop was ‘useless.’12 He seemed to be trying to avoid the accusations, placing all the blame on Bishop Geraldini and, in general, on the ruling clergy of the Americas (Appendix 1).

One might think of this as a trivial clash between church and State; however, Figueroa did not represent the Spanish crown in this case. The governor was reflecting his own personal interests and those of his “accomplices,” which stemmed from the results of his trial.13 As Geraldini requested, Figueroa was brought to justice by King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, who organized a disbarment trial by way of Cristóbal Lebrón against the governor in April 1521: a royal decree, dated April 11, 1521, in Burgos, assigned the position of Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of Hispaniola to Cristóbal Lebrón, replacing Rodrigo de Figueroa, who

Tomb of Giovanni Geraldini in the Cathedral of Santa Firmina in Amelia. © Andrea Vierucci

Battista Geraldini’s palace on Duomo street in Amelia. © Andrea Vierucci

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The Bell Tower (also known as the Civic Tower) of the Cathedral of Santa Firmina in Amelia. © Andrea Vierucci

was suspended and subject to disbarment proceedings.14 The royal decree to Admiral Diego Colón, viceroy and governor of Hispaniola, states “that here [in Spain], Hon. Figueroa’s poor governance on the island has been made known. Therefore, Cristóbal Lebrón shall be dispatched to take over his positions. He is thus endorsed and shall be supported and assisted in these proceedings.”15 It is not surprising if one considers the bishop of Santo Domingo’s various initiatives as pastor an ideological contradiction or, worse still, “good preaching and penance” (to the point that Jesús Paniagua and Carmen Vázquez even believe that some of the passages of Itinerarium could have been interpolated).16 However, his ideological swings are easily explained in terms of the specific needs of the day-to-day operation of such a troubled diocese. Geraldini’s attitude toward the phenomenon of slavery is at least binary (theory/praxis), if not even “plural.” This is demonstrated by what he claims within a very short space in two passages at the beginning of book XII of Itinerarium: in XII 3, the bishop criticizes the inhabitants of Guinea for selling their relatives to foreign merchants, yet in XII 9, he says that there are captured African sailors in the hold of his ship.

Christian solidarity and the rejection of gratuitous violence were coupled with economic and logistical needs. It is one thing to force the indigenous peoples to work (underpaid), but another to starve or kill them for no reason. The cry of pity and anger of the first resident bishop of the Americas still seems to resonate (Itin.

XVI 25): “I add, Your Holiness [Pope Leo X], that for nothing more than to satisfy their abominable lust, they kidnapped children from the wombs of miserable mothers, citing some pretext; and with inexorable violence, in front of their own mothers, they beat them against a beam or a stone, and they killed there and then what they wanted from the mothers who were still wailing.”

The words of Francisco Ozoria Acosta, Archbishop of Santo Domingo, are emblematic. During the Te Deum held at the cathedral on September 19, 2019, as part of the events taking place for the quincentennial of Geraldini’s arrival in the Americas, he underscored how the Italian bishop was influential in the founding of the Church, not only in Santo Domingo or Hispaniola, but in its birth, its true baptism throughout the Americas. As Geraldini himself imagined (ep. 19.21), inscribing on the walls of “his” cathedral, from that moment on, “the mighty gods defeated by Pope Leo X, and sent from the equatorial region by Bishop Alessandro Geraldini, are now silent; but, they once spoke.”

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Appendix 1 Santo Domingo, July 6, 1520 Rodrigo de Figueroa to Emperor Carlos V ed.: Collection of unpublished documents, taken from the Real Archivo de Indias, I (Madrid, 1864) 418–419.

“Here we have infinite anger and prejudice toward the Royal Court because of the many and very unjust excommunications that officials of the cathedral churches have placed on the justices, since they do not have a leader. It would behoove the Archbishop of Seville to have an official here to whom we could turn.

“Bishop Geraldini, who [we have] here, is completely useless: his understanding is no better than that of a child. At ten o’clock one night, I went out to mediate between his vicar and clergymen who were sparring with the crusade officials over a prisoner, and because I did not allow him to ring the bells and gather his minions, and I punished the person that he was condemning, he is complaining about me.

“The Diocese of La Vega has gone astray because the bishop is not here, and there is an idiot vicar, a misguided man named Juan de Santa María, brother of a blacksmith here. He only cares about making money.

“Here all are ready for contempt and resistance against justice with weapons. In order to comply, I have had to threaten to send prisoners to his superior, and to cancel their wages and other forms of penance. I am sure they have complained about me.”

ENDNOTES 1 The first bishop of Concepción de la Vega was Pedro Suárez de Deza, also the first to arrive on the island of Hispaniola, probably around 1514. Suárez de Deza was also the only bishop of this diocese, which was eliminated and merged with the diocese of Santo Domingo in 1527.

2 The Diocese of Bayuna was a short-lived diocese (1504–1511) of the Spanish Antilles, headquartered in Lares de Guahaba. It was founded on November 15, 1504 and was subordinate to the Archdiocese of Seville. It was eliminated on August 8, 1511, and its only bishop was transferred to the Diocese of Santo Domingo.

3 Alfonso Manso, his fellow countryman and bishop-elect of Magua, was reassigned to the Diocese of Puerto Rico, and Pedro Suárez de Deza, bishop-elect of Hyaguata, was reassigned to the Diocese of Concepción de la Vega.

4 The updated biographies of Alessandro Geraldini can be found in: Alessandro Geraldini, et al., Dall’Umbria Al Mediterraneo e All’Atlantico: Alessandro Geraldini, Itinerarium Ad Regiones Sub Aequinoctiali Plaga Constitutas (Genoa: Università Di Genova, 2017) 9–36; and Edoardo D’Angelo, Alexandri Geraldini Amerini Varie Epistolae XXVI Necnon Orationes IV (Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per Il Medioevo, 2018) vii–XXXVIII. From these two works, the citations from Itinerarium Ad Regiones Sub Aequinoctiali Plaga Constitutas are indicated as (Itin.), the epistles as (ep.), and the prayers as (pr.).

5 “Nombramiento obispo Santo Domingo: Alejandro de Geraldini” (Seville: Archivo General de Indias, 1516) Patronato, 1.N.14.R.1. This bull was published in the Proceedings of the Santo Domingo Conference held September 17–18, 2019.

6 The importance of education in this new diocese is also illustrated by ep. 17, in which Alessandro Geraldini asks Charles V for the authority to appoint the cathedral’s teaching administration.

7 Geraldini’s niece Elisabetta was the daughter of his brother Constantino. Her husband’s name is unknown.

8 Rodrigo de Figueroa’s appointment is signed by the king in Zaragoza on December 1, 1518: (Seville: Archivo General de Indias, 1518) Indiferente General, 419, L.7, f.801v–803r.

9 By order of Cardinal Cisneros, resident judge of Santo Domingo Alonso de Zuazo accompanied the commission of the Order of Saint Jerome in order to manage and document relations between Europeans and indigenous peoples in the Americas (Seville: Archivo General de Indias, December 1516) Indiferente General, 419.1.6, p. 606rv. Upon Cisneros’s death, Rodrigo de Figueroa was sent to examine the work, and Zuazo was forced to go to Cuba, being replaced by Figueroa.

10 In June 1515, Cristoforo Lebrón di Quiñones (Seville: Archivo General de Indias, 1515, S. Domingo, 13.n.19) was appointed resident judge of the Real Audiencia de Santo Domingo by Diego Colombo, who left office in 1516 when the Girolamini commission was appointed by Cisneros. On April 11, 1521 (under the second viceroyalty of Diego Colombo), Lebrón was again appointed judge: (Seville: Archivo General de Indias) Indiferente General, 420.l.8, f.280r.

11 Identification of this figure: D’Angelo, Alexandri Geraldini 141.

12 Tisnés, Alessandro Geraldini, op. cit., 222.

13 http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=figueroa-rodrigo-de.

14 Council of the Indies, Burgos, April 4, 1521: (Seville: Archivo General de Indias, 1521) Indiferente General, 420, L.8, f.287r– 287v. Fine modulo 15 Council of the Indies, Burgos, April 4, 1521: (Seville: Archivo General de Indias, 1521) Indiferente General, 420, L.8, f.287r– 287v. Fine modulo 16 González Vázquez, et al., 2009, 70–71.

• CHAPTER 6

From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

“The Itinerarium ad regiones sub Equinoctiali plaga constitutas” (Itinerary) of Alessandro Geraldini d’Amelia

By Edoardo D’Angelo Professor of Medieval Latin Philology at the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa

and Rosa Manfredonia Professor

lessandro Geraldini was born in Umbria, in Amelia (Terni province), presumably in 1455. His mother, Graziosa (daughter of Matteo), already a widow, hailed from the prestigious Amelian family of the Geraldini; his father was Pace Bossetano, but Alessandro preferred to keep the more prestigious maternal surname. After a childhood and adolescence spent at Amelia, he studied under the guidance of the famous teacher Grifone d’Amelia.

Sometime around 1475, Geraldini left Italy for Spain, specifically Barcelona, ​​where his uncle Angelo and brother Antonio (older by a few years) served as diplomats and intellectuals at the Aragonese Court. Under the guidance of the two, young Alessandro begins a career that will lead to considerable satisfaction (but also bitter disappointment). Alessandro accompanied his brother on numerous diplomatic missions to European sovereigns on behalf of the Aragonese King John II, and afterward his heirs, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, whose marriage would in fact lead to the union of the two Iberian crowns. In the late spring of 1477, for example, Alessandro accompanied Antonio on a delicate diplomatic mission to Sicily, with the aim of carrying out the orders and directives of King John II related to the tangle of events that had taken place on the island and in Sardinia, after the revolt of Alagona and the comportment of Viceroy of Sicily Giovanni Raimondo III Folch de Cardona; these events were not exactly in line with the policies which had been established in Barcelona. Alessandro continued with his brother on missions to the rulers of Burgundy, Florence, and Brittany.

In the mid-1480s, the two brothers were most often in Italy, where they were also able to look after their business concerns in Amelia. During this time, Antonio was particularly active in Rome, which had evolved into the most important reference point based on its rising importance, being at those times increasingly the center of a complex and delicate political game and including the particularly active and enterprising role of the Church. This was probably the peak of Antonio’s exceptional career. In September 1486, he served as the spokesman for the Spanish legation that accompanied the Count of Tendilla, ambassador of Ferdinand and Isabella, in a visit to Pope Innocent VIII to seek peace between the Pope and King Ferdinand I of Naples, and to swear allegiance of the Catholic monarchs to the pope. The speech delivered on this solemn occasion comprises one of Antonio’s published works, and is recalled in one of Alessandro’s nostalgic letters many years later.

By March 1487, the two Geraldini brothers were back in Spain. During the following year, Antonio’s sudden and untimely death occurred. This sad event, remembered by Alessandro in terms that expressed his devastation, paradoxically created greater paths by forcing him to take direct action. Beginning in 1493, he was appointed guardian of several Spanish and non-Spanish princesses: Isabel de Trastámara, who married an heir to the throne of Portugal; Maria of Aragon, queen consort of Portugal; Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England; and Margherita, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I of the Habsburgs. Alessandro, we have dis-

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covered, also engaged in pedagogical activity: he was the author of a transcribed epigram found in an anthology by Pere Carbonell, the well-known Catalan humanist, in which he praises the beauty of the writings of the notary from Barcelona. The author of the epigram is presented as follows: “Alessandro Geraldinus, Ferrandi filiarum Hispaniae regis praeceptor egregius.”

These were the years when Alessandro Geraldini first came into contact with Christopher Columbus. In truth, the extent of this relationship and the actual importance of Geraldini’s role in the business affairs of the Genoese explorer are far from clear: Geraldini stated that he had greatly influenced the sovereigns in their favorable judgment of the admiral. Columbus, meanwhile, never mentioned Alessandro Geraldini in his writings. However, Geraldini was present at the famous Capitulations of Santa Fe, in the first months of 1492, and tells us (Itin. XIV 10 - 15) that they maintained, in contradiction with the doctrine of Saint Augustine and Nicholas of Lyra, that it was indeed possible, according to the experiences of Portuguese navigators, that human beings lived beyond the “Torrid Zone” (i.e., the southern hemisphere). Their argument was based on the fact that while both Augustine and Nicholas of Lyra had been great theologians, they nonetheless had little knowledge of geography.

(Itin. XIV 10 - 15) [He went to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who, in turn moved by the authority of such a distinguished man], sent for Columbus. When the great men of the Court met in a few days in Council, the opinions were divided to the point that some Spanish Bishops considered him a heretic, because, according to Nicholas of Lyra, the entire structure of the human Earth, which extended over the sea from the Fortunate Islands to the East, had no sides that bend at the bottom of the sphere, and Saint Augustine had affirmed that there was no Antipodes. Then I, fortunately a young man who was retained, went to Diego de Mendoza, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, an illustrious man for his lineage, integrity, prudence, knowledge of things, and for all his moral attributes of a clear nature, telling him that while Nicholas of Lyra had been a most excellent expositor of Theology, and Augustine a man exalted for his doctrine and holiness, but that, nevertheless, they had known nothing of Cosmography since the Portuguese had gone to the lower parts of the other hemisphere so that they had discovered, after leaving our Arctic, the other Antarctic, beneath the other pole; and they had found the entire Torrid Zone filled with villages and had seen new stars on the axis of the Antipodes.

Luis de Santángel, the Valencian treasurer, then asked Columbus what sum of money and how many ships were necessary for such a long navigation. Which, as he replied that 3,000 doubloons of gold and two ships and the other immediately stated that he wished to undertake this expedition himself and also provide that sum, Queen Isabella, with that greatness of soul that was natural to her, most liberally assigned the ships, the crew and the money needed to discover a new world for humanity.

Later, Columbus, aware of the help he had received, bestowed the name of the Geraldini brothers’ mother, Graziosa, on one of the islands (Bequia, in the archipelago of the Grenadines, in the Lesser Antilles) discovered on his third voyage along the Venezuelan coast.

Cover of the book

by Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Itinerario por las regiones subequinocciales (Itinerary through the Subequinoctial Regions) by Alessandro Geraldini. © Library of the Academia Dominicana de la Historia

Opening page: Graciosa Island. Paolo Forlani, Descrittione di tutto il Perù (Description of All of Peru), Venice 1564, pl. 87 (Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale, Collection 71.6.G.3). © Edoardo D’Angelo

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A decisive turning point in the adventurous life of Geraldini involved the fate of one of his royal students, Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), promised to the son of King Henry VII of England: Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Geraldini accompanied his pupil to England, arriving at Plymouth on October 2, 1501.

He also participated in the negotiations for the marriage and the organization of the nuptial ceremonies in his position as senior chaplain to the princess (ep. 6 “In tanto rerum”); the wedding was celebrated in November 1501. Geraldini accompanied the royal couple to Ludlow Castle in Wales. But on April 2, 1502, Prince Arthur suddenly died, with major consequences for political and diplomatic relations between the two monarchies.

The two powerful dynasties, which were interested in a political alliance through marriage, devised a second marriage for the Spanish Infanta in England—with Arthur’s younger brother, Henry. However, there was the obvious problem of canonical legitimacy for such a marriage between in-laws. A particularly pivotal point of the law revolved around the question of the actual consummation of the marriage between Arthur and Catherine: if this had not in fact occurred, the Spanish princess could be married to Arthur’s brother (the future Henry VIII). The position adopted by Geraldini in determining such consummation contrasted with the political lines drawn by the Spanish Crown and the Tudors, both of whom were interested in proceeding with Catherine’s second English wedding. Having taken possession of a letter from Geraldini to the Spanish ambassador to England, Rodrigo de Puebla, the Spanish sovereigns sought the immediate repatriation of the princess’s chaplain (June 1502). Catherine herself, seen as being hampered by her tutor and confessor, but strongly supported by her lady-in-waiting, Elvira Manuel, soon developed a feeling of severe hostility toward Geraldini.

This imbroglio involving English affairs, combined with the even more politically disastrous death of his main patron, Queen Isabella, forced Geraldini into a period of waiting and apprehension. Later, however, he seemed to have found a foothold in the court of Ferdinand, who assigned him a bishopric, although a secondary one, in the then-Spanish viceroyalty of Naples. The first document attesting to the appointment of Geraldini as bishop of Vulturara e Montecorvino (in the province of Foggia) dates from 1507. However, as was typical among bishops of the time, Geraldini actually remained only a short time in this diocese, which, all the same, was of little importance.

Perhaps it was through this rapprochement with the sovereign that Ferdinand hoped to send Geraldini back, in 1509, to England, to arrange Caterina’s second marriage with Henry VIII, a marriage to which, as mentioned, Alessandro had been an obstacle some years prior (ep. 5.13 and 6.5-8). However, for a couple of years, the Dominican friar Diego Fernández had already become the Queen’s confessor, whom Geraldini paints in very dark colors (ep. 5.17-18). Thus, despite the immense diplomatic travails and the inevitable consecrated marriage, he was forced to return to Spain “sine ullo honore.” This was one of the greatest crises of his life: Catherine, obviously quite hostile toward her former chaplain and guardian, decided not to pay him any of his accumulated back wages, thus throwing Geraldini into a veritable whirlwind of debt. There are numerous letters sent by Alessandro complaining of the ungrateful and “inhuman” behavior of his former student.

Writing to her second husband, Henry VIII of England, he says: (ep. 6.60 – 78) 60. Now ... I shall attend to the cruel work of those kings, who deny due respect and honor to those who have made long dispatches in the house, whose coexistence was long in the same court and in the same room as the master’s own work. As with the educator’s work, which took place in the queen’s innermost abode. 61. And I dare to openly affirm that those who do these things are devoid of all humanity, have nothing to do with virtue, have nothing worthy of real greatness; and that, if they do something good, it will clearly be a trick, either to seek praise or to avoid hatred entirely with a lie. 62.

In fact, how could it happen that kings, who have lived, from early childhood, according to the best human education, and who were raised in a great environment full of wisdom, could commit such wickedness, unless they are in fact wicked in nature, ? and corrupt? 63. They perceived that the teach-

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er’s love, they perceived that the educator’s affection was superhuman: the institutors extended, the preceptors extended a much greater affection than the parents during the entire course of childhood, during all of childhood [and into] adolescence, from his very own lips. 64. During all the time it was necessary to lead a life directed toward the light, the eternal acolytes, the eternal accomplices, the companions with the most proven fidelity: if they send them to ruin when they grow up, if they have a clearly hostile spirit toward them, what should we say, except that they have human characteristics, but in fact they are fierce monsters? 65. Monsters much worse than Procrustes himself, who, having put a bed under the guests, stretched out their mutilated bodies, if they were longer than the bed, and if they were smaller, he stretched them by rope, he stretched them! 66. I say that they are creatures worse than the tyrant Sini, who tied the men’s bodies to bend the trees and immediately threw them up with a single push, and scattered them everywhere in various pieces with incredible velocity. 67.

They, in fact, hardened themselves against their guests: these princes, who live with that cruel purpose in life, become angry against very trustworthy men, against the most beloved affections, against the people who should be treated with complete love and with complete responsibility, and clearly show how horribly their minds think. 68. I say that they have routed the tyrant Busiris in sheer cruelty of spirit; they are equal to Diomedes of Thrace and Theomantis, and they overcome all the monsters of Pisa, in Elide, whose crimes finally ended by a fierce death. 69. But they might object that these guardians did something that the princes regretted. 70. But what can a teacher do, who must be forgiven, unless treason clearly demonstrated? 71. This is called using the riddle of the Sphinx, the Theban monster, to kill a man. 72. I have performed my services for twenty-two years for a very prosperous king; I was appointed teacher, and absolutely appreciated by her mother, the most excellent Queen Isabella, for whom I fulfilled all the main duties; and in the end, every punishment, every evil, every form of cruelty was perpetrated against me, every cruelty against the most excellent, the pious and the holy; I, on the other hand, am drawn to an unjust fate. 73. Rise up, eminent king of nature, for the sublime goodness of nature from which you have become prosperous: because he is wicked, since my youth was spent under the authority of the queen, and who now, with my weakened body, has gone to foreign kings, foreign princes, and distant kingdoms of Europe. 74. I do not beseech the benefits that teachers have; I pray, plead and resign, that they have given me a home for my old age; I pray that I may be buried in your land and, if these things do not move you, you will move the penalty that corresponds to a great king. 75. In general, the great emperors of the time when virtues had their place in the state, were given the name of Pius by the Senate and the people, and enjoyed an existence filled with glory and devotion. 76. I hope you are moved by these miserable letters, in which I have attempted as if I were a child. 77. In fact, all the princes who once distinguished themselves by some dominion or made use of some excellent virtue of the spirit, loved the letters and were attracted to them with great commitment everywhere, men known for their erudition also in the most remote corner of the world. 78. In fact, the same kings, the same centuries, the same world, without this illustrious category of men, without any education, completely succumbed.

Alessandro’s greatest aspiration was to emerge from debt and spend the last part of his life serenely. And thus, the occasion arose when, at the end of 1515, the diocese of Santo Domingo, in the New Spanish World, became vacant: on December 6, the first bishop, Francisco García de Padilla, died—but without ever having fully occupied the position; this situation was due to the opposition of King Ferdinand, who, until the rights of the Spanish Crown over the American dioceses were properly regulated, implemented a kind of passive resistance in this regard. With the support of his former student Margaret of Habsburg, and after the new sovereign, Charles V (King Ferdinand died on January 23, 1516), assumed the throne, the procedure for officially presenting Alessandro to Pope Leo X (son of Lorenzo de Medici of Florence) as bishop of Santo Domingo was implemented. Alessandro Geraldini officially promoted his candidacy for the important diocese in ep. 26,

“THE ITINERARIUM AD REGIONES SUB EQUINOCTIALI PLAGA CONSTITUTAS” OF ALESSANDRO GERALDINI D’AMELIA

Española Island. Paolo Forlani, Descrittione di tutto il Perù (Description of All of Peru), Venice 1564, pl. 72 (Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale, collection 71.6.G.3). © Edoardo D’Angelo

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addressed to the pontiff himself (June 1516: the papal bull was issued the following November 6). Actually, it was in Rome that most of the New World designations were decided, and Geraldini was an outspoken supporter of the pope, as is evidenced in his correspondence.

The economic, political, social, and religious potential of the Spanish colonies of the New World were limitless, and Geraldini was fully aware that a new Church was to be built there, both spiritually and materially. The diocese of Santo Domingo had only been created in 1504, by Pope Alexander VI, with the bull Illius fulciti praesidio, and its rights were defined, especially with regard to the Spanish Crown, only by Julius II in 1510 with the bull Eximiae devotionis. In the Spanish Indies there were three dioceses, which were under the direction of Seville: in addition to Santo Domingo, there was Concepción de la Vega (also on the island of Hispaniola) and Puerto Rico. Family lineage, a solid education and culture, and political and diplomatic experience gained over decades of work for the Spanish court and for the papal Curia made Alessandro Geraldini fully prepared for the task. He himself felt that that role might lead him to become the organizer of the entire New World Church.

The potential benefits, which we might understand as professional, of course, also coincided with financial ones: the idea of ​​El Dorado, of the unlimited wealth of the Indies, is certainly one of the factors that may have impelled Geraldini to his courageous decision. The enormous latitude presented by a newly created ecclesiastical organization give him the opportunity to surround himself with trustworthy figures, particularly relatives and close collaborators. Thus, in 1517, he sent two men from among his close confidants to Hispaniola: his direct nephew Onofrio (Geraldini), an Amelian clergyman, as episcopal vicar (ep. 1, 2 and 22) and the servant Diego del Río, of the clergy of Segovia, having them accepted as canons of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. Along with these, his niece Isabella (daughter of his brother Costantino) and her husband (ep. 18) also arrived in Hispaniola. Another distant nephew, Andrea Geraldini, also appeared in the Americas: in 1519, his father Scipione claimed for another of his sons the canonry that was vacated by Andrea’s death, which occurred while he was serving the Rev. Bishop Alessandro, in Santo Domingo, “apud novas insulas.”

Aboard the ship that transported the bishop to the New World, there was the faithful Francisco Ribera, who knew the dialects of the Caribbean (“Ribera meus” as he is referred to in Itin. III 40), and, apparently, the African priest Rangaano, recommended to Geraldini by Naassamon, a priest of Barbazina in Western Africa, for his excellent knowledge of the Portuguese and tropical regions of Africa. And in February 1517, a royal decree addressed to the Viceroy of Hispaniola, Diego Columbus, to his lieutenant, and to the commissioned judges of the “Indies,” ordered the island’s authorities to deliver the income of the bishops to the two envoys (Onofrio and Diego), until the bishop had personally arrived on the island. However, Geraldini would not arrive at the diocese until two years later, in September 1519.

Geraldini’s attitude can be seen in how he understood his role as a bishop in pre-Tridentine terms, insofar as he was not in a hurry to assume his position. And this caused a stir among the commission of Hieronymite friars appointed by Cardinal Cisneros. The absence of bishops was one of the reasons why the Spaniards experienced so many difficulties in the New World. On July 22, 1517, a royal office urged the new bishop of Santo Domingo to delay no further in taking possession of the bishopric. The answer to these tensions is probably

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in ep. 1: the bishop was unable to immediately depart due to a commitment to preach the crusade by order of Pope Leo X. In those months between 1516 and 1517, Geraldini was in northern Europe paying a visit to various European capitals, by order of Leo X, in defense of the Christian cause against the Turks.

In Spain, the situation was somewhat tense. In the period between the death of King Ferdinand (January 1516) and the accession to the throne of the new sovereign, Charles V (Ferdinand’s grandson), the country was being run largely by Cardinal Cisneros, who felt impelled to conduct aggressive and despotic policies.

As for the situation in the New World, he attempted to counter the institution of indigenous enslavement quite forcefully (he also attacked the mismanagement of Christopher Columbus). Previously, he had organized a series of missionary expeditions, especially among the Franciscans, for the conversion of the natives (1500, 1502, and 1508), establishing a set of rules that would protect the well-being of indigenous peoples. Later, he tried to find a solution to the thorny problem of the encomiendas,1 and on November 1516 he sent a commission to Santo Domingo made up of three friars from the Order of Saint Jerome (Bernardino di Manzanedo, Luigi de Figueroa and Alfonso de Santo Domingo) with the task of reorganizing the indigenous peoples and administering the new territories.

However, this commission sparked opposition among the powerful officials who administered the Indies, as well as the encomenderos,2 so much so that the Hieronymite commission was forced to withdraw to Spain shortly after the summer of 1519. It was then that the investiture documents to officially present Geraldini to Pope Leo X as Bishop of Santo Domingo were quickly drafted.

Alessandro Geraldini was aware of all these difficulties. In a brief drafted and revised between 1519 and 1520, and addressed to the Council of the Crown (ep. 16), he requested the power to control the assignment of Christianized natives to the Spanish colonists, a key aspect for an economy that was entirely dependent on indigenous labor; the appointment of a presiding magistrate for the Real Audiencia (the highest political and judicial body in Santo Domingo); and the organization of education for the children of the caciques (traditionally the heads of the tribal communities in Latin America), already initiated by the Hieronymite friars. However, as indicated above, the Hieronymites had just departed from the island when Geraldini arrived, without being able to put a stop to the violence and abuses of the Spaniards against the indigenous people. Only the requests relating to the issues of education and canonical appointments were accepted by the Spanish authorities (for trusted persons). That same letter serves as a detailed and lucid report on a series of key points in the life and problems of Geraldini’s diocese, and the intuition that the problems stemmed above all from the kinds of Europeans who were arriving in the New World: “deterrimae pessimarum gentium illuviones” (ep. 16.13), i.e., “a flood of the worst criminals.” By the end of July 1519, he asked King Charles to provide adequate buildings for the Dominican diocese, because “ego episcopus nullum tugurium, nullum tegumen habeo”3 (ep. 20.5), while also demanding the 8000 ducats that King Ferdinand had intended for the construction of the cathedral, and which at that time were in the hands of the royal treasurer of Hispaniola, Miguel de Pasamonte. Several

Cover of Itinerario por las regiones subequinocciales (Itinerary through the Subequinoctial Regions) of Alessandro Geraldini. © Library of the Dominican Academy of History

“THE ITINERARIUM AD REGIONES SUB EQUINOCTIALI PLAGA CONSTITUTAS” OF ALESSANDRO GERALDINI D’AMELIA

Cover of Itinerario por las regiones subequinocciales (Itinerary through the Subequinoctial Regions) of Alessandro Geraldini. © Library of the Dominican Academy of History

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letters from these first months of 1519 were dispatched in search of funding to pay the debts that he contracted both in Italy and in Germany and England (ep. 12.2): even with the Vatican he had incurred debts, since he did not pay for the release of the papal bull.

Geraldini departed for Hispaniola from Cádiz on July 13, 1519, arriving in Santo Domingo on the following September 17 (ep. 7.11). The situation on the island was extremely difficult, and the newly arrived bishop immediately encountered all the complexities of his office. Economic and organizational problems overlapped with pastoral and spiritual difficulties—all of this in the absence of cooperation, whenever hostilities would arise, from the Spanish civil authorities. The pressing matter for the bishop was, above all, the absence of a cathedral. What existed was too small for the needs, both practical and symbolic, of the diocese, and not even a proper rectory existed. Geraldini worked diligently to find the necessary funding: between 1521 and 1523 he managed to initiate construction on a cathedral; however, the structure would not be completed until several years after his death.

The other great New World problem, particularly severe at the time of Geraldini’s arrival, involved the abuses and violence perpetrated by the Europeans against the indigenous inhabitants, which inevitably led to the decimation of this population. Furthermore, the situation was further aggravated in Hispaniola by the recent shift in Spain’s focus from the Caribbean islands to the hemispheric mainland, after the launch of Cortés’s Mexican colonizing enterprises. Furthermore, the two dioceses into which the territory of Hispaniola was divided, Santo Domingo and Concepción de la Vega, were tremendously poor, and to such a degree that Geraldini’s successor, Sebastiano Ramírez de Fuenleal, would fuse them under his mandate.

Geraldini’s position in favor of the indigenous people was the cause for great hostility and mistrust, which continued to be an issue among the Spanish authorities on the island, in particular the presiding judge of the Audiencia (1519-1520), Rodrigo de Figueroa.

It should be noted that the handwritten tradition of the Itinerarium indicates that there were no “interpolated” parts, as one scholar has suggested. The Itinerarium arrived in the way desired by the author. And the epistles also survived not interpolated, as shown in ep. 7 (the first written in Santo Domingo), which was transmitted in an almost identical way by two completely independent testimonials (the Borghesian manuscript I.215, and the copy present in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, Royal Patronage, 174.R.14).

In late spring of 1520, the threats and violent confrontations between Figueroa and Geraldini reach a pitch: in a letter dated May 1520 (ep. 25), Geraldini openly accused the de facto governor of having established a dictatorial regime on the island, one marked by true tyranny, with violence, injustices and theft committed daily against the natives and clergy of the Caribbean city. To defend himself, Figueroa wrote from Madrid, denouncing the limited capacities on the island, and even accusing the bishop of reasoning “like a child,” and in his own way recounting the memorable night that they spent as governor and bishop vehemently disput-

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ing each other on April 25, 1520. In truth, Figueroa was a controversial figure who had little empathy for the clergy, the indigenous people, those who criticized the Spanish officials, and the inhabitants in general of Santo Domingo. It is no coincidence that Charles V ended up sending him off to Cuba. In one truly terrifying section of the Itinerarium, Geraldini denounces the often-gratuitous violence which the Spaniards meted out on the indigenous peoples.

Itin. XVI 24-25 And I add, in God’s immortal name—in fact, since I was a child, I have abhorred the rumors—that many of our Spanish men, who have nothing in common with nobility of the mind, when they wanted to test whether the blade of the swords was sharp or dull, would cut a leg or arm or the naked bodies of those innocent men! I add, Your Holiness [Pope Leo X], that for nothing more than to satisfy their abominable lust, they kidnapped children from the wombs of miserable mothers, citing some pretext; and with inexorable violence, in front of their own mothers, they beat them against a beam or a stone, and they killed there and then what they wanted from the mothers who were still wailing.

Here we have the problem (not just historiographic) of Geraldini’s attitude toward the world of the “savages.” In general, it was believed that the “natives” could not govern themselves and could not be compared to Europeans. The revolt of the Taíno cacique Enriquillo, in the Bahoruco forest, ended up exacerbating the tensions between the two ethnic groups. Geraldini was a man of his time, a cultured humanist (even the acclaimed Greeks and Romans had been pagans), who showed a paternalistic ecumenical approach to the indigenous people of the Caribbean islands (in ep. 19.35 he referred to himself a “homo Latinus” in contrast to the “barbarians”). He was able, for example, to discern differences between one tribe and another, without inserting them all under one label. He described the Taíno people in the Itinerarium as a peaceful and innocent population, torn from their happiness by the arrival of the Europeans, and who suffered from material and ethical misery that pushed them to forms of collective suicide, while attributing to the most aggressive Caribs the egregious practice of cannibalism.

Itin. XIII 1-5 Now, Most Holy Father, I must return to my journey. Three days after leaving the Island that bears my mother’s name, I arrived most tempestuously at the island of Caruqueria, which Columbus had previously called Guadalupe, in honor of the Monastery of Guadalupe, in Spain, well known throughout Iberia, where given the sign of peace from the Caribs, our sailors disembarked for provisions. At such juncture, as many leaders of this race of cruel people came to the ship to see me, I refused to receive such criminal and infamous men, and through Ribera, I exhorted them to leave such a life.

Because, as the lion respects the lion, and the bear, the bear, and as the tiger does not devour the tiger, and the snake lives in utmost harmony with the snake, and each and every animal with those of its kind, even though totally lacking in judgment, it was an abominable thing that the Carib people, being men, committed crimes from which even the brutes would abstain. And being that every person with a good heart refuses to kill harmless animals, it is something nefarious that with nothing sacred they can expiate themselves or with any human influence justify themselves, that the Carib people cannot retract from killing human beings, in order to lengthen, with repeated bites of meat from fattened boys or men, the day of their racial feasts or any other day of revelry.

Conversely, he never hesitated, as has been already noted, to firmly condemn the atrocities committed by the Spaniards against them. From his standpoint, four peoples coexisted in the New World: the fierce Caribs, the mythic Taíno, the Europeans, and the African blacks (Ethiopes). And in none of these (except, perhaps, the last), does there appear to be a trace of the “slave by nature” type of the Aristotelian conception, which

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was also widely used during the sixteenth century to give a philosophical justification for the conquest of the Americas. However, despite having problematic and non-dogmatic opinions, to the point of sometimes being self-contradictory, it is also true that he did not view the founding of the American Church as some momentous occasion of spiritual rebirth for the Church and the entire world, a unique moment of palingenesis.

Purification of corruption and ecclesiastical malpractice: “paradise is lost,” as Teresa Cirillo Sirri writes. Like Geraldini, Pope Leo X was convinced that the state of crisis and the grave danger that hung over the Church pertained exclusively to Turkish conquests. He realized that the problems gradually raised by Wycliff († 1384), Huss († 1415), by Savonarola himself († 1498) did not end in conflagration, nor in interception, even in those years in Northern Europe, with the rising star of Luther (1517): he intended to reiterate in the New World the model of the nepotistic and worldly Church of Renaissance Rome. America was certainly an opportunity but mainly to find gold to fund the crusade.

Alessandro Geraldini died in Santo Domingo on March 8, 1524 (at the age of 69), and his tomb is still located in the cathedral, and not “inter ipsa incognitorum martyrum sepulcra”4 in Rome, as he expected (ep. 5.44).

As prophetically anticipated, instead, his final resting place is captured in the ode “Per mare ueliuolum”: “I shall never return to the Latin land, where my ancestors rest and the bones of my dear mother lie covered in the whitest of marble.”

Alessandro Geraldini was an extremely prolific writer. We have been able to reconstruct 22 texts from various sources. Seven have reached us in their entirety, or approximately 34% of the Geraldinian production.

These include the Itinerarium ad regiones sub Equinoctiali plaga constitutas, various poems with religious themes, odes, 26 epistles, four orations, one hagiography (Vita Alberti Montis Coruini episcopi), and a biography of the popes. His additional (lost) production is often linked to his activities as preceptor and teacher, as with De institutione nobilium puellarum, and De quantitate syllabaria; to his diplomatic career, as with De officio principis, and Vita Catharinae Angliae reginae; or to his intellectual pursuits as a humanist, as with Elogia virorum illustrium, De Latii et Romae laudibus and Monumenta antiquitatum Romanarum.

ENDNOTES Contracts used by the Spanish Crown to grant Indios in usufruct (not in property) and for a time limited to the encomenderos (Spaniards who moved to the Indies), who had the burden of organizing their lives, educating them and Christianizing them, 1

but also the power to exploit them.

2 See note 1.

3 Even I, as a bishop, have no lodging, nor even a roof over my head.

4 Among the sepulchers of unknown martyrs.

The ceremony of the Te Deum for the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident bishop in the Americas, Alessandro Geraldini, in the First Cathedral of America, was officiated by the Metropolitan Archbishop Monsignor Francisco Ozoria, September 19, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

• CHAPTER 7

Homily Given to Commemorate the Quincentennial of the Arrival of the First Resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor (First Cathedral of the Americas), September 17, 2019

By Monsignor Francisco Ozoria Archbishop of Santo Domingo

ear Brothers and Sisters, On this day, September 17, we commemorate the quincentennial of the arrival in our country of the first resident Bishop for the Diocese of Santo Domingo: Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini.

During this commemoration, we wish to give thanks to the Lord for the present Archdiocese of Santo Domingo and for the episcopal ministry of this devoted priest.

The first bishop appointed was Francisco García de Padilla, a Franciscan who, nonetheless, never set foot on Dominican soil.

Because the work of the illustrious son of Amelia, Italy, was so prolific, and since it would take considerable time to adequately summarize it, even if only in broad strokes, I shall focus on two aspects of the life of the prelate in question: Geraldini the Ecclesiastical Diplomat and Geraldini the Priest.

However, let me briefly refer to him as an author and master, and as well as ambassador of the Church.

He wrote twenty works in classical Latin, twenty-four books of religious verses, a Life of Saint Benedict, and a Thematics referring to the education of the time.

Geraldini the Ecclesiastical Diplomat Although officially transferred by Pope Leo X in 1516 from the diocese in Vulturaria and Monte Corvino in Italy to the Bishopric of Santo Domingo, Geraldini would spend a considerable amount of time and accomplish many things in Europe before traveling to his new home in the Americas. Most of this activity related to diplomatic missions.

This can be deduced from his role as papal ambassador or legate in seventeen countries in Europe at the behest of Ferdinand the Catholic, Elizabeth of Castile, Margaret of Parma, Emperor Maximilian I of Germany, Henry VIII of England, and Pope Leo X himself.

He alludes to this extensive work in a letter to Cardinal Lucio Puccio, written from Santo Domingo: “The work of my long pilgrimage through Belgium and England, in addition to those past discomforts in navigating the great ocean from the British Isles to Cádiz, have been the reason why I have long ago forgotten about myself.”

Geraldini’s last endeavor was his trip to Ethiopia, which was little short of traveling to the Indies, even if unknown seas were not crossed along the way.

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The ceremony of the Te Deum for the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident bishop in the Americas, Alessandro Geraldini, held in the First Cathedral of the Americas, September 19, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Geraldini the Priest Taking into consideration the human and intellectual qualities that various authors have attributed to Alessandro Geraldini, it is not surprising that he was successful in all career paths he followed, and that, inclined toward the ecclesiastical, he was appointed in a short period of time as Bishop of Vulturara e Monte Corvino in Italy in 1496, a position that he was occupying in 1516 when appointed to the Bishopric of Santo Domingo.1 A first element that points to the priestly qualities of Bishop Alessandro Geraldini is that, upon learning of his appointment as Bishop of Santo Domingo, he asked the Pope to release him from his duties in the Diocese of Vulturara so that he might devote his energies to governing his new diocese. At this point it is striking that an Italian bishop, with considerable prestige in the European courts, including the Pontifical, would prefer a miter in a world yet unknown, thereby renouncing the advantages of his position and relations in the world that was known, and in which he was already a renowned figure.

A second element that I believe supports my understanding about the priestly calling of my predecessor can be found in the sermon which he gave upon his arrival in Santo Domingo. It is a truly spiritual text well worth studying and one in which Bishop Geraldini is revealed as a man quite ahead of his time. In it, he speaks of priestly stewardship, which goes hand in hand with another element proper to the pastor, namely a zeal or fervent interest in each and every member of the diocesan family.

Priestly zeal is certainly an element that we find in Geraldini. Only his zeal for the priesthood could have motivated him to leave Europe and venture to a new land to assume his role among the pioneering evangelizers of the Americas.

His crowning achievement, within this framework of priestly zeal, was his interest in building a cathedral worthy of the name. In this regard, it is worth remembering what he wrote to some of his friends, including Pope Leo X, possibly shortly after arriving at the diocese in Santo Domingo:

HOMILY GIVEN TO COMMEMORATE THE QUINCENTENNIAL OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST RESIDENT BISHOP OF SANTO DOMINGO

Te Deum for the 500th anniversary Geraldini.

From left: Alba María Cabral, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Italy; Miguel Vargas Maldonado, Chancellor of the Dominican Republic; Cándida Montilla de Medina, First Lady; Roberta Canepari and Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Artist’s book ORIZZONTE by Alessandra Angelini about Bishop Alessandro Geraldini’s poetry dedicated to his mother. The lyric is Italian and Latin.

Intaglio and woodcut on cotton paper. Work done by the professor of the Academy of Brera (Milan) for the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Alessandro Geraldini and presented on November 12, 2020 at the international exhibition: Bookcity Milano.

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As my own people are located at the other axis of the world, and since they are located at one end where all the peoples of the equinoctial area converge, I beseech that I might be able to build a most remarkable church to Our Lady of the Annunciation, so that in it a Jubilee may be celebrated in accordance with Christian rites, and so that his Holiness might grant greater indulgences at any feast of the Blessed Virgin that occurs during the year, which may be reached not only by the inhabitants of this island of Hispaniola, but also by those of Cuba, San Juan, and of the great isles of the Americas and all those located under these skies.

However, Geraldini’s work in his short appointment was not limited to solely religious concerns. Like any true priest, he was an advocate for those he was entrusted to serve. The works in which he was interested, including the construction of a hospital, are examples of his concern for other aspects of human life, in addition to the religious ones.

In short, those authors who have dealt with Bishop Geraldini praise his actions and his determination; some even attest that he died in the scent of Holiness, because by the time the messenger of the Lord knocked on his door, making him aware that he must leave the temporal world for the imperishable, he had already planted the Gospel in the hearts of those entrusted to him.

I close this sermon by saying that I am tremendously blessed to be Bishop Alessandro Geraldini’s 50th successor.

Ave Maria Purissima

ENDNOTES 1 Due to various circumstances, he did not actually arrive in Santo Domingo until September, 1519; see Chapter 6.

The Apostolic Nunciature building of the Holy See in Santo Domingo, designed

by Italian architect Marco Redini and built in 1953 by Dominican architect Humberto Ruiz Castillo. © Giovanni Cavallaro

• CHAPTER 8

Italian Clergy and the Catholic Church: Biographical Summaries

By José Luis Sáez, S.J. Jesuit Priest

Fr. Leopoldo Angelo Baldassare Santanchè of Acquasanta, O.F.M. antanchè was the second apostolic vicar of Santo Domingo, serving from 1870 to 1874 and simultaneously exercising duties as apostolic delegate to Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Venezuela. He was born in Acquasanta Terme in the province of Ascoli Piceno, Italy on October 3, 1818 and was a member of the congregation of the reformed Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis. He was a professor of philosophy and theology in Pesaro and was later assigned to his order’s missions in Constantinople. He had been in Hispaniola for three years, although only to monitor the state of the Church, and was hiding away in a cell in the old Convento de las Mercedes. His true intentions were soon acknowledged, and he was appointed apostolic vicar on November 29, 1870. He was ordained as bishop in Curaçao on August 24, 1871, and in September of that year, he returned to Santo Domingo to take office. He visited nearly the entire Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, performing the Catholic sacrament of confirmation, as stated in the parish books. He did not disregard the Conciliar Seminary and, as a result of cultural influences, he criticized Freemasonry, even within the clergy, making him rather unpopular. Perhaps his boldest and most overt demonstration of authority, however, was the radical suppression of the Carmelite Order and his refusal to meet with the head of this order on March 23, 1872.

Upon leaving Santo Domingo on April 3, 1876, he visited Pope Pius IX in Rome and was appointed bishop of the Italian Diocese of Fabriano Matelica but still retained the title of archbishop. Seven years later, at sixty-five years of age, and having served twelve as bishop, he died in San Venanzio Cathedral in Fabriano on February 10, 1883.

Fr. Rocco Cocchia of Cesinali, O.F.M.Cap. Cocchia, who served as apostolic delegate to Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Venezuela, was born in Cesinali, Italy, in the Diocese of Avellino on April 30, 1830. At a young age, he entered the Salerno monastery of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He was a professor of literature at the Salerno and Amalfi seminaries in Campania and the author of an account of the Capuchin friars. He was also an adviser to the First Vatican Council, provincial superior of the region of Lucania, and attorney general of the Capuchin missions. Pope Pius IX appointed him both delegate and apostolic vicar of Santo Domingo in 1874. He was then immediately appointed titular bishop of the Diocese of Oropus on July 26, 1874, and was ordained in Rome by Cardinal Monaco La Valletta. He arrived in Santo Domingo on September 19 of that same year, facing opposition from both the

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press and the local clergy, who were unhappy with another foreigner reigning over the Dominican Church. He dealt with a challenging political climate in Venezuela, and on January 1, 1875, for the first time since Dominican independence, he established an Honorary Council of the Cathedral; the Council consisted of 15 members, all Dominicans. He made pastoral visits to at least nine parishes between 1875 and 1882. He upgraded the Conciliar Seminary and joyfully witnessed the discovery of Christopher Columbus’s true remains during the cathedral restoration work that he ordered. While lowering the altar in the sanctuary, two workers had stumbled upon the relics and notified the pastor, Fr. Francisco Billini. The momentous discovery of Columbus’s remains was highlighted by the apostolic vicar when Diocesan Synod IX—the second of the nineteenth century—took place May 12–19, 1878 (title II, art. XXIV).

Cocchia departed from the Dominican Republic, and on August 9, 1883, he was appointed archbishop of Otranto, Italy. He then became an internuncio in Brazil from 1884 to 1887, and finally, on May 27, 1887, archbishop of Chieti, Italy, a position he held until his death on December 19, 1901. Years later, his remains would be moved to San Rocco Church in his hometown of Cesinali.

During the bishop’s entire residency in the Dominican Republic, Fr. Bernardino di Milia, O.F.M.Cap., was secretary of the vicarage. In Cocchia’s absence, he became the chargé d’affaires of the apostolic delegation. He was born in Calitri in the province of Avellino in the Campania region of Italy on October 28, 1839. During his years as acting delegate, he assisted in such parishes as Baní (July–September 1878), Higüey (October–November 1879), and the cathedral (August 27, 1881).

Fr. Luis Romei, O.F.M.Cap., the acting pastor of Puerto Plata from 1875 to 1877 and of Altamira from 1877 to 1880, apparently also collaborated with Fr. Rocco Cocchia, most likely joining him on pastoral visits.

Ricardo Paolo Pittini Piussi, S.d.b.

Pittini was born in Tricesimo, Italy, in the province of Udine on April 30, 1876. At the age of twenty, he entered the Salesian Novitiate in Valsalice; however, before becoming a priest, he was sent to the mission in Uruguay. He was ordained in Montevideo on January 22, 1899 and worked there for twenty-eight years. He was also responsible for the Chaco mission in Paraguay, which was followed by the mission in the eastern United States, where he arrived on August 16, 1934, to establish the Salesian mission, and most importantly, a technical school. He suddenly changed course when Pope Pius XII, supported by the Trujillo administration, appointed him archbishop of Santo Domingo, which had previously been supervised by the last of three apostolic administrators. Although the Dominican clergy’s disapproval of the foreigner—coming from the United States at that time—was evident, he was ordained in the cathedral on December 8 of that same year. The consecrating bishops were the Dominican coadjutor archbishop, Luis A. de Mena; the archbishop of Port-auPrince; and the bishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He oversaw the archdiocese for 25 years, despite becoming almost totally blind in 1945. He maintained and significantly upgraded the Seminary, equipping it with better facilities and teaching staff. He also opened the first minor seminary—for youth interested in the priesthood— in Santo Cerro, La Vega, and entrusted its operation to the Jesuits. The most noteworthy achievement of his

Rocco Cocchia. © Courtesy of Monsignor Antonio Camilo

ITALIAN CLERGY AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES

The interior of the First Cathedral of the Americas. From right: Monsignor Ricardo Pittini, Monsignor Eliseo Pérez Sánchez and in the front row, first, Jacinto Bienvenido Peynado. © Archivo General de la Nación

Father Francesco Fantino Falco. © Archivo General de la Nación

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episcopate was the celebration of Diocesan Synod X—the first and only for a considerable part of the twentieth century—in April 1938. In 1945, weak and with severe eye issues, Pittini received an auxiliary bishop and a coadjutor archbishop who would succeed him. Fearing Trujillo’s menacing thirty-one-year dictatorship (his name appeared on the government’s blacklist that was issued on June 1 of that year), he was taken to a shelter in La Vega and died there on December 10, 1961. His funeral was held in the cathedral, and according to his wishes, his remains were then buried in the left nave of San Juan Bosco Church in Santo Domingo.

Fr. Giovanni Francesco Fantino Falco (1867–1939) Fantino, the fourth child of artisans Francesco Fantino and Chiara Falco, was born in Borgo San Dalmazzo in the Cuneo province of the Italian Piedmont on May 26, 1867. He studied at the elementary school in his hometown and then at the Episcopal Seminary of Cuneo until 1889, when he donned the cassock. He continued his studies at the Liceo Cuneo until July 19, 1891, when he entered the novitiate of the Vincentian Fathers—or Lazarists—of Chieri in Turin. However, he left the institution in search of a more challenging life and entered the Hermitage of the Benedictine Camaldolese of Frascati, near Rome, where he changed his name to Friar Arsenio. After only three months, he became dissatisfied and returned to the Vincentians. He then left them once again to join the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, or Trappists, of France.

Fantino never fully gave up his calling to a religious life, however, even when he had grown old and blind.

On September 20, 1937, he asked Fr. Auguste Cadoux, MSC, pastor of Sánchez at that time, to join the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Quebec; however, his request was denied. Since he was a member of the Third Order, the Franciscan habit was the only garment he ever wore—further evidence of his aspiration to always be among the religious.

Upon finishing his studies at the Pontifical Roman Athenaeum Saint Apollinare in Rome, Fantino was ordained a priest in St. John Lateran Basilica on December 19, 1896, by Msgr. Francesco di Paola Cassetta, titular Latin patriarch of Antioch and vicegerent to Cardinal Lucido Parocchi. Shortly after completing his studies and earning a doctorate in theology, Fantino traveled to Venezuela, where he became a professor at the diocesan

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seminary in Caracas until 1899. He then moved to the Dominican Republic, arriving on a Dutch schooner on November 8, 1899. His first assignment was assistant to Fr. Antonio Luciani, another Italian who had founded San Antonio Hospital in San Pedro de Macorís on the eastern end of the island. However, on March 12, 1900, he was assigned to the Conciliar Seminary of Santo Domingo—the former Palace of Borgellá—where he would then become prefect and chaplain of the cathedral.

On February 16, 1903, and for only a little over five months, he was assigned to the parish of Monte Cristi, where he taught Latin, French, and Spanish grammar at the public elementary school, although he was still not fluent in Spanish. In July 1903, he left voluntarily and moved to La Vega, where the establishment of a school was being planned despite the continual threat of civil war. The school, called Colegio San Sebastián, was provisionally opened on September 1, 1903, and enrollment grew quickly.

From 1904 to 1907, Fantino established the San Vicente de Paúl home and children’s school, in collaboration with the Sisters of Charity and the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly. In 1905, the chapel of Christ Crucified was added, and in 1919, he was transferred to Santo Cerro, La Vega, where he would remain until 1925, fostering a traditional devotion to Our Lady of Mercy and sponsoring a spiritual retreat for priests on September 7-11, 1919. Between 1925 and 1926, he was responsible for three parishes: Jarabacoa, La Vega, and Constanza. In 1926, he returned once again to Santo Cerro, where he remained until his death thirteen years later. He suffered an accident, collapsed, and died at San Antonio Hospital in San Pedro de Macorís on July 4, 1939. After being honored at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, he was buried that same day in the church of Santo Cerro.

Santo Cerro, where Father Francisco Fantino engaged in his pastoral work. © Edwin Espinal

ITALIAN CLERGY AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES

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Fantino’s assignments enabled him, however, to translate various ascetic works, including Preparation for Death by Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1913); Mater Amabilis by the French Carmelite Georges-Ephrem Duhaut (La Vega, 1916); Meditations, Soliloquies, and Manual by St. Augustine (La Vega, 1918); and Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today by Msgr. Louis Gaston Adrien de Ségur of France (1937). During his first residency in Santo Domingo, he founded the journal La Voz del Apostolado, the mouthpiece of the Apostleship of Prayer (March 7, 1901).

As a civilian, Fantino was named Adopted Son of La Vega on January 24, 1928, and awarded the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella, with knight status on November 8, 1935. As a clergyman, he was appointed honorary canon of the cathedral on August 14, 1926; perpetual honorary president of the Catholic youth association of La Vega on July 1, 1937; and domestic prelate of Pius XI on November 16, 1938.

On July 4, 1966, a statue in his honor was erected in the gardens of Cerro de Fula in La Vega, and a street was named after him in Ensanche Naco in Santo Domingo on July 3, 1971. Another statue had already been unveiled in Padre Fantino Park in La Vega on July 4, 1957. Msgr. Juan Antonio Flores, bishop of La Vega, initiated the formal process of Fantino’s beatification on September 26, 1988.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fr. Leopoldo Angelo Baldassare Santanchè Alfau Durán, Vetilio. El Derecho De Patronato En La República Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Editora Educativa Dominicana, 1975), 73–75.

Bello Peguero, Msgr. Rafael. Cofradía de Nuestra Señora del Carmen y Jesús Nazareno: 1592–1872. (Santo Domingo: Editora del Caribe, 1974).

Castillo, Lara. Personajes y sucesos venezolanos en el Archivo Secreto Vaticano (siglo XIX). Edited by Guillermo Lucas, vol. I (Caracas: Academia Nacional De La Historia, 1998).

Sáez, José Luis, S.J. El Vicario Apostólico Santanchè. “Hombres de Iglesia” Collection. No. 20 (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2009); Episcopologio de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo. (Santo Domingo, Editora Buho, 2011), 134-136.

Fr. Rocco Cocchia of Cesinali Alemar, Luis E. La Catedral de Santo Domingo (Barcelona: Editorial Araluce, 1936), 74–79.

Bello Peguero, Msgr. Rafael. Cabildo Honorario de la Catedral de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1986), 35–41.

Camilo González, Msgr. Antonio. “Fray Roque Cocchia, un obispo que conjuró a los incendiarios de Baní.” In Baní: Hombres y Tiempos (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1992), 179–184.

Lugo, Américo, “Los restos de Colón.” Escritos Históricos (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2009), 319–360.

Lluberes Navarro, Antonio, S.J. “La pobre iglesia dominicana: los vicarios apostólicos (1866–1884).” Breve Historia de la Iglesia Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1998), 109–113.

Synodi Dioecesanae Dominicopoleos: Acta et Statuta. S. Dominici, Ex Typis Fratrum García,1878.

Sáez, José Luis, S.J., Episcopologio de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo: 2011), 136–138.

Tejera, Emiliano. Los Restos de Colón en Santo Domingo y los Dos Restos de Cristóbal Colón,

rev. ed. (Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 1986), 23–33, 83–87.

Ricardo Paolo Pittini Piussi Belza, Juan Esteban, S.D.B., El pastor de los pobres y su mitra de plomo. Santo Domingo: ITESA, 1976.

Décimo Sínodo Diocesano de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo, celebrado bajo la Prelacía del Illmo. y Rvdmo. Señor Arzobispo Don Ricardo Pittini, en la Basílica Metropolitana, los días 20, 21 y 22 del mes de abril del año del Señor 1938. Ciudad Trujillo: Tipografía Franciscana, 1938.

Pittini, Msgr. Ricardo, S.D.B. Memorias salesianas de un arzobispo ciego. Buenos Aires: Editorial Poblet, 1949; Palabras de un ciego a los que ven. Ciudad Trujillo: ITESA, 1955.

Rodríguez de Coro, Francisco, S.D.B. Pittini, el arzobispo que se enfrentó a Trujillo. Guadalajara: La Buhardilla de Balzac, 2010.

Sáez, José Luis, S.J. Monseñor Pittini. “Hombres de Iglesia” Collection, no. 17. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2002; Episcopologio de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo, 2011, 108–110.

Fr. Giovanni Francesco Fantino Falco Camilo, Msgr. Antonio. El Padre Francisco Fantino y su aporte a la pastoral dominicana. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1999.

De Castro Noboa, Héctor. Canto a Fantino: Sinfonía gris, rev. ed.

La Vega: Sociedad Padre Fantino, 1979.

Gallego, Msgr. Felipe, S.J. Una gloria del sacerdocio: Vida del Reverendo Padre Francisco Fantino Falco. Santiago: Editorial El Diario, 1946.

Peña Durán, Eliseo. El Padre Santo del Santo Cerro: Sucinta Biografía del Padre Fantino. Santo Domingo: UASD, 1974.

Sáez, José Luis, S.J. El Padre Fantino. “Hombres de Iglesia” Collection no. 14. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1996; Padre Francesco Fantino Falco: Vita, missione, dono. Cuneo: Primalpe, 2009.

Sevez, François F., Jr. Bosquejo Biográfico del Padre Fantino. La Vega: Imprenta el Progreso, 1941.

• CHAPTER 9

Ricardo Pittini: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santo Domingo (1935-1961)

By Michael R. Hall, PhD Professor of Latin American History and U.S. Foreign Relations at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia

uring most of the exceptionally long Era of Trujillo (1930-1961), the Roman Catholic Church and the Trujillo dictatorship were engaged in a successful symbiotic relationship. For most of the dictator’s regime, the Church supported the regime, and the regime supported the Church. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo energetically cultivated an image of a devout Roman Catholic dedicated to preserving and expanding the influence of Catholicism in the Dominican Republic. The Church, which was not a large landholder in the Dominican Republic and lacked extensive economic resources, solicited and received extensive judicial and economic favors from the regime.

Despite its institutional and fiscal weaknesses, the Church “served as a factor of social and political cohesion to Dominican society” throughout history, historian Emelio Betances contends.1 Dependent on the support of the dictatorship, the Church, until near the end of the dictatorship, was quite pro-Trujillo and an ardent supporter of the dictatorship. According to political scientist Howard Wiarda, Italian-born “Archbishop Ricardo Pittini, especially, was outspoken in his praise of the Generalissimo.”2 Ricardo Paolo Pittini Piussi was born on April 30, 1876 in the small frazioni (the Italian name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a municipality) of Colgallo in the municipality of Tricesimo in northeastern Italy. Influenced by his deeply religious mother, Pittini had viewed the priesthood as his destined vocation since childhood.3 In 1887, he began preparing for the priesthood at the Udine diocesan seminary. In 1892, he went to Turin to study with the Selesians of St. John Bosco at Valsalice, their seminary for overseas missionary work, which was established by Italian priest Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco (commonly known as Don Bosco) in 1887.4 Pittini made his first profession of religious vows in 1893 and immediately departed for missionary work with the Salesians in Uruguay. The Salesians had been working in Argentina since 1875, Uruguay since 1876, and Chile since 1877. From Uruguay, the Salesians spread to Brazil in 1883 and to Paraguay in 1896. On January 22, 1899, Pittini was ordained a priest in Montevideo, Uruguay. From 1923 to 1927, he served as the Provincial (head) of Salesian activities in Uruguay and Paraguay. Much of his work involved the conversion and education of the Indians in Paraguay’s Chaco region.

Pittini was appointed Provincial of New Rochelle Province (New York) in 1927. According to fellow

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Salesian Philip Pascucci, although Pittini was a strong advocate of expanding Salesian educational opportunities in general, Pittini’s “great preoccupation as Provincial was vocations.”5 As soon as he took up his duties as Provincial in New Rochelle, Pittini realized that the educational facilities at St. Joseph’s House of Studies in New Rochelle were overcrowded and needed more space. Eventually, he decided upon a large farm with a five-acre lake, a mansion, and a small forest in Newton, New Jersey, which was purchased by the Salesians for $49,000 in 1928.6 Pittini unleashed a well-orchestrated fundraising campaign to raise the estimated $250,000 required to build a massive three-story, red-brick building that would be the center of Don Bosco College.7 In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Pietro Ricaldone, the fourth Salesian Rector Major (the head of all Salesian institutes worldwide), sent Pittini to establish Salesian schools in the Dominican Republic, which had been dominated by Trujillo’s regime since 1930. Trujillo rose to military power during the U.S. military occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916-1924), eventually becoming the leader of the U.S.-created National Guard. In an effort to consolidate his power, Trujillo sought to form a symbiotic alliance with the Church to legitimate his regime. On September 23, 1930, a few months after Trujillo took control of the government, the Vatican appointed Italian priest Giuseppe Fietta as papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Trujillo told Fietta: “The nexuses that unite the Holy See and the Dominican Republic are truly immortal. I will be personally and actively interested in consolidating these nexuses while I am in charge of the National Executive. I trust that your efforts will be fruitful under the protection and cooperation that my government will offer you.”8 Fietta praised the dictator for his relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Zenon, which hit the Dominican Republic in August 1930.9 Fietta, who served as papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Haiti until 1936, when he was assigned to Argentina, established a close working relationship with Trujillo that was beneficial to the Church.10 Pittini arrived in the Dominican port city of San Pedro de Macorís on August 16, 1933 and three days later met Trujillo in Santiago de los Caballeros. During their first meeting, Trujillo was favorably impressed by the conservative Italian priest who spoke Spanish and English fluently. When Archbishop of Santo Domingo Adolfo Nouel (1906-1935) resigned for health reasons, the Vatican nominated Pittini as the 47th archbishop of Santo Domingo on October 11, 1935. Dominican scholar Julio Rodríguez Grullón contends that Trujillo told Fietta he wanted the Vatican to nominate Pittini.11 Pittini was consecrated on December 8, 1935 by Archbishop of Puerto Príncipe Joseph-Marie Le Gouaze in Santo Domingo’s Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor. For the next twenty-six years, Pittini modernized and enlarged the Church in the Dominican Republic with Trujillo’s assistance.12 According to Dominican historian Frank Moya Pons, Trujillo provided the Church with more than $26 million to support its expanded activities.13 An essential component of this modernization process was establishing a large Salesian presence in the Dominican Republic. Decades after Pittini created the first Salesian institute on the island, Dominicans continue to benefit from the educational and social services provided by the Salesians. For example, the Instituto Agronómico y Técnico Salesiano/Salesian Agricultural and Technical Institute (IATESA) in La Vega currently enrolls more than 500 students. Pittini also sought to expand the pastoral workforce in the Dominican Republic by training more Dominicans for the priesthood (in newly created and expanded seminaries) and encouraging foreign priests to come to the island. The institutional growth of the Church during Pittini’s tenure is manifest in the increased number of dioceses, parishes, priests, educational institutions, health institutions, and religious communities. This culminated in the decade of the 1950s, when the Vatican authorized the creation of four new dioceses to meet the needs of the expanding Church.14 During his tenure, Pittini was a strong promoter for the construction of the Christopher Columbus Memorial Lighthouse (known to Dominicans as the Faro a Colón in Spanish) to be built in Santo Domingo.15 The idea initially gained widespread popularity among U.S. and Latin American representatives at the Fifth International Conference of American States in Santiago, Chile in 1923. The plan envisioned donations from all nations and peoples. In 1931, Scottish architect Joseph Gleave won the design competition

Opening page: Riccardo Paolo Pittini Piussi (Salesians Don Bosco) portrait

by C. Saleache. © Image from the Episcopology of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, by José Luis Sáez, S.J., Archbishopric of Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo 2011.

Page 137: Celebration of the Holy Mass. From the left: Priests Eduardo Ross, Luis F. Henríquez, and Monsignor Ricardo Pittini. © Archivo General de la Nación

RICARDO PITTINI: ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SANTO DOMINGO

President Héctor Bienvenido Trujillo Molina at the reception offered for the Apostolic Nuncio Lino Zanini. © Archivo General de la Nación

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and a $10,000 prize. In February 1937, Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University and chairman of the U.S. committee appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to raise funds for the Christopher Columbus Memorial Lighthouse in the United States, visited the Dominican Republic. Trujillo presented Butler with the Order of Duarte, and Pittini gave Butler and his wife a tour of the Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor, which included opening the urn that contained the remains of Columbus that would be interred in the lighthouse once completed. In 1946, the General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously approved the project. After a lengthy speech by Trujillo during the lighthouse’s groundbreaking ceremonies on April 14, 1948, Pittini blessed the construction site and future work on the project.6 The lighthouse was completed in time for the 1992 quincentennial celebration of the European discovery of the Americas.

In the post-World War II period, both Trujillo and Pittini were ardent anti-Communists. On March 26, 1946, in an article in the now defunct Dominican newspaper La Nación, Pittini declared that the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic was strongly opposed to Communism. The U.S. Department of State, acknowledging the Church’s opposition to Communism, realized that U.S. support of Trujillo’s dictatorship was beneficial to the U.S. strategy of containment of Communism. According to George F. Scherer, the U.S. Chargé in the Dominican Republic, “The present administration by its oppressive measures may be expected to keep the Dominican Republic free of any significant Communist penetration.

However, the real danger from Communism in the Dominican Republic will materialize when President Trujillo falls from power. As the whole political life of the country is centered in the Dominican Party and as that party has no basic program other than the maintenance of Trujillo in power, his fall will probably bring about that political vacuum which is so favorable to the rapid growth of the Communist Party.”17 The 1954 Concordat with the Vatican gave Roman Catholicism special treatment as the majority faith in the Dominican Republic.18 The Concordat, the first one signed between the Vatican and a Latin American nation during the 20th century, provided the Trujillo dictatorship with a high degree of prestige both at home and abroad. This Concordat, much to the pleasure of Pittini, extended special privileges to the Catholic Church not granted to other religious groups. Privileges included funding for expenses such as administration and construction, visa exceptions, and exemptions from customs duties. Significantly, it recognized and guaranteed the property of the Church and declared that temples and religious buildings belonged to the Church. Pittini, citing Trujillo’s “resolute protection” of the Church, contended that the Church in the Dominican Republic had “reached a degree of splendor it had never known before.”19 One could argue that 1954 was the pinnacle of friendship between the Church and the Trujillo dictatorship.

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Until 1959, the anti-Communist ideology of most U.S. government officials, Dominican elites, and Catholic Church officials (both in the Dominican Republic and the Vatican) convinced them that support of the virulent anti-Communist Trujillo dictatorship was their best chance at keeping the Dominican Republic free of Communism.

The progressively increased brutality of Trujillo’s regime during the 1950s, however, coupled with the success of Fidel Castro’s Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, convinced many of Trujillo’s supporters that rather than keeping Communism out of the Dominican Republic the dictator was setting the stage for a Communist takeover of the island. Therefore, in 1959, the Vatican, led by Pope John XXIII, who had been elected the previous year, sought to distance itself from Trujillo’s dictatorial regime. On June 14, 1959, the Vatican appointed Lino Zanini as papal nuncio in the Dominican Republic to implement the change in the Vatican’s foreign policy. Zanini arrived in the Dominican Republic on October 25, 1959, which was the day after the dictator’s birthday (a major event celebrated throughout the nation). Zanini, who departed Rome on October 20, could have arrived in time for the celebrations but deliberately decided to visit Puerto Rico for a few days so as to avoid praising the dictator during the celebrations.20 According to the 1954 Concordat, the papal nuncio was the dean of the diplomatic corps in the Dominican Republic and would have been required to play a prominent role in the celebrations. According to Betances, “In symbolic terms, the Church sent a message to Trujillo saying that relationships between the Vatican and his regime had changed.”21 Political scientist Jonathan Hartlyn, acknowledging that for most of his tenure Pittini was “an open admirer of Trujillo and provided unequivocal support for his regime,” posits that an “open break” between Trujillo and the Church finally came in January 1960, “in the form of a pastoral letter” that was read at Mass.22 Zanini’s presence in the Dominican Republic was the catalyst for this collective pastoral letter. According to Wiarda, “The bishops declared their solidarity with the many families bereaved by the arrests of loved ones. A long section was devoted to an assertion of human rights which, the letter said, “had priority over the rights of any state.”23 Significantly, “the letter mentioned neither Generalissimo Trujillo nor his brother, President Hector B. Trujillo, by name.”24 Although by today’s standards the tone of the pastoral letter was moderate: “In the context of the Trujillo dictatorship it was a political challenge to a regime that did not permit any kind of dissidence.”25 Pope John XXIII declared that the Vatican agreed with the pastoral letter published by the bishops in the Dominican Republic.26 Although the pastoral letter marks a turning point in the church-state relationship, it did not lead to a complete rupture in relations between the Church and the Trujillo regime. In retaliation, the Trujillo regime declared Zanini persona non grata, and he left the country in May 1960. Trujillo insisted that “the Church grant him the title Benefactor of the Dominican Church, but the bishops refused.”27 Tensions between the Trujillo regime and the Church continued for the next year. On May 29, 1961, Trujillo ordered the arrest of Bishops Panal and Reilly, the most outspoken clerical critics of the dictatorship. The two bishops, however, were not arrested, because Trujillo was assassinated two days later.28 Frail and blind, Pittini died on December 10, 1961 in Santo Domingo. According to his wishes, he was interred inside the Church of San Juan Bosco (a few blocks north of the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo), which was constructed during his tenure. He was succeeded by Beras Rojas, his adjutor archbishop, who served as archbishop for the next two decades. A street in the San Juan Bosco neighborhood of Santo Domingo, the Calle Monseñor Ricardo Pittini, was named in his honor. According to Betances speaking of his legacy: “The ecclesiastical government of Pittini laid the modern basis of the church in the Dominican Republic. He expanded the institutional basis of the church from one to five dioceses, created a minor seminary, and increased the number of Catholic schools and services organizations. In addition, he conducted the negotiations that led to signing the concordat that framed church-state relations until today.”29

Representative of the close relationship between Church and state in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo dictatorship, Pittini and Trujillo embrace after Mass in 1954.

RICARDO PITTINI: ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SANTO DOMINGO

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ENDNOTES Emelio Betances, The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America: The Dominican Case in Comparative Perspective (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), 17. According to Betances, the Church in Latin America struggled in the post-independence period to regain the status it held during the colonial period.

2 Howard J. Wiarda, “The Changing Political Orientation of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic,” Journal of Church and State, vol. 7, no. 2 (Spring 1965): 238-254, here 239.

3 Ricardo Pittini, Memorias Salesianas de un Arzobispo Ciego (Buenos Aires: Editorial Poblet, 1949), 11. In 1952, the book was translated and published as Memories in My Blindness. The archbishop was essentially blind by 1945.

4 The Salesians of St. John Bosco, formerly known as the Society of Saint Francis de Sales, is a religious congregation of men in the Catholic Church, founded in the late 19th century by Don Bosco to help poor children during the Industrial Revolution; it was initially named after St. Francis de Sales, a 17th century bishop of Geneva.

5 Philip Pascucci, “Out of Our Past: An American Venture into Seminary Training,” Journal of Salesian Studies, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 135-170, here 165.

6 Ibid., 160.

7 Due to declining enrollment, the Roman Catholic seminary closed in 1991. Today, the impressive building built with the funds collected by Pittini serves as the main campus of the Sussex County Community College.

8 Zenón Castillo de Aza, Trujillo y otros Benefactores de la Iglesia (Santo Domingo: Editora Handicap, 1961), 216. In 1955, Castillo de Aza, a Catholic priest, was the first to officially propose granting Trujillo the title “Benefactor of the Church.”

9 Mats Lundahl and Jan Lundius, Peasants and Religion: A Socioeconomic Study of Dios Olivorio and the Palma Sola Religion in the Dominican Republic (New York: Routledge, 1999), 581. The category four hurricane was the fifth deadliest recorded Atlantic hurricane in history, killing more than 8,000 people on the island.

10 William Louis Wipfler, The Churches of the Dominican Republic in the Light of History (Cuernavaca, Mexico: Centro Intercultural de Documentacion, 1967), 205. An Episcopal priest, Wipfler was the Director of the Caribbean and Latin American Department of the National Council of Churches from 1968 to 1977. According to Wipfler, the Catholic Church “entered the era of Trujillo (1930-1961) as a legal nonentity threatened with the confiscation of its already meager possessions.” Fietta laid the groundwork for friendly relations between the Church and the dictatorship.

11 Julio Rodríguez Grullón, Trujillo y la Iglesia (Santo Domingo: Secretaría de Estado de Educación, Bellas Artes y Cultos, 1991), 120.

12 José Luis Sáez, Monseñor Pittini (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2002), 33. According to ecclesiastical historian José Luis Sáez, Pittini’s willingness to work with Trujillo’s regime is exemplified by his trip to Haiti in February 1938, when he delivered a check for $250,000 to compensate Haiti for the 15,000 Haitians killed in the Dominican Republic in 1937 during the Parsley Massacre. For an excellent historical account of the event, see Eric Paul Roorda, “Genocide Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy, the Trujillo Regime, and the Haitian Massacre of 1937,” Diplomatic History, vol.

20, no. 3 (July 1996): 301–319. For a powerful literary account of the event, see Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998).

13 Frank Moya Pons, “Notas para una Historia de la Iglesia en Santo Domingo,” Eme-Eme 1, no. 6 (1973): 3-17, here 15.

14 Betances, The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America, 33. The four new dioceses (with their newly appointed bishops) were: Santiago de los Caballeros in 1953 (Hugo Polanco Bri1

to), La Vega in 1953 (Francisco Panal), San Juan de la Maguana in 1953 (Thomas Reilly), and Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey in 1959 (Juan Felix Pepén).

15 Officially Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the city was established by the Spaniards in 1496 on the east bank of the Ozama River, but it was moved to the west bank a few years later. From 1936 to 1961, the city was called Ciudad Trujillo in honor of the dictator, which is yet another example of Trujillo’s megalomania.

The lighthouse was constructed east of the Ozama River. Santo Domingo is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the Americas.

16 “Columbus Memorial Lighthouse,” Bulletin of the Pan American Union, vol. 82 (January 1948): 341-43, here 343.

17 “The Chargé in the Dominican Republic (Scherer) to the Secretary of State” (April 30, 1946), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946: The American Republics, vol. 11, accessed September 1, 2020, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/ frus1946v11/d699.

18 For the complete text of the Concordat, signed on June 16, 1954 in Rome, see: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/archivio/documents/rc_seg-st_19540616_concordato-dominicana_sp.html, accessed September 1, 2020.

19 Wiarda, “The Changing Political Orientation of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic,” 240.

20 Zanini was born on May 6, 1909 in Riese, a small Italian town that was the birthplace of Pope Pius X (r. 1903-1914). To honor the pope, the town was officially renamed Riese Pio X, although most inhabitants simply say Riese. On July 2, 1933, Zanini was ordained a priest in Venice. He joined the Vatican’s diplomatic corps in 1938.

See Benjamín Rodríguez Carpio, Lino Zanini, el Nuncio que Desafió a Trujillo (Santo Domingo: Argos, 2019). Rodríguez Carpio astutely points out that Zanini avoided using the term “Ciudad Trujillo” in public, much to the chagrin of Trujillo. Zanini retired in 1989 and died on October 25, 1997 in Rome.

21 Betances, The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America, 36.

22 Jonathan Hartlyn, “The Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic,” in Sultanistic Regimes, ed. H. E. Chehabi and Juan J. Linz (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998): 85-112, here 100. Leading the six signers of the pastoral letter was Pittini.

The other five bishops who signed were Octavio Beras (who had served as coadjutor archbishop since 1945), Hugo Polanco Brito (Santiago de los Caballeros), Francisco Panal (La Vega), Thomas Reilly (San Juan de la Maguana), and Juan Felix Pepén (Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey).

23 Wiarda, “The Changing Political Orientation of the Catholic Church in the Dominican Republic,” 241-42.

24 “Dominican Republic Bishops Give Human Rights Pastoral,” The Catholic Advocate, vol. 9, no. 7 (February 1960): 16.

25 Betances, The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America, 36.

26 Bernardo Vega, Los Estados Unidos y Trujillo: Los Días Finales, 1960-61: Colección de Documentos del Departamento de Estado, la CIA y los Archivos del Palacio Nacional Dominicano (Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 1999), 71-73.

27 Michael R. Hall, Sugar and Power in the Dominican Republic: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Trujillos (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 93.

28 Robert D. Crassweller, Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator (New York: Macmillan Company, 1966), 385-86.

29 Betances, The Catholic Church and Power Politics in Latin America, 39.

• CHAPTER 10

Duarte and Mazzini

By Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi Former president of the Dominican Academy of History

uan Pablo Duarte, founder of the Dominican Republic, is the Dominican national hero who most closely resembles Giuseppe Mazzini, the icon of republican ideas in Italy.

In France and in England, Mazzini strengthened his revolutionary spirit, always at the service of his homeland. Duarte also spent time in those countries, in the prime of his years, collecting with open hands the seeds of freedom that he would plant in his beloved yet enslaved country.

In 1832 Mazzini founded a secret society called Young Italy (La Giovane Italia). A few years later, in 1838, Duarte also founded the secret society La Trinitaria. Mazzini’s motto was “God and the People.” The motto for Duarte was “God, Country and Liberty.”

Both figures fought fervently to create a free republic: one in Columbus’s native country and the other in the Ligurian mariner’s beloved island. Both suffered persecution, imprisonment, and exile. Both consecrated their entire lives—to the exclusion of all other endeavors—to the principles of freedom, which constituted their single purpose and the aspiration of their fellow countrymen.

To compare Duarte with Mazzini is to extend the highest honor to the Dominicans’ exalted hero, but it is also our tribute to the distinguished revolutionary who best symbolizes present-day Italy.

That is why, on this February 27, the day commemorating the founding of the Dominican Republic, when we raise our flag under this blue sky of Italy, we reverently evoke, as in an offering of mutual love for our countries, the most illustrious names of Duarte and Mazzini.

Rome, 1950

Casa de Italia central patio, located on Hostos Street in the Colonial Zone. © Giovanni Cavallaro

BIBLIOGRAPHY Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio. Duarte y otros temas. Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 1976.

• CHAPTER 11

Juan Bautista Cambiaso (1820-1886) Founder of the Dominican Navy and First Admiral of the Republic

By Juan Daniel Balcácer Professor of Dominican Critical History at the Catholic University of Santo Domingo.

President of the Comisión Permanente de Efemérides Patrias

he historical details of Juan Bautista Cambiaso, a native of Genoa, Italy, and a naturalized Dominican, are little known in the Dominican Republic. It is said that he arrived when very young in the eastern part of the island of Santo Domingo and in the company of his brother Luis, and that both established residence in the first European city of the Americas. As time went by, Bautista became an appreciated “skillful and experienced sailor.” He cultivated and maintained a close friendship with the main members of the politically motivated, secret society La Trinitaria, especially with its founder Juan Pablo Duarte. In September 1844, Duarte, leader of the revolution for independence, was imprisoned in Puerto Plata; from there he was transferred to the city of Santo Domingo, along with Juan Isidro Pérez and other companions, on the schooner Separación Dominicana under the command of General Cambiaso, who, as José Gabriel García has pointed out, “was not responsible for the turn of events, nor was it in his hands to evade it.” However, “he behaved like a gentleman with the illustrious prisoner and contributed with everything that depended on him to make his situation less unpleasant than what fate had apportioned—a noble and generous trait, characteristic only of men with great souls and hearts!”1 With independence newly proclaimed, Cambiaso became the architect of the first armed naval flotilla of the Dominican Republic, in addition to training the first Dominican naval officers, all in record time. He distinguished himself most notably during the Dominican-Haitian war, and later, after resuming his business activities, he served as Italian consul in the country. He was a distinguished public figure and a true hero of national independence. Along with his compatriot Juan Bautista Maggiolo, 2 and with the Dominican Juan Alejandro Acosta, Juan Bautista Cambiaso helped to form the triad that laid the foundations on which the Dominican Navy was later officially created.

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Early Life Some Dominican historians who have written about Juan Bautista Cambiaso have not been able to specify the date on which this Italian-Dominican hero first arrived in the Spanish part of the island of Santo Domingo. It is curious that the national historian José Gabriel García, who knew him personally, did not obtain precise data regarding his arrival. Rufino Martínez notes that Cambiaso “came to the colony very young ... [that] during the Haitian Occupation he devoted himself to business [and that] he had some practice in seamanship.” 3 The expression “very young” used by Martínez makes it reasonable to conjecture that Juan Bautista arrived in Santo Domingo when he was barely a young man and with little professional experience, but unfortunately, it tells us little about the skills that he acquired in the field of seamanship and maritime trade. If we start from his date of birth, as recorded in his baptismal certificate, we must agree that Cambiaso arrived in Santo Domingo during the late stage of Haitian occupation, i.e., toward the end of the 1830s, when he was 15, or perhaps a bit older. 4 During the 1830s, Italy was shaken by a nationalist revolutionary movement, led by Giuseppe Mazzini, among others, who under the motto of “God and People” fought for the unification of the various Italian kingdoms and states before proceeding to the creation of an independent republic. According to Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, there is an admirable parallelism in the public careers of Giuseppe Mazzini and Juan Pablo Duarte. Both revolutionaries embodied and espoused ideas of republicanism and independence in their respective homelands, and they dedicated their entire lives, “to the exclusion of all other endeavors, to the ideas of freedom that constituted the purpose and the sole and vehement aspiration of these twin souls.” 5 These political ideas were certainly not alien to the Cambiaso brothers when they settled in the country. What might have impelled them to migrate to Santo Domingo? There must have been a point of reference at the dawn of the nineteenth century regarding the favorite island of the famous Genoese navigator, Christopher Columbus, on the grounds that Italians had established themselves there from the initial period of the Reconquest. It can be concluded, therefore, that Juan Bautista and Luis Cambiaso—who were engaged in maritime trade—first arrived in the Caribbean region, via Saint Thomas, attracted by business

Uniform of the First Officer of the Navy, Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso, safeguarded by his descendants, the Porcella family members. © Giovanni Cavallaro

Opening page: Painting of Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso, preserved in the Academy of Cadets of the Dominican Navy, whose copy was donated by the Dominican Navy to the Italian Embassy during the Italian national festivities in Santo Domingo on June 2, 2019. © Dominican Navy

Page 145: Cambiaso Letter 1/ From Juan Bautista Cambiaso to Carlos Nouel. Saint Thomas, March 16, 1866.

AGN, Carlos Nouel Collection. It gives an account of the private efforts made by the former in relation to the agreement of a debt payment belonging to the latter in Saint Thomas; Cambiaso was on his way to Genoa, Italy, where he was born. © Archivo General de la Nación

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Details of the sword used by the First Officer of the Navy, Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso, safeguarded by his descendants, the Porcella family. © Giovanni Cavallaro

opportunities and later continued onward to Santo Domingo, a country then ruled by the Haitians. Despite this circumstance, both brothers chose to establish their permanent residence among the Dominicans; there is no doubt that, once settled in Santo Domingo, they perfected their knowledge and skills in the field of maritime trade, eventually founding a business establishment bearing their name.

The Records Juan Bautista (Giambattista) Cambiaso Chiozzone was born on September 12, 1820, in Genoa, Italy. His parents were Giacomo Cambiaso and Rosa Chiozzone, as recorded in his baptismal certificate, which reads as follows: “Archdiocese of Genoa. Parish of Santa Maria delle Vigne. Excerpt from the birth and baptism registries. In the record of birth and baptism entries for the year 1820, the following appears under No. 148: in the year of Our Lord 1820 and on the 12th day of September [...] a male child was born to Giacomo Cambiaso (son of Giuseppe) and Rosa Chiozzone (daughter of Giovanni), legitimate spouses, to whom baptism was provided on September 14 and the names Giuseppe Giambattista Giovanni were given to him.

Giambattista Chiozzone is the godfather and Girolama Chiozzone is the godmother. Issued on paper free of revenue stamps for use […] In witness thereof: Parish of Santa Maria delle Vigne, on May 9, 1951, Fr. Carlo Balbi.” 6 He had two siblings, Luis Francisco (Luigi Francesco) and Catalina (Caterina), of whom only the former accompanied him on his journey to the Caribbean. Both decided to settle in Santo Domingo, where they established families and left a considerable number of offspring. Juan Bautista married Isabel Sosa (or Cotes), daughter of Juan Cotes and María Luisa Sosa. They fathered several children: Benita or Benedicta, ancestor of the Ellis Cambiaso family; Santiago; Rita; Alberto Rodolfo; Rosa; and Luisa, who married and left a long list of descendants. 7 The Cambiaso family members always maintained ties with their country of origin; however, among their Dominican descendants, there were those who continued in the maritime

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trade business, through the Cambiaso Hermanos y Compañía firm; others—in the 20th century—chose military careers, especially in the Dominican Navy, and there were those who devoted themselves to intellectual pursuits and journalism. 8

Creation of Armed Naval Flotilla On February 27, 1844, the Dominican people declared their independence, ended Haitian domination, which had lasted 22 years, and created a sovereign and democratic state under the name of the Dominican Republic. Despite this milestone, the Haitians did not accept the Dominicans’ will to govern themselves independently and declared war to the death of “the seditious citizens of the east.” This forced Dominicans to prepare militarily for the defense of the new State, which is why the Central Governing Board, the first provisional government, proceeded to create the National Army, as well as a small fleet of ships with which to face the imminent Haitian military aggression. It was at that historical juncture when Juan Bautista Cambiaso gained prominence, since, according to the historian José Gabriel García, it was Cambiaso who was credited with founding the first armed naval flotilla of the Republic. How could Cambiaso undertake such a task in a country without military institutions? To achieve his goal, Cambiaso took brigantines and private schooners, which were used for commercial purposes, and turned them into warships that provided an effective addition to the troops of the improvised national army. In this way, while the Dominican army

On June 21, 2018, the Embassy of Italy and the Dominican Navy celebrated, for the first time, the anniversary of Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso’s death, at the National Pantheon; in attendance: H.E. Andrea Canepari, Ambassador of Italy in Santo Domingo; Mrs. Roberta Canepari; and Vice Admiral Miguel Peña, commander of the Dominican Navy. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

JUAN BAUTISTA CAMBIASO (1820-1886)

Demonstration by the Dominican Navy Academy cadets as part of the second round of celebrations in honor of Admiral Cambiaso, organized jointly by the Italian Embassy and the Dominican Navy. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

First School Ship of the Dominican Navy, dedicated to its founder, Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso. © Armada Dominicana

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repelled the invading forces, the incipient naval flotilla prevented, in a combined operation, Haitian ships from supporting their own ground army.

On the recommendations of Cambiaso, the Dominican government acquired ships and weapons in such a way that, by 1846, a naval flotilla was formed that was capable of staving off the enemy’s attempts at invasion. According to a memorandum from General Manuel Jimenes, then Minister of War and Navy, “The Dominican fleet today consists of ten vessels, seven from the State and three taken on requisition and armed by the government ..., [namely], the frigate Cibao, the schooner Brig San José, the gullet schooner La Libertad, the schooners General Santana, La Merced, Separación, 27 de Febrero, María Luisa, 30 de Marzo, Esperanza. […] This flotilla is under the command of Navy General J. Cambiaso[…].”9 In the beginning, the fleet operated as a division of the Army and, therefore, was subordinate to General Pedro Santana, but later it became part of the Ministry of War and Navy. After several years, during the annexation to Spain, the Dominican Naval Flotilla, like the Army, was dissolved by the Spanish authorities, who proceeded to auction off the ships used to defend the country during the Dominican-Haitian war. 10 Throughout the Dominican-Haitian war, which lasted 12 years, Juan Bautista Cambiaso was a front-line soldier in defense of the republic. As a sailor, he participated in some of the most decisive battles, including those at Azua (1844), Beler (1845) and Las Carreras (1849), in each of which the Dominican naval flotilla under his command had a decisive role in the triumph of the nation’s armed forces. After the battle of Azua, the Tortuguero naval combat ensued, the first of its kind between Dominican and Haitian warships, which occurred on April 15, 1844, and in which the fleet commanded by Cambiaso emerged victorious.

11 The same outcome occurred the following year, during the Battle of Beler, in the north of the country, where the Dominican schooners and brigantines ensured the triumph of the local army. Later, in 1849, the presence of Cambiaso at the command of the corvette Cibao contributed significantly to the triumph of the battle of Las Carreras. Years later, during the fourth and final campaign of the Dominican-Haitian War, Cambiaso’s action in a combat on January 6, 1856, would prove legendary, due to the abandonment of the Plaza de Barahona by Colonel Bernabé Polanco. General Cambiaso, in command of four warships, proceeded to Enriquillo to provide assistance to General José María Cabral, whose troops were stationed there.

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Cambiaso, who had come ashore in order to confer with an officer, was surprised by an enemy attack and forced to take part in direct combat, ultimately achieving victory in such a heroic way that General Santana decided to promote him to the rank of Division General.

After the War After the hostilities between the Dominicans and Haitians ended, Cambiaso all but withdrew from official activities, avoiding the partisan political rivalry that prevailed in the country and preferring to devote himself to his private business from the commercial venture that he had established together with his brother Luis. During this period, specifically in December 1856, he was appointed consul of Italy to the Dominican Republic, a position he held for several years, but not before having resigned as Division General of the Dominican Navy. 12 Despite being a loyal servant of General Pedro Santana, Cambiaso respected his official position as representative of a foreign government in his second homeland. He decided, therefore, to remove himself from politics when the annexation to Spain occurred and did the same during the War of Restoration (1863-1865). However, once the war ended, it was Consul Cambiaso who took the initiative—

School ship dedicated to Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso. © Armada Dominicana

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On August 25, 2018, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Danilo Medina, the inauguration of the first school ship of the Dominican Navy, named “Almirante Juan Bautista Cambiaso,” took place in the port of San Souci. In the photo, the President of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, and the Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Canepari, exchange greetings on the day of the inauguration. © Armada Dominicana

along with other diplomatic and consular representatives—to oversee the exchange of prisoners between the parties to the conflict, which took place on July 22, 1865.

From 1863 to 1865, Cambiaso made several trips to Italy on official business, since he had never abjured his status as an Italian citizen, and as a naturalized Dominican. He remained in the Dominican Republic after 1868, continuing to work at the forefront of his own business concerns, as well as in his official functions, until his death in the city of Santo Domingo on July 22, 1886. Below, I transcribe the obituary published in the newspaper El Mensajero, which was written by the author Federico Henríquez y Carvajal: “Lavish yet solemn were the memorial ceremonies on the 22nd for General J. B. Cambiaso in his capacity as First Admiral and founder of the National Navy. The President ordered military honors and decreed three days of mourning as a token for the deceased. In the Government Palace, in City Hall, and other public buildings, the crossed tricolor flag flew at half-mast, and those present from allied nations followed the same testimony of mourning in their respective consulates. From the day before, and from hour to hour, shots from the cannon of the Armed Forces were heard.

“A very large procession followed the new carriage, with its stern yet elegant appearance, which, drawn by a pair of black steeds, led the coffin from the mortuary to the Cathedral and from there to the former Dominican Convent, where the body was laid to rest. The garrison troop and military brass band accompanied with due honors.

“Luis Cambiaso, his brother—Consul and currently Plenipotentiary of Italy—presided over the burial.

And the event was attended by the President of the Republic and his Council of Ministers, the Magistrates of the Supreme Court, the diplomatic and consular corps, high officials of State, the bar association, individuals from various guilds and societies, and from the business sector, in addition to the navy and the Italian community.

“Hon. Manuel de J. Galván—Chief Justice of the High Court of the Republic and former Minister of

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Foreign Affairs—offered a eulogy of heartfelt eloquence, on behalf of the family and with due reverence to the deceased hero.”13 In the biographical sketch mentioned above, historian José Gabriel García highlights the fact that the life of Juan Bautista Cambiaso, both in military and civilian spheres, was a model of sacrifice, dedication, and perseverance, always in defense of the civil liberties and independence of the Dominican people. He was consistently supportive to others, and he revered friendship and love for one’s family. He was, in short, a true paradigm among his contemporaries. “For this reason,” García concludes in 1886, “his death has been deeply felt, and his name will pass on to posterity framed by an aura of glory and blessed by the gratitude of a people who recognize that they owe him a good part of the independence they now enjoy.” 14 García was certainly not wrong in his assessment of Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso, because, in recognition of the invaluable services that he rendered for the country, posterity has conferred upon him the highest distinction of national hero. And his mortal remains, in keeping with Decree No. 270-86, dated April 4, 1986, were laid to rest in the National Pantheon, alongside the venerable ashes of the other heroes and martyrs of the Dominican Republic.

JUAN BAUTISTA CAMBIASO (1820-1886)

Unveiling of the painting of Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso during National Day on June 2, 2019. In the photo from left: Monsignor Jesus Castro Marte (Auxiliary Bishop of Santo Domingo), the Honorable Milton Ray Guevara (Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court), Ghaleb Bader (Apostolic Nuncio), and Rear Admiral Hector Martinez Roman (SubCommander General of the Dominican Navy) shaking hands with Andrea Canepari (Ambassador of Italy) and Miguel Vargas (Chancellor).

The painting was donated to Italy by the Dominican Navy as a symbol of the friendship established after the joint celebrations to commemorate the death of the First Admiral of the Dominican Republic in the National Pantheon. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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ENDNOTES José Gabriel García, “Juan Bautista Cambiaso,” in Rasgos biográficos de dominicanos célebres, ed.Vetilio Alfau Durán. (Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, Vol. XXIX, Editora del Caribe, C. por A.), 1971.

2 Juan Bautista Maggiolo was another Italian citizen, also an experienced sailor, who settled in the Dominican Republic during the transition to independence. He joined the nationalists and together with Cambiaso was in command of the Dominican naval fleet that faced the invading enemy. According to García, Maggiolo was “a Dominican at heart who put not only himself at the service of the Republic, but also a schooner he owned, the María Luisa.” When the fourth campaign of the Dominican-Haitian War began, 1855-1856, Maggiolo no longer lived in Santo Domingo and had settled in Genoa. See, García, Op. cit.

3 Diccionario biográfico-histórico dominicano (1821-1930), Publicaciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Vol. CLII, Colección Historia y Sociedad no. 5 (Santo Domingo: Editora de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, S.D., D.R.), 1971. A second edition was published in 1997 by Editora de Colores, S.A. 4 In the Enciclopedia Dominicana, vol. 2, there is no indication of Juan Bautista Cambiaso’s date of birth; this information, however, was made public knowledge in 1958. See fourth expanded, revised and updated edition, under the direction of the historian Franklin Franco, Santo Domingo, D.R., 1997.

5 Cf. “Duarte y Mazzini,” in En torno a Duarte, Academica Dominicana de la Historia, vol. 42, Centenario de la muerte de Juan Pablo Duarte (Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1976), 183-84.

The Dominican Ambassador to the Holy See, Víctor Grimaldi, in an article entitled “Duarte y José Mazzini: Italia y la República Dominicana” [“Duarte and José Mazzini: Italy and the Dominican Republic”], which is reproduced in this work, has referred to the positive impact of Mazzini’s political ideas on the Duartian thought. It is evident that Duarte had knowledge of Mazzini’s political project and those of other Italian revolutionaries.

It should also be noted that theatrical works were presented by the Trinitarians, through La Dramática and La Filantrópica, which were used to raise awareness among their compatriots; one of the most acclaimed was “Roma libre,” by Vittorio Alfieri. See Pe1

dro Troncoso Sánchez, “El teatro de los trinitarios,” in Vida de Juan Pablo Duarte, Instituto Duartiano, vol. 11 (Santo Domingo: Imp. Amigo del Hogar, 1975).

6 The historian Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi was able to obtain a copy of the birth record in Genoa, in 1951. Cf. “Artículos y apuntes diversos,” in La Marina de Guerra Dominicana, 1844-1861, Academia Militar Batalla de Las Carreras, Aviación Militar Dominicana, vol. 3 (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1958).

7 Carlos Larrazábal Blanco, Familias dominicanas, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, vol. 26, Editora del Caribe, C. por A., 1969), 53-54.

8 Rodolfo Cambiaso Sosa (1852-1916), son of Juan Bautista, was a prominent journalist and historian. He was educated in Italy.

He published several works, such as Pequeño diccionario de palabras indoantillanas, and Quisqueyanismos y Elucubraciones sobre el lenguaje indoantillano. He died in Santo Domingo in 1916. Cf. Enciclopedia dominicana, vol. 2, 62.

9 José Gabriel García, Guerra de la Separación Dominicana, 63.

Publicaciones del Sesquicentenario de la Independencia Nacional, Secretaría de Estado de Educación, Bellas Artes y Cultos, Santo Domingo, D.R., 1994.

10 César A. De Windt Lavandier, Víctor Francisco García Alecont, and Albérico Ventura Domínguez, La Marina en la Guerra de Independencia Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Colección Histórica CENAPEC).

11 There is a military report describing the naval battle in the port of Tortuguero, signed by Juan Bautista Cambiaso himself, in which he provides details of that event on April 15 and 16, 1844.

He signed the report as follows: “I, the undersigned, Juan Bautista Cambiaso, Colonel of the Navy, Commander of the ingenious forces of the Dominican Republic.” See Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Op. cit., 34-35.

12 Cambiaso’s resignation was accepted, as indicated in the Decree issued by President Manuel de Regla Mota, on August 25, 1856.

13 Reproduced in Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, La marina de guerra dominicana, 183-4. (Ciudad Trujillo: Academia Militar Batalla de las Carreras,, 1958).

14 José Gabriel García, Op. cit., p. 317.

• CHAPTER 12

Francisco Gregorio Billini, President and Author

By Roberto Cassá Director of the Archivo General de la Nación. Researcher at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the Universidad Autónoma of Santo Domingo The following is an excerpt from the chapter entitled “Francisco Gregorio Billini” in Pensadores decimonónicos by Roberto Cassá. (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación and Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, 2019)

A Man of His Generation rancisco Gregorio Billini belonged to a generation that pursued cultural development, aligning reflection with political action, as a way to get involved in public affairs. Like most of his peers from the San Buenaventura school, he questioned conservative worldviews, arguing that the Dominican people had achieved a national identity which entitled them to the right of self-determination.

From a young age, Billini was passionate about defending his principles and often wrote about them in the press. He then became involved in nationalist initiatives, but not as a conventional leader. He was a risk-taker, fighting alongside his brethren.

Despite being a member of high society, he developed a tendency to enjoy and identify with the activities and simplicity of the poor. As indicated by Rufino Martínez, Goyito, as he was commonly known, was the epitome of the Criollo who enjoyed partying, drinking, and even gambling, as these activities provided a pleasant atmosphere for socialization.

Perhaps this identity, a blend of academic learning and popular cultivation, was molded by his acculturation in Baní, his family’s hometown. The Billinis essentially comprised an entire social class among average Banilejos, spanning from Baní to Santo Domingo. Thus, he oscillated between urban and rural traditions, motivated to discover socially realistic solutions to contemporary issues.

His family tree was expansive and deeply rooted. The family name comes from a French soldier of Italian origin, Juan1 Antonio Bellini, who changed his last name to Billini when he, along with many others, decided to remain in the country. His offspring were connected to the criollo branches of the family from the eighteenth century, almost all of whom came from the Canary Islands. Goyito Billini was therefore a relative of nearly every banilejo with urban roots.

As a young man, he was influential in the Dominican War of Restoration, confronting conservative annexationism. By the end of the 1870s, when this was no longer a threat, he commenced a lengthy career as Editor in Chief of El Eco de la Opinión, one of the most influential Dominican newspapers of the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Billini was first encouraged by his predecessor to the presidency, Fernando Arturo de Meriño, to take a cabinet position in his administration and was later elected president of the Republic himself in 1884. However, due to pressure from both Ulises Heureaux and Gregorio Luperón, he resigned from office.

Although—like many of his peers—he opposed Heureaux’s rise to dictatorship, he abandoned the political arena and began to focus on opinion journalism pieces. He also participated in educational activities, because he believed that this was where salvation was found, and he became a renowned author of literary works, among which Baní o Engracia y Antoñita was one of the most notable.

On November 28, 1898, Billini passed away at the young age of fifty-four. During the last decade of his life,

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he faced several serious dilemmas, aware that the country was headed for disaster but unable to do anything about it. First, as will be shown in detail, he restricted himself to theoretical commentary that placed evils in a timeless dimension, avoiding conflicts that might have landed him in prison or exile. The evolution of the life of the nation, which marked the fate of his generation, placed him in a pathetic situation, doomed to preach without the prospect of tangible effects. Within this context, one could understand his shift toward positions contrary to those he had defended all his life. He went so far as to justify autocracy and abjure many of his convictions, and in a dramatic twist, he began to believe that his life as a warrior had been an utter mistake.

Francisco Gregorio Billini. © Archivo General de la Nación

A Tumultuous Presidency In 1882, Ulises Heureaux became president. Despite Heureaux’s heavy-handed approach to governance, Meriño distrusted him and sought a replacement. Luperón, imbued with civilian illusions, again suggested that Pedro Francisco Bonó and various others take office, but they all rejected the offers. At that time, Heureaux was Luperón’s right-hand man, apparently revering him as a father figure. Luperón overlooked Heureaux’s violent tendencies and mandatory use of force against his enemies. He instead focused on business and left the country again for a prolonged period of time. He was not aware that Heureaux’s first administration had shifted, putting the state at the service of private interests, and this resulted in the coming together of the modern bourgeoisie and the ruling clique.

Unbeknownst to Heureaux, his successor was gaining ground in the government, aiming to undermine his previously undisputed reign as leader of the Partido Aazul (Blue Party). Luperón had proposed his close friend Segundo Imbert, a native of Puerto Plata who was a veteran soldier, and Heureaux turned to Meriño, who believed that the ideal candidate was Billini.

This dispute led to a tipping point in the dignitary’s standing, and challenges to Imbert’s competence; particularly, his regionalist motivations became a concern. However, Imbert was a more popular candidate than Billini, as his support came mostly from Cibao, the richest and most populous region. Thus, Heureaux engaged in the dirty job of electoral fraud. Logically, this upset Luperón and resulted in friction, but the two still maintained a relationship.

Billini did not realize that his election was won on the grounds of electoral fraud with sinister motives, tarnishing the establishment of his administration. From the beginning, Heureaux was committed to preventing the emergence of a successful administration. The new president lacked the necessary support to establish a stable government because nearly every prominent figure in the Blue Party opposed him or, at least, cautiously kept him at a safe distance, and Meriño did not have the influence to clear the way for his protégé.

The situation became unsustainable when Cesareo Guillermo returned to the country from exile after being granted amnesty. As president, Billini followed the law, believing that every citizen had the right to reside

Opening page: Cover of Amor y expiación by Francisco Gregorio Billini. © Archivo General de la Nación

FRANCISCO GREGORIO BILLINI, PRESIDENT AND AUTHOR

Cover of Baní o Engracia y Antoñita

by Francisco Gregorio Billini. © Archivo General de la Nación

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in the country and enjoy the civil liberties of the day. His longtime friendship with Guillermo, which had not been weakened by politics, also had an impact.

Given Billini’s stance, Luperón and Heureaux came to an agreement for the first time in many years. Feeling equally threatened by their most formidable foe, they planned to challenge the president. In hindsight, Heureaux was clearly the driving force behind the sabotage of Billini’s presidency.

The president, aware that he would be ousted, had no alternative but to resign after only a little more than eight months in office. This was obviously an unfavorable blow to a progression that seemed to be heading toward democracy. The fallen president was not daunted by this. He proudly announced his decision to the country in a speech that was delivered before Congress and published in the Gaceta Oficial, issue 563, of May 19, 1885.

As I ascended to the seat of power that would determine the fate of the nation, although I steadily climbed every step, I doubted my grandeur because I wanted to do so much for the good of the Republic. Today, having achieved very little given the circumstances, I think this descent raises me up: my vain and ephemeral personality gives way to the rise of the great and immortal Republic. I want to set an example by spontaneously resigning from office, retreating into the shadows of my home, without futile aspirations for the future. You might think I am sinking, but I feel like I am standing on top of the world!

Although Billini avoided directly criticizing Heureaux or any other deceitful opponent, he deemed it necessary to explain his resignation by making it clear that the continuation of his presidency during economic difficulties could have disrupted the peace, the country’s most precious asset. This was his way of gently forewarning of what was to come. [...] allow me to repeat that I am not conceding power to the vice president of the Republic because of petty motives or fears of unfounded cowardice. No! I am stepping down because—given the distressing political and economic circumstances, which could change with a new government—peace could perish in my hands because of my own obstacles.

He then immediately alluded to his refusal to compromise with corrupt practices: “My politics have always been on the straight and narrow. I have always turned away from the darkness so that I could embrace the splendors of freedom and be invigorated by them.”

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As he announced his resignation, his replacement, Alejandro Woss y Gil—a competent man, but by then already subordinate to Heureaux—praised Billini’s patriotism and non-violent transfer of power as if nothing extraordinary had occurred.

Promises Fulfilled When Billini became president, he had a plethora of projects for change that were unprecedented even in Ulises Francisco Espaillat’s brief term. Both rulers certainly had similarities in their intentions, despite belonging to different generations. Among this small class of intellectuals, perceptions about fundamental pursuits had been evolving and were adopted as programs by both presidents.

However, the institution of any program meant overcoming the obstacle of instability. Espaillat had not been offered a truce by insurgent parties, and although Billini did not face the same circumstances, he had to concentrate his efforts on preventing the eruption of violence. In his resignation speech, he recalled: “It was my most ardent aspiration from the beginning to avoid a material struggle, because I always wanted to remain at the head of a government of conciliation without ever seeing the hour of combat.” He had to admit that he was able to achieve almost nothing in the preceding months.

At the heart of their worldviews on good governance, Billini and Espaillat shared belief in the criterion that the primary duty of the state was to provide the means for private citizens to generate wealth. Both expected the formation of a social sector capable of connecting the country with the advances of industrialism. As was the case in all of Latin America, the panacea was identified as the advancement of immigration. Those coming from other lands would contribute desirable qualities, such as work ethic, educational qualifications, and availability of capital. Ultimately, Billini’s texts appear to indicate that immigration policy was the crux of proper government action, even much more important than any support device for capital investment.

For Billini, however, the advancement of the campesinos2 was an indispensable mechanism for integrating the majority of the population into modern life. Faced with the impossibility of a massive migratory influx, it was necessary to address feasible ways to improve the circumstances of the people. He found that the key was to increase the level of education of the population as a whole, specifically of the poor. Concentrating on this purpose, he focused on what little he could do in his presidential term.

Despite the backdrop mentioned above, Billini benefited from better conditions than Espaillat. In the preceding years, his three predecessors from the Blue Party had bended to the caudillos—military strongmen— and there had been a dynamic growth of exports, especially sugar. This resulted in an increase in wealth and tax revenues, but it did not mean that conditions were comfortable. In reality, only meager amounts were available for the implementation of any type of government plan, thus minimizing the allowances for the deployment of public policies. A procedure for the operation of government finances, which consisted in taking loans from major trade merchants, had been in effect for the previous decade. The interest accruing from these advances to the state was exorbitant, ranging from 24–36 percent annually. The country worked to increase the fortunes of this small mercantile class, from which—by no coincidence—a portion of the modern bourgeoisie came.

In the absence of resources, the president exemplified a principle that would compensate for this situation: integrity. It was becoming evident that some leaders of the ruling party were abusing their privilege to increase their own wealth, and Heureaux’s nefarious influence, which was seen as the embodiment of corruption, continued to extend. Motivated not only by principle, Billini chose to defend integrity, because it was an essential element of a rational administration that would enable investment in pivotal programs. He had to overcome his penchant for humility. “I have not gone to seek inspiration for my government in dens of corruption. My politics have always been on the straight and narrow.”

Although there was very little he could do, some of the president’s measures demonstrate his foresight.

This was the case when export duties were suspended as a way to boost farming production and capital in-

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Francisco Gregorio Billini. © Archivo General de la Nación

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vestment in agriculture, under the assumption that a reduction of tax revenues would stimulate production. The circumstances were so precarious that this measure was soon suspended. Billini’s plans to promote immigration and support campesino unity were forcibly reduced nearly to ashes. What stood out in those months, however, was his attempt at reversing the state’s lack of impact on economic growth with the aim of modernizing the country.

In contrast to these economic challenges, education was, in fact, given some attention. His most notable effort at innovation was the creation of a mobile corps of teachers who dispersed themselves in urban and rural communities to spread culture and offer access to elementary education and, most importantly, literacy. This improved upon the endeavors of previous administrations, which were more focused on the foundation of higher education institutions, such as the Normal School of Hoscos, the Meriño Seminary, and the fledgling Professional Institute. Billini’s style of educational action revolved around the people. He saw this as the skeleton key to transforming the country.

In addition to preventing corruption, another fundamental macropolitical issue was addressed: strengthening civil liberties. More so than in any other way, Billini’s government distinguished itself by respecting the rights of citizens as set forth in the country’s constitution. He continually sought to bridge the gap between legalese and the reality that had occurred since the founding of the Republic.

He also continued more ambitiously what Luperón had established, financing the publication of periodicals and books with public funds as a means for cultural development and the inclusion of an increasing portion of the population.

As Billini traversed through his stint in power, he enabled a stream of immigrants to arrive from the Canary Islands. He proudly announced that the Ministry of Development and Public Works had managed to establish land rights for the members of that first expedition from the Canaries. After the preparations for a second contingent had been announced, he implored his successor not to abandon this effort.

If he had not done enough, he explained, it was because of the dire economic situation, the supreme importance of peacekeeping, the failure to resolve disputes with France and Spain, and a concern regarding the internal state of affairs in Haiti.

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A Novelist of The Heartland As his hopes for overthrowing the tyranny dissipated, Billini withdrew from politics—probably around 1891—and began writing the novel that would become his most famous text. He set the plot in Baní, which he considered his hometown, although he was incidentally born in Santo Domingo. In the pages of Baní o Engracia y Antoñita, he demonstrates his profound understanding of everyday existence in this world some twenty years earlier. He was thus inspired to recreate it as a way to make statements on the reality of the country and, particularly, the phenomenon of civil war.

There were only a few precedents for this kind of literary work. The most important were the works produced locally, imbued with a romanticism that diverged from contemporary reality, taking refuge in the lost paradise of the native people. Billini always tried to avoid this genre, although he continued to be inopportunely branded by the canons of romanticism. When he was young, he had composed several poetic and fictional texts that had not been published, because he had sacrificed his vocation as a writer to actively pursue the protection of national independence.

Andrés Blanco reports that in 1887, Billini announced in El Monitor that the play Una flor del Ozama would be published. It never appeared; however, it was recovered by the Baní Historical Archive. Two and a half decades passed before the warrior journalist found the serenity to begin composing the novel.

He began working within a domain that was admittedly not his forte, which is surprising considering his interest in literature from a young age and his vast experience in journalism. The composition of Engracia y Antoñita does not compare to the linguistic command demonstrated in his articles and essays. We know from correspondence that he decided to incorporate Meriño’s critical observations as he conceived each chapter.

Meriño painstakingly pored over the text, generating suggestions to form and content. His friend, poet José Joaquín Pérez, also contributed editorial advice to the novel.

References to authors such as Francois-René de Chateaubriand reveal that there was a revival of the precepts of romanticism. He was interested in interweaving different planes, such as the description of the landscape as a backdrop to the emotions of the novel’s heroes. Patriarchal customs of the local environment were also elevated to an idyllic degree. The plot revolves around characters representative of different mindsets. Engracia and Antoñita, for example, are two simple young urban girls who yearn for true love, a clean lifestyle, and cultural fulfillment. All of them are based on stereotypes that represent moral principles. Enrique Gómez is the unscrupulous man who takes advantage of the young girls’ naiveté; Don Pancracio is the attorney interested in public affairs; Candelaria Ozán is the personification of evil, aiding the Baecistas and endorsing their schemes.

Behind the love affairs, the lies, and the unfortunate outcome for the young girls, the novel’s focal point shifts to its historical-political context. The story is set in a field of emotions where originality is found in the descriptions of the political climate and in the introduction of interpretive hints at the phenomenon of revolution, but the text was unable to dig deeper. It does not truly go beyond black and white. Ultimately, the overarching theme can be interpreted as a struggle between good and evil.

The events of the novel take place at a time when Buenaventura Báez supporters had staged an uprising against Cabral’s second administration. A precise date and time are not mentioned, most likely so that the novel would not be interpreted as a historical text. Don Postumio, a local leader who embodied the civilized world, obviously identified with those who were known as the azules or cacoses. Their enemies were nothing less than criminals borrowed from real life, well-known by their nicknames, especially Solito, Baúl, and Musié.

He also alluded to others such as Llinito, Sindo, Estrella, Ventana, Mandé, La Guinea, and La Chiva. The writer was intrigued by these characters who he classified as the epitome of the era. Some of them were the murderers of Don Antonio Díaz, a merchant from Santo Domingo who sought refuge in Baní for personal reasons.

Their motive was the quest for a trove of gold coins that Díaz had concealed. Engracia, who knew particulars about the treasure, was resolute in ensuring that it was entrusted to the heirs of the deceased. When the bae-

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cista gangsters came into town, they instilled fear. Only one of them, Candelaria’s nephew Felipe Ozán, was able to make amends and be accepted by the community.

Billini’s cultural commentary aims to glorify values such as integrity, friendship, and emotional sincerity, but what really stands out is his appreciation for a culture of the past that is summoned to become the exemplar of a good society. The urban realm, however, was defined by rural savagery—epitomized by the macheteros—and plagued by the failings of many of its members. Billini’s proposals for reform, which he had begun developing years earlier, were redefined to be disseminated in literary form. This was achieved by rejecting the ills of society: violence related to civil war, the lack of patriotism of the masses, general apathy, and worst of all, individualism. His approach to managing the future development of the Republic involved the combination of hard work and awareness through education. Don Postumio was used as a paradigm of the typical politician who aims to lead by example, preaching freedom and taking a moderate stance on solidarity.

An essential read, the elite class devoured the novel, considering it a literary breakthrough, despite its formal defects. In a sense, by focusing on the brutality of rural existence, it could be interpreted as the antithesis of El Montero by Pedro Francisco Bonó. Offering an achievable cultural alternative—just as he had done more than a decade earlier in relation to sugar production—it is possible that Billini sustained a hidden feud with Bonó. During the Trujillo administration, it earned silent recognition after being banned on the assumption that the evil Candelaria Ozán represented Silveria Valdez, the authoritarian’s grandmother.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Billini, Francisco Gregorio. Baní o Engracia y Antoñita. Santo Domingo: Librería Dominicana, 1962.

Billini, Francisco Gregorio. Más que un Eco de la Opinión, 4 vols., ed. Andrés Blanco.

Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2009.

Martínez, Rufino. Diccionario biográfico-histórico dominicano, 18211930. Santo Domingo: Editora de la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, 1971.

Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio. Baní y la novela de Billini. Santo Domingo: Editora del Caribe, 1964.

ENDNOTES 1 The Spanish name “Juan” is used here since it was customary for immigrants to change their first names to Spanish.

A native of a Latin American rural area especially a Latin American Indian farmer or farm laborer.

2

First Ceremony held in honor of Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso, on June 21, 2018, at the National Pantheon, with the presence of H.E. Andrea Canepari, Ambassador of Italy in Santo Domingo; Dr. Roberta Canepari; and Vice Admiral Miguel Peña, Commander of the Dominican Navy. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

• CHAPTER 13

Diplomatic Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic

PART ONE. Notes for a Chronology: 1844-2017

By Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben Director of the Department of Education, History, and professor at PUCMM

fter Dominican independence was declared on February 27, 1844, the country’s diplomatic efforts were focused on two conflicting, yet complementary—for the time—goals: the recognition of the newly formed nation and its annexation by imperial powers, or failing that, the United States.

Between 1844 and the late 1850s, England and France replaced Spain and Portugal as the hegemonic imperial powers in the Caribbean and Latin America. Dominance was then established through commerce, something the English and French empires achieved by flooding the regional markets with their products.

It was in that process of colonial emancipation and the intrusion of European—and later, American—capital that Dominican Republic history was written. The winds of liberty swept through Latin America, though they came much later and more slowly to the insular Caribbean. Interestingly, the islands of the Greater Antilles, predominantly represented by the Hispanic Caribbean, all had very different timelines and destinies.

Cuba achieved its independence in the early 1900s, while Puerto Rico became the domain of the United States.

The Dominican Republic, for all its highs and lows, achieved independence in 1844. Haiti, of course, achieved independence in 1804, yet it was not until August 1962 that Jamaica did the same.

Once the eastern part of Hispaniola gained its independence from Haiti and its first constitutional government was established, securing outside support became imperative. The more conservative members of government wished for the annexation or protection of the country by some foreign power: France, England, or the United States. Spain was at the bottom of that hierarchy, though it was the only power to respond favorably to the conservative proposal.

In the Dominican Republic’s early years, Italy did not form part of the diplomatic landscape. The diplomatic delegations organized by the republic’s first constitutional president, General Pedro Santana, were destined for the United States, France, England, and Spain.

However, once investors and adventurers began coming into the country, Italy became a contender for the attention of Dominican leaders and politicians. Scholars of Dominican diplomacy agree that Juan Bautista Cambiaso was responsible for building relations with Italy. Cambiaso was an admiral, merchant, and politician of Italian origin. He was born in Genoa in 1820 and died in Santo Domingo in 1886. He was one of the first Italian immigrants to arrive on the island, reaching the city of Santo Domingo during the Haitian occupation.

Throughout the twelve-year war between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Cambiaso fought as a frontline defender of the Republic. He led the insular army to victory in every battle where the Dominican Navy was under his command, such as the Battles of Azua (1844), Beler (1845), and Las Carreras (1849). He was likewise responsible for organizing the Battle of Tortuguero, which took place on April 15, 1844 and which was the first major naval battle of the Dominican War of Independence. Cambiaso’s fleet was victorious, as described in

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Letters patent of appointment of Angelo Porcella Vicini as Consul of Italy in the Dominican Republic by King Vittorio Emanuele III. Image recovered from the archives of the Porcella family, direct descendants. © Giovanni Cavallaro

this book’s Chapter 11, “Juan Bautista Cambiaso (1820-1886), Founder of the Dominican Navy and First Admiral of the Republic.”1 As examined over the course of the following pages, Cambiaso was an active participant in Italian-Dominican relations.

The following chronology is incomplete, though it suggests that relations with Italy were established gradually throughout the mid-1800s. It is important to note that Italy’s relationship with the Republic was based on trade, rather than political favor.

1854 • A Treaty of Friendship is signed in Turin, Italy, establishing trade relations with the Kingdom of Sardinia during General Pedro Santana’s administration. It was later ratified by Resolution No. 373 of 1855. The treaty’s terms were broad, including items such as everlasting peace, friendship, freedom of commerce, and tax exemptions for Italian investors, including indemnification in the event of any unfortunate occurrences.

This treaty was signed by the President of the Dominican Republic through his representative, José Fontana, and the King of Sardinia through his representative, José Dabormida, “Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, decorated by several other foreign Orders, and artillery Major.”2 The Secretary of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs was also present. The document contained 27 articles. Here are some of the major points:

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Letter of Luigi Cambiaso to vicar Carlos Nouel. Santo Domingo, May 19, 1886. Archivo General de la Nación, Carlos Nouel Collection. © Archivo General de la Nación

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The President of the Dominican Republic and His Majesty the King of Sardinia, wishing to establish solid foundations for the development of diplomatic and commercial relations between States, resolve to establish a treaty of friendship, navigation, and commerce, with the intent of declaring the Kingdom of Sardinia’s recognition of the Independence of the Dominican Republic…

Article 1. Peace and friendship. There shall be everlasting peace between the Dominican Republic and the Kingdom of Sardinia, as well as between the citizens and vassals of either State, without exception of persons or locations.

Article 2. Freedom of trade. National treatment. Dominicans in Sardinia and Sardinians in the Dominican Republic shall be allowed to enter all ports and markets open to foreign trade as freely as any other citizen of their respective States. […]

They shall be at liberty to conduct business for themselves, deliver their own customs declarations, or to be represented, at their discretion, by an agent, cosigner, or interpreter, be it in the sale or purchase of their goods, possessions or merchandise, the loading, unloading and dispatch of their ships […]

Article 4. Exemption from embargoes or indemnification for citizens and subjects.

Citizens and subjects of the respective States shall be exempted from embargoes and seizures of their ships, cargo, merchandise or property, be it for military or public purposes, without indemnification negotiated in advance by the involved parties.3 1872 • Juan Bautista Cambiaso is appointed consul of the Kingdom of Italy. Worthy of noting, he also served as consul of the Kingdom of Sardinia under Buenaventura Báez during the First Republic.

1886 • A bilateral trade treaty is signed on October 18, establishing trade regulations between both countries. It granted complete freedom of trade and movement to the citizens of each country. Interestingly, and to Italy’s favor, merchants were afforded preferential treatment, being granted immunities, exemptions and privileges in commercial matters. When compared to the previous treaty with Sardinia, few differences can be discerned. Italy’s unification meant that the previous treaty could be used as a base for this later one, with some minor modifications. It comprised 30 articles and was signed by Juan B. Morel and Luigi Cambiaso. In 1890, President Ulises Heureaux ratified it with Resolution No. 2905.

1888 • A supplementary act to the bilateral trade treaty was signed, which introduced amendments to Articles 1, 4, 9, 13, 17, 22, 26, and 30. Manuel María Gautier and Luigi Cambiaso signed this amendment.

Article 1. The following paragraph shall be added to Article 1 of the treaty of October 18, 1886: “The privileges, rights, liberties, favors, immunities, and exemptions declared herein shall not impede the enforcement of each State’s respective customs laws where gross registered tonnage is concerned, and each State shall collect the appropriate taxes in accordance with said laws. […]

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Appointment of confirmation (exequatur) for Angelo Porcella Vicini as Consul of Italy in the Dominican Republic issued by President Ramón Cáceres. Image from the archives of the Porcella family, direct descendants. © Giovanni Cavallaro / Porcella Family

Article 2. Article 4 of the aforementioned treaty shall be amended as follows: “Citizens and subjects of the respective States shall be exempted from embargoes and seizures of their ships, cargo, merchandise or property, be it for military or public purposes, without indemnification, negotiated in advance by the involved parties.”

Article 3. Article 9 of the aforementioned treaty shall be amended as follows: “The privileges, rights, liberties, favors, immunities, and exemptions granted by each State to their respective merchant vessels do not, in any way, involve cabotage rights, which are reserved for each country’s domestic vessels; their enforcement is thus subject to each State’s respective laws on the matter.”

Article 4. The following paragraph has been added to article 13: “The terms of this Article do not include any facilities or privileges which either country finds in their best interest to grant to any citizen or foreigner who requests them, for the purposes of establishing special steamship routes, or any provision by each country’s maritime trade laws, unless they benefit both countries’ ships.”

Article 5. The sixth clause of Article 17 of the aforementioned treaty shall be amended with the appropriate wording to make it read as follows: “The removal of both seals shall be performed either by mutual consent or as mandated by the appropriate judge.”

Article 6. Article 19 of the aforementioned treaty is hereby suppressed.

Article 7. The final paragraph of Article 22 […] shall read as follows: “The requesting party shall provide the officially sanctioned agent with the payment they are legally owed.”

Article 8. The following paragraph has been added to Article 26 of the aforementioned treaty: “The provisions of this Article do not grant the contracting States the right to claim priority treatment as a result of any treaties requiring concessions or special favors to or from bordering States.”

Article 9. The following article shall be added to the aforementioned treaty: “The Dominican government, whenever a contract is drafted by an Italian migrant to the Dominican Republic, be it in Italy

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Presentation of credentials by H.E. Andrea Canepari, Ambassador of Italy to His Excellency the President of the Dominican Republic, Mr. Danilo Medina, on October 26, 2017.

In the picture, Her Excellency the Vice President of the Republic, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, and His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Vargas, in the Hall of Ambassadors of the National Palace. © Presidency of the Dominican Republic

or elsewhere, voluntarily, through concessions, third parties or associations, shall ensure that all such proposed contracts are equitable, and upon being proven to be equitable, are scrupulously enforced; furthermore, it shall ensure that the transport, egress, and settlement of said immigrants conforms to humanitarian principles on the basis of health and safety; and lastly, it shall severely punish any fraud committed against them, providing the aggrieved parties whenever such fraud is recognized, in order to afford them the appropriate compensation.”

Article 10. This act shall be ratified alongside the aforementioned treaty, and said ratifications shall be finalized within one year of this act being presented, thus modifying Article 30 of the aforementioned treaty.

Source: José Gabriel García, Obras Completas, vol. 3 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, Banco de Reservas, Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2016), 409.

1898 • After many months of negotiations, and toward the end of Ulises Heureaux’s dictatorship, Italian-Dominican diplomatic relations were formalized.

1903 • Juan Elías Moscoso is sent to Italy as minister plenipotentiary. He is tasked with convincing Italy to negotiate the rate at which the Dominican government would indemnify its Italian citizens. An agreement favorable to Italy is reached on July 4. Moscoso and the Italian representative O. Savina sign the agreement.

President Alejandro Woss y Gil ratifies it on July 9, via Resolution 4407.

1903 • A new treaty on navigation and commerce is signed. With it, the stipulations of the treaty of 1886 are reinstated. It is signed by Fidelio Despradel and O. Savina and ratified by President Woss y Gil via Resolution No. 4312 on July 16.

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1941 • The Dominican National Congress issues Decree No. 634 on December 13, 1941, authorizing the President of the Republic to declare war on the Kingdom of Italy, in solidarity with the United States.

1946 • Minister Plenipotentiary Porfirio Herrera Báez is sent to Italy by [Rafael Leónidas] Trujillo with the intent of strengthening relations between both nations. Reports from the era indicate that he received a warm welcome from the Italian government.

1962 • The Dominican ambassador to Germany, Jaime E. Ricart, sends a message to the Dominican Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The communication provided an analysis of trade relations between Europe and the Dominican Republic. Italy represented one of the most important coffee markets in Europe; however, the Dominican Republic had serious competitors in terms of quality and quantity. A strong recommendation for the redoubling of trade agreements is made.

1964 • Capital guaranteed investments agreement. Memo No. 983 of April 3 sought the government’s approval for the issuance of a bulletin that guaranteed the safety of all investments made in the Dominican Republic. The goal was to spread knowledge of the capital investments agreement made with the United States worldwide, so that similar agreements could be formalized with Italy, France, Spain and Germany.

1969 • On February 22, Ambassador Enrique de Marchena writes to Dr. Fernando Amiama Tió, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, of the commercial roadblocks in some European countries, particularly Italy, Spain and France. Underscoring the harm that these roadblocks could bring to the Dominican Republic, he recommends the negotiation of new bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.

1972 • On June 5, Italian Ambassador Carlos Perrone Capano writes to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Italian government’s interest in establishing a new bilateral trade agreement, using Article 113 of the Treaty of Rome as its general framework.

On June 12, the Italian ambassador writes once more to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Víctor Gómez Bergés. In his message, he bids farewell, for his diplomatic mission had come to a close, but reiterates his government’s interest in establishing a new trade agreement between both nations.

1978 • A bilateral, civilian open skies agreement is signed between both countries during President Joaquín Balaguer’s tenure.

1983 • A new bilateral economic cooperation agreement is signed to reinforce economic relations between nations during President Salvador Jorge Blanco’s tenure.

1990 • A bilateral economic cooperation memorandum is issued by Rome. Its purpose was to strengthen and further the extent of the cooperative relation between both countries, with an emphasis on the channeling of extraordinary aid to the Dominican Republic by Italy.

1999 • During President Leonel Fernández’ tenure, a new Joint Declaration is signed in Rome with the goal of strengthening Italy’s role in providing developmental aid.

2004 • President Hipólito Mejía issues an executive decree on August 4, declaring December 5 to be “National Italian Immigrant Day.” This date was chosen, because December 5, 1492, is the date on which Christopher Columbus—who was born in the Italian city of Genoa—first reached the shores of Hispaniola.

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2006 • Declaration of intent to enter an agreement for the promotion and protection of investments between countries. This agreement was never enforced, because it failed to be ratified by both the Italian Parliament and the Dominican Congress. Negotiations for a scientific and cultural cooperation agreement are finalized. It is signed, ratified, and enacted in 2019.

2013 • In accordance with Decree No. 95 of 2012, the Italian government decides to streamline its network of foreign embassies, consulates, and cultural institutions by closing a number of them. This action was part of an effort to reduce expenditures in order to implement the government’s budget review plan.

2014 • The Italian embassy in Santo Domingo is closed on December 31, and the Dominican Republic’s consular district is relocated to the Italian embassy in Panama. The Dominican government certifies the Panamanian ambassador as concurrent ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The Italian embassy’s closure sparked what was likely the worst diplomatic crisis between both nations. The Dominican government could not fathom why a country that had been so culturally and economically influential would cut off diplomatic relations, especially considering how much of the Dominican economy was controlled by individuals of Italian heritage. As a result, the local Italian community immediately organized protests, having found themselves effectively stranded and dependent on the Italian embassy in Panama to issue all of their identification papers.

This was a significant problem, given that there were more than 11,0004 Italians registered and residing in the Dominican Republic, according to Italian authorities. However, according to Dominican authorities, another 50,000 unregistered Italians also lived in the country. A local Italian association, “Casa de Italia,” assumed a leadership role in the protests and became a platform through which Dominican and Italian officials could be prompted to reopen the embassy. The Italian courts initiated judicial proceedings to annul the decree issued by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which mandated the closure of the embassy. On June 25, 2015, Section 3T of the Lazio TAR (Administrative Court), issued Ruling No. 9371, which officially acknowledged the appeals made by the commissions and Italian citizens against Italy’s Presidential Decree of June 25, 2014.

It was amid this turmoil that Dominican President Danilo Medina traveled to Italy on September 29, 2014 to attend meetings of the FAO. While there, he requested meetings with various Italian institutions to discuss the matter of the embassy reopening. As discussed in chapter 40, President Medina met with then-Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council and later Minister for Sport, Luca Lotti, to demand the reopening of the embassy in Santo Domingo, citing the long history of political, diplomatic and economic relations between both countries.

2015 • The Italian Council of State issues Ruling No. 8257. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, represented by the Italian Attorney General against Asociación Casa de Italia, Inc., dismissed the case brought forth by the Italians living in the Dominican Republic.

2016 • In October, the Italian deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, Mario Giro, visited the Dominican Republic and held meetings during which the reopening of the embassy was once again requested. To support its argument, the Dominican government pointed to the needs of its Italian residents, as well as the country’s need for trade relations and investments. Both of these factors bolstered each other, as the country was experiencing an average annual growth of up to 7% until 2016, and much of its economically powerful class was of Italian descent.

On April 4, 2016, the Italian government decided to reopen its Santo Domingo embassy, setting the date for February 1, 2017.

2017 • In January, the Council of Ministers appoints career diplomat Andrea Canepari as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, thus establishing the highest level of Italian representation alongside the rees-

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tablishment of diplomatic relations with the Dominican Republic. The consular chancellery would be opened later that year on July 1.

The Dominican Republic’s economic and political leaders, as well as the community at large, eagerly and anxiously awaited the embassy’s reopening. On August 1, Andrea Canepari arrived in the Dominican Republic, and two days later, as a sign of friendship toward Italy, he was greeted by Dominican Foreign Affairs Minister Miguel Vargas in order to personally deliver the sealed copies of his diplomatic credentials.5 On October 26, President Danilo Medina officially met with Ambassador Canepari for the formal delivery of his diplomatic credentials. Thus, a new page in Italy-Dominican Republic diplomatic relations was turned, 121 years after the first pages were penned.

ITALIAN ENVOYS TO THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Enrico Chicco

Resident Minister with Letters of Credence

February 27, 1898

Giuseppe Saint Martin Head of Business

June 15, 1901

Oreste Savina

Resident Minister with Letters of Credence

August 2, 1902

Giacomo Mondello

Consul, Resident Minister with Letters of Credence

December 8, 1907

Annibale Raybaudi Massiglia

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

September 20, 1913

Stefano Carrara

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

September 10, 1915

Guglielmo Vivaldi

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

March 27, 1924

Raffaele Boscarelli

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

May 29, 1930

Nicola Macario

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

September 19, 1933

Mario Porta

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary (residing in Port au Prince)

August 6, 1937

Gastone Rossi Lunghi

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary

May 14, 1947

Antonio Cottafavi

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

August 11, 1952

Alberto Barbarich

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

June 22, 1955

Pietro Solari

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

November 8, 1958

Guelfo Zamboni

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

September 12, 1961

Roberto Venturini

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

May 23, 1964

Tristano Gabrici

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

June 12, 1966

Virgilio Gorga

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

November 23, 1969

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART ONE. NOTES FOR A CHRONOLOGY: 1844-2017

Angelo Macchia

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

March 26, 1974

Giuseppe Lo Faro

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

January 18, 1977

Vittorio Pennarola

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

January 31, 1980

Antonio Venturella

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

December 10, 1984

Roberto Rossellini

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

January 19, 1989

Tommaso de Vergottini

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

June 24, 1993

Ruggero Vozzi

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

January 7, 1996

Stefano Alberto Canavesio

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

October 1, 1999

Giorgio Sfara

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

March 1, 2003

Enrico Guicciardi

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

July 4, 2006

Arturo Olivieri

Ambassador with Letters of Credence

September 2, 2010

Andrea Canepari

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with Letters of Credence

August 1, 2017

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Arraya, Lucy. “Historia de las Relaciones Internacionales de la República Dominicana. 1844-1930.” In Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano, vol. 4. Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 2019.

García, José Gabriel. Obras Completas, vol. 3. Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación-Banco de Reservas, Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2016.

Sang Ben, Mu-Kien Adriana. La Política Exterior Dominicana. 18441961, vol. 1. Santo Domingo: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2000.

———. La Política Exterior Dominicana. 1961-1974, vol. 2. Santo Domingo: Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores-Banco de Reservas de la República Dominicana, Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2002.

Tejera, Eduardo. Historia del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores.

1844-2000. Santo Domingo: MIREX, 2018.

Vargas, Miguel. Memoria. Gestión 2017-2018. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2018.

Vega, Wenceslao. Los Documentos Básicos de la Historia Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1994.

Online References Ambasciata d’Italia Santo Domingo. https://ambsantodomingo. esteri.it/ambasciata_santodomingo/it/i_rapporti_bilaterali/cooperazione_politica/incontri/incontri.html Accessed August 28, 2020.

“Danilo se Reúne con Presidente de Italia.” El Nacional, February 13, 2019. https://elnacional.com.do/danilo-se-reune-con-presidente-de-italia.

Romero, Argénida. “Tribunal Anula Decreto Cierre Embajada de Italia en Santo Domingo.” Diario Libre, July 20, 2015. https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/tribunal-anula-decreto-cierre-embajada-de-italia-en-santo-domingo-CG558477 “Euclides destaca relaciones históricas entre Italia y RD.” TiempoNotiRD, September 28, 2018. https://tiemponotird.blogspot. com/2018/09/euclides-destaca-relaciones-historicas.html

ENDNOTES Juan Daniel Balcácer, “Juan Bautista Cambiaso (1820-1886), Founder of the Dominican Navy and First Admiral of the Republic.”

2 José Gabriel García, Obras completas, vol. 3 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación-Banco de Reservas, Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2016), 409.

1

Ibid., 410.

Specifically, there were 11,388 Italians, according to sources from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, current as of October 2019.

5 Miguel Vargas, Memoria. Gestión 2017-2018 (Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2018), 236.

3 4

On the occasion of the First Design Week, an exhibition of Italian design artists was held at the Peña Defilló Museum, showcasing high-end furniture imported by the company BellaCasa International and under the direction of Domizia Bacci and architect Nico Lucchesini and the coordination of the Museum Director, architect Alex Martínez Suarez. Santo Domingo, September-November 2019. © Nico Lucchesini

Diplomatic Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic

PART TWO. Diplomatic Relations in the Present:

2017-2020

By Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic

Logo of the cultural year for the celebrations of 120 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic. © Embassy of Italy in Santo Domingo

ver the course of the shared history of Italy and the Dominican Republic, there have been times when diplomatic relations were of particular importance. In the first part of this chapter, Professor Mu-Kien Sang Ben discusses various pivotal figures, such as Juan Bautista (Giovanni Battista) Cambiaso—a citizen of an Italian state and consul of the Republic of Genoa, founder of the Dominican Navy, first admiral of the republic, and hero of Dominican Independence—who is commemorated in the National Pantheon in Santo Domingo, where his remains rest, and by an annual celebration every June 21, a tradition that I personally initiated in 2018, together with the General Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Miguel Peña Acosta.

Other important events in diplomatic and consular relations pertain to Italian honorary consuls, such as Francisco Rainieri and Amadeo Barletta, both also mentioned in Chapters 18 and 17 of this book respectively.1 The Italian presence in the Dominican Republic dates back centuries. Relations between the two nations are now accorded great importance and prestige, and have had far-reaching impacts in shaping the country’s national identity. Italy is part of the DNA of the Dominican Republic, in part due to having promoted and supported the creation of many of the latter country’s apolitical institutional infrastructures that have bolstered the long-term operations of the country, including the Dominican Navy2 (Chapter 11)—fundamental for an island nation—as well as the press3 (Chapter 41), agriculture and related technological development4 (Chapter 38), and the Catholic Church and religious educational structures5 (Chapters 8 and 9). Learning more about the importance that many historical figures of Italian origin have had in the Dominican Republic, and what Italy and the Dominican Republic have built and achieved together, kindled my desire to highlight the shared past of the two countries and the significant interrelationships, as a way to lay the foundations for even deeper cooperation in the future, especially in light of the well-established and successful community of Italian origin currently present in the country.

Within the framework of a renewed desire by Italy and the Dominican Republic to reframe their diplomatic relations and create new opportunities in cultural, economic, and institutional terms, I have had the privilege of serving Italy as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in the Dominican Republic. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations in Rome, I have promoted various activities and initiatives that, based on the knowledge of the shared history, can help to “build bridges between

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Apostolic Nuncio Ghaleb Bader and Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari together with the Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández; the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Francisco Ozoria; and the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hugo Rivera, toasting in honor of the celebration of Italian Republic Day and launch of the cultural year “120 Years of diplomatic relations”. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

past history and the future.” This slogan, which has been at the center of most of the initiatives carried out, succinctly expresses the desire to make Italians, Italian-Dominicans, and Dominicans aware that Italy and the Dominican Republic have worked side by side on numerous occasions and that Italy has always been present, and still is, at pivotal moments of the history of the Dominican Republic.

The richness of the shared history, along with the opportunities that are open for the future, have convinced me of the usefulness of bringing together the dozens of stories of enormous importance that I have come to know under one roof so that they can form the basis of the future history of friendship and collaboration between the two countries. In fact, this shared history is only partially and fragmentarily known, and it therefore lacks a global vision that can serve as the basis for the development of present and future relations. It is precisely this desire to transmit and make known the greatness of the past in order to build an even better future that

Pepín Corripio, President of the Corripio Group; Ambassador Andrea Canepari; and Vice President Margarita Cedeño at the Italian National Festival. Santo Domingo, June 6, 2018. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Ambassador Andrea Canepari and Vice President Margarita Cedeño at her arrival at the Italian National Day and launch of the celebrations for the 120 years of relations between the two countries. Santo Domingo, June 6, 2018. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

The Forum “1492, Montecristi Primada del Nuevo Mundo” (1492, Montecristi First City of the New World) with conferences presented by historians Carmen Prestinary and Euclides Guitiérrez Félix and the Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic, Andrea Canepari. The opening was overseen by the Civil Governor of Montecristi, Marcos Jorge and the activity moderated by the Director of the DGDF (Dirección General de Desarrollo Fronterizo), Miguel Bejarán.

September 22, 2018. © General Directorate of Border Development

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has created the momentum behind this book project on Italian cultural heritage in the Dominican Republic, on which I have worked together with the president of the Dominican Academy of History, José Chez Checo, and through which has brought together not only great scholars and historians but also great institutional figures from the Dominican Republic, while attracting the strong support of important entrepreneurs.

In writing this part of the chapter, it is my desire to share the most recent history that I have been fortunate to have experienced first person, and how diplomatic, but also human, cultural, and economic relations have been strengthened in these years, living up to the great shared history.

I have decided to follow in the second part of this article the chronological structure proposed by Sang Ben in the first part, thereby highlighting the commitment of Italy and the Dominican Republic over the years.

These last years have led both countries to demonstrate concrete gestures of friendship, seizing the opportunities that the history and relevance of the Italian community in the country have offered. As many successes have been achieved, I am confident that we can—and indeed should—do even more to take advantage of the many concrete opportunities that exist. The election of President Luis Abinader and the beginning of his government on August 16, 2020 have changed the leadership of the institutions of the Dominican Republic, thus opening new scenarios for the country. Within this renewed framework, the link with Italy remains strong.

The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Álvarez, has repeatedly indicated to me that, he is convinced it is time to relaunch relations between the two countries, and that, this is the intention of the new government. Some scholars of international affairs foresee a very positive and promising evolution in the relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic after the election of President Luis Abinader. As Michael Kryzanek, professor emeritus of political science at Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, stresses in Chapter 14: “The victory of Luis Abinader as the new Dominican president in July 2020 is also important in government relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.”6 On September 22, 2020, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs Roberto Álvarez accepted my invitation to be the keynote speaker at the conference titled Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic, in the current economic context conditioned by COVID-19, which began the cycle of virtual meetings organized by the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce together with the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo. It was the first participation by a newly designated Dominican Minister in an international event in Santo Domingo.

During the conference, the Minister expressed his personal commitment, and that of President Abinader, to strengthening the country’s relations with Italy.7 Furthermore, he spoke about the historical importance of relations with Italy.

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2017 • On November 27, at a ceremony presided over by Dominican Vice President Margarita Cedeño—acting on behalf of President Medina, who was out of the country at the time—a reception that I had organized was held to greet the diplomatic corps, and the members of the Government, the Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies present at the event. I introduced myself as the new Italian ambassador and set out to explain my mission. I still remember the great joy and emotion of the Italian community present at the ceremony, and also the pride of being Italian and of being represented with honor and prestige, sentiments well described by the engineer Renzo Seravalle who remembers the event in Chapter 44, “A Brief History of the Casa de Italia, Inc. in Santo Domingo,” written in conjunction with Professor Rolando Forestieri. As I clearly shared with all the guests on that occasion, my first efforts as an ambassador were the relaunching of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the building of shared logistical but also institutional structures—above all for economic and cultural promotion—and understanding the problems and needs of the Italian community in the Dominican Republic. It was not only necessary to get to know the different members of this community, but also to standardize consular services and locate new offices to ensure the efficient and safe provision of these services. The main objectives to be pursued with utmost expediency included the relaunching of diplomatic relations—under the guidance of Director General Luca Sabbatucci in Rome—as well as the strengthening of the bilateral Chamber of Commerce and the construction of infrastructures and platforms for cultural dialogue (e.g., with the creation of an Italian Cultural Center and chair, which in September 2019 was launched as the Bishop Alessandro Geraldini Chair and Cultural Center at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra), and the normalization of consular services.

2018 • On May 1 and 2, thanks to a decision by the Dominican Presidency of the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Central American Integration System (SICA), a SICA meeting was held in Rome at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation together with the Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA), thus reflecting another gesture of friendship with Italy. Apart from the MAECI-IILA-SICA meeting held on May 2 in Rome, we must also mention the meeting on May 3 between the former Minister of Italian Foreign Affairs, Angelino Alfano, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic, Miguel Vargas Maldonado.

On October 4, 2018, at the state-of-the-art Convention Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Santo Domingo, with the participation of Italian Undersecretary of State Ricardo A. Merlo, Dominican Foreign Minister Vargas Maldonado, and IILA Secretary General Donato ​​ Di Santo, we inaugurated a landmark exhibition celebrating the fifty years of the IILA, ​​an organization created to promote dialogue between Italy and the region.

On October 5, 2018, I organized the inauguration ceremony of the new offices of the diplomatic and consular chancellery of Italy in Santo Domingo, in the presence of Italian Undersecretary of State Ricardo A. Merlo; Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado; Dominican Ambassador to Italy Alba María Cabral; the auxiliary bishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Faustino Burgos; members of the press; and representatives of the Italian community in the country. These secure, efficient, and simple offices were chosen with great care so as to once again offer consular services to Italian citizens. This renewal was made possible thanks to the support of MAECI, the Inspectorate General, the Directorate General for Resources and Innovation (DGRI), and, in particular the Deputy Inspector General Agostino Palese.

Opening of “Italian Month” at BlueMall Santo Domingo, Professors Loriana Zanuttigh and Giorgio Forni from the Fondazione Sartirana Arte of Pavia, together with Ambassador Andrea Canepari and his wife Roberta and the directors of BlueMall Santo Domingo, Daniela and Luis Emilio Velutini.

September 27, 2018. © BlueMall Santo Domingo

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As part of “Italian Month” and within the context of the celebrations for the 120 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the exhibition “Italian Iconic Fashion” of Fondazione Sartirana Arte Pavia was presented at BlueMall Santo Domingo, where the central atrium replicated the Milan Galleries. © BlueMall Santo Domingo

“Italian Iconic Fashion” exhibition by Fondazione Sartirana Arte, during “Italian Month” at BlueMallSD. © BlueMall Santo Domingo

In this reopening of the embassy, ​​great attention was paid to the conditions of the Italian community— most importantly to help with consular services and to resolve any problems that this community might experience. Since my arrival in the Dominican Republic, I have initiated a broad plan to meet with the Italian community of the country, beginning with those localities that might present the most problems, followed by visiting all the communities of Italian citizens in the main localities.

These include Barahona, Bayahibe, Boca Chica, La Romana-Casa de Campo, Las Terrenas, Montecristi, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, and Santiago de los Caballeros.

An ambitious plan was immediately set in motion to unite the different segments of the Italian community in the Dominican Republic, the newest along with the oldest that had participated in pivotal ways in the country’s cultural, political, and economic identities. These different segments did not often find meeting or bonding points, and yet they were finally able to come together and begin working to create new opportunities for themselves, for the Dominican Republic, and for Italy. These developments took place within the framework of the efforts by the MAECI to enhance Italian communities abroad, as also sanctioned by the Conference of Italian Consuls in the World organized on October 30-31, 2018 by the Director General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies Luigi Maria Vignali.

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On June 6, 2018, the anniversary of Italian National Day, the debut of the cultural year was occasioned to commemorate the 120th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

Dominican Vice President Margarita Cedeño attended the event as a special guest of honor.

Beginning in the month of June 2018, and for an entire year, 120 events were organized, representing the number of years of official diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic. However, the friendship between the two countries obviously dates back much further, in recognition that mutual human interactions are certainly far more longstanding. These events were followed by commercial relations, then consular relations (consular relations with the Kingdom of Sardinia began in 1854), and finally diplomatic relations (1898). As is widely known, the first person of Italian descent to arrive in the Dominican Republic was Genoese Admiral Christopher Columbus. After Columbus, other Genoese merchants brought new developments to the country, principally in the agricultural sector, as well as the first newspaper. This cultural year made it possible to officially commemorate the historical events that united the two countries, such as the role played by the Genoese merchant Juan Bautista Cambiaso. On August 25, 2018, an inauguration ceremony was held for the first Dominican School Ship, which was baptized specifically in honor of Genoese Admiral Juan Bautista Cambiaso. The ceremony was presided over by President Danilo Medina.

Over the course of this cultural year, numerous events were staged to showcase the shared bonds between Italians and Dominicans in the establishment of the press, the strengthening of ecclesiastical institutions, and the implementation of technology for development of the livestock, agriculture, and tourism industries, as

On October 4, 2018, at the Convention Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the opening of the photographic exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the International Italo-Latin American Organization (IILA). At the head table were Foreign Minister Vargas, Italian Undersecretary Merlo, IILA, Secretary General Di Santo, Italian Ambassador Canepari, and the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Italy, Cabral. © Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic (MIREX)

The inauguration of the new offices of the Embassy: Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senator Merlo, Chancellor of the Dominican Republic Miguel Vargas, the Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari, Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Italy, Alba Maria Cabral; and Bishop Faustino Burgos.

October 5, 2018. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

The chef Massimo Bottura, owner and chef of a culinary establishment with three Michelin stars, and “best chef in the world,” according to several magazines, received at the National Palace by the Vice President of the Republic, Margarita Cedeño, together with Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari, where he held a conversation about Italian food products and food recovery initiatives to be promoted in the Dominican Republic.

The Cariatides Hall, Santo Domingo, November 19, 2018. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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well as achievements in the arts. These examples of shared history motivated us to consider new opportunities that Italy and the Dominican Republic together could create in the sectors of the economy, culture, and political cooperation.

Each event was carried out together with Dominican institutions, universities from both countries, museums, cultural centers, Italian community organizations, and companies that believed in this project and were committed to highlighting the history that unites both countries, while also jointly building on prospects for the future. It is interesting to observe how, from the beginning, non-Italian business forces such as Pepin Corripio, the Rizek family, and the León family believed in and supported the program of restarting diplomatic relations, seeing it as a way to view the Dominican Republic through an Italian lens and understand it as a committed and mature cultural and business partner. To this end, a Cultural Advisory Committee8 and an Economic Advisory Committee9 were created, made up of representatives not only of Italian origin, but also from the highest echelons of the cultural and economic worlds.

As part of the celebrations of 120 years of diplomatic relations, Italian fashion and the creative minds from both nations joined forces at the high-end Blue Mall in Santo Domingo, which is owned by the Vellutini family, important Venezuelan entrepreneurs of Italian origin. It was here that, in October 2018, one hundred iconic Italian haute couture costumes were displayed, brought by the Fondazione Sartirana Arte (Pavia). Dominican design students also participated in the initiative.

The great interest demonstrated by scientists of the two countries led to a series of joint collaborations

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promoted through the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCYT), as part of the 14th International Congress of Scientific Research, in which Italy was the country of honor. The participating Italian scientists, who were invited by the Embassy,​presented their lectures before an audience comprising scientists, scholars, and government authorities.

The event was presided over by Minister Alejandrina Germán.

As a way of fostering awareness of the historical bonds between Italy and the Dominican Republic, I promoted a range of conferences and public diplomacy10 events, which allowed me to present a new image of Italy. Highlights included the scientific and historical symposium titled 1492, Montecristi Primada del Nuevo Mundo, held in Montecristi. This event featured lectures by historians Carmen Prestinary and Euclides Gutiérrez Félix, both of whom focused on the strong historical ties between Italy and Italians and the northern part of the Dominican Republic.

The event featured opening remarks by Marcos Jorge, governor of Montecristi, and was moderated by Miguel Bejarán, director of the DGDF (General Directorate of Border Development).

Another noteworthy conference, held on October 25, 2018, focused on Italy’s contributions to constitutional law in general, and specifically to Dominican constitutional law, with remarks by the honorable Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Dr. Milton Ray Guevara, who is also the subject of the essay titled “Chief Justice Milton Ray Guevara on Italy’s Contributions to Dominican Constitutional Law” (Summary of remarks by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic at a conference held on October 25, 2018) (Chapter 42 of this book).

During the month of October 2018, various initiatives dedicated to Italian culture were held at the Ibero-American University (UNIBE), the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC), the Technological University of Santiago (UTESA), the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the Pontificia Universidad Madre e Maestra (PUCMM), the Catholic University of Santo Domingo (UCSD), the Pedro Enrique Ureña University (UNPHU), and the Central University of the East (UCE) in San Pedro de Macoris.

2019 • On January 31, the Italian embassy and the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, directed by James McGann and the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (Funglode), organized a conference titled The Importance of Think Tanks, with the participation of the main executives of the most prominent think tanks in the Dominican Republic, representatives of the universities, as well as diplomats. The purpose of this meeting was to highlight the critical work carried out by think tanks and similar organizations. The initiative was part of more than 100 events that were held at 300 institutions in more than 80 countries around the world, thus helping to bring a dialogue on a central instrument for Dominican democracy to an international platform.

The initiative also served to highlight the importance of these centers to inform decision makers and public opinion

Visit of President Danilo Medina to President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace. Rome, February 13, 2019. © Press Office of the Presidency of the Italian Republic

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An event promoting the “Made in Italy” initiative held at the residence of the Italian Ambassador. From left: Amelia Vicini, Rosanna Rivera, Rosalia Caro, Maria Amalia Leon, Rosi de Bonarelli, Gloria de Selman, and Jenny Polanco. Santo Domingo, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Opposite page: While the new Italian Embassy is being built, the offices of the diplomatic and consular chancellery have been housed in the Equinox building, which also houses the German and Dutch Embassies, whose flags are displayed alongside the Italian and European flags,thus creating, in the same building, a kind of European house in Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro

through the drafting of responses to current problems, as well as to highlight how important it is for democracies around the world to have independent think tanks.

On February 13, 2019, the first official meeting in decades between the president of Italy and the president of the Dominican Republic occurred. In Rome, at the Quirinale, the official residence of the Italian Head of State, President Danilo Medina was received by President Sergio Mattarella, who organized an official luncheon in his honor. This visit signaled the highest level of dialogue between the two countries and served to strengthen perspectives of mutual interest. During the visit, President Medina announced plans for the celebratory year of culture commemorating half a millennium since the arrival of the First Resident Bishop in Santo Domingo, the Italian Alessandro Geraldini. For this purpose, an Honor Committee was organized and to which President Danilo Medina appointed the first lady Cándida Montilla de Medina; other members of the committee included Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado, Minister of Culture Eduardo Selman, the Minister of MESCYT (Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology) Alejandrina Germán, the acting Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Italy and subsequent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for bilateral relations Alba María Cabral, as well as the Dominican Episcopate Conference, the president of CONEP (National Council of Private Companies) Pedro Brache, the president of AIRD (Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic) Celso Juan Marranzini, and the Rectors of PUCMM (Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra) Alfredo de la Cruz Baldera and the Catholic University of Santo Domingo, SER Jesus Castro Marte. I was privileged to take part in the Honor Committee and to promote the initiatives of this cultural year, which featured high-level events to not only commemorate Alessandro Geraldini, first resident Bishop of Santo Domingo and builder of the first cathedral of the Americas, but also to demonstrate “the close ties of friendship between Italy and the Dominican Republic,” as President Danilo Medina communicated to me in a letter11 dated September 26, 2019, to support and congratulate the organization of said commemorative events.

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Eduardo Selman, Minister of Culture; Mrs. Gloria Mejia Selman; Maria Amalia Leon, Director General of the Leon Center; artist Lidia Leon; Andrea Canepari, Ambassador of Italy; and Dr. Roberta Canepari, at the luncheon in honor of the first participation of the Dominican Republic at the Venice Biennale of Art 2019.

March 21, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Within the framework of this diplomatic visit, Dominican Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Vargas Maldonado signed agreements on judicial cooperation and extradition, as well as cooperation in the fields of cinema and the environment. Most importantly, the signing of the judicial cooperation and extradition agreements served as cornerstones in the rekindling of relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic. As discussed with the Dominican authorities, these covenants were important not only for their specific usefulness, but also as clear indications of the turning of a new page in diplomatic relations. Italy and the Dominican Republic needed to present themselves as two mutually committed nations, capable of creating important economic and political opportunities. They could not be regarded, not even in the eyes of the public, as nations mainly associated by problems, including those related to criminal activities. For these reasons, the Dominican Republic, sharing my idea of relaunching relations, decided to quickly and favorably bring negotiations to a close that had been stagnant for more than forty years.

I was convinced that we had to shift our attention from problems which needed to be resolved and focus on the history that united both countries, highlighting the important bond formed by the Italian community in the Dominican Republic and, above all, on the opportunities that could be created for the benefit of both nations.

On September 19, 2019, to begin the cultural year of the Quincentennial of the arrival in Santo Domingo of the First Resident Bishop, Alessandro Geraldini—as

Italian National Day, Santo Domingo, May 29, 2019.

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Toasting of the head table during the Italian National Day celebrations. From left to right: Rosanna Rivera, Mistress of Ceremonies; H.E. Andrea Canepari, the Ambassador of Italy; H.E.R. Monsignor Jesús Castro Marte, Auxiliary Bishop of Santo Domingo; the Honorable Milton Ray Guevara, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court; Miguel Vargas, Chancellor of the Dominican Republic; H.E. Ghaleb Bader, Apostolic Nuncio; Héctor Juan Martínez Román, General Subcommander, Rear Admiral of the Navy; Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini, attorney. Santo Domingo, May 29, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

announced by President Danilo Medina during his conversation with President Sergio Mattarella—a Te Deum was held at the First Cathedral of the Americas. The ceremony was officiated by Santo Domingo’s archbishop, H.E. Monsignor Francisco Ozoria (whose homily appears in Chapter 7). I was honored to be there in the presence of the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Cándida de Medina; Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado; the ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Italy, H.E. Alba María Cabral; Dominican officials; the diplomatic corps; and major figures from the fields of business and culture. In his speech at the cathedral, Foreign Minister Vargas stated that diplomatic relations between the two countries had reached their apogee: Casa de Campo Marina, whose design was inspired by the Porto Rotondo Marina; National Palace, designed by the Italian engineer D’Alessandro and the First Cathedral of the Americas, whose construction was promoted by Bishop Geraldini.

These images were created by the School of Communication of the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) as part of the collaboration between the universities and the Embassy. © UNIBE

Primer Obispo Residente de la República Dominicana.

Humanista italiano amigo de Cristóbal Colón.

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The life of Bishop Geraldini, as well as the execution of this great work, served as an indisputable testimony to the ties of 500 years of shared history that bind together the Dominican Republic and the Italian Republic.

Today, relations between the two countries are at their highest level, with important exchanges in the fields of culture, education, and commerce.

Currently, bilateral trade amounts to US$400 million annually, and we have a tourist flow of around 120,000 Italians each year, as well as some 60,000 Italian nationals residing in our country, in addition to a significant diaspora of Dominicans settled in Italy. For this reason, we take this opportunity to honor Bishop Alessandro Geraldini, and in the interest of President Danilo Medina, and my own, to continue each day to strengthen the bonds of friendship that unite us.

It is interesting to note that this second cultural year, which lasted from September 2019 till September 2020, also featured the participation of political institutions from both countries, as well as business organizations, corporations, universities, museums, and research centers, all united by the desire to begin a new chapter in the shared history of Italy and the Dominican Republic, and to build new opportunities and bridges between the past and the future.

Various events were organized, beginning with an international conference honoring the quincentennial of Geraldini’s arrival in Santo Domingo, which was held at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) on September 17. The event featured the participation of Italian scholars12 who presented papers together with their Dominican colleagues on the crucial years of shared history between the two countries, those moments when, because of Alessandro Geraldini, Italy and the Dominican Republic wrote an important page of world history. That same day witnessed the inauguration of the first chair of the Bishop Alessandro Geraldini Cultural Center for Italian Studies at the same university. This represented a major milestone for the study and promotion of the Italian

Floral offering at the tomb of the First Resident Bishop of the Americas, Alessandro Geraldini, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his arrival to Santo Domingo. With the presence of the cadets of the Dominican Navy, in attendance: H.E. Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy and Dr. Roberta Canepari; Chancellor Miguel Vargas; First Lady Cándida de Medina; the Dominican Ambassador to Italy, Alba María Cabral; Monsignor Freddy Antonio de Jesús Bretón, Martínez Metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago de los Caballeros and President of the Dominican Episcopal Conference; Monsignor Francisco Ozoria, Metropolitan Archbishop of Santo Domingo; Dr. Alfredo de la Cruz Baldera, Chancellor of the PUCMM; and key Dominican government economic and cultural authorities. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Logo of the cultural year in honor of the 500th anniversary of the arrival in Santo Domingo of the first resident bishop, Alessandro Geraldini. © Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo

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Theatrical reading of the “Letters of Geraldini and Leonardo Da Vinci” by Massimiliano Finazzer Flory at the tomb of the first resident bishop of the Americas, Alessandro Geraldini. September 19, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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language and culture in the Dominican Republic, even more so given that it is the first center of its kind in Central America and the Caribbean. The Chair was created at the request of the Chancellor of PUCMM, Pr. Alfredo de la Cruz Baldera, and the Academic Deputy Chancellor Dr. David Álvarez, who believed that this initiative would serve to further internationalize their university.

It is worth noting that one week later, on September 25, Italy was chosen as the Country of Honor at the First Dominican Republic Design Week (DRDW19).

The event featured the participation of two Italian artists, Massimo Caiazzo and Mauro Mori, who had been personally invited by the embassy, and who brought an Italian palette to the Caribbean with their respective exhibitions Policromía and Natural Approach. The exhibitions were unveiled at the Museo de las Casas Reales, which is housed in a sixteenth-century building, thus underscoring a contrast between the past and the future.

These exhibitions contributed to the success of the First Dominican Republic Design Week, in which a series of innovative events was organized to include the art installation Niebla en Santo Domingo by Massimo Caiazzo, an artistic installation within the evocative sixteenth-century Capilla de los Remedios in the Colonial Zone.

This installation sought to take the viewer on a visionary journey of reason, body, and spirit characterized by the gradual transition to light, through which humanity achieves higher knowledge through empirical experience. Walking through the installation, visitors passed through a thick blanket of mist on which lights and colors were projected to the accompaniment of an evocative soundtrack, while the narrators read passages from texts by Leonardo Da Vinci and Alessandro Geraldini. The exhibition also sought to commemorate the quincentennial of Leonardo Da Vinci, thereby linking Santo Domingo to initiatives occurring in the main cultural centers of the world. Italy’s participation at DRDW19 is important, because it demonstrates once again the presence of Italy at some of the fundamental crossroads of Dominican history. With this exhibition, the country opened itself to the use of design for economic purposes, or the Orange Economy, as has already happened in many parts of the world.

Also, on the occasion of the First Design Week, an exhibition of Italian design artists was held at the Fernando Peña Defilló Museum, assembling high-end furniture imported into the country by the BellaCaLetter from H.E. President Danilo Medina dated September 26, 2019: “Your Excellency Mr. Ambassador: Receive my warmest greetings. I wish to thank you for your kind communication, in which you inform me, in a comprehensive and detailed manner, of the extensive program of events commemorating the quincentennial of the arrival in our territory of Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini, the first resident bishop in the Americas.

I join in celebrating such a singular event, and I am extremely pleased with the effort put into the magnificence of each of the scheduled events, which serve to highlight the intimate ties of friendship between Italy and the Dominican Republic, the ongoing success of which we wish to reiterate with our best wishes.

With the greatest distinction and consideration, Sincerely, Danilo Medina. © Embassy of Italy in Santo Domingo

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sa Internacional company under the direction of Domizia Bacci and the architect Nico Lucchesini and coordinated by the Director of the Museum, architect Alex Martínez Suárez. The Director of the National Gallery of the Palace of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo, Marianne de Tolentino, wrote about the initiative in the catalogue titled De Italia, el diseño como arte (From Italy, Design as Art), which was published in September 2019 by the Fernando Peña Defilló Museum: Aside from its ancestral heritage, Italy has been acclaimed for its superb modern and contemporary creations, adding new technologies and new aesthetics to traditional techniques. The country has excelled for its ability to continually renew itself. The exhibition De Italia, el diseño como arte reveals a privileged visual expression through furniture and decorative objects presented within the framework of the first edition of Design Week in the Dominican Republic, presented by the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo and Bellacasa Internacional. […] This design exhibition, comprising a vast range of materials, honors both its sponsors and curators as well as its creators. What is most impressive is the perfect finish and refinement with which the pieces have been conceived and manufactured, finished, and assembled by hand.

In another outstanding event held to introduce this cultural year, the esteemed artist and director Massimiliano Finazzer Flory delighted guests, gathered in the Geraldini chapel of the Catedral Primada de América (First Cathedral of the Americas), with a suggestive theatrical reading of the letters of the first Bishop, at the end of the Te Deum on September 19, 2019. Finazzer Flory gave lectures and held screenings related to the quincentennial of Leonardo da Vinci, thus linking the two commemorations of Geraldini and Leonardo. Like many of the overseas artists in attendance, he held a number of workshops at schools and universities, thereby creating, as in the past, a bond forged through knowledge and through the dissemination of this knowledge within the setting of the educational institution, an additional way to build new bridges and breathe new life into an emerging culture shared by the two nations.

Considering the importance of the link between the two countries in the fields of architecture and engineering, as explained in the chapter on the importance of Dominican architects’ studies in Italy (Chapter 27)13 and in general in the chapters on Italian architects and engineers who have contributed to the development of the country (Chapters 25, 26, and 39),14 I therefore decided to also focus my energies on the exchange of ideas between the two countries within these fields, collaborating with the president of the organization Schools and Faculties of Architecture of the Dominican Republic (EFA-RD) and the director of the School of Architecture of the Central University of the East (UCE), the architect Francesco Gravina, who decided to highlight Italy by designating it as Country of Honor at the XIX Dominican Conference of Architecture Schools and Faculties (XIX ENEFA). For this meeting, the Italian embassy brought in architects from Italy, who gave keynote lectures and created workshops, working alongside their Dominican colleagues, for the benefit of those university students.

Part of the exhibit “From Italy, Design as Art” showcasing the “Made in Italy” initiative through furniture and decorative objects and presented as part of the first ever Design Week in the Dominican Republic, presented by the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo and Bellacasa International at the Fernando Peña Defilló Museum. Santo Domingo, SeptemberNovember 2019. © Nico Lucchesini

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

Artwork “Vieira’s”, Ø 160 x 240 h.

by Mauro Mori, part of the exhibit “A Natural Approach” at the Museum of the Royal Houses, as part of the celebrations of the 500 years of the arrival of Bishop Alessandro Geraldini to Santo Domingo and the participation of Italy as a country of honor of the First Design Week of the Dominican Republic.

Santo Domingo, September 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

Artwork “Carciofo Cromatico,” on canvas

by Massimo Caiazzo, from the exhibition “Polychromy” at the Museum of the Royal Houses in the framework of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Geraldini and Italy’s participation as a country of honor in the First DR Design Week 2019. © Massimo Caiazzo

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The cultural events promoted by the Italian Embassy have not only sought to increase the richness of the existing culture but to envision the joint development of a new culture. At the same time, there was a strong desire to showcase in Italy the maturity of the Dominican Republic in the arts and to demonstrate how the country can serve as a cultural partner for Italy, as well as an economic one, thereby addressing the need for a greater awareness of this aspect of the Dominican Republic and against the tendency to associate it only with its beautiful beaches.

For this reason, on March 21, 2019, I brought together Minister of Culture Eduardo Selman and the most important business figures in the Dominican Republic at my residence to announce the first participation by the Dominican Republic at the Venice Biennale through the exhibition Te Veo, Me Veo by the Dominican artist Lidia León. The exhibition is recognized for highlighting the links between art and ethics, thus providing a more positive and articulated message from the Dominican Republic in Italy.

As I have highlighted several times, the Dominican Republic can rely on the presence of a very successful Italian entrepreneurial spirit embodied by some of the most important and prestigious entrepreneurs in the country.

The date of October 3, 2019, witnessed the opening of the new Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, an initiative that I worked at assiduously to bring to fruition. It is my conviction that many mutually beneficial business opportunities for Italy and the Dominican Republic exist, given their complementary economies. Traditionally, Italian companies have exported machinery to the Dominican Republic, beginning with the agricultural sector, thereby contributing to strengthening the local economy through the contribution of technology. Among the various projects, one developed in recent years involved the collaboration of the University of Bologna and the Pedro Henríquez Ureña University (UNPHU) with Fabio Giuntoli, owner of the Italian company Frutas Chiara, to produce fertilizers from recycled pineapple processing residues. There are other promising sectors for Italian exports as well, such as the agri-food industry. Giuseppe Bonarelli from the El Catador group (the Dominican Republic’s largest wine importer and now a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce) has indicated that due to the embassy’s promotional

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Monument of the Italian Immigrant, located at the beginning of the Italy Avenue in Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro

activities, which have advanced the image of a revitalized Italy, Italian imports of high-end wine increased by 20% from 2018 to 2019.

The Chamber of Commerce is composed of Chairman Celso Marranzini (CEO of Multiquímica Dominicana15 (Chapter 37); Deputy Chairman Felipe Vicini16 (Chapters 1, 15, 16, and 36); Second Deputy Chairman Frank Rainieri17 (Chapters 18 and 40); Third Deputy Chairman Miguel Barletta (Chapter 17);18 Secretary Angelo Viro (President of CERARTE) (Chapter 37);19 and Board Members Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini (Chapter 43),20 Diego Fernández (Commercial Director of Costa Farms RD); Manuel A. Pellerano (Vice President of the Diario Libre Group) (Chapters 37 and 41);21 Juan Antonio Bisonó (President of Constructora Bisonó); Carlos Ros (President of Ros Seguros y Consultoría); Roberto Herrera (Director of the Caribbean Area and Country Manager and Chief of InterEnergy Holdings, Dominican Republic); Jeanne Marion Landais (Internal Management Division Manager of Banco Popular); Giuseppe Bonarelli (CEO of El Catador) (Chapter 45);22 Salvador Figueroa (Vice President of Institutional Relations of MARDOM); and Massimiliano Wax (Vice President of Strategy and Business Development of Rizek Cacao) (Chapter 37),23 bringing together the most important businessmen in the country who, for the first time, have decided to support the creation of deeper economic relations with Italy.

In October 2019, at the inauguration of the Board of Directors of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce in its new offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Vargas underscored “the importance of the Italian Republic for the geo-commercial policy of the Dominican Republic” on the belief that Italy can offer a gateway to Europe, aside from being one of the most attractive markets for Dominican businessmen. At the same event, Minister Vargas highlighted a key point I had made in my speech: “the importance of the development of commercial and tourist relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.”24

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Italy Avenue in Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro

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It is in fact undoubted that the Italian contribution to the Dominican industry of the tourism is worthy of note both in terms of flow of tourists and in terms of development of tourist infrastructure. In addition to the already mentioned case of Punta Cana and its creator Frank Rainieri, to whom a chapter is dedicated (Chapter 40), there are other cases of successful entrepreneurs, including Roberto Casoni25 in Puerto Plata and Matteo Scandiani26 in Bayahibe.

2020 • On January 30, together with the artist Lidia León and under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, the Dominican Republic initiated its first exhibition at the Architecture Biennale in Italy by promoting cultural events in Santo Domingo and at the Centro León in Santiago de los Caballeros.

On February 5, an invitation to tender was announced for the design of a new embassy and residence on the historic premises of the former ambassador’s residence on Avenida Rafael A. Sánchez, in the central sector of Naco. Italy decided to valorize the historic site of the old residence on Avenida Rafael Augusto Sánchez, which had been donated to Italy by Angiolino Vicini27 (Chapter 43). On the 2019 national holiday, I publicly announced a project for creating a new complex, a home of Italy, which would combine not only the official residence and the diplomatic and consular offices, but which would also serve to showcase new technologies and the “Made in Italy” brand, thus offering a fusion of well-known and respected Italian and Dominican architects.

On that occasion, I announced that the new complex would be christened under the name of Angiolino Vicini and his family in commemoration of the symbolic role that he played as a bridge between the two countries and of the example of love for Italy shown by Angiolino Vicini and his descendants.

On March 12, a day dedicated to conveying the message of deep friendship between the two countries, events were held not only in the capital city but also in the city of Santiago at the newly inaugurated conference center at UTESA. These events were marked by the opening of the exhibition Italia y la Republica Dominicana, construyendo puentes vivos entre historia y futuro (Italy and the Dominican Republic, Building Living Bridges between the Past and the Future), articulated as a collection of five exhibitions, including the world premiere of the traveling photographic exhibition Historias italianas. Interiores y arquitectura de autor (Italian Stories. Signature Interiors and Architecture) by the illustrious photographer Andrea Vierucci, which was set to remain open to the public for six months.

Also worthy of mention is the focus in recent years on the cooperative initiatives between universities to create “living links” by bringing students, professors, and scientists into closer contact, thus creating deeper ties. From 2017 to 2020, a total of 35 agreements were signed between Dominican and Italian universities and research centers to link educational institutions from both countries. The Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Rome, headed by Ambassador Peggy Cabral,28 who personally worked on the promotion of cultural agreements between universities of the two countries, worked assiduously to achieve the objective of strengthening relations with Italian universities. With resources from the Italian Embassy, an ​​ Italian language-teaching program was started in 2019 at INTEC University and staffed with native-language instruc-

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Event promoting the “Made in Italy” initiative at the Residence of the Ambassador of Italy, Santo Domingo, Autumn 2020. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

tors arrived from Italy. In 2020, a similar program was established at the Catholic University of Santo Domingo (UCSD), thanks to the collaboration of the chancellors Monsignor Dr. Ramón Benito Ángeles Fernández and Monsignor Jesús Castro Marte.

These important events, which have taken place in the space of such a short time, are a sign of renewed attention on the part of the two countries for what they have done and can achieve together. These initiatives have also been reported in the Dominican and Italian media. With regard to the press, I would like to point out the exceptional coverage by the Dominican media, which have shown a marked interest in creating stronger relations with Italy. Particularly noteworthy within this context was the media coverage of the 2018 national holiday, which featured a front-page photograph in the newspaper Hoy, as well as a Listín Diario editorial, “Italia y RD, una relación a toda prueba” (Italy and the Dominican Republic, a foolproof relationship) on September 21, 2019, and a two-page interview that I gave and which was published on the front page of the Diario Libre newspaper with the title “Italia y RD Tienen Una Gran Historia En Común” (Italy and the Dominican Republic Have a Great History in Common).

The longstanding diplomatic and consular relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic seemed destined, at a certain point in history, to have little more than a commercial value, to the point of diminishing the mutual strategic interest between the two countries. The oldest Italian community, which had contributed so greatly in the construction of the country’s cultural and economic identities, seemed to be moving further and further away from its country of origin.

The initial closure of the embassy, and the resulting determination and commitment of the Dominican society, as well as the political and economic sectors, to allow for an operational Italian embassy, ​​demonstrated to Italy the fervent Dominican desire to begin a new chapter.

At the same time Italy decided to reopen the embassy, and under the guidance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations in Rome, we unveiled an ambitious program to strengthen relations;

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

Logo of the cultural year for the commemorations of the birth bicentenary of Admiral Giovanni Battista Cambiaso. © Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo

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this program was set to include cultural events, economic development projects, new temporary buildings for the embassy and the ambassador’s residence, and an ambitious plan for the construction of new buildings on historic land. Italy displayed a strong commitment to strengthening ties with the Italian community and implemented a program of political visits, which were spearheaded by the official luncheon between the two presidents in Rome on February 13, 2019, after years of languishing contacts between the heads of the two states.

As noted in the previous pages, “Diplomatic relations are at their highest level in history.”29 The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Álvarez, has reiterated to me personally and also publicly that he and the new government intend to contribute to this new chapter in diplomatic relations with Italy. As stated by Minister Álvarez during his conference as keynote speaker at the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce on September 22, 2020, “Despite all these achievements, we are not satisfied with the current state of affairs.

I commented to Ambassador Canepari on several occasions that if we achieved victory in the elections, we would propose to restart relations between our country and Italy. Through this virtual appearance I take this opportunity to reiterate that commitment to this important audience.”30 We have, consequently, set the groundwork for renewed collaborations between the two countries.

The Dominican business community of Italian origin is personally committed to the proposal to reestablish more ambitious relations and, accepting my invitation to create new bridges between Italy and the Dominican Republic, agreed to form part of the board of directors of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce.

Beginning with the efforts made by the two countries in recent years, diplomatic relations in the coming years may be even deeper and more fruitful. The work accomplished over the course of these years shows how important it is to build on these relations, starting with the rich shared history of the two countries and focusing on future opportunities.

The celebration of Italian cultural heritage in the Dominican Republic has been at the center of a multidimensional public diplomacy program inspired by the 200th anniversary of the birth of Juan Bautista Cambiaso, a citizen of an Italian state and consul of the Republic of Genoa, founder of the Dominican Navy, first admiral of the republic, and hero of Dominican Independence. This program consists not only of the publication of this academic collection, which contains essays by 45 scholars specializing in the cultural relations of the two countries (encompassing history, art, music, engineering and architecture, science, economics, agronomy, journalism, etc.), accompanied by a wealth of images, and published by Umberto Allemandi in Italian and Spanish, and, featuring the participation of American scholars, by Saint Joseph’s University Press in English. The iconic stories in this book have also appeared in a professional digital edition, as well as a comic book album (graphic novel) for fifth-grade students, which has been distributed in schools in the Dominican Republic, as well as in online formats. The album has been made by professional graphic designers, screenwriters, and cartoonists and aims to inspire the collective imagination by using a single-frame format to disseminate these fundamental stories for the Dominican Republic, with some episodes and protagonists that symbolize the historical-cultural relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic. Yet another dimension consists of a video tour of Italy directed by Andrea Vierucci, which presents the places of origin of the historical figures described in the book and in the comic book, creating a real and virtual photographic exhibition of photographs that have reunited key Italian and Dominican locations, whose shared histories have been rediscovered thanks to the narratives provided in this book.

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A book on the Italian cultural legacy in the Dominican Republic had been awaited for years. In 2001, one of the great intellectuals of the Dominican Republic, Marcio Veloz Maggiolo,31 wrote an article titled “Italianos en la vida dominicana” (Italians in Dominican life) in which he states the following: There is no research work on the Italian presence in Dominican life. The migrants of the beginning of the century, those of the sugar mill, the English of the islands, the Arabs and the Chinese, have perhaps been treated as a subject on a much larger scale than the Italians. This article, then, is a simple guide and is not intended in any way but to draw attention to a community that has been fundamental to what was Dominican life, its history, and its national makeup.

The logical thing would be for a researcher to initiate in-depth studies of the Italian community on the island of Santo Domingo from the same colony, where the presence, in one way or another, of Italians is already appreciable.32 We should reflect on the fact that it took twenty years to respond to Marcio Veloz Maggiolo’s invitation to present a book on the Italian community in the Dominican Republic, despite the strong presence of Italian cultural roots and also of a community so influential economically, but also in terms of culture, and in the various areas that are highlighted in this book. I think it is still interesting to see that the impetus for this project was initiated by the embassy, and therefore from Italy (and not from the Italian community itself, as might seem natural), given the simultaneous need to foreground an important and living past and to present a renewed image of Italy.33 I believe that this ambitious public diplomacy project will take the relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic to a new level. I am convinced that an enhanced appreciation of the Italian cultural legacy in this country, which can be achieved by showcasing the exemplary and iconic stories of famous Italians who have changed the history of the Dominican Republic by helping to foster modernization and establish essential institutions for its future, represents a moment of pride for our community, which encompasses both the earlier and more recent waves of immigration. Both can identify themselves in the extensive and meaningful, lasting yet ongoing Italian contributions to development of the country, which should lead to even more robust relations between the two components of the Italian community and between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

Strips extracted from the comic book “Italians in the Dominican Republic Stories and adventures of old friends”, published by the Embassy of Italy in Santo Domingo.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Airaldi, G. Cristoforo Colombo. Un uomo tra due mondi. Naples: Edises, 2014.

Bandelj, N. and F. Wherry. The Cultural Wealth of Nations. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.

Canepari, A. and J. Goode. The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021.

D’Aquino, Niccolò. “La rete italica, Idee per un Commonwealth.

Dialoghi con e su Piero Bassetti.” Rome: Italic Digital Editions, 2014.

De Tolentino, M. De Italia, el diseño como arte. Santo Domingo, Museo Fernando Peña Defilló, 2019. Exhibition catalogue.

Janni, P. and G. McLean. The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of a Global Age. Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series IV, West Europe, vol. 5. Washington, D.C.: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2003.

Kryzanek, M. “Contemporary Italian-Dominican Relations.” In The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic: History, Architecture, Economy and Society, A. Canepari, A.. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2021.

Melissen, J. The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations. London: Palgrave Macmillan U.K., 2005.

Molinari, L. and A. Canepari. The Italian Legacy in Washington D.C.: Architecture, Design, Art, and Culture. Milan: Skira, 2008.

Moya Pons, F. The Dominican Republic: A National History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishing, 2010.

----------History of the Caribbean. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishing, 2012.

Rana, K. 21st-Century Diplomacy, a Practitioner’s Guide. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.

Roorda, E.P., L.H. Derby, and R. González. The Dominican Republic Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.

Ruel, H. Commercial Diplomacy and International Business: A Conceptual and Empirical Exploration. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2012.

Vargas, M. Memoria. Gestión 2019-2020. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2020.

Vega, B. Dominican Cultures: The Making of a Caribbean Society.

Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishing, 2008.

AGREEMENTS ON TECHNICAL, ACADEMIC AND SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION

2017

• IBERO-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (UNIBE) University of Ferrara (Architecture) • TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF SANTO DOMINGO (INTEC) University of Ferrara (Engineering)

2018

• IBERO-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (UNIBE) University of Florence (Psychology - Education) University of Pisa (General Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation) • TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF SANTO DOMINGO (INTEC) University of Florence (Industrial Engineering - Civil Engineering - Economics) University of Pisa (General Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation)

University of Trieste (General Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation) University of Sannio (Civil Engineering - dual degree) • AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF SANTO DOMINGO (UASD) Polytechnic of Marche (Medicine, Science) University of Sannio (Civil Engineering - dual degree in Engineering) • PEDRO HENRIQUEZ UREÑA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (UNPHU) University of Pisa (Engineering) Magna Charta Universitatum Observatory of the University of Bologna • SALOME UREÑA INSTITUTE OF TEACHER TRAINING Magna Charta Universitatum Observatory of the University of Bologna • DOMINICAN INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY RESEARCH (IDIAF) Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics - CREA

2019

• PEDRO HENRIQUEZ UREÑA NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (UNPHU) University of Trieste (Science) University of Sannio (Civil Engineering) POLYTECHNIC OF MILAN (Architecture) University of Bologna (Agronomy) • AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF SANTO DOMINGO (UASD) University of Bari (Dentistry) University of Bergamo (Humanties) • IBERO-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (UNIBE) University of Sannio (Civil Engineering) • PONTIFICAL CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY MOTHER AND TEACHER (PUCMM) University of Pavia (Engineering and Architecture) University Roma Tre (Seismic Engineering) • CATHOLIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF BARAHONA (UCATEBA) University of Pisa (Tourism and Nursing) • DOMINICAN SOCIETY OF PHYSICS (SODOFI) University of Pisa (Physics) University of Padua (Physics) • MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MESCYT) University of Pisa (offer for 20 international scholarships) University of Calabria (offer for 20 international scholarships) Trieste International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) • MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (MIREX) University of Trieste • MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE University of Bologna (technical and scientific cooperation) National Accademy of Agricultura of Bologna (technical and scientific cooperation) Italian-Latin-American International Organization (IILA) • CEDIMAT - CARDIOVASCULAR CENTER University of Padua (technical cooperation - medicine, pediatric cardiology) • DOMINICAN NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SERVICE University Roma Tre (Seismic Engineering)

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

• EMBASSY of DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IN ITALY University of Milan (Opening of first Chair of Dominican Studies) University Telematica Pegaso (Program offered to Dominican citizens whom reside in Italy) University of Ferrara (50 scholarships of Bachelor and Master for Dominican citizens)

2020

• DOMINICAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS Italo-Latin American International Organization (IILA) (Scientific Diplomacy Department) • UNIVERSITY ISA University of Bologna (Food and Agricultural Science) • AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF SANTO DOMINGO (UASD) University of Padua (Physics) • INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF GENETIC ENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF TRIESTE (ICGEB) Institute of Tropical Medicine and Global Health (UNIBE) - Cooperation for research and protocols for COVID19 PRESS REVIEW, 2017- third quarter of 2020

2017

• Hernández, N. “Presentan al nuevo embajador de Italia.” Ritmo Social, December 9, 2017.

2018

• De la Rosa, A. “Italia y RD Tienen Una Gran Historia En Común.” Diario Libre, June 4, 2018.

• Paniagua, S. “Italia Celebra 120 Años De Sus Relaciones Diplomáticas Con RD.” Hoy, June 7, 2018.

• Morillo Suero, M. “Italia Festejara Mas De Un Siglo De Relación Con La RD.” Listín Diario, June 7, 2018.

• Mueses, C. “República Dominicana e Italia: 120 Años De Historia.” Hoy, June 8, 2018.

• Pérez, M. “Año Cultural Por Relaciones Entre Italia y Republica Dominicana.” Diario Libre, June 8, 2018.

• Pérez, M. “Embajada Italia Celebra Relaciones Diplomáticas Con Republica Dominicana.” El Caribe, June 11, 2018.

• Morillo, M. “Más De Un Siglo De Historia Entre Italia y RD.” Listín Diario, June 11, 2018.

• Guerrero, I. “Embajador De Italia En RD Gira Visita a UTESA.” La Información, June 13, 2018.

• Sáenz Espona, H. “Una Misión De Altura.” Mercado, June 20, 2018.

• “Depositan una Ofrenda Floral Honrar Cambiaso.” El Nacional, June 21, 2018.

• “Conmemoración a Juan Bautista Cambiaso.” Diario Libre, June 22, 2018.

• “120 Años De Historia Entre Italia y RD.” Ritmo Social, June 23, 2018.

• De Jesús, M. “Homenaje a Juan Bautista Cambiaso.” Listín Diario, July 4, 2018.

• De Jesús, M. “Italia y RD Rinden Homenaje a Cambiaso.” Ritmo Social, July 7, 2018.

• “Inauguran Biblioteca Con Apoyo De La Embajada Italiana.”

Diario Libre, July 30, 2018.

• Alcántara, R. “La Moda Italiana Convertida En Arte.” Listín Diario, September 13, 2018.

• “Moda Italiana en BlueMall, Exhibición de piezas icónicas.” Rit-

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mo Social, September 15, 2018.https://www.pressreader.com/ dominicanrepublic/ritmosocial/20180915/281586651500945 • “Exhibirán Icónicas de la Moda Italiana en BlueMall” Listin Diario, September 17, 2018. https://listindiario.com/economia/2018/09/17/533442/exhibiran-famosas-piezas-italianas-en-bluemall-santo-domingo • Pérez, C. “Diseño e Historia Con Intención Solidaria.” Listín Diario, September 28, 2018.

• Pérez, C. “Una Fusión De Moda Arte y Cultura En Bluemall.”

Listín Diario, September 28, 2018.

• Villegas, I. “Un recorrido por Italia en BlueMall.” Listin Diario, October 3, 2018.

• Vásquez, K. “A Italia Le Interesa Trabajar En Sector Agrícola Del País.” Listín Diario, October 5, 2018.

• Feliz, Y. “El Comercio RD e Italia Mueve US $ 400 Millones.” El Dia, October 5, 2018.

• “Canciller Vargas Destaca Nexos De Italia Con El País.” Listín Diario, October 5, 2018.

• Pena, S. “IILA, Un Sueno Ítalo Latinoamericano.” Hoy, October 5, 2018.

• Santiago, A. “Inauguran Embajada De Italia; Balanza Comercial De USD400 MM.” Diario Libre, October 6, 2018.

• Peguero, A. “Destaca Aportes Italia Al Derecho.” Listín Diario, October 26, 2018.

• “Destaca aportes de Italia al Derecho Constitucional” El Caribe, October 26, 2018.

TV: • “Uno +Uno.” Interview with Andrea Canepari, Embajador De Italia RD. YouTube Video, 13:13. Teleantillas, June 4, 2018. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjpfMDSVbYE • “Conmemoración de la Embajada de Italia al Almirante Juan Bautista Cambiaso” Teleantillas, June 21, 2018 • “Italia y la Republica Dominicana celebran 120 años de relaciones diplomáticas” Teleantillas, June 7, 2018.

Online press: • “Embajada Italiana y Museo De Historia Natural Realizaran Conferencia Sobre Sismo.” El Caribe, June 6, 2018. https://www. elcaribe.com.do/2018/06/06/embajada-italiana-y-museo-de-historia-natural-realizaran-conferencia-sobre-sismos/# • “Museo De Historia Natural y Embajada De Italia Realizan Conferencia Sobre Sismo.” El Nacional, June 8, 2018. https:// elnacional.com.do/museo-de-historia-natural-y-embajada-de-italia-realizan-conferencia-sobre-sismo/ • “Embajada Italiana y Museo De Historia Natural Realizan Conferencia Sobre Sismo.” HoyDigital, June 10, 2018. https:// hoy.com.do/embajada-italiana-y-museo-de-historia-natural-realizaran-conferencia-sobre-sismos/ • “Embajada Italiana y Museo De Historia Natural Realizan Conferencia Sobre Sismo.” Diario Hispaniola, June 10, 2018. https:// www.diariohispaniola.com/noticia/40946/educacion/embajada-italiana-y-museo-de-historia-natural-realizaran-conferencia-sobre-sismos.html • “Moda italiana llega al País mediante exposición” Hoy Digital, September 18, 2018. https://hoy.com.do/moda-italiana-llega-al-pais-mediante-exposicion/

2019

• Vásquez, K. “Recuerdan con una ceremonia la muerte de seis millones de judíos” Listín Diario, January 28, 2019.

• “Los israelíes recuerdan víctimas del holocausto” Listín Diario, February 6, 2019.

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• Canepari, A. “Una Visita Esperanzadora.” Diario Libre, February 13, 2019.

• Grimaldi, V. “Duarte y José Mazzini: Italia y La República Dominicana.” Listín Diario, February 27, 2019.

• Pesqueira, D. “Danilo Medina Se Reúne Con Presidente De Italia.” Hoy, February 14, 2019.

• “Visita Del Presidente Medina a Italia.” Ritmo Social, March 2, 2019.

• “Conferencia Magistral Del Arquitecto Luca Molinari.” Diario Libre, March 4, 2019.

• Rivera, R. “Luca Molinari Es Agasajado Con Una Cena En Lulu.” Ritmo Social, March 16, 2019.

• Goris, V. “Artista Italiano Deslumbrado Con La Ciudad Colonial.” Listín Diario, March 22, 2019.

• Yépez, L. “Vivir y Construir Al Estilo Italiano.” Diario Libre, March 23, 2019.

• “Relanzan Cámara De Comercio Dominico Italiana En RD.” Diario Libre, March 28, 2019.

• “Lidia León Expondrá Te Veo Me Veo En Venecia.” Hoy, March 29, 2019. https://hoy.com.do/lidia-leon-expondra-te-veome-veo-en-venecia/ • “Embajada De Italia Honores a La Artista Lidia León.” Listín Diario, March 29, 2019.

• Rivera, R. “Embajada De Italia Agasaja Lidia León Cabral.” Ritmo Social, March 30, 2019.

• “Te Veo Me Veo, Una Muestra De Lidia León.” Diario Libre, April 1, 2019.

• Yépez, L. “Una Buena Arquitectura Puede Hacer a La Gente Feliz.” Diario Libre, April 6, 2019.

• Elías, R. “Ofrenda entre dos mundos” Estilos, June 29, 2019.

• Figueroa, R. “Italia Celebra 500 Años De La Llegada De Geraldini a RD.” Diario Libre, August 27, 2019.

• “V Centenario De La Llegada Al País Del Primer Obispo Residente De Santo Domingo.” Ritmo Social, September 14, 2019.

• “Celebran V Centenario De Obispo Geraldini.” Diario Libre, September 19, 2019.

• Guzman, E. “PUCCM Abre La Cátedra Alessandro Geraldini.”

Hoy, September 18, 2019. https://hoy.com.do/1967441-2/ • Gómez, J. “Celebran 500 Anos De La Llegada Del Primer Obispo a Hispaniola.” El Nacional, September 18, 2019.

• Páez, W. “Conmemoran Los 500 Años Llegada Primer Obispo a SD.” Diario Libre, September 20, 2019.

• Estévez, A. “La Semana Del Diseño .” Listín Diario, September 20, 2019.

• Campos, J. “Ética y Estética, la belleza es una medicina contra la violencia” Listín Diario, September 26, 2019.

• Campos, J. “Exposiciones y Conferencias Con Artistas Italianos.” Listín Diario, September 26, 2019.

• Figueroa, R. “Design Week Estrena Su Primera Edición En La Ciudad Colonial.” Diario Libre, September 26, 2019.

• Pena, S. “Embajada De Italia Abre Exposiciones.” El Nacional, September 27, 2019.

• Morillo, M. “La Primera Edición Del Design Week RD.” Listín Diario, September 27, 2019.

• Yépez, L. “El Diseño Expresa Lo Que Las Palabras No Pueden.”

Diario Libre, September 28, 2019.

• “Finazzer Flory rievoca Geraldini” Avvenire.

• Leonor, J. “Primera Edición De Design Week RD Premia a Diseñadores.” Diario Libre, October 1, 2019.

• “Italia y RD Unidos Por La Cultura.” Hoy, October 1, 2019.

• “Cámara Dominico Italiana Inaugura Hoy Sus Oficinas.” Diario Libre, October 3, 2019.

• Caraballo, J. “Intercambio Comercial Italia- RD es de 400 MM” Diario Libre, October 4, 2019.

• Ramírez, J. “Intercambio Comercial con Italia fue de 400 millones en el 2018.” Listín Diario, October 4, 2019.

• Fuente externa, “Buscan Aumento De Comercio de RD Con Italia.” El Nacional, October 4, 2019.

• “Comercio Italia RD Visto Como Una Oportunidad.” El Dia, October 4, 2019.

• “Semana De Diseño En RD.” Ritmo Social, October 12, 2019.

• Hungria, G. “Te-Deum y Centenario Alessandro Geraldini” Ritmo Social, October 12, 2019.

• Pérez, M. “Italia Presente En El Design Week RD.” Estilos, October 12, 2019.

• Franjul, M. “Italia y RD, una relación a toda prueba” Listín Diario, September 21, 2019.

• “Embajada De Italia Auspicia Colectivas Con Destacados Artistas.” Diario Libre, November 11, 2019.

• “Embajada De Italia Presenta Exposición.” El Nacional, November 12 2019.

• Castillo, M. “Una Degustación De Vinos Italianos.” Diario Libre, December 9, 2019.

Online press: • “El Ministro De Exteriores Miguel Vargas y Gobierno Italiano Acuerdan Cooperación En Cambio Climático.” Mirex, February 18, 2019. https://issuu.com/comunicaciondigitalmirexrd/docs/ boletin_no._124_mirex • Martínez, A. “PUCMM Celebra Cultura Italiana.” El Nacional, March 11, 2019. https://elnacional.com.do/pucmm-celebra-cultura-italiana/ • “Reconocidos Empresarios Relanzan Cámara De Comercio Dominico Italiana.” Hoy, March 27, 2019. https://hoy.com.do/ reconocidos-empresarios-relanzan-camara-de-comercio-dominico-italiana/ • Furmet, O. “Empresarios relanzan la Cámara de Comercio Dominico Italiana” Almomento.net, March 29, 2019. https:// almomento.net/empresarios-relanzan-camara-de-comercio-dominico-italiana/ • Figueroa, R. “Italia celebra los 500 años de la llegada de Geraldini a RD” Diario Libre, August 27, 2019. https://www.diariolibre. com/revista/cultura/italia-celebra-500-anos-de-la-llegada-degeraldini-a-rd-IC13886086 • “L’Italia celebra i 500 anni dell’arrivo di Geraldini nella Repubblica Dominicana” Camara de Comercio Dominico Italiana, August 29, 2019. http://camaraitaliana.com.do/italia-celebra-500-anosde-la-llegada-de-geraldini-a-rd/ • Castro, E. “Embajada De Italia En RD y La PUCCM Celebran La Llegada Al País Del Primer Obispo Residente Alessandro Geraldini.” Noticias SIN, September 17,2019. https://noticiassin. com/embajada-de-italia-en-rd-y-la-pucmm-celebran-la-llegadaal-pais-del-primer-obispo-residente-alessandro-geraldini/ • “Celebran 500 Años De La Llegada Del Primer Obispo a Hispaniola.” El Nacional, September 18, 2019. https://elnacional.com. do/celebran-500-anos-de-llegada-primer-obispo-a-hispaniola/ • “La Repubblica Dominicana Celebra Alessandro Geraldini e Leonardo Da Vinci.” Affari Italiani, September 19, 2019. https:// www.affaritaliani.it/milano/celebrazioni-repubblica-dominicana-leonardo-da-vinci-alessandro-geraldini-626950.html • “Celebran 500 Anos De La Llegada Del Primer Obispo Residente En Santo Domingo.” Conferencia Del Episcopado Dominicano, September 20, 2019. https://www.ced.org.do/ celebran-500-anos-de-la-llegada-del-primer-obispo-residente-de-santo-domingo/ • “Promueven Semana De La Cocina Italiana En El Mundo.”

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

Diario Libre, November 7, 2019 https://www.diariolibre.com/ actualidad/ciudad/promueven-semana-de-la-cocina-italiana-enel-mundo-AM15195371 • “Obras De Consagrados Maestros Italianos En El Centro Cultural Banreservas.” Diario Libre, November 8, 2019. https://www. diariolibre.com/revista/cultura/obras-de-consagrados-maestros-italianos-en-el-centro-cultural-banreservas-IG15208473 • “Presentan dibujos y acuarelas inéditas” Hoy Digital, November 15, 2020. https://hoy.com.do/presentan-dibujos-y-acuarelas-ineditas/ • “Centro Cultural Banreservas y Embajada de Italia celebran aportes de esa nación a RD” Nuevo Diario, November 15, 2019. https://elnuevodiario.com.do/centro-cultural-banreservas-y-embajada-de-italia-celebran-aportes-de-esa-nacion-a-rd/ • “Centro Cultural Banreservas y Embajada De Italia Celebran Aportes De Esta Nación a RD.” Acento, November 16, 2019. https://acento.com.do/2019/actualidad/8751378-centro-cultural-banreservas-y-embajada-de-italia-celebran-aportes-de-esa-nacion-a-rd-2/ • “Embajador Italiano Reconoce Italia y RD Comparten Historia Que Puede Crear Nuevos Puentes.” El Nuevo Diario, November 16, 2019. https://elnuevodiario.com.do/embajador-italianoreconoce-italia-y-rd-comparten-historia-que-puede-crearnuevos-puentes/

2020

• “Biennale Di Venezia e Repubblica Dominicana, Eventi in Onore Della Mostra ‘Te Veo, Me Veo’ Di Lidia León.” Ag Cult, January 20, 2020. https://agcult.it/a/14244/2020-01-20/biennale-di-venezia-e-repubblica-dominicana-eventi-in-onore-dellamostra-te-veo-me-veo-di-lidia-leon • “Te Veo, Me Veo’ Llega De Italia a RD.” Listín Diario, January 25, 2020. https://listindiario.com/entretenimiento/2020/ 01/25/601436/te-veo-me-veo-llega-de-italia-a-rd • “Embajador de Italia visita la planta DOMICEM” La Información, February 13, 2020. https://lainformacion.com.do/economia/ embajador-de-italia-visita-planta-de-domicem • “Embajador de Italia visita planta de producción Cementera de Domicem” CDN, February 23, 2020.https://cdn.com. do/2020/02/23/embajador-de-italia-visita-planta-de-produccion-cementera-de-domicem/ • “Embajador de Italia visita planta DOMICEM” Hoy Digital, February 24, 2020. https://hoy.com.do/embajador-de-italia-visita-planta-domicem/ • “Realizarán Exposición ‘Italia y RD: Construyendo Puentes Vivos Entre Historia y Futuro.” La Información, March 3, 2020.

• Leonor, J. “Conferencia Sobre La Bienal De Venecia En Honor De Lidia León.” Diario Libre, February 4, 2020.

• “Italia y RD: Construyendo Puentes Vivos Entre Historia y Futuro.” Hoy, March 4, 2020.

• “Inician Desayunos Empresariales Para Reforzar Relación RD-Italia.” Hoy, March 6, 2020.

• Garcia, P. “El gobierno relanzarà relaciones con Italia” Diario Libre, September 23, 2020.

• “Canciller Roberto Alvarez reafirma compromiso de Rep. Dom. En relanzar relaciones con Italia” El Nuevo Día, September 23, 2020.

• “Canciller reafirma lazos con Italia” Listin Diario, September 24, 2020.

Online press: • “Inauguran En El Centro León Exhibición ‘Te Veo, Me Veo’, De Lidia León.” Diario Libre, February 3, 2020. https://www.

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diariolibre.com/estilos/sociales/inauguran-en-el-centro-leonexhibicion-te-veo-me-veo-de-lidia-leon-AN16821526 • Leonor, J. “Conferencia Sobre La Bienal De Venecia En Honor De Lidia León.” Diario Libre, February 3, 2020. https://www. diariolibre.com/estilos/sociales/conferencia-sobre-la-bienal-de-venecia-en-honor-a-lidia-leon-DM16839794 • “Santo Domingo Ospita Gli Scatti Di Maurizio Rossi.” Il Gazzettino VeneziaMestre, February 7, 2020. https://www.ilgazzettino. it/pay/nazionale_pay/la_mostra_venezia_gli_scatti_del_fotografo_buranello_maurizio_rossi_volano_oltreoceano-5034500. html • “Propician contactos entre empresarios dominicanos e italianos” Diario Libre, February 25, 2020. https://www.diariolibre. com/economia/propician-contactos-entre-empresarios-dominicanos-e-italianos-LN17299046 • “Realizarán Exposición ‘Italia y RD: Construyendo Puentes Vivos Entre Historia y Futuro.’” Diario Dominicano, March 2, 2020. https://www.diariodominicano.com/cultura/2020/03/02/ 307575/realizaran-exposicion-italia-y-rd-construyendo-puentesvivos-entre-historia-y-futuro • González, I. “Realizarán Exposición ‘Italia y RD: Construyendo Puentes.” La Información, March 2, 2020. https://lainformacion.com.do/tendencias/italia-y-republica-dominicana-construyendo-puentes-vivos-entre-historia-y-futuro-conjunto-expositivo-que-presentan-la-embajada-de-italia-y-el-cccd-utesa • Tejada, V. “Realizarán Exposición ‘Italia y RD: Construyendo Puentes Vivos Entre Historia y Futuro.’” Diario Digital, March 2, 2020. https://diariodigital.com.do/2020/03/02/realizaran-exposicion-italia-y-rd-construyendo-puentes-vivos-entre-historia-yfuturo.html • “Inician Serie De Desayunos Empresariales Para Reforzar Relación Dominico-italiana.” Hoy, March 5, 2020. https://hoy.com. do/inician-serie-de-desayunos-empresariales-para-reforzar-relacion-dominico-italiana/ • “Inician Serie De Desayunos Empresariales Para Reforzar Relación Dominico-Italiana.” Acento, March 5, 2020. https:// acento.com.do/2020/economia/8790520-inician-serie-de-desayunos-empresariales-para-reforzar-relacion-dominico-italiana/ • “Inician Serie De Desayunos Empresariales Para Reforzar Relación Dominico-Italiana.” Telesistema Canal 11, March 5, 2020. https://telesistema11.com.do/telenoticias/nacionales/inician-serie-de-desayunos-empresariales-para-reforzar-relacion-dominico-italiana • Veras, S. “Inauguran Cinco Muestras Artísticas.” El Nacional, March 13, 2020. https://elnacional.com.do/inauguran-cinco-muestras-artisticas/ • “Utesa Deja Inaugurada Exposición Sobre Italia y República Dominicana.” Diario Libre, March 16, 2020. https://www. diariolibre.com/estilos/sociales/utesa-deja-inaugurada-exposicion-sobre-italia-y-republica-dominicana-CC17730165 • “Una exposición sobre la historia de Italia y RD” El Dia, March 20, 2020. https://eldia.com.do/una-exposicion-sobre-la-historiade-italia-y-rd/ • “Roberto Álvarez reafirma compromiso del país para relanzar relaciones con Italia” Acento, September 22, 2020. https:// acento.com.do/actualidad/roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-del-pais-para-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia-8863832.html • “Canciller Roberto Álvarez reafirma compromiso de RD en relanzar relaciones con Italia” Aguajero Digital, September 22, 2020. https://aguajero.com/canciller-roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-de-rd-en-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia • “Canciller Roberto Álvarez reafirma compromiso de RD en relanzar relaciones con Italia” Roberto Cavada Noticias, September 22,

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ENDNOTES 2020. https://robertocavada.com/nacionales/2020/09/22/video-canciller-roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-de-rd-en-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia • “Cámara de Comercio Dominico-Italiana realizará conferencia virtual con canciller Roberto Álvarez” Guatemala News, September 18, 2020. https://guatemala.shafaqna.com/ES/AL/469296 • “Canciller Dominicano ofrecerá conferencia en Cámara de Comercio Dominico-Italiana” Las Primeras, September 11,2020. https://lasprimeras.com.do/2020/09/11/canciller-dominicano-ofrecera-conferencia-en-camara-de-comercio-dominico-italiana/ • “Canciller reafirma compromiso del país para relanzar relaciones con Italia” Z Digital, September 22, 2020. https://z101digital.com/canciller-reafirma-compromiso-del-pais-para-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia/ • “Canciller Roberto Álvarez reafirma compromiso de RD en relanzar relaciones con Italia” Quepolitica.com, September 22, 2020. https://www.quepolitica.com/2020/09/canciller-roberto-relaciones-italia.html • “Necesitamos una relación de buena vecindad con Haití”, dice Canciller Roberto Alvarez” Loquesucede, September 22, 2020. https://www.loquesucede.com/nacionales/necesitamos-una-relacion-de-buena-vecindad-con-haiti-dice-canciller-roberto-alvarez/ • Polanco, M. ““Necesitamos una relación de buena vecindad con Haití”, dice Canciller dominicano” El Caribe, September 22, 2020. https://www.elcaribe.com.do/2020/09/22/necesitamos-una-relacion-de-buena-vecindad-con-haiti-dice-canciller-dominicano/ • James, W., “Canciller Álvarez reafirma compromiso del país para relanzar relaciones con Italia” En Segundos.com, September 23, 2020. https://ensegundos.do/2020/09/23/canciller-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-del-pais-para-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia/ • “Canciller Álvarez ofrecerá conferencia en Cámara de Comercio Dominico-Italiana” Hechos.com.do, September 10, 2020. https://hechos.com.do/186756/canciller-alvarez-ofrecera-conferencia-en-camara-de-comercio-dominico-italiana/ • “Canciller Roberto Alvarez reafirma compromiso de RD en relanzar relaciones con Italia” DimeloTV, September 22,2020. https://dimelotv.com.do/canciller-roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-de-rd-en-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia

Chapter 18, “Antonio Imbert Barrera Rescued: Italian Families Serving the Nation,” by Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez, and Chapter 17, “Amadeo Barletta,” by Bernardo Vega.

2 Chapter 11, “Juan Bautista Cambiaso (1820-1886), Founder of the Dominican Navy and First Admiral of the Republic,” by Juan Daniel Balácer.

3 Chapter 41, “Italian Journalists,” by Antonio Lluberes, S.J. 4 Chapter 38, “Science and Environmental Protection for Agricultural Development: Dr. Raffaele Ciferri’s Contributions in the Dominican Republic,” by Raymundo González.

5 Chapter 8, “Italian Clergy and the Catholic Church: Biographical Summaries,” by José Luis Sáez, S.J.; Chapter 9, “Ricardo Pittini: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santo Domingo (1935-1961)”

by Michael R. Hall.

6 Chapter 14, “Contemporary Italian-Dominican Relations,” by Michael Kryzanek in this book.

7 Official statement by Minister Álvarez entitled “Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez reaffirms D.R.’s commitment to relaunching relations with Italy.”

8 The Cultural Advisory Committee members include Dr. Soledad Álvarez - author; Polibio Díaz - ambassador, former head of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Specialized Diplomacy Directorate of Mirex; Arch. Manuel Salvador Gautier Castillón - writer; Lic. Luis Martin Gomez Perera - director of the Communications Department of the Central Bank; Licda. Ángela Hernández - writer and photographer; Lic. José Rafael Lantigua - former Minister of Culture - journalist for Diario Libre; Lidia León - artist - Lileon Foundation; Prof. Danilo Manera – professor at the University of Milan; Lic. José Mármol - Executive Vice President of Public Relations and Communications of Banco Popular; Frank Moya Pons - author and historian; Rosia Maria Nadal – ambassador, head of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Specialized Diplomacy Directorate of Mirex; Dr. Bernardo Vega – former Governor of the Dominican Central Bank and former Dominican Ambassador to Washington D.C.; Marcio Veloz Maggiolo – author and former Ambassador to Rome.

9 The Economic Advisory Committee members include José Francisco Arata - Executive Chairman New Stratus Energy; Miguel Barletta – President of Grupo Ambar Ltd.; Giuseppe Bonarelli Schiffino - Executive President of El Catador; Jose Luis “Pepin” Corripio - President of the Corripio Group; Celso Marranzini - President of Multiquimica SA; Arturo Pellerano Manuel - Vice President of Diario Libre; Frank Rainieri Marranzini - Extraordinary Ambassador and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign Order of Malta and founder of the Punta Cana Group; Héctor José Rizek - CEO Rizek Cacao; Samir Rizek - President Rizek Cacao; Guillermo Rodriguez Vicini - lawyer; Maria Amelia León - General Director of the Leon Cultural Center; Luis Emilio Velutini - President BlueMall; Felipe Vicini - Executive President of Grupo INICIA. 10 As Jan Melissen wrote in The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations (London: Palgrave Macmillan U.K., 1

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. PART TWO. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS IN THE PRESENT: 2017-2020

2005), public diplomacy, i.e., the interactions between diplomats and the foreign public they work with, today is not only a tool of “soft power” in international relations but also the effect of a wider process of change in diplomatic practice that requires transnational collaboration.

11 Letter from H.E. President Danilo Medina dated September 26, 2019: “Your Excellency Mr. Ambassador: Receive my warmest Greetings. I wish to thank you for your kind communication, in which you inform me, in a comprehensive and detailed manner, of the extensive program of events commemorating the quincentennial of the arrival in our territory of Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini, the first resident bishop in the Americas.

I join in celebrating such a singular event, and I am extremely pleased with the effort put into the magnificence of each of the scheduled events, which serve to highlight the intimate ties of friendship between Italy and the Dominican Republic, the ongoing success of which we wish to reiterate with our best wishes.

With the greatest distinction and consideration, Sincerely, Danilo Medina.”

12 Gabriella Airaldi, Pierluigi Crovetto, Edoardo D’Angelo, Sandra Origone, and Stefano Pittaluga.

13 Chapter 27, “The Italian Training of Modern Dominican Architects, 1950-2019,” by Gustavo Luis Moré.

14 Chapter 25, “The Italian Engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi and the Construction of the Dominican National Palace,”

by Emilio José Brea; Chapter 26, “The Dome of the Dominican National Palace and Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi,” by Jesús D’Alessandro, PhD; and Chapter 39, “The Italian Contribution to Mining Development in the Dominican Republic,” by Renzo Seravalle.

15 This family is described in Chapter 37, “The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce,” by Celso Marranzini.

16 Family described in Chapter 1, “The Italian Presence in Santo Domingo, 1492-1900,” by Frank Moya Pons; in Chapter 15, “Juan Bautista (“Chicho”) Vicini Burgos,” by Bernardo Vega; in Chapter 16, “The Provisional Government of Juan Bautista Vicini,” by Alejandro Paulino Ramos; and in Chapter 36, “Italian Investment in the Modern Dominican Economy,” by Arturo Martínez Moya.

17 Family described in Chapter 18, “Antonio Imbert Barrera Rescued: Italian Families Serving the Nation,” by Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez, and in Chapter 40, “Frank Rainieri Marranzini: Creator of Dreams,” by Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben. 18 Family described in Chapter 17, “Amadeo Barletta,” by Bernardo Vega.

19 Family described in Chapter 37, “The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce,” by Celso Marranzini.

20 Vicini provides a description of his family in Chapter 43, “Angiolino Vicini Trabucco (1880- 1961)—An Immigrant Who Never Forgot His Homeland,” by Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini.

21 This family is described in Chapter 37,”The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce,” and Chapter 41, “Italian Journalists,”

by Antonio Lluberes, S.J.

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Family described in Chapter 45, “The Bonarelli Family. The Flavors of Italy in the Dominican Republic,” by Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben. 23 Mentioned in Chapter 37, “The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce.”

24 Miguel Vargas, Memoria. Gestión 2019-2020 (Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2020), 75.

25 Roberto Casoni is honorary vice-consul of Italy in Puerto Plata. Arrived in 1988, he became Vice President of the VH Hotels company, which owns and manages three hotels in Playa Dorada: the Casa Colonial, the Gran Ventana, and the Atmosphere.

In 2001 he founded the Association of Hotels in Puerto Plata (ASHONORTE). In order to promote and help sustain a viable tourist industry, he founded the Tourism and Cultural Cluster of Puerto Plata, of which he was president, and also presided over the Association of Hotels in Playa Dorada.

26 Matteo Scandiani is consular correspondent of Italy in Bayahibe. In 1995, he ventured into entrepreneurship, specifically in the areas of real estate and tourism, by opening a ranch offering tourists horse rides. In 1998, he offered excursions by way of horse and four-wheel buggy, then excursions on the Chavon river; in 2014, he introduced excursions to the islands of Saona and Catalina.

Today, the companies Operadora Caoba and Alamos Travel represent important reference points in the business of excursions, as two of the most important companies in the sector and with over 100 employees.

27 Described in Chapter 43, “Angiolino Vicini Trabucco (1880 1961)—An Immigrant Who Never Forgot His Homeland.”

28 Subsequently Deputy Minister of Bilateral Political Affairs until August 2020, Peggy Cabral is an important figure in the Dominican political landscape for her leadership positions in the PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party). She is the widow of the national political leader José Francisco Peña Gómez.

29 As stated in the speech by Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado during the celebration of the Te Deum on September 19, 2019, within the framework of the Quincentennial of the arrival of the First Resident Bishop, Alessandro Geraldini, held at the Catedral Primada de América.

30 Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez’s speech at the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, September 22, 2020.

31 On Maggiolo, See Danilo Manera’s Chapter 30 in this book, “Marcio Veloz Maggiolo: A Writer of Italian Descent at the Very Heart of Dominican Literature.”

32 Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, “Italianos en la vida dominicana,” El Siglo, October 27, 2001, 6E. 33 These are common themes reflecting needs and situations within Italian communities around the world. As an example of the experience in the United States, see my article: Andrea Canepari, “Ciao Philadelphia: Creation of an Italian Cultural Initiative and Volume,” in The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas, ed. Andrea Canepari and J. Goode (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2021).

22

Virtual book launch event “The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic. History, Architecture, Economics and Society” with the attendance of the following Dominican authorities: Raquel Peña, Vice-President, Milton Ray Guevara, Presiding Judge of the Constitutional Court, Roberto Álvarez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ito Bisonó Minister of Industry, Commerce and Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Carmen Heredia, Minister of Culture and the Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari. April 14th, 2021. © Embassy of Italy in the Dominican Republic

• CHAPTER 14

Contemporary Italian-Dominican Relations

By Dr. Michael Kryzanek, PhD Professor Emeritus of Political Science and currently Special Assistant to the President of Bridgewater State University for Global Engagement and University Priorities

he relationship between Italy and the Dominican Republic has its roots in the historic voyage of Genovese explorer and colonizer Christopher Columbus in 1492. Columbus is recognized as establishing the first outpost in the New World with the formation of the first church, hospital, seminary, university, and governmental offices in what is now the capital city of Santo Domingo. Although Columbus was exploring and colonizing in the name of his sponsors, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, his Italian heritage cannot be overlooked. In many respects the founding of the New World in what is now the Dominican Republic is as much an Italian achievement as one of Spain.

While the ties between Italy and the Dominican Republic receded over the centuries as the Spanish, British, French, and Dutch expanded their control over the western hemisphere, Italian interest in the Dominican Republic was not abandoned and as will be shown expanded significantly during the modern era. Today Italy and the Dominican Republic are partners in economic development, cultural enrichment, social interaction, and commercial enterprise. But most importantly, the Italian and Dominican people have laid the solid foundation of a relationship that shows great promise.

The People Italian migration to the western hemisphere has historically been to South America, as the 19th and 20th centuries brought millions of Italian immigrants to Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil. There they formed large enclaves as a way of avoiding wars, political instability, and economic hardship, while at the same time discovering potential new opportunities away from the continent of Europe. But these waves of Italian immigrants to South America overshadowed the growing interest of migrants to Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Although the migration of Italians to the Caribbean was no match for the influx of Italians that populated South America, nevertheless there is a distinct Italian heritage in the island nations, especially in the Dominican Republic. Current population data for example shows that in 2019, 43,000 Italians lived and worked in the Dominican Republic, but if the number of Italians who carried dual citizenship is included, the population jumps to 300,000.

Moreover, the movement of people between the two countries is growing. There are now an estimated 60,000 Dominicans residing in Italy.1 The migration of Italian people to the Dominican Republic has historically had a significant impact on key areas of national life. Juan Bautista Cambiaso, an immigrant from Genoa, is considered one of the heroes of Dominican independence and the father of the Dominican navy. The first Dominican training ship ever, launched in 2019, is named after Cambiaso.2 Worthy of mention is Juan Bautista Vicini Cabral, also an immigrant from

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Genoa, who in 1924 formed what has become one of the Dominican Republic’s most important corporate ventures, INICIA (previously known as Vicini Group), a sugar exporter and agribusiness enterprise.3 Today, Italian soccer players are represented widely on Dominican teams, and an ever-expanding class of entrepreneurs is active in Dominican commercial and social circles.

To maintain connections to their homeland, many Italian-Dominicans belong to social organizations such as InterNations Dominican Republic. The organization’s brochure states that Italian expatriates from Rome, Naples, Milan, and regions such as Lombardy meet regularly to network, engage in a range of activities, and most importantly dine on Italian cooking.

Culinary gatherings have become most important in networking and maintaining pride in the Italian culture; there is a yearly event called Italian Cuisine Week that highlights food from various regions of Italy while promoting business opportunities in the Dominican Republic.4 To reinforce pride in their new homeland, groups of Italian-Dominicans have even fashioned a popular T-shirt which shows the flags of both countries linked by an equal sign that states proudly “Perfection.” As Ramiro Espino, Executive Vice President of CONDEX, a state body responsible for developing policies aimed at Dominican communities abroad, states, “There is a large Italian community in the Dominican Republic. It is perfectly integrated into the country’s social fabric and actively contributes to the economy…

Italians love the Dominican Republic and feel at home and at ease.”5

Trade, Investment, and Tourism The critical element of Italian and Dominican relations in the modern era has been expanded trade, both imports and exports, along with modest but growing investment, as Italian companies see the Dominican Republic as a relatively stable and promising site for its capital projects. On the trade side, there is an expanding market in Italy for Dominican agricultural commodities and natural resources. Products such as cacao beans, bananas, coffee beans, rum, and various other staples are the result of purely climatic conditions and typical of countries whose products could not grow in areas without a tropical climate. Also, the Dominican Republic has a thriving export market for certain natural resources, such as ferronickel and gold, that are attractive in the Italian marketplace.

Trade between Italy and the Dominican Republic has expanded significantly in recent years, especially exports from the Dominican side. In 2019, Italian imports totaled US$66.47 million. Topping the list of imports were grains, ferronickel, gold, rum, and plantains. Italian exports in 2019 totaled US$413.54 million, with plastic manufactured goods, asphalt, automobiles/motorcycles, and machinery leading the way.6 In 2020, global trade has taken a hit as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but because the Dominican Republic is viewed as a reliable trading partner with a growing demand for manufactured goods, trade between the two countries will likely rebound.

Besides trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) has played a major role in deepening the ties between Italy and the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Italian companies invested US$56.9 million in the Dominican Republic, up from US$24 million in 2018. Total Italian FDI in the Dominican Republic in 2015 was US$106.9 million, or approximately 1% of Italian FDI.7 As with Italian trade, Italian-based investments cover a wide range of capital projects. Investors

Palaces in the historical center of Genoa. © Andrea Vierucci

CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN-DOMINICAN RELATIONS

Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari received in the presidential palace

by Vice President Raquel Peña in 2021. © Courtesy of Presidencia de la Republica Dominicana

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included Domicem, a cement producer; Ghella, a leading company in the construction of major infrastructure projects; and Bellacasa International, which specializes in domestic goods.

There is also a substantial level of Dominican investment in Italy, in part because the Italian government has been issuing visas for investors who make a minimum investment of €500,000 in Italian projects.

Added to the visa program, the Italian government has changed its laws regarding taxes on investments from abroad. The policy stipulates that foreigners who transfer their fiscal residences to Italy will receive a tax break of being assessed a flat tax of €100,000 per year on income generated abroad, regardless of the amount. This tax policy is viewed in Italy and the Dominican Republic as an opportunity to enhance investment, and Dominican investors are moving forward with plans to take advantage of the new tax regime.8 In line with changes in Italy to its investment tax policy, Dominican President Danilo Medina has joined with the legislature in formulating reforms to the mining law governing natural resources. The changes in the mining law lessen the administrative restrictions on investments and provide for new levels of tax relief on profits of foreign investors. Like the changes in the Italian visa and tax policies, the reforms of Dominican mining law are designed to expand investment in a key sector of the Dominican economy, investment reforms from which Italian companies would benefit. Because ferronickel and gold are imports from the Dominican Republic that are of great interest to Italian investors, the mining law reforms are high on the public policy agenda. Moreover, and most importantly in terms of Italian investment in mining, there is evidence that the Dominican Republic is now ranked as less attractive in the area of mining investment, a troubling development. Business leaders from nations with mining interests in the Dominican Republic have expressed concern that the law may not sufficiently address foreign investment in mining. Fernando Gonzalez Nicolas, President of the Roundtable of Commonwealth countries (a group active in influencing the reform of the mining law), has stated that changes to the mining law must seek to expand foreign investment, because “mining is a longterm industry that requires substantial resources for its development.”9 One of the central areas of Italian investment in the Dominican Republic is tourism. With more than an estimated 150,000 Italians visiting resorts on the Dominican north shore in Puerta Plata and the eastern regions around Punta Cana, tourism income in the Dominican Republic totaled US$400 million in 2019.10 Italian airlines have developed a tourist “pipeline” to these resort areas with low-cost fares and hotel packages that are attractive to Italian tourists. Also, Italian hotel and resort companies play a major role in the Dominican economy. While it is difficult to determine whether the Italian presence in the tourist industry is connected to ownership or management, nevertheless there is ample evidence that hotels and resorts have an Italian influence, especially in terms of restaurants. Some of the finest Italian restaurants in the country can be found in cities like Sosua, La Romana, and the capital city of Santo Domingo.

On October 3, 2019, the new Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce was inaugurated, with Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado, Minister of Industry and Trade Nelson Toca Simó, and the Chamber’s Board of Directors all present, bringing together several of the most important businessmen in the Dominican Republic and representing a large part of the Dominican gross domestic product.11

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Recalling the new Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce inauguration in his memoirs, Minister Vargas highlighted the importance of Italy for the geo-commercial policy of the Dominican Republic, underscoring Italy as the entrance to Europe for the Dominican Republic and one of the most attractive markets for Dominican businessmen. Additionally, during the inauguration, Italian Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Andrea Canepari, made a critical analysis on the importance of the development of commercial and tourist relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.12 On the occasion of the inauguration, Minister Vargas also highlighted how relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic had never been at such a high level, and he took the opportunity to express his personal commitment and that of President Medina to maintain the strength and depth of relations and to continue to grow them further. To continue the expansion of the tourist industry in the Dominican Republic and attract Italian visitors, the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo, holds regular conferences on new opportunities and trends in the tourist and other markets.

In 2019, for example, the Chamber and the Italian Embassy hosted a conference with the specific purpose of discussing ways to strengthen Italian tourism.13 As with most bilateral relationships, trade, investment, and tourism are often the keys to forming a sustained and successful partnership. Italy and the Dominican Republic appear to be on track to foster bilateral ties that will grow in the coming years. Each country has goods and services that are attractive to businesses, investors, and visitors. With an expat community in both nations and entrepreneurs anxious to expand their commercial and financial presence, the future looks promising as trade expands, investment deepens, and tourism blossoms, of course all within the context of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Governmental Relations At the governmental level the ties between Italy and the Dominican Republic can be described as friendly and robust. One of the most important developments that brought the two countries closer together was the reopening of the Italian Embassy in the Dominican Republic in 2017.14 The appointment of Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari to the Dominican Republic has enhanced the relationship between the two countries.

Canepari has worked to broaden ties in critical economic areas, signed new agreements on a range of public policy issues, and become a visible representative of the Italian government in the Dominican Republic.

In early May 2018, Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas held a bilateral meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano. In his memoir, Minister Vargas wrote that he proposed the creation of a joint council on trade and investment to deepen economic exchanges between the Dominican Republic and Italy. He stressed that the country’s doors were open to Italian businessmen. For his part, the Italian Foreign Minister announced the strengthening of economic cooperation and his government’s willingness to continue collaborating with the Dominican Republic in the seizure of illicit goods, as well as in the fight against drug trafficking and money laundering.15 On October 5, 2018, the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo opened new offices to improve the efficiency of its consular services, while awaiting the construction of a new residence and new offices on the historic grounds of the historic Italian Embassy on Avenida Rafel Augusto Sanchez and on land gifted to Italy by Angiolino Vicini, one of the wealthiest businessmen in the history of the country.

The most important development in Italian-Dominican relations was the visit of Dominican president Danilo Medina to Rome in 2019. President Medina was accompanied by a high-level delegation and welcomed

by Italian President Sergio Mattarella. During his meetings with President Mattarella and visits to historic Italian sites, President Medina highlighted many examples of Italian-Dominican cooperation. Moreover, President Medina spoke proudly about the planned activities in the Dominican Republic surrounding the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Italian Alessandro Geraldini, the first Bishop resident of Santo Domingo, accenting museum exhibits, university lectures, and community programs. First Lady Candida Montillo de

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Medina was announced as honorary president of the committee responsible for all the activities connected to the 500th anniversary.16 President Medina’s visit to Rome moved beyond matters of historical ties and celebrations, as Dominican Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas signed public policy accords with the Italian government in areas such as criminal extradition, legal assistance, agricultural development, and scientific collaboration. In particular, the agreements on judicial cooperation and extradition, signed after more than 40 years of stalled negotiations, were an important signal of the renewed strength and direction of the relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic. Dominican Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas and his team from the Ministry of External Relations also pledged to move forward with new agreements designed to solidify legal, diplomatic, and economic ties with Italy. Ambassador Canepari summed up the importance of the visit of President Medina in a newspaper commentary, stating, “The future of Italian-Dominican relations is promising and filled with growing opportunities… and building on 120 years of friendship and collaboration, the Italian-Dominican relationship can only expand with increased travel, investment, and cultural exchanges.”17 In recent years there have been numerous occasions on which the centuries-old bond of friendship between Italy and the Dominican Republic has been noticeably visible. There have been conferences and visits

by Italian professors, architects, artists, and engineers who have met with their Dominican counterparts. Of particular note, on September 19, 2019, a Te Deum was celebrated in the First Cathedral of the Americas to inaugurate the cultural year for the 5th Centenary of the arrival of the first resident bishop and builder of the cathedral, Alessandro Geraldini, in Santo Domingo. The Te Deum was officiated by the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, H.E.R. Monsignor Francisco Ozoria and in the presence of the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Cándida de Medina; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Miguel Vargas; the Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic, H.E. Andrea Canepari; the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Italy, H.E. Alba María Cabral; Dominican officials; the diplomatic corps; and personalities from the economic and cultural worlds of the Dominican Republic. Also, on that occasion, Minister Vargas pointed out that the relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic were at their highest point. In pondering the qualities, talents, and interests of Prelate Geraldini, the Foreign Minister said that he was a great humanist and intellectual who had ventured into various genres, writing numerous works on theology and poetry, as well as treatises on politics and education. Minister Miguel Vargas said that many people refer to Geraldini by highlighting his great qualities as a human being and his desire to complete his greatest work, the construction of the first cathedral on the North American continent, a work of great value and importance for Dominican culture and history.18 Also of importance in the governmental relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic is the victory of Luis Abinader as the new Dominican president in July, 2020. Abinader’s victory removed the ruling Dominican Liberation Party from power, which had won every presidential election since 2004. Abinader is a tourist industry leader, as his family controls numerous real estate and vacation sites in the country. On accepting victory Abinader promised that he would revive the tourist industry, after the Covid-19 pandemic unleashed a devastating blow to travel to the Dominican Republic and bookings of hotels. The impact of Abinader’s victory in the presidential election and his appointment of a new group of cabinet members and key advisers is as yet unknown, but it is safe to say that the Italian government has already started interacting successfully with the new leadership group, as it forms diplomatic relations and develops policy initiatives.19 On September 22, 2020, accepting the invitation of Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Álvarez, participated as a keynote speaker in the conference entitled “Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic, in the current economic context conditioned by COVID-19,” which began the cycle of virtual meetings organized by the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce together with the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo. It was the first participation of a newly designated Dominican Minister in an international event in Santo Domingo.20 During the conference, Minister Álvarez expressed the commitment of the Dominican government to relaunch the country’s relations with Italy, as reported in

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numerous press articles and also in a statement by the Minister himself entitled “CANCILLER ROBERTO ÁLVAREZ REAFIRMA COMPROMISO DE RD EN RELANZAR RELACIONES CON ITALIA.” On that occasion the Dominican Minister spoke about the historical importance of the relations with Italy and his commitment, already expressed in the past to Ambassador Canepari, to the priority given by him and President Abinader to further strengthen relations with Italy.

At a time when “country branding” activities have become increasingly important, it is only natural that the authorities of the Dominican Republic decide to support the initiatives promoted by the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo. Initiatives such as the participation of Italy as a country of honor in the first week of design in the Dominican Republic,21 or annual events such as those to celebrate the 120 years of diplomatic relations; the 500 years since the arrival of the first resident bishop, Alessandro Geraldini; or the 200 years since the birth of the first admiral of the Dominican Republic, the Italian Giovanni Battista Cambiaso (this last cultural year will be launched in November 2020), are regarded with interest and favor. Dominican authorities support these initiatives, because they make internationally known a lesser-known dimension of the Dominican Republic: the contribution of Italian immigration to the country’s history and economic apparatus structured over the centuries.

Conclusion There is ample evidence that the relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic are vibrant and include the potential for further growth. However, it is important to point out that challenges remain, and future development could be problematic. As with many of the European Union countries seeking to strengthen their economic ties abroad, the Covid-19 pandemic poses the potential for a slowing of key elements of the relationship. Certainly travel, trade, and investment remain uncertain, and it may take years before a clear picture emerges to show exactly how the impact of the virus has affected these important foundations of bilateral relations. Also, the cohesiveness of the European Union as an engine of foreign trade, investment, and technical and economic assistance will be sorely tested. The EU countries are struggling with low growth, if not recession, and can be expected to see stagnant economies in the coming years. Such economic challenges will certainly have an impact on economic ties to the Dominican Republic. As a poor country with a high level of dependency on external support, the Dominican Republic cannot afford to have a key partner such as Italy step back from promising trade, investment, and tourist commitments.

Moreover, even if the pandemic is contained and recedes with restrictive measures and the introduction of a vaccine, many development programs and initiatives may need to be restarted or reformulated, given declining capital funds or an unwillingness to take risks during times of uncertainty. It will take the leaders of both countries – governmental, economic, and financial – to create a new climate of confidence that leads to a renewal of what was a promising bilateral relationship. This will not be an easy task, as the pandemic has weakened confidence, heightened risk, and led key decision-makers to follow a more cautious path toward development and economic partnership.

But no matter what challenges lie ahead, it is clear that ties between Italy and the Dominican Republic will remain strong and lasting; there is just too much history and opportunity for the relationship to falter or disappear. Italy has made a commitment to expand its partnership with the Dominican Republic, and the Dominican Republic has welcomed Italy with open arms. The next few years will be critical for the Italian-Dominican relationship. Both countries will need to redefine their bilateral ties and transform their existing governmental, economic and financial agreements, and understandings. In some ways the Covid-19 pandemic has forced countries to rethink existing relationships; this rethinking need not be viewed as completely negative in nature but rather as a way to rebuild ties in a new way and over time improve the manner in which countries interact. This will be the challenge facing Italy and the Dominican Republic.

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ENDNOTES Data is from Segunda Encuesta Nacional de Immigrantes en las Republica Dominicano, Oficina National de Estadistica, June 2017, 48.

2 See Historia Dominicana en Graficas, June 21, 2018.

3 See “Fallace el empresario Juan Batista Vicini Cabral as los 91 anos,” Diario Libre, April 28, 2015.

4 “Looking for Italian Expats in the Dominican Republic,” InterNations Dominican Republic, 2018. Also, Comuni-Italiani.it, January 11, 2014.

5 https://www.investorvisa.it/2018/07/04/espina-dominican-republic-and-italy.

6 Centro de Exportacion e Inversion de Relaciones Commeriales de Republica Dominicano e Italia, Periodo 2015-2019.

7 Ibid.

8 See Romiro Espina, “Dominican Republic and Italy Brought Together by Migrants and Investments,” op.cit., https://www. investorvisa.it/2018/07/04/espina-dominican-republic-and italy.

9 “New Mining Legislation Proposed,” KPMG, September, 11, 2019. Also see “Dominican Mining Law Must Attract Foreign Investment,” Dominican Today, May 5, 2020.

10 “Dominican-Italian Tourism Pact Looks to Boost the Economy,” Dominican Today, May 3, 2017.

11 The new Board of Directors of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce includes some of the most important figures in the country and the entire region’s economy. Among them, Chairman of the Board Celso Marranzini Pérez and the three Deputy Chairmen, Miguel Barletta, Frank Rainieri Marranzini, and Felipe Vicini Lluberes. While Frank Rainieri Marranzini’s business activity is described in one of the chapters of this book, it is worth devoting a few lines to the other three members of the new leadership of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce.

Celso Marranzini Pérez is the owner of “Multiquímica Dominicana, which is the largest of Marranzini Pérez’s companies. It is dedicated to the production and distribution of around 40,000 tons of chemicals such as resins, emulsions for adhesives and for maintenance, and street signage paints, as well as waterproofing.

“There isn’t an industry in the Dominican Republic that we don’t sell something to. We have an important part of the paint market, but we are also in the area of food, beauty and agricultural products. There is not a single sector that we do not touch, manufacture or distribute.” Isabel Trinidad, “El Alquimista De Los Negocios,” Forbes Centroamérica y Republica Dominicana, no. 6 (April 2020).

Deputy Chairman Lluberes is a shareholder with his family in: INICIA, Lantica Media, Putney Capital Management, Gerdau Metaldom, Gerdau Diaco and Listín Diario, EGE Haina (public-private electricity generator / 50% of the shares belong to INICIA); total assets: $931.3 million (EGE Haina, at the end of 2019); total revenues: $473 million (EGE Haina, at the end of 2019); total revenues: $916 million (Gerdau Metaldom and Gerdau Diaco, 2018). “Ellos Son Los Millonarios De Centroamérica y República Dominicana,” Forbes Centroamérica y Republica Dominicana, June 24, 2020.

Deputy Chairman Miguel Barletta is the owner of Santo Domingo Motors. “Currently, Santo Domingo Motors sells 5,000 new units in the Dominican territory and a total of 27,200 units among all the countries in which they have a presence, which last year represented sales that reached $750 million. Santo Domingo Motors’ total sales are equivalent to more than 20% of the new vehicle market in the Dominican Republic...” Felivia Mejia, “Miguel Barletta, El Dominicano Del Imperio Sobre Ruedas,” Forbes Centroamérica y Republica Dominicana, April 20, 2020.

1

M. Vargas, Memoria. Gestion 2019-2020 (Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2020), 75.

13 See https://dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2019/10/01/ conference-aims-to-bolster-italy-Dominican-rep-tourist-trade-ties.

14 The remarks of Dominican Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado regarding the opening of the Italian Embassy and the 120 years of diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and Italy can be found in a press release from the Ministry of the Exterior, “Discurso a Pronunciar por el Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Senor Miguel Vargas Maldanado, en le Recepcion con Motivo de la Fiesta de la Republica Italiana y el Cierre de las Celebraciones de los 120 Anos de Relaciones Diplomaticas con la Republic Dominicano,” May 29, 2019.

15 M. Vargas, Memoria. Gestion 2019-2020 (Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2020), 240.

16 See the remarks of Ambassador Andrea Canepari: “Una Visita Esperonzadora,” Diario Libre, February 13, 2019.

17 Quote from Ambassador Canepari, Diario Libre, op.cit. February 12, 2019.

18 M. Vargas, Memoria. Gestion 2019-2020 (Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2020), 74.

19 “Opposition Candidate Wins Dominican Presidential Vote,” The New York Times, July 6, 2020.

20 1. https://acento.com.do/actualidad/roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-del-pais-para-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia-8863832.html.

2. https://aguajero.com/canciller-roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-de-rd-en-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia.

3. https://robertocavada.com/nacionales/2020/09/22/video-canciller-roberto-alvarez-reafirma-compromiso-de-rd-en-relanzar-relaciones-con-italiahttps://guatemala.shafaqna.com/ES/ AL/469296.

4. https://lasprimeras.com.do/2020/09/11/canciller-dominicanoofrecera-conferencia-en-camara-de-comercio-dominico-italiana.

5. https://z101digital.com/canciller-reafirma-compromisodel-pais-para-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia/.

6. https://www.quepolitica.com/2020/09/canciller-roberto-rela ciones-italia.html.

7. https://www.loquesucede.com/nacionales/necesitamos-una-rela cion-de-buena-vecindad-con-haiti-dice-canciller-roberto-alvarez/.

8. https://www.elcaribe.com.do/2020/09/22/necesitamos-unarelacion-de-buena-vecindad-con-haiti-dice-canciller-dominicano/.

9. https://ensegundos.do/2020/09/23/canciller-alvarez-reafirmacompromiso-del-pais-para-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia/.

10. https://hechos.com.do/186756/canciller-alvarez-ofrecera-con ferencia-en-camara-de-comercio-dominico-italiana/.

11. https://dimelotv.com.do/canciller-roberto-alvarez-reafirmacompromiso-de-rd-en-relanzar-relaciones-con-italia 12. https://listindiario.com/economia/2020/09/24/636423/can ciller-reafirma-lazos-con-italia.

21 The first Design Week RD was held from September 23 to 29, 2019 in the city of Santo Domingo, seeking to exhibit, promote, and internationalize architectural, interior, craft, and industrial design in the Dominican Republic. Design Week RD was the culmination of the weRDesign movement that sought to educate about the power of design to improve the quality of life, boost the economy, and highlight our cultural heritage.

Holding this first ever Design Week in Santo Domingo was doubly significant in that this capital city was not only the first city of the Americas but home of the first cathedral in the New World.

12

• CHAPTER 15

Juan Bautista (“Chicho”) Vicini Burgos

By Bernardo Vega Former Governor of Banco Central and former Dominican Ambassador to Washington, D.C.

uan Bautista Vicini Burgos (1871-1935), born out of wedlock, was the son of Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa (1847-1900), a native of nearby Genoa and the first Vicini to arrive in the Dominican Republic in 1860.

Toward the end of the first military occupation by the United States (1916-1924), the Hughes-Peynado Agreement (1922) was negotiated, calling for presidential elections to be held under a provisional Dominican president, instead of a U.S. governor, after which the U.S. troops would withdraw.

That provisional government would be led by a president chosen by the main leaders of the political parties (Horacio Vásquez, Federico Velásquez,and Elías Brache, Jr.), as well as the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Adolfo Nouel. Despite opposition from those pleading for a “pure and simple” departure, the party leaders chose Vicini Burgos as provisional president in 1922. One of his main achievements was to organize the presidential election in March 1924. These would be the first veritably free election for the country, and they were won by a wide margin by Horacio Vásquez, who was sworn in July of that year. Vicini Burgos retired and would not involve himself in politics again.

Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos, President of the Dominican Republic from October 21, 1922 to July 12, 1924. © Archivo General de la Nación

Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos in his function as provisional President of the Republic, together with his cabinet: José del Carmen Ariza, Ángel Morales, Manuel María Sanabia, and Cayetano Armando Rodríguez, among other officials and unidentified persons. © Archivo General de la Nación

• CHAPTER 16

The Provisional Government of Juan Bautista Vicini

By Alejandro Paulino Ramos Former director of the Dominican Hall of the Central Library of the Universidad Autónoma of Santo Domingo and Deputy Director of the Archivo General de la Nación

s a step toward military withdrawal by the United States, entrenched Dominican political leaders, who had a keen interest in occupying the presidency, usurped a right that belonged to the entire nation.

Without the people’s consent, they designated or “elected” a representative from the merchant bourgeoisie. He was designated to direct and prepare the elections in 1924, in which the main politicians would compete to secure the presidency. On October 21, 1922, Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos took office as president, conscious of his role as a representative of the hegemonic sectors to which he belonged.

The provisional president was the son of the Italian entrepreneur Juan Bautista Vicini, the owner of sugar mills and a man considered as distanced from politics. After his “election,” the individuals who had signed the withdrawal agreement, advised by Sumner Welles, assistant secretary of state and previous head of the Division of Latin American Affairs, distributed government positions, especially plum cabinet appointments, among the closest collaborators of each of the signers of the withdrawal agreement.

The provisional government went on for two years in the midst of an economic crisis that had begun in 1921. The end of World War I and the onset of the “dance of the millions”1 made it imperative to speed up plans for a military withdrawal.

During the period, principal export products were not well-priced, and favorable markets were difficult to find. Export revenues crashed from approximately $58 million in 1920 to $30 million in 1924. Because of the crisis affecting the country, the provisional government was unable to weather the grave economic problems, additionally due to the war bonds issued by the U.S. government that same year. These bonds carried a 5.5% interest rate and were due to be repaid in 10 years, impinging on customs revenues.

The fundamental role of the provisional government was to prepare for the 1924 elections. Its activities were geared toward compliance with the Hughes-Peynado Agreement. For such purposes, Vicini Burgos was advised by Sumner Welles to resolve all matters related to the transitional arrangements between the U.S. military government and the new civil government that would arise from the upcoming elections.

An important task for the provisional government involved reform of the still-valid 1908 Constitution, in order to allow the Dominican Congress to pass certain legislation imposing a new model of government. After the general elections, held in March 1924, this government had achieved its historic objective and handed over the presidential sash to Vicini Burgos’s substitute: General Horacio Vásquez.

ENDNOTES 1 Dance of the Millions was the boom-and-bust period of prosperity associated with the rapid rise and collapse of sugar prices

in the Caribbean region at the conclusion of World War I (Translator’s Note).

• CHAPTER 17

Amadeo Barletta

By Bernardo Vega Former Governor of Banco Central and former Dominican Ambassador to Washington

madeo Barletta (1894-1975) was born in the small town of San Nicola Arcello in Calabria. In 1912, when he was only 17 years old, he emigrated to Puerto Rico. Eight years later, in 1920, he moved to the Dominican Republic, where he eventually became the representative for General Motors. Thus, he created Santo Domingo Motors, and he was involved in a cigarette manufacturing concern as well.

According to the 1935 census, 391 Italians resided in the Dominican Republic at the time. Furthermore, it was estimated that there were between 100 to 400 people of Italian descent. They were concentrated in Santo Domingo, Santiago de los Caballeros, and Puerto Plata. Their support for Mussolini and Fascism was rather lukewarm, even though the party had been locally organized in 1926. Amadeo Barletta was one of the party’s main leaders.

A year after Trujillo’s rise to power in February 1930, Barletta promised to support the efforts of the Dominicans in exile who were hostile to the dictatorship so that they could obtain rifles—an objective, however, which he failed to achieve.

In April 1935, Barletta was arrested, and on May 4, he was condemned to four years in prison. By then, Trujillo had acquired the stake in the Compañía Anónima Tabacalera belonging to a German citizen bearing the surname of Sollner. Barletta, who was the honorary consul of Fascist Italy, had been for some time a minority shareholder (45%) of another competing company, Compañía Tabaquera Dominicana. The controlling shareholder was the Penn Tobacco Company of Philadelphia. In short, Barletta had involuntarily become Trujillo’s business competitor, something Trujillo would never have tolerated. Trujillo soon dispatched an emissary to Barletta, asking him to sell Compañía Tabaquera to its competitor, Tabacalera, for a heavily reduced sum. After refusing to do so, Barletta was imprisoned on charges of fomenting a plot against Trujillo, a plot that had been discovered a few weeks earlier and which involved several businessmen. General Motors sent a representative with the last name of Todd to see how the company could help Barletta in the wake of a newly enacted law that effectively gave the government control of all of Barletta’s businesses. This law decreed that the State would take over any company owned by a person accused of plotting against the president. As the result of a boycott against Barletta’s cigarette company, it was impelled to suspend its operations.

It was also placed under investigation for allegedly having violated Dominican patent law. Antonio, Barletta’s brother, moved to Haiti and from there informed Macario, the Italian minister in Havana, about these events.

Minister Macario, who also had consular jurisdiction over the Dominican Republic, left for Santo Domingo immediately, but after several days he was not even allowed to visit Barletta in prison. Macario, Todd and the representative from Penn Tobacco Company, attempted to communicate something to Barletta as he was exiting the courtroom, but they only managed to receive a violent shove from a sergeant.

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On April 22, the U.S. State Department instructed its representative in Santo Domingo to deliver a note to the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs complaining about the boycott.

In response, the Dominican Secretariat denied Todd permission to visit Barletta. On the same day, Macario visited the U.S. minister in Santo Domingo and informed him that he had spoken twice with Dominican Minister of Foreign Affairs Arturo Logroño, and that in the last meeting Macario had explained how severe Italy considered the situation, a state of affairs that could “result in unpredictable consequences.”

The Italian fascist foreign minister, Count Gian Galeazzo Ciano, had studied with Barletta and was his friend. Minister Macario ended his conversation with Logroño, telling him that Macario and his government considered the Dominican government’s treatment of the Italian subject illegal and arbitrary, and that such treatment should lead to direct conversations between the Italian and U.S. governments. Representatives from Penn Tobacco traveled to Washington, D.C., to ask for support from the State Department. On April 29, German Chargé d’Affairs Hermann Barkhausen informed the U.S. minister that Logroño had told him, in a way that he considered would be pleasing to Hitler’s representative, that “[…] the Dominican government is following the same politics as the German government. President Trujillo is playing the role of Hitler, and I am playing Goebbels.” The following day, the State Department asked the American minister to present a note to the Dominican government in which the U.S. government “expressed its reserves regarding the case.”

On May 15, The New York Times published the following headline: “Italy Threatens the Dominican Republic. Informs Washington That a Warship Will Be Sent If the Consul Is Not Released.

The Delay Enrages Mussolini.” The newspaper added that the Italian ambassador in Washington had informed the State Department regarding those plans.

Two days before this headline was published, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, accompanied by Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs Sumner Welles, had personally called in Dominican Minister Rafael Brache to Hull’s office and handed him a diplomatic note in which the U.S. government expressed “its serious concern regarding the treatment certain U.S. citizens and interests had received in recent months from the Dominican government.” But if the note had been sharp, what Hull told Brache was even sharper: he referred to the efforts by Latin American countries to strengthen “the international reputation of the family of American nations” and how that effort was founded on just and reasonable relations between the countries in the region. It was part of President Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy.” Hull added that “he had been highly surprised, upset and concerned when he found out that of all the governments in the hemisphere, only the Dominican had apparently abandoned such efforts.” Later on, Hull referred specifically to Barletta’s case, telling Brache that “he would be naïve if he failed to mention that the Italian government obviously could not allow an insult of this nature to go unchallenged” and that the Italian government could resort to drastic measures “such as sending not one, but several warships to the Dominican Republic, in which case, the Dominican government would truly not be in a position to appeal for the U.S. government’s sympathy or that of any other country in the region.” Brache chose to simply say that for a while he had been thinking specifically of traveling to the Dominican Republic and that he considered, in the light of what Hull had expressed, that it would be advisable to travel immediately in order to discuss the situation with Trujillo. When Trujillo found out about the affair, he sent Andrés Pastoriza to Washington.

First work crew of Santo Domingo Motors (1920). © Miguel Barletta

Opening page: Amadeo Barletta in his office in Cuba in the 1940’s, behind him an image of the Barletta family’s hometown, San Nicola Arcella, Italy. © Miguel Barletta

AMADEO BARLETTA

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On May 21, under instructions, the U.S. minister visited Trujillo, who was accompanied by Brache. Trujillo explained to the minister that “he was in the best position to satisfy the United States in any possible way,” adding that the charges against Barletta would be dropped and that Logroño would be replaced as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The minister reported, “When I left, Trujillo seemed to be extremely exhausted and showed little evidence of his usual arrogance and severity. He seemed seriously concerned that the U.S. government had taken the measures it took.” That same day, Trujillo also met with the Italian minister. Looking for a scapegoat, the dictator immediately removed Logroño as foreign minister. Meanwhile, the tax “problems” plaguing Compañía Tabaquera Dominicana were resolved by a “decision” from a superior court. Logroño (an extremely obese man) fell into disgrace, and Barletta’s victory caused humorous commentaries among the Dominicans: “Lard is down, and macaroni is up”; “The rope broke at its thickest point.”

In conclusion, Barletta was released from prison due to the pressure exerted by the United States and the Italians, who used America’s influence. Sending a European warship to the Caribbean would also have been a violation of the Monroe Doctrine.

In December, Brache resigned his position as minister and joined the opposition in exile. In 1936, Barletta met with Brache in New York along with other exiled anti-Trujillo campaigners, such as Ángel Morales. In 1937, he returned briefly to the Dominican Republic. In December 1938, he left for Italy. By January 1937, looking to secure better relations with Mussolini, Trujillo had established a Dominican legation in Rome. The Italian community in the Dominican Republic congratulated him for the gesture. Trujillo addressed the community members publicly, qualifying them as the “sons of the noble homeland of Garibaldi and Mussolini.”

A December 1939 report issued by the U.S. naval attaché in Havana, which coincided with Barletta’s move to Cuba, mentioned that while Barletta lived in the Dominican Republic, his sympathy for fascism and Nazism was evident and that the attaché considered Barletta anti-American. Meanwhile in Havana, Barletta—who had married Nelia Ricart, a member of one of the better families in Santo Domingo—became the representative for General Motors. While in Cuba, however, he was blacklisted for being Italian and emigrated to Argentina when the war began. He returned to Cuba after the war.

Paradoxically, four years after Barletta’s imprisonment and the declaration of war on the Axis powers, the United States placed Barletta’s businesses in the Dominican Republic on a Fascist blacklist. Unlike the Germans, no Italian was ever taken to a concentration camp in the United States when the Dominicans declared war. Ironically, in 1943, when the United States was already at war with Italy, Trujillo would use the Barletta case to “prove to the world” that he had been one of the first to “have been attacked” by the fascists, whom he “had fought.”

In his Havana-based newspaper, El Mundo, Barletta would criticize Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959, a development that led to false accusations against him of having done business with the American gangsters who had controlled the Cuban casinos during the Batista dictatorship. Barletta finally left Cuba, arriving in the Dominican Republic in 1963 during the rise to power of Juan Bosch in the first free elections since 1924. He returned to his Dominican business concerns.

Barletta died in Santo Domingo in 1975. His headstone bears the Italian title: “Cavaliere del Lavoro” (Order of Merit for Labor).1

ENDNOTES 1 The Gentleman of Work (Cavaliere del Lavoro) was a title of chivalry awarded to Amadeo Barletta by the Italian government

on June 6, 1955, through decree number 1329, in recognition for his industrial activities in the region of Calabria (Editorial Note).

The spouses Mario Cavagliano Broglia and Dirce Strozzi de Cavagliano, Italian diplomats that offered protection to many Dominican politicians. © Antonio Guerra

• CHAPTER 18

Antonio Imbert Barrera Rescued: Italian Families Serving the Nation

By Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez Director of the Engineering Laboratory and member of the UNPHU Academic Committee

n 1960, Antonio Cosme Imbert Barrera resided at 45 Calle Caonabo in Santo Domingo. A native of Puerto Plata, he had been the neighbor of Francisco (Queco) Rainieri Franceschini, who was born in Bologna, Italy, in 1904, the son of an Italian family that also settled in Puerto Plata. This friendship would endure indefinitely—between the two men and their descendants as well. It should be noted that the close relationship between the Imbert and Rainieri families was also the result of the marriage of Francisco’s sister, Yolanda Celia Rainieri Franceschini, to Enrique Manuel Imbert Peralta, Antonio Imbert’s first cousin.

Francisco married Venecia Margarita Marranzini Lepore, a native of San Juan de la Maguana and the daughter of Italians from the Avellino region, in Campania, Italy. This family knew a portion of the details of the events narrated below. Antonio Imbert, prior to these events, asked them to take care of his family, should he ever need to be absent.

A momentous event that serves as benchmark in the twentieth-century history of the Dominican Republic was the execution of the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina on the night of May 30, 1961. Among the conspirators was the future General Antonio Cosme Imbert Barrera, who was wounded on that memorable night, along with other conspirators. That same night, Dr. Manuel Antonio Durán Barrera,1 Antonio’s first cousin, treated Antonio’s wounds at his house located at 18 Calle Cayetano Rodríguez, two blocks from Avenida Máximo Gómez, where the headquarters of the Ministry of Education was located at the time.

After being treated, Dr. Durán took him to his sister-in-law, Dr. Gladys de los Santos Noboa,2 who lived a short distance away at 15 Calle Santiago, where he would remain through the night of the 31st. Very early in the morning on June 1, he asked her to take him to Calle Santiago, near the Ministry of Education; from there, he walked to the house of Julián Suero, and his wife, Dolores Marranzini Di Piano, who was a cousin of Venice Marranzini, the wife of Don Francisco Rainieri. The Suero Marranzini house was located at 17 Calle Elvira de Mendoza in Santo Domingo, just two blocks from the home of Máximo Gómez.

And it is here that we provide a parenthetical anecdote, in order to insert the memories and experiences of Frank Rainieri Marranzini—Francisco Rainieri’s son, a prominent businessman, and a good man—who has preserved the following story about his father: We lived in La Caonabo four houses away. My father was aware of the plans to execute Trujillo, which were under way. On Sunday, May 28, 1961, Mother’s Day, Uncle Julián Suero Moquete and Uncle Antonio Imbert, among other families, were at home. That day, Uncle Julián spoke of the shipment of rice he had transported from San Juan de la Maguana to his warehouse in the vicinity of Mercado Modelo.

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On the evening of May 30, Uncle Antonio came home around 6:30 to tell my parents that he would be away that night. Dad had agreed to take care of his children—Tony, Leslie, and Oscar. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Uncle Antonio called Dad to inform him that they had already accomplished their goal.

Dad and mom went over to Aunt Guachy’s house.3 At that time, Aunt Guachy was with Doña Urania, who was from Salvador, with the children, Luichi and her little sister,4 and they were going to bring clean clothes to the wounded executioners, where Dr. Durán was. Dad walked down to the offices of the Chancery of the Italian Legation. Behind these offices is where Mario and Dirce lived. 5 Dad found Trotti, the Minister Counselor, drunk in a rocking chair with a young lady ... so he chose to retire. Dad was an honorary consul, but he had no immunity, no diplomatic plate, or anything like that.

When he returned, Aunt Guachy had decided that the boys would stay at her house that night, because Oscar was already fast asleep. The next day, June 2, my mother went to retrieve them, and Tony, Leslie, and Oscar were brought to sleep at home.

The details of the day on which Uncle Antonio arrived at Uncle Julián’s house are kept by Camilito Suero and Rhina6 in the files of the General Archive of the Nation, which were sent to them last year.

Uncle Antonio was trying to reach the Haitian border in one of Uncle Julián’s trucks. Since this was not possible, Uncle Antonio asked Uncle Julián to speak to Dad. Uncle Julián went home, and Dad told him to come back at 3:00 p.m. Dad went to Mario Cavagliano and asked him to hide Uncle Antonio, as he had done with Yuyo D’Alessandro. Mario responded, along with Dirce, “Mr. Consul, whatever you wish!” And it should be kept in mind that Antonio Imbert had never even seen Mario!

Dad told Uncle Julián not to turn on the light in the hallway or the driveway and that he would come in to pick him up at 7:00 p.m.

The Honorary Consul of Italy to the Dominican Republic, Francisco Rainieri, in an official event with the Apostolic Nuncio. © Property of the Rainieri family

ANTONIO IMBERT BARRERA RESCUED

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He did so. On Calle Santiago, just before Calle Máximo Gómez, there suddenly came a VW beetle from the Military Intelligence Service (SIM), those infamous “caliés.” Antonio Imbert believed that they had located him, and he told Dad that he was going to face them ... Dad told him that he was crazy! When we reached Máximo Gómez, the VW turned the corner, and Dad continued to where Mario Cavagliano was.

On June 2, when the children of Uncle Antonio and Aunt Guachy had arrived home, Dad realized that a SIM agent had been placed in front of our neighbor’s house, the Gutiérrez family. Dad understood full well that having Antonio Imbert’s children in his house would create a dangerous situation given the fact that he had hidden him and quickly, without explaining anything to Mom, and demanded that he return Uncle Antonio’s children to his home. Mom was oblivious to the reasons why he would make such a demand, but she went to Aunt Guachy to deliver the children. Aunt Guachy told my mother that “he was the last person from whom you’d expect something like this,” as they looked at each other, tears in their eyes from the anguish. Dad naturally managed to divert attention from the entire situation.

The arrival of Antonio Imbert Barrera at the Italian Consulate in Francisco Rainieri’s car on the night of June 2, 1961 was narrated in detail by Mario Cavagliano Broglia, Dirce Strozzi de Cavagliano, and their daughter, Liliana Cavagliano de Peña, on page three of the newspaper El Siglo ( June 3, 1997): “The Family that Assumed the Calling of Protecting the Persecuted,” written by Claudia Fernández. The Cavagliano family gave refuge, at different times and under different administrations, to Guido Emilio (Yuyo) D’Alessandro Tavárez, Manuel Aurelio (Manolo) Tavárez Justo, Silvestre Antonio Guzmán Fernández (who later served as president), and the leader, José Francisco Peña Gómez. A mention of their contributions is made in the chapter on Italian Families in Santo Domingo.

ENDNOTES Dr. Manuel Antonio Durán Barrera was the son of Luis Federico Durán de la Concha and Adelina Mercedes Barrera Steinkopf, aunt of General Imbert Barrera. Dr. Durán was the great-grandson of Juan Tomás Eleuterio de la Concha López, a Trinitarian, independence hero and martyr of the country.

2 Dr. Gladys de los Santos Noboa, the first dentist of San Juan de la Maguana, was the daughter of Juan Justo (Chuchú) de los Santos Orozco and Dolores Eduviges Noboa Batista, sister of Clara Luz, wife of Dr. Durán, and half sister of the future member of the Triumvirate that would govern the country, Lic. 3 Guarina Mercedes Tessón Hurtado, wife of Antonio Imbert Barrera. She died on February 15, 1970 in the Dominicana de Aviación plane crash, along with her daughter Leslie and her sister1

in-law Aída Imbert Barrera Domínguez.

4 Urania Mueses Pereyra, wife of Luis Salvador Estrella Sadahlá, one of the conspirators in the execution, and her children Pedro Luis Salvador and Carmen Elly.

5 Mario Cavagliano Broglia, Italian Consul, and his wife Dirce Strozzi.

6 Camilo Horacio Suero Marranzini, nephew of Uncle Julián, and first cousin of Rhina Suero Marranzini, who was the daughter of Uncle Julián. Camilo Suero Moquete was a dentist and union leader in San Juan de la Maguana. Angela Peña wrote about him in her piece “En Defensa de su Padre” (In Defense of his Father), which appeared in the newspaper Hoy on May 15, 2011.

• CHAPTER 19

The Choice of Freedom: Ilio Capozzi and the 1965 April Revolution

By Giancarlo Summa Director of the United Nations Information Center for Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic

Photograph of Manuel Ramon Montes Arache with Ilio Capozzi, Italian military, trainer of the frogmen, 1965. © Archivo General de la Nación

is name was Ilio Capozzi. He was an Italian soldier who, after the armistice of September 1943,1 chose to keep fighting alongside the Nazis against the Anglo-American allies and the Italian Partisans, until the very end: the defeat of Fascism and the liberation of Italy. Capozzi’s choice was the same as that made by tens of thousands of young Italians who had grown up in the Fascist regime—the balilla, as they were called, who followed Mussolini to his last stronghold in Salò to kill and die, as one of them wrote bitterly.2 They were both guilty executioners and victims of the suffocating dark militaristic rhetoric of the times in which they had grown up. Capozzi’s story, however, is different and extraordinary, not because of what he did in the Second World War but because of how he ended up dying in a distant country twenty years later.

The Dominican Republic considers Capozzi a national hero. He was granted a posthumous naturalization, soon after his death in combat in the days of the April 1965 Revolution and the following U.S. invasion. He is buried in the central cemetery of Ciudad Nueva, in Santo Domingo, on Independencia avenue. On the tombstone, a simple plaque reads: “Comandante Ilio Capocci - 1965”. The error in the name’s spelling is almost symbolic. Little is known about Capozzi’s life in the country where he died, and almost nobody has heard of him in the country where he was born. It is a story that deserves to be told, though, not only for its intrinsic historical interest but also for the significance of Capozzi’s uncommon choices, still as relevant today as they were 55 years ago.

Capozzi was born in Rome in November 19183 into a middle-class family with no military tradition; he studied and became a young man during the two decades the Fascist regime lasted (1922-1943). He fought in the Second World War, but it is unclear in which units or on which fronts. After the 1943 armistice, he chose to enlist in a unit of the Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force, where he specialized in sabotage actions.4 However, he ended up fighting the Partisans, in one of the most brutal pages of the Italian civil war. When northern Italy was liberated and the war ended, Capozzi disappeared for more than three years;5 perhaps he was taken prisoner, or perhaps he went into hiding to escape the fate that befell not a few Fascist fighters: prison or summary execution. Finally, he returned to Rome. In the 1950s, he married a primary school teacher a few years older than himself, Elida Arcangeletti. They had two children: Annaluisa, who died as a child in 1967, and Alessandro, who today is 62 years old and still lives in Rome. His skinny, hollow look reminds one of his father’s, seen in the last photos taken during the days of the Dominican Revolution.

After several odd jobs, Capozzi in 1954 became assistant concierge of the Plaza, on Via del Corso, one of the most upscale hotels in Rome at the time. Those were the dolce vita years; Alessandro remembers he once saw a photo of his father with former Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón, the two of them sitting on a Vespa scooter. He enjoyed good pay and good tips, but a life too quiet perhaps and a few family upsets. In

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1958, possibly through an old comrade-in-arms, Capozzi accepted a proposal to go to the Dominican Republic for a well-paid job that would allow him to “continue feeling like a soldier.”6 Officially, it was a contract with the Dominican Navy’s hydrographic department; in reality, Capozzi was part of a group of a dozen Italian veterans of Mussolini’s Social Republic hired by dictator Rafael Trujillo to form the first elite department of the Dominican Armed Forces, destined to become a legend: los hombres-rana, the frogmen diver commandos led by Navy commander Manuel Ramón Montes Arache.

In those years, several former Fascist Italian soldiers went to fight in the Congo as mercenaries, or enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, and ended up waging war in Algeria and Yemen—an activity that did not go unnoticed by the intelligence agencies. In May 1960, a confidential telegram from the British Embassy in Ciudad Trujillo (the country’s capital, later renamed Santo Domingo) informed London that “frogmen are being trained in the Dominican Navy by Italian civilian instructors who were hired privately. The Italian Government is not particularly pleased but did not interfere with this employment. [...] the parallel rumors [is] that the frogmen are to be used to wreck Venezuelan oil facilities and Venezuelan and Cuban shipping.”7 Under the command of Montes Arache and with the help of the Italian instructors, the frogmen quickly gained a reputation for excellence. In a CIA report on the state of the Dominican Armed Forces, dated February 1961, it is stated that the Dominican Navy frogmen are “a small, probably effective and possibly elite unit trained by Italian instructors. It has potential capabilities for clandestine operations in the Caribbean area.”8

Telegram from the British Embassy in Ciudad Trujillo, May 12, 1960, with details about the training of frogmen by privately hired Italian instructors. © Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom

Page from a secret CIA document from February 1961 about the state of the Dominican Armed Forces, in which the creation of the elite unit of frogmen is mentioned. © CIA

THE CHOICE OF FREEDOM: ILIO CAPOZZI AND THE 1965 APRIL REVOLUTION

Telegram from the Ambassador of Italy, dated May 10, 1965, in which he informs Rome that the Caamaño government is progressive but not Communist, and that the situation is “extremely confusing.” © Diplomatic Historical Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, General Directorate of Political Affairs - Office XII 1964-1976, Year 1965, b. 1 A.

Telegram from the Foreign Office to the UK Embassy in DR, May 25, 1965. © Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom

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The frogmen were never to see action against Venezuela and Cuba. On May 30, 1961, Trujillo was killed in an ambush organized by high-ranking Dominican officers, probably with the logistical support of the CIA, triggering a series of events that four years later would culminate in the outbreak of civil war. On April 24, 1965, civilian and military supporters of President Juan Bosch, elected in 1962 and deposed in 1963, overthrew Donald Reid Cabral, who had led the coup d’état, and demanded Bosch’s return. The insurgency divided the Armed Forces: the constitutionalist troops, loyal to Bosch, were led by Colonel Francisco Caamaño; the putschist troops, by General Elías Wessin.

The frogmen were the only Navy unit that sided with the Constitutionalists: of the 147 men in the unit only three did not join the uprising; 23 of them would fall in combat in the following weeks.9 Camaaño appointed Montes Arache as Minister of the Armed Forces. Of the group of Italian instructors, however, only two remained in the country to fight: Ilio Capozzi and Vincenzo Lovasto.10 Capozzi, above all, made himself well-known and highly respected. He was always on the front line in the toughest battles, such as the one at the Duarte Bridge on April 27; he organized and trained civilians in guerrilla techniques and was appointed as head of Camaaño’s personal escort. When the president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, announced the sending of thousands of soldiers to Santo Domingo—officially to protect the lives of American citizens in the country but, in reality, in fear that the revolt could become a second Cuban revolution—Capozzi, speaking slowly with his strong Italian accent, invited the constitutionalist fighters not to give up: “The Americans have one head, two arms and two legs. They are not a phenomenon; they get bullets like everyone else.”11 William Tapley Bennett, the U.S. ambassador who recommended to President Johnson that he send in the

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Marines, was convinced that the constitutionalist uprising was led by Communists—a vision without factual evidence but fueled by the geopolitical obsessions of the Cold War. Capozzi proved to be more lucid than the American diplomat. In an interview with an Italian journalist shortly before his death, Capozzi explained that among the insurgents there were only a few hundred Communists. “The craziest ones,” he explained, “are those of the [Revolutionary] June 14 Movement [...], but more than communists or Fidel Castro’s supporters, they are anti-American nationalists, with whom, therefore, I understand myself very well.”12 The evaluation of the Italian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Roberto Venturini, was similar: “The constitutional government of Colonel Caamaño [...is] progressive but not communist.”13 The British chargé d’affaires, Stafford F. Campbell, was of the same opinion, and in his telegrams to London, he did not spare any irony about the analytical superficiality of the powerful American allies.14 Capozzi would end up being killed on the afternoon of May 19, 1965, in a failed assault on the National Palace, occupied by the putschist Dominican military supported by the U.S. troops. He fell together with Colonel Rafael Tomás Fernández Domínguez, the political leader of the Constitutionalists, and two prominent cadres of the June 14 Movement, Juan Miguel Román and Euclides Morillo. In the assault, Montes Arache was wounded. Capozzi, at the head of one of three columns that tried to reach the palace, was the one who managed to get closest to the target, before being hit twice by bullets and falling lifeless.

The night before, as a volunteer from his column would later remember, Capozzi had gathered the young men who were to take part in the assault, and for the first time he had talked about himself. He told them that

An article published on June 6, 1965 in the weekly Domenica del Corriere, at that time the most widely read Italian news magazine.

The photo on the right shows Capozzi with a rifle in his hand, next to President Camaaño. © Giancarlo Summa

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he had fought against the Partisans, before in Yugoslavia and then in Italy, on the mountains around Venice, until his unit was forced to leave the border in 1945. At that time, he said, he believed that honor and Italy should be saved from Communism. “I’ve been a soldier all my life, always on the wrong side,” he admitted.

But finally, he had understood. And now, in the Dominican Republic, he was going to die on the right side.

Capozzi thanked the volunteers and invited them to try to get some sleep, because the next day would be difficult.15 A few hours later, it was all over. The radio channel of the putschists gave the news of the failed attack as follows: “In a desperate attempt to take the National Palace, a group of communist thugs was overwhelmingly rejected. Among those killed [...] was Idririo (sic) Capozzi, an Italian communist who worked as an instructor for the Dominican Navy’s frogmen.”16 Before leaving for the last mission, Capozzi had taken off his watch and entrusted it to President Caamaño.

When the April Revolution was defeated, and Caamaño went into exile, he took the watch with him. He wore it on his wrist when he passed through Rome months later and met Capozzi’s widow and son. “That was your father’s watch,” Elida told her son, Alessandro.17

ENDNOTES On September 8, 1943, the head of the Italian government, general Pietro Badoglio, announced the armistice reached with the Anglo-American allies. The German troops immediately occupied a large part of the Italian territory; all the country was eventually freed from Nazi occupation by the allied troops with the help of the Italian Partisans who fought against the Nazis and their Fascist allies, who had regrouped in the Italian Social Republic, based in Salò, a small town on banks of Lake Garda. The Italian civil war lasted almost twenty months.

2 C. Mazzantini, I balilla andarono a Salò (Venezia: Marsilio, 1995).

3 Alessandro Capozzi, telephone interview, Rome, Italy, June 27, 2020.

4 G. Giovannini, “Personaggi da romanzo e molte avventure per i trecento italiani di Santo Domingo,” La Stampa, May 21, 1965, 3.

5 A. Capozzi, June 27, 2020.

6 G. Fr., “Come Ilio Capozzi partì per Santo Domingo,” Stampa Sera, May 24, 1965, 15. http://www.archiviolastampa.it/ component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/ action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,15/articleid,1550_02_1965_012 0A_0031_23540978/ 7 W.W. McVittie, Confidential 01/1/3. American Department of the British Foreign Office, AD1194/1, May 12, 1960.

8 Central Intelligence Agency – Office for Research and Reports. Dominican Republic – Part IV: Armed Forces and Security. CIA/ 1

RR GR L-61-1, February 1961, 12.

9 S. Frias, Comandante Montes Arache – El hombre rana. (Santo Domingo: Colegio dominicano de periodistas, 2007), 101.

10 Lovasto was captured by putschist troops in May 1965 while on his way to his Dominican wife in the city of Santiago (Giovannini, 1965). He survived the war and returned to Rome, where he died, alone and alcoholic, in 1974. In the last months of his life, he hosted Capozzi’s widow and son Alessandro at his home (A. Capozzi, 2020).

11 AGN, “Gesta de Abril de 1965: el 30 de abril hace 50 años,” accessed July 3, 2020, http://www.memoriadeabril.com/noticias/noticias/2015/gesta-de-abril-del-1965-el-30-de-abril-hace50-anos/ 12 Giovannini, 1965.

13 Telegram sent on May 10, 1965. Diplomatic Historical Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Directorate General of Political Affairs - Office XII 1964-1976, Year 1965, b. 1 A. 14 The Events of 1965 in the Dominican Republic – Documents from the United Kingdom’s National Archives (Facsimile edition). Archivo General de la Nación, Repubblica Dominicana, 2016, vol. 272.

15 R. Sandri, “Storia di Ilio, fascista poi caduto per la libertà,” L’Unità, May 5, 1985, 1.

16 Telegram from the Foreign Office in London to the British Embassy in Santo Domingo.

17 Capozzi, 2020.

Visit of President Danilo Medina to the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, at the Quirinal Palace, Rome, February 13, 2019. © Press Office of the Presidency of the Italian Republic

• CHAPTER 20

Origins of the Strong Relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic (Testimonial)

By Víctor Manuel Grimaldi Céspedes Ambassador of the Dominican Republic at the Holy See

Introduction Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

(Revelation 21:1)

any times, fleeing from what no longer exists—perhaps because a natural tragedy has extinguished it, or because of illness or the threat of man-made wars—we leave our places on earth behind to seek out new ones.

Finding new lands and new people, leaving behind what exists, or simply seeking to survive have also served as reasons for exodus, the links between the old and the new leaving a path by which we are able to understand the roots of the relationships between different societies and their governments.

Finding new markets, new products, and new foods offer strong incentives as well to search for new heavens and earths. No matter the impetus or the goal, faith sustains the journey.

We believe these scenarios are applicable to the people and organized states of Italy and the Dominican Republic. Thus, this overview attempts to further understand the present and past of their diplomatic and commercial interconnections, the long history of mutual cooperation, and the close ties that exist between the two nations.

As a scholar, and generally curious about history, I visited the archives at the Office of the President of the Italian Republic and at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2013, when I was ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the Holy See in Rome.

What principally motivated me to visit the archives of Italy was my surname, derived from my paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Grimaldi Caroprese, and the knowledge that he was not born just anywhere—but in a privileged location, namely the southern European peninsula of Italy. Italy has been the scene of many pivotal events throughout human history; it was baptized, and its unique position at the apex of history recognized, in 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was created with the name of the ancient “Italic” people from the south of the peninsula. Studying the papers and other documents in the official Italian archives, I was able to verify the strong ties that over the last century have sustained the harmonious relationship between the peoples and governments of Italy and the Dominican Republic.

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Christopher Columbus: European Discoverer of the Island Looking back in history, the roots of this bond can be unearthed with the arrival of the Genoese admiral, Cristoforo Colombo, on Dominican land in 1492. In another powerful example, following was the first resident bishop on the island, Alessandro Geraldini, who came from Amelia in Umbria. Since then, the Catholic religion and culture, which originated in Rome, were fundamental in forming the people who fused their own national identity with the newly created state called the Dominican Republic in 1844.

It is worth remembering that in 1802 a French emperor, born in Corsica to a family that originated in Tus­ cany, and whose name in Italian was Napoleone di Buonaparte, sent an expedition to the island of Hispaniola comprising numerous ships and thousands of soldiers with the aim of expelling Governor Toussaint Louverture from the eastern part of the Spanish colony. The part of the island that we inhabit today, and which we have called the Dominican Republic since 1844, had been ceded to France by Spain in 1795 through the Treaty of Basel. That treaty ended the wars in the First Campaign of Italy that had been led by Napoleon Bonaparte.

These important details shed light on the historical source of our relations with Italy—as a nation, as a people, and as a state—which can be traced back to the 1802 sea expedition to Hispaniola, ordered by Emperor Bonaparte and headed by General Emmanuel Leclerc, the husband of Napoleon’s sister, Paolina Bonaparte; Paolina was later widowed when Leclerc died on the island from yellow fever or malaria. Of the soldiers who accompanied General Leclerc, many had been recruited from the region of Liguria and the area adjacent to Genoa (Columbus’s native city), thereby establishing roots for Dominican families of Italian origins, as is the case with Bonetti, Billini, Campillo, Cambiaso, and many others who later played decisive roles in Dominican national history.

Moving forward to the twentieth century, specifically the 1930s, when humanity was faced with a series of pivotal crises, it was the radio that played a key role in bringing Italy and the Dominican Republic closer together. In the middle of that decade, twentieth-century communications were limited to radio, which the Italian Guglielmo Marconi had invented. This efficient and high-speed device served to connect Italians and Dominicans for scheduled programming at specific times each day, as can be seen in the documents on file at the Historical Archive of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

When World War II broke out on September 1, 1939, a realignment of nations occurred as a result of the global conflict, a shifting of power that drove governments apart. However, the war could not break centuries-long ties between peoples and nations. Italy was subjugated by a fascist regime that dominated it from the year 1922, four years after World War I (1914 – 1918) ended. Allied with the Japanese Empire and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the government of Benito Mussolini severed its official ties with the government of the Dominican Republic. It was only after the war ended in 1945 that diplomatic relations were again normalized.

This was conceivably the only tragic episode to occur in our mutually beneficial relationship as nations.

We must never forget the suffering endured by the Italians residing in the Dominican Republic; they were required to report every week to the nearest police precinct for documentation checks. The dictatorial regime of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, who rose to power in December 1941, declared war on the Axis (Italy, Germany, and Japan). The Trujillo dictatorship thus became part of the allied front comprising the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union against the totalitarian regimes of Germany, Italy, and Japan. A few years ago, I discovered correspondence in the Italian archives that revealed the difficult situations experienced by Italian citizens who found themselves on the peripheries of these global conflicts.

Peoples and Roots History demonstrates that above the temporary interests of parastatal organizations, there are deep roots that join nations together, as is demonstrated by the example of the Dominican and Italian peoples. Unifying episodes and the wise decisions of visionary leaders ultimately rise above such obstacles.

ORIGINS OF THE STRONG RELATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Ambassador Andrea Canepari greets President Danilo Medina during his visit to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, at the Quirinal Palace, Rome, February 13, 2019. © Press Office of the Presidency of the Italian Republic

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During World War II, invading armies from twenty countries passed through the territory of the Italian peninsula. The world was then rearranged. The Dominican Republic was one of the member countries of the United Nations in 1945. Italy joined the world body after it changed its form of state organization. The Italian Republic was created by plebiscite in 1946 and proclaimed its new constitution in 1948.

Thereafter, relations between the new Italian Republic and the Dominican Republic were completely normalized, including at the level of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors. This can also be seen in the 1950s, when groups of Italian technicians and engineers and workers began to gradually arrive in the Dominican Republic from post-war reconstruction Italy, in the various agreements signed between the two states, and in the stable diplomatic missions that have prevailed over the course of seventy years.

1963 to the Present Importantly, relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic, both in terms of governments and people, have increased steadily over the course of the past six decades.

It should be noted that the Archive of the Office of the President of the Italian Republic holds a number of interesting documents, such as those related to the first visit to Italy by a Dominican president. This visit pertains to President-elect Juan Bosch, who, accompanied by his wife, was received with all the honors of a head of State in January 1963 by the Italian president, Antonio Segni. Bosch was elected on December 20, 1962,

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in the first democratic elections held after the dictatorial regime led by Rafael Trujillo between 1930 and 1961.

Bosch visited Europe after being received at the White House by President John F. Kennedy. In Europe, in addition to meeting with the president of Italy, he held official meetings with Charles de Gaulle in France and Konrad Adenauer in Germany.

Bosch’s visit marked the beginning of a new era, which has continued to this day, in relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

The numerous Italian companies investing in the Dominican Republic and overseeing development projects, the technical and cultural cooperation between the Italian government and the Dominican Republic, the large numbers of Italian tourists, the thousands of Italians residing in the Dominican Republic, and the thousands of Dominican citizens who work and reside in Italy are the clear result of an integratory trend that has been accelerating since 1963.

On the diplomatic side, Defense Minister Giulio Andreotti in March 1965 made a diplomatic visit to the Dominican Republic as representative of the Italian government to the first international Marian and Mariological Congresses to be held in the Americas by order of Pope Paul VI. In 1990, Andreotti returned to the country as president of the Italian Council of Ministers.

During the 1990s, the Italian flagship airline Alitalia regularly scheduled flights to Santo Domingo several days a week. It is worth noting that, during Pope John Paul II’s first apostolic trip, the first Latin American country he visited was the Dominican Republic—on a flight from Rome on Alitalia.

In January 1999, President Leonel Fernández made a state visit to Italy, where he was received by the Italian president, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. The visit included meetings with the prime minister and the signing of numerous agreements between the two governments aimed at furthering bilateral relations.

The Efforts of President Danilo Medina and his government More recently, relations have been strengthened in a more substantial way. President Danilo Medina, for example, has been in Rome three times since 2014.

On the first such occasion, he was granted an official audience with Pope Francis. Most recently, Medina made an official visit, which included a working lunch with the current president of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella. The Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Canepari, and the delegation of officials accompanying President Medina were present at that meeting. An extremely cordial lunch was held at the presidential palace, the Quirinale, on February 13, 2019. On that occasion, various topics were discussed. First, the lunch opened with a reminder from the President Mattarella that the Dominican Presidential Palace was, in fact, designed by an Italian architect, Guido D’Alessandro. This was followed by President Danilo Medina underscoring the importance of the Italian community in the Dominican Republic and of the various families that have contributed to the economic, social, and political development of the country. Medina also discussed the fifth centenary of the arrival in Santo Domingo of the first resident bishop, Alessandro Geraldini, and of the yearlong celebrations that would begin in September 2019, which would be organized by the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo together with various Dominican institutions. Because of the great attention paid by President Medina to these celebrations, and due to the overriding desire to strengthen relations with Italy, Medina delegated to the First Lady, Cándida Montilla de Medina, the task of overseeing the Honor Committee that organized the events of this joint, culturally celebratory year.

As we have seen in this brief overview, cultural, scientific, technological, and commercial exchanges, as well as other economic ties, have been forged over the centuries between the people and the governments of both countries. We have a great Italian community in the Dominican Republic, just as there is a great Dominican community scattered across the territory of Italy.

In order to preserve these ties, the government of President Danilo Medina has devoted substantial efforts, including bringing together Dominican businessmen, to avoiding any possible distancing from Italy, as had

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occurred on the part of Italy in 2013. In that year, the Italian parliament, in its budget for fiscal year 2014-2015, ordered the reduction in several of the diplomatic and consular missions of the Italian state abroad due to economic adjustments, which also applied to the Dominican Republic.

Finally, I must emphasize that the good results of fruitful and harmonious bonds between peoples and governments must always be placed in their proper perspective with their corresponding recent and past historical antecedents.

The fruits that we are reaping today from these excellent relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic are due to the fact that since 2014, President Medina—even before the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo was forced to close in late 2014—has made concerted efforts to foster ties between the two countries, as can be evidenced by the reopening of the embassy in 2017, under the direction of Ambassador Andrea Canepari.

When President Medina arrived in Rome for the first time on June 12, 2014, on the occasion of an official audience with Pope Francis, which I arranged for the following day, the president provided me with copies of the correspondence addressed respectively to President Giorgio Napolitano and the president of the Council of Ministers, Mateo Renzi, so that, in view of our ambassador to the Quirinale, Dr. Vinicio Tobal, leaving Rome, I would give my support and assistance as ambassador to the Holy See to improve the situation. By virtue of this, I was tasked with a collaboration effort aimed at sustaining firm bonds between both countries.

Lastly, the active collaboration of Dominican entrepreneurs of Italian origin, deputies and senators who traveled to Italy between 2013 and 2015, and with whom we share the mutual task of strengthening relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic, also deserve special recognition. As part of this active collaboration, we should also acknowledge the tireless efforts of Ambassador Peggy Cabral de Peña Gómez and Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado in the years following 2016.

Following pages: Santo Domingo, Diego Colón Viceregal Palace.

West façade (2020). © Giovanni Cavallaro

ARCHITECTURE

Colonial Architecture • PAGE 235 Modern Architecture • PAGE 267

• CHAPTER 21

“Portò Firenze al Nuovo Mondo”: The Viceregal Palace of Diego Columbus in Santo Domingo (1511-1512)

By Julia Vicioso Historian and Dominican diplomat at the United Nations Agencies in Rome

he Palace of Diego Columbus, known in Santo Domingo as the Alcázar de Colón, was built between 1511 and 1512 to house the court and government of Diego, son of the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus, after he was appointed governor of Santo Domingo and first viceroy of the newly discovered territories.

New evidence shows that this palace was originally built following the specific model of a Florentine palace and conceived to reflect, with its imposing structure, a new era for this first Spanish viceregal capital in the recently colonized territories.

The palace was constructed on a rocky promontory on the banks of the Ozama River, with large blocks of local golden limestone and under the direction and supervision of Spanish masons from the deeply rooted medieval tradition that existed on the peninsula during that period. It was built using enslaved indigenous labor that had been officially assigned to the service of the viceroy Diego Columbus.

The symmetrical layout of the architectural plan and the double-arched loggias on both façades of the palace add a particularly Renaissance feel to the structure, which can be considered the first work of the Italian Renaissance in the Americas.

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Ultimately abandoned two centuries after its construction by the Columbus family—who devoted their energies to fighting for their lost rights in Spain—it suffered from the physical damage brought on by abandonment. Consequently, its ceilings began to give way, so its most articulated parts, such as the arches and balustrades, beams, tiles, and floors, became easy prey for extraction in the form of an open-pit quarry that was available for other construction sites. The palace ended up being vandalized in this way, and its components were reused in other works until it was expropriated and declared a National Monument on February 3, 1870. Its ceilings, floors, arches, and balustrades were rebuilt by the Spanish architect Javier Barroso in 1956 -1957 using the criteria of the period (“as it was supposed to be”). In Spain, Barroso set about purchasing a large quantity of antique furnishings, tapestries, domestic items, and utensils in order to recreate the colonial atmosphere of the palace and open it to the public as a museum.

Today, the Viceregal Palace and its invaluable collections are in need of proper conservation in keeping with its role as the most visited museum in the Caribbean.

These brief notes precede a soon-to-be published monograph on the Viceregal Palace.

Santo Domingo, Viceregal Palace of Diego Colón. West façade. Orthogonal projection of the point cloud in false colors, preparatory to the digital models. Laser scanner technology by Margherita and Luigi Caputo (2018).

Page 235: Santo Domingo, Viceregal Palace of Diego Colón. East façade on the Ozama River and west and south façades before the restoration in 1957.

Opening page: Santo Domingo, Viceregal Palace of Diego Colón. West and south façades (2020).

© Archivo General de la Nación

© Giovanni Cavallaro

© Julia Vicioso

THE VICEREGAL PALACE OF DIEGO COLUMBUS IN SANTO DOMINGO (1511-1512)

Santo Domingo, Viceregal Palace of Diego Colón. East and south façades (2020). © Giovanni Cavallaro

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• CHAPTER 22

The Walls of Santo Domingo and Documentation of the Construction Projects by the Antonelli Family A research project for the study of the construction features of Dominican military architecture

By Sandro Parrinello DICAr Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Pavia

he Antonelli family’s contribution to defining the construction characteristics of the Spanish fortifications in the New World is quite well known. As Italian military engineers at the service of the Spanish Crown, the Antonellis planned a range of fortresses in the Caribbean to defend the colonies against the threat of pirates. This planning decisively characterized the development of the urban systems and infrastructures that guided the colonization process in the Americas. However, despite these historical considerations, there is not a lot of information available regarding the specific contribution that Battista Antonelli, the most notable figure in this process, made in establishing the fortifications of Santo Domingo.

Often when retracing the defensive perimeter of major cities, such as Panama City, Cartagena, Portobello, Veracruz, San Juan, or Havana, the work of the Italian military engineer coincided with the definition of significant morphologies that characterized the entire urban setting and not just the defensive areas. The image that the city presented to those who arrived did not depend on the composition of these walls and batteries alone. Instead, the design of the enclosure and the urban boundaries themselves were connected in a crucial way to the composition of the internal design of the streets and plazas. These were generally positioned on a regular grid that in their orientation itself found a more comfortable arrangement with regard to the climatic conditions and needs for communication and control directly depending on the defense system. In addition to these aspects, one must add a necessary knowledge and general command of the terrain, the slopes, and the qualities of the soil on which the city was built. The construction features related to fortifications depended on these aspects, though in general, the entire system of infrastructures that the city needed did so as well.

The “modern-style” fortified structures are characterized by the geometrical designs that confer a polygonal shape to the masonry; anticipating a slope in the curtain of walls is sufficient to offset the attacks from the new artillery weapons which had only recently appeared on the battlefields. While theories related to these models are attributed to the great theoreticians of the Italian Renaissance and can be dated back to the mid-fifteenth century, it was nonetheless during the sixteenth century that these considerations found more extensive circulation and the most fruitful experimentation. With the discovery of the Americas, the appearance of the battlefields changed. The defenses along the coasts that Spain was testing in the Mediterranean to protect itself from the threat of barbaric Corsair attacks found in the overseas territories a more extensive field for experimentation and innovation. During the years following the arrival in the Americas, the art of warfare changed, introducing possibilities for artillery in the trenches and powerful cannons that could destroy the thin, medieval style walls. Compared to attacks by land, these systems did not take a long time to achieve the same effect on the ships accommodating these fire systems onboard. The large new warships held numerous

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Images of the Ozama Fortress, the principal fortified monument of Santo Domingo and the only medieval style fortress in the Americas, taken together with the adjacent lower battery.

Collectively, the tower and the battery trace the evolution of the defensive system along the course of the Ozama River, displaying the main features of the two moments in history that represent the process of colonization and fortification of the city. © Sandro Parrinello

cannons, and these were the main threats for other transport ships and for the ports that contained the astounding riches of the Americas that needed to be kept secure.

During the periods immediately following, and through a process that would continue throughout the entire sixteenth century, the evolution of military strategies saw changes in ballistics and offensive models in general due to attack practices that favored a quicker system of movement, as such reducing the size of the weapons, the range, and most importantly for our considerations the trajectory of the cannon projectiles.

The trajectory of the cannonball depended on the range. Therefore, the slope of the curtains of walls was calculated from the point where fire was opened. Based on the modern styles, the footprint of the walls had to be as perpendicular as possible to the firing of the cannon, which when perforating the surface of the curtain penetrated the masonry to then wane in force and be absorbed by the density of the walls full of inert material.

The transformations under which the Antonelli family operated nevertheless involved a first phase, in which it was necessary to adapt the medieval style defensive systems to the new features associated with mod-

Opening page: View of the Torre del Homenaje, or The Tower of Homage, from the lower battery.

In particular, the space in front of the battery is now separated from the city and the river by a more recent curtain of walls, built at the beginning of the last century to afford greater monumentality to the capital’s military system.

The concrete wall, rather deteriorated and ruined in spite of its historization, today seems to be both an obstacle for the utilization of the colonial walls as well as an opportunity to define the residual spaces that could be used as exhibition or tourist areas, completing the museum experience of the Ozama Fortress complex. © Sandro Parrinello

THE WALLS OF SANTO DOMINGO AND DOCUMENTATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS BY THE ANTONELLI FAMILY

Drawing of the Colonial City by the military engineer Battista Antonelli.

The two plans for development of the defensive wall stand out: the first and larger one toward the west, requested by the residents of the city, and the second which reduces the extension of the fortified perimeter by Battista Antonelli. © Sandro Parrinello

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ern-style defense. In particular, the engineer who worked and experimented in the field was asked to ensure that those composite models of a geometric nature were sufficiently effective to be both economically sustainable and modern. This was necessary to prevent the city and the port from being excessively exposed and threatened, and for the citizens not to feel endangered, thereby feeling at liberty to carry out commercial activities and to invest their resources and money.

As such, Antonelli needed to modify and redesign the defensive systems from the first settlements built along the island’s shores, in turn developing an organic apparatus that took into account the design of new complexes or the restoration of the fortresses already present to include more effective batteries, bulwarks, and defensive perimeters. However, if one excludes the imposing fortresses that likely represent the most considerable contribution of this planning effort led by the Italian engineer, there are not many remnants of Antonelli’s work in the Americas that enable us to completely and readily define his language or engage in studies of a geometric nature from which it is possible to deduce the theories applied to his defensive models.

It is important to note that the foundation of Santo Domingo is characterized by two elements: the presence of the Ozama River and the composition of the shores, banks, and coasts along the river. The first settlement on the western shore of the river, near the current Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, built at the end of the fifteenth century (1496-1498), was seriously damaged by a hurricane and quickly rebuilt in 1502 along the western shore of the river, where the Colonial City (Cuidad Colonial) is still located today. Along the entire perimeter of the urban layout, cliffs create a natural defensive curtain that does not permit direct access to the river or to the sea. Thanks to this composition and the natural defense outline, the walls of the city were conceived from the start as an accessory to the natural defense system.

The initial walls that made up the perimeter of the Dominican capital were likely composed of a series of mixed structures, including segments made from wood alternating with elements of stone masonry. This barrier still maintained a structural composition that was characteristic of the defensive structures created for small urban areas, or in any event those of lesser relevance in the late medieval style, which was contemporaneous with the Ozama Fortress.

The defensive perimeter of Santo Domingo built immediately after the arrival of the Spaniards was almost assuredly not updated or improved during the successive years due to the loss of commercial interest in the island, motivated by the large investments that were being funneled into the cities and territory of nearby Cuba.

These walls, similar to other urban centers, were probably not very high but instead thin with a vertical curtain. These afforded space for new low and thick walls that were foremost designed based on geometric configurations such that they were capable of resisting and deflecting cannons placed on the warships for the defense of the sea, and potential attacks and incursions that could occur on land, although with more difficulty. These new defensive installations constantly modified the design, the form, and the appearance of many Italian, European, and Central American cities. The city with its fortresses had to seem unreachable to discourage pirates, and it needed to represent the power of the empire.

The defense of the coasts was characterized by the development of a control network made up of fortresses, towers, and batteries that stored the artillery necessary to thwart incursions by pirates or enemies. As such, the military engineer before designing the plan for a defensive system needed to pay considerable attention not only to the topography of the land but also the seabed, drawing the bathymetric curves and everything

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Activities related to the assessment and documentation by the research group from the University of Pavia and UNPHU Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, the objective of which is the study of the colonial defense system of Santo Domingo. In particular, images are shown of the workshop created on the northeast outline of the city. © Sandro Parrinello

necessary to determine which natural defenses could be used and as such best capitalize on the various offensive strategies that the defense system needed to resist.

During the many trips that Battista Antonelli made to the Americas, he more than once had to forego visiting the island, in spite of the Royal Warrant from King Philip II, issued in 1586. In said decree, the King ordered Battista to explore the coasts to build new fortresses or to plan improvement of those already existing. Santo Domingo was included among the places indicated by the King, but Antonelli only reached the island on April 25, 1589, along with the engineer Tejada, three years after the siege by Sir Francis Drake.

The capital already had the Ozama Fortress, and there was a plan to construct some walls to fortify the city’s perimeter in a modern fashion. However, the capital had already lost a great deal of its political importance and its commercial prosperity, and the enclosure planned for the new walls in addition to being weak and ineffective was also rather far from the urban center. Whoever had created it certainly believed that the city would continue its growth at the same pace as during the early sixteenth century. It was, however, a prediction that would not materialize. Antonelli created a new plan for the walls, bringing them closer to the city and adding alternative bulwarks along their entire length, with the addition of fortresses to improve the precision and distribution of the bulwarks and the cannons.

The new and lower defensive wall included a small external trench, associated with ground motion that minimized the presence of the batteries which amplified the scenic effect of the bulwarks. The outer system was adorned with watchtowers and included a series of bulwarks that were equipped for shooting and fortified doors. Only some features of these structures remain today, visible within the urban layout of Santo Domin-

THE WALLS OF SANTO DOMINGO AND DOCUMENTATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS BY THE ANTONELLI FAMILY

Image of the Bulwark of the Invincible during the documentation activity carried out by means of laser scanner technology. The Bulwark, located at the point where the course of the river narrows, is one of the most important in all of the fortified perimeter and probably one of the portions of the defensive girdle depending directly on Antonelli’s plan. © Sandro Parrinello

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go, but it is not clear what part was Antonelli’s contribution and which parts were the remainder of the batteries and defensive systems created during more recent eras while capitalizing on the perimeter described by the Italian engineer.

The walled girdle protected the city to the northwest from the interior of the island, to the east from the river, and to the south from attacks by sea using the natural rocky wall where it was present. The oldest military structure erected by the Europeans and still visible in the Dominican Republic dates to the first decade of the sixteenth century, and this is the Ozama Fortress. The structure built at the mouth of the river to defend the southeast entry of the Colonial City was constructed upon the orders of the Spanish governor Frey Nicolás de Ovando. Although it has undergone changes and expansions over the centuries due to its different uses, the fortress has maintained its medieval features. In 1990, it became a World Heritage Site along with the monuments from the historic Colonial City of Santo Domingo. The complex is situated at an elevated location, separated from the river by a stone wall, and is called the Torre del Homenaje, or The Tower of Homage. This is due to the fact that the boats arriving to the port were greeted from atop its 18 meters. The crenellated structure has thick coralline limestone walls with loopholes: in the upper segment, it opens onto a walled garden that separates it from the urban area, which is accessed by passing through the Puerta Carlos III gate built in 1797. Meanwhile, to the right of the tower, the lower battery was defended from above by the cannon posts, and it is currently invisible from the river. In the 1950s, in the style of the times, the complex was even further enclosed by a concrete fortification, separating it from the Ozama River. Used as a prison until the end of the 1960s, the fortified complex was opened to the public in 1965, due to its relevance as a monument of medieval architecture.

Following the course of the river from the fort, sections of walls and bulwarks from the original Colonial City can be seen, which also continue along the south side along the coast. These portions cannot be dated with accuracy, and it is possible to imagine only some of the changes with regard to location and reconstruction that were made over the centuries.

When Antonelli and Tejeda arrived in 1589, Santo Domingo had already lost some of its political and commercial relevance to new ports in the Pacific, thus rendering irrelevant the large network of walls built in anticipation of a fast pace of urban growth that nevertheless had already ceased during the first decades of the sixteenth century. Antonelli overhauled the girdle of walls, bringing it closer to the city and adding bulwarks along its entire length. Near the San Gil fortress, the outline of the girdle curves toward the north, extending in alternate stretches. Among these, the Puerta de la Misericordia gate and the Fuerte de la Concepción fort still remain, along with traces of the walls that once connected them, which can be seen from the road. The fort faces toward the east, along the current Calle Juan Isidro Pérez, where the girdle again appears near the La Caridad Fort ruins. A carefully planned residential design during the 1980s allowed for keeping the lower part of the walls between the La Caridad and San Miguel intact. This is a fortified area at ground level in the shape of a pentagon, which has become a modern-day sports area for public use.

Following yet another interruption, the fortification again appears at the Hermitage of San Antón, with the eponymous bulwark and a reconstruction of the walls that extends to the Santa Bárbara Cathedral. The

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Images of threedimensional models of the Bulwark of the Invincible, the Ozama Fortress, and the La Concepción fort.

The 3D models are generated by using Structure from Motion photogrammetry created through the use of drones during the in-situ documentation activities. © Sandro Parrinello

fortification plan from the Santa Bárbara Cathedral continued until the Ozama River, with a low curtain following its course, interspersed with gates and minor forts of which only a segment remains intact, the shape of which still remains visible from the road. These observable portions currently enable us to discern the original plan in spite of the necessary precautions resulting from changes that took place over the centuries due to acts of war and human and natural intervention.

In this context in which historical architectural patrimony is even further imperiled by natural disasters and in which development of tourism in recent decades has put the very existence of these vestiges at risk, as they are often demolished to create space for a hotel or the expansion of a port infrastructure, a consideration on the development of models of fortified architecture becomes essential for research purposes. Its objective is the appreciation of historical architectural patrimony.

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Laser scanner point clouds of the Bulwark of the Invincible. © Sandro Parrinello

View of the point cloud of the Bulwark located near the Hermitage of San Antón. Because the citizens do not perceive it as a monument, the site is in critical condition: on the upper section, it is covered with weeds, and the outline is clearly visible of a building that was constructed using the bulwark as its base and later collapsed. © Sandro Parrinello

For the study of these geometric and analytical models, drawings not only help make clear the features through descriptive geometry but also allow for modeling their forms, as such elucidating construction issues during this process as well as producing prototypes that are useful for the documentation and assessment of architectural patrimony.

The purpose of modeling in the history of research has always been one of turning a vision conceived virtually into a “reality” by taking into consideration mathematical prototypes in order to establish a scientific basis to explain nature’s most complex physical and mechanical phenomena. Engineering, understood in all of its most complex forms of research and experimentation, requires the use of mathematical and mechanical formulas, as well as the application of complex yet universal languages that are related to the science of design.

This mandatory communication need today finds new possibilities of expression within the digital sphere, in which the language of programming reformulates the structural principles of computational models and for composition in general.

The recurring issue of “documentation” is understood to be the need to take ownership of historical-cultural patrimony, in this specific case that of architecture, and therefore of cultural identity and culture itself. It has therefore demonstrated how these theoretical considerations and more in-depth analysis of tangible and

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Sections processed by point clouds of the Ozama Fortress complex. The defensive system, composed of the tower and the lower battery, are surrounded by a large walled park and separated from the river by a panel of concrete walls built during the modern era, which hide the rocky wall on which the batteries, the windows, and in general the military architecture are found, which was considered in the past to be too modest to represent the grandeur of the capital. © Sandro Parrinello

intangible patrimony is capable of explaining—through drawing and the explanation of independent models governed by science—the cultural substrate necessary for framing a particular context.

The technological development that we are experiencing in this age is conditioning the techniques and the applications of documentation processes. But it also leads to a general process of reconsidering the deeper meaning of knowledge and the multiple paradigms that arise from it when speaking about a system for the development, management, and improvement of patrimony. New systems of representation produce new legal expectations for digital communication, changing the objectives and constantly renewing the application in analytical terms of cognitive needs and also in response to the more legal need for the computational nature of interaction with these same models, which are capable these days of providing responses that are both quantitative and qualitative. This phenomenon is guiding the professional and academic world in bringing itself up to speed about production methods for new output, obtaining multi-data products and complex files for information capable of handling multiple purposes at the same time.

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Views of the point clouds of the Fuerte de la Concepción.

Located at the northwest of the wall, the fort is “connected” to the Misericordia Gate by the outlines of the walls that are visible from the road. © Sandro Parrinello

The progressively more complex management of dynamic data flows that digital files produce, connected with the use of increasingly more achievable technologies, is guiding academic research toward the development of documentation and modeling systems that anticipate, together with the models themselves, calculation codes with the objective of programming activities and interconnectivity between the models and the digital databases.

The information gathered in the current activities related to the documentation of patrimony are often overabundant with regard to the established objectives and, in some cases, not sufficient for fully representing some of the immaterial aspects related to the cultural value of historical patrimony. Consequently, there is a strong need to organize the very structure of knowledge so that technologies made available to us can be used by selecting the data necessary to define a cognitive map made up of information that in the form of images and digital models can be converted into improved and implementable tools, as such generating direct and synthetic information necessary to produce knowledge.

An informative and interactive database made up by the merging of models or metadata is then converted into the instrument through which it is possible to conserve the historical memory of cultural patrimony, such as an architectural complex, a museum system, or an intangible asset.

The model from which the metric component assumes a fundamental role that determines it and relates it to all aspects of reliability can be converted into either a tool for the management of assets in terms of programming short, medium and long-term interventions, or an instrument for evaluation. Digital models, con-

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figured as real extensions of human intelligence, seem to come into existence in an intensification of those that are the characteristics and values of architectural patrimony in order to establish existing systems for reading and implementing information, capable of showing activities directly related to the patrimony which consequently assumes a real and digital double identity.

The research project that the University of Pavia has initiated in Santo Domingo specifically deals with the determination, by means of the complex of existing fortified structures, of the constructive features of the Dominican defensive system in order to understand the contribution of Antonelli’s work from a technological standpoint. It is a form of applied research that also takes into account practical aspects, related to methodologies and operating procedures applied directly at the site, in order to produce new representations of the cultural patrimony.

In this regard, the DAda Lab of the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of Pavia has carried out initial research with the objective of studying the fortified systems, their design and state of the art and to obtain a digital database of the patrimony through the use of scientifically verified methods and tools.

The interests in Antonelli’s works, present for many years in the investigation activities inherent to the documentation of patrimony carried out in Central America by the group of academics from the University of Pavia has encouraged the establishment of specific surveying procedures to appreciate in the best way possible each bulwark and the features of the urban walls, which are different with regard to the morphology of each one.

This research, which is inherent to the development of technologies for architectural and landscape surveying and representation, to analysis activity for the determination of development strategies related to knowledge, and to conservation and enhancement of patrimony, have involved some parts of the fortified system of the Colonial City, chosen based on their historical significance and distribution in order to obtain the effective measurement of the remaining walled girdle and to be able to compare it with Antonelli’s project.

The DAda Lab research laboratory has made available systems for digital surveying (Laser Scanner and SFM Structure from Motion) for the creation of 3D databases and the development of functional information systems for knowledge of the dimensional and construction characteristics of historical architecture. The precise surveying, the documentation, and the successive processing phases carried out in the area of the Ozama Fortress, with particular attention to the main building and the lower battery, enable the reading of the geometries of the defensive architecture of the production of systems for representation and promotion of the monumental complex. Different operations have been carried out for the analysis of the bulwarks and portions of the wall at the northwest area of the girdle (ruins of La Caridad Fort, Church San Miguel, and the Hermitage of San Antón), with the objective of producing integrated systems for the protection of artistic and cultural heritage, capable of connecting the urban space with digital representation.

Unlike what occurs with the Ozama Fortress, the sites of the ruins of La Caridad Fort and the Hermitage of San Antón are not considered monuments by the population, which due to being unaware of their historical and architectural value make inappropriate use of them that is detrimental to their preservation.

San Antón, along with the stretch of walls that reaches the Santa Bárbara Cathedral, may represent an extreme instance of this situation: the bulwark is covered with weeds on its

Image of the point clouds of the La Caridad fort ruins.

Along the northern outline of the Colonial City, they are the first defensive structures visible after the Fuerte de la Concepción fort. The curtain of walls between the two bulwarks is incorporated into the building. © Sandro Parrinello

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Elevated view of the point clouds of the La Caridad fort ruins. The section of the girdle remaining visible on the street, connecting the ruins with the San Miguel bulwark. © Sandro Parrinello

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upper section, which do not allow for assessing their true state of preservation, and where it does present openings on different levels, it is used as a depository for waste materials of different types and sizes. At a certain point in its history, the bulwark was used as cement for a building that was built on top of it, then demolished, the features of which continue to be visible at the present time.

If the Santa Bárbara bulwark is now subject to restorations that are partially altering its character, the stretch of walls to the north of the city is, in turn, abandoned and has become a site for waste and neglect. At La Concepción Fort on the opposite side of the city, a low fence, the presence of night lights, and effective regular maintenance of the surrounding green areas are able, if only partially, to prevent encampments and their consequences in terms of hygiene and decorum. The San Miguel bulwark, currently used as a sports field, is a positive example of the integration of the fortresses into the city. However, if on the street side the wall is kept in order and frequented, it is not possible to say the same for the rear segment of the bulwark, which faces interior courtyards and is more neglected. The density of the courtyards and public and private buildings existing in the area of La Caridad on the one hand encloses the structure such that it does not have high visibility. Yet, in spite of the superficial renovations over time, it ensures that its original geometry is maintained.

The scope of the research in addition to the scientific and cultural aspects also had an educational and didactic nature due to the participation by students from the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University in the measurement activities. The interest in the pursuit of these and new activities related to the representation, study, and conservation of the architectural patrimony as manifested at meetings with Dominican universities, research centers, and public institutions shows a clear desire to develop future products and the bilateral creation of research channels that connect Santo Domingo with Italy through architecture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bertocci, Stefano, and Sandro Parrinello. Digital Survey and Documentation of the Archaeological and Architectural Sites. Unesco World Heritage List. Florence: Edifir-Edizioni Firenze, 2015.

Parrinello, Sandro, Francesca Picchio, Raffaella De Marco, and Anna Dell’Amico. “On the Edge of Mediterranean: Antonelli and Gibraltar Fortification.” In Fortmed 2018_Torino: BOOK OF ABSTRACTS, edited by Anna Marotta and Roberta Spallone. Turin: Politecnico di Torino, 2018.

Parrinello, Sandro. “La documentazione delle opere antonelliane nel nuovo mondo.” In Programmi multidisciplinari per l’internazionalizzazione della ricerca. Patrimonio culturale, Architettura e Paesaggio, 56-59. Florence: DidaPRESS, 2018.

Parrinello, Sandro, and Pietro Becherini. “La documentazione delle mura di Verona. Rilievo, analisi e schedatura delle fortificazioni veronesi. In Defensive Architecture of the Mediterranean, vol. 9, edited by Anna Marotta and Roberta Spallone, 1075-1082. Turin:

Politecnico di Torino, 2018.

Parrinello, Sandro, and Silvia Bertacchi. “Geometric proportioning in the sixteenth century fortifications: the design proposal of Italian military engineer Giovanni Battista Antonelli.” Nexus Network Journal 17 (2015): 399-423, http://doi: 10.1007/s00004015-0255-7.

Parrinello, Sandro, and Silvia Bertacchi. “The Fort of Bernia by Giovanni Battista Antonelli.” Nexus Network Journal 16 (2014): 699-722, http://doi: 10.1007/s00004-014-0214-8.

Parrinello, Sandro, and Francesca Picchio. “Sistemi di documentazione per l’analisi ed il progetto di recupero del Forte San Lorenzo el Real del Chagre, Colón, Panama.” Restauro Archeologico 25, no. 1 (2017): 54-73.

Parrinello, Sandro, and Francesca Picchio. Le fortezze di Portobello e del Rio Chagres a Panama. Florence: Edifir, 2019.

• CHAPTER 23

The Funerary Monument to Alessandro Geraldini at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo

By Virginia Flores Sasso, PhD Architect

Mausoleum dedicated to the First Resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, Alessandro Geraldini. © Courtesy of Virginia Flores Sasso

Opening page: Mausoleum dedicated to Geraldini, carved in stone. Inside the great arch that makes up the mausoleum, there is a semicircular window with elaborate stone tracery in the form of a fan. Similarly, on both sides of the tomb, there are two windows with a semicircular arch and stone tracery, which allows light to enter. © Courtesy of Virginia Flores Sasso

he humanist Alessandro Geraldini (born 1455 in Amelia, died 1524 in Santo Domingo) is considered as one of the most distinguished clergymen of his era. As the chaplain for Queen Isabella I of Castile (1487), the preceptor of Infantas María and Catalina as of 1493, and confessor for Queen Catherine of Aragon (1496), he spent thirty-nine years at the service of the kings and queens of Castile shaping culture and diplomacy. He was also the Bishop of the Diocese of Vulturara e Montecorvino (Province of Foggia, Naples) as of 1496, when Ferdinand II of Aragon presented him to the pope for the See of Santo Domingo, which was left open by the death of Fray Francisco García de Padilla.1 King Ferdinand the Catholic died, and it was Cardinal Cisneros, the regent of Castile at that time, who signed the letter of introduction to Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici), dated January 26, 1516. Geraldini submitted the letter of introduction along with one of his own, which he signed in Colonia on June 30, 1516, while presenting his own supplication. On November 23, 1516, Alessandro Geraldini was appointed as Bishop of Santo Domingo by way of papal bull issued by Leo X at Villa Hanliana.

On February 13, 1517, his titles were expanded to include Bishop of Madrid,2 a title that he received in London on September 13 of that same year, while, as a delegate for Pope Leo X, he was meeting with European kings and princes to request assistance against Suleiman the Magnificent.3 He was not able to leave immediately, due to these political obligations, so he decided to send his nephew Onofre (Nufrio) Geraldini and his servant Diego del Rio, who arrived in Santo Domingo at the end of 1517 to take possession of the diocese. In 1519, prior to departing for the Americas, Geraldini would acquire for his servant and protégé, the Segovian clergyman Diego del Rio, a vacant canonry at the cathedral.4 On August 4, 1519, Bishop Geraldini set sail from Seville for “the Indies,” as it was called and noted by the chronicler of the era, Francisco López de Gómara, in his Historia de las Indias. He arrived in Santo Domingo on September 17, 1519, assuming his position as bishop on October 6, 1519.5 Upon his arrival, he became the first resident bishop of the diocese of Santo Domingo.

In 1519, royal decrees were sent regarding Geraldini. One ordered Rodrigo de Figueroa, who had recently

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arrived in Santo Domingo in the capacity of judge and governor of the Island of Hispaniola, to allow the bishop’s constable to use the staff of office, a sign of his respected episcopal jurisdiction, and to entrust the bishop with the education of the children of the caciques of the Island of Hispaniola for two years. It also authorized him to mete out punishment to those who interfered with his duties or violated any ordinances issued for this purpose.6 Figueroa followed the orders, but he did not last long in the position of Governor of Hispaniola and was quickly replaced by Diego Columbus, who gave preferential treatment to Geraldini.

Upon his arrival in the city, Geraldini found a small wooden church covered in cane palm leaves, which had been the town’s church prior to the creation of the diocese in 1511. For this reason, he expedited the construction of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, blessing the cornerstone on March 25, 1521.7 At that time, Emperor Charles V and Queen Joanna of Castile reigned, and Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca served as the president of the Council of the Indies. He was very influential in decision-making with regard to indigenous affairs and the person who likely sent the designs for the new Cathedral of Santo Domingo.

At present, the designs for the cathedral are lost. However, it is quite likely that more than one master builder was involved in the designs and that the original project underwent modifications, as suggested by documents and evidence in the building. The style of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo is late Gothic, a Spanish type of Hallenkirche, or column church incorporating both “modern” and Roman elements, as they were called during that era.

The construction was halted and restarted numerous times with modifications. The first suspension occurred after Geraldini’s death on March 8, 1524. At that time, the project was taken over by Dean Rodrigo de Bastidas. This second construction phase lasted only three years, stopping again at the end of 1527 when Bastidas left for Spain.

The third phase of construction began in 1528 when new builders arrived at the cathedral. The construction was again halted in 1531, due to economic problems and the appointment of Bastidas as Bishop of the Diocese of Coro (Venezuela). But Bastidas did not remain in Coro for long, and he returned to Santo Domingo to resume construction. In 1535, news about the progress of the construction of the cathedral was reported. The builders rushed to complete the central and lateral naves and the niche chapels so that the cathedral’s liturgical functions could commence; indeed, Rodrigo de Bastidas celebrated the first mass at the cathedral in November 1537. The consecration of the cathedral took place on August 31, 1541: Alonso de Fuenmayor was the reigning bishop. A fourth construction phase began in 1542 with the construction of the bell tower but was suspended in 1546. It was then that the mausoleum for Bishop Alessandro Geraldini was built, and significant modifications were made to the interior of the cathedral.

Funerary Art during the Spanish Renaissance Death has been understood in different ways over time, depending on the society. Throughout history, tombs and mausoleums have played important roles as characteristic features of regions and cultures. They can reflect religious and ideological ideals, represent the social status of one’s life, and also demonstrate political and economic power.

The significance of the funerary monument ranges from existing as the mere place of one’s mortal remains to serving as a testament to one’s life, a symbol of power and greatness, or a glimpse into the world of an accomplished individual. The monument becomes a sanctuary devoted to the memory of the deceased individual, created from the human fear of disappearing into oblivion.

The Middle Ages ended with a Europe that was divided with regard to the philosophies and ideas that characterized the sociopolitical situation of each region. On the Iberian Peninsula, medieval philosophy still prevailed: God and Christianity were at the center of all actions and humankind at the second tier, asking man to remain unnoticed and oftentimes anonymous. This line of thinking increased with the Catholic monarchs, who used religion as a common ground for uniting the kingdoms of the peninsula, integrating Muslims and Jews and colonizing the new overseas territories.

THE FUNERARY MONUMENT TO ALESSANDRO GERALDINI AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTO DOMINGO

Epitaph in the Geraldini Memorial: HIC IACET Rmas ALEXANDER GERALDINUS PATRICIUS ROME EPISCOPUS IL SANCTI DOMINICI OBIIT ANNO DOMINI M.D. XX IIII DIE VIII MENCIS MARTIS. 244. © Courtesy of Virginia Flores Sasso

Banner placed on top of the north wall of Geraldini’s funeral monument, describing that the chapel was ordered to be built by the priest, then treasurer of the Cathedral, Diego del Rio, servant of Bishop Alessandro Geraldini. © Courtesy of Virginia Flores Sasso

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Meanwhile, in Italy humanist and anthropocentric ideas were taking root, considering humanity as the center of all things. In the mid-fifteenth century, with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg, and the cultural and scientific exchanges that were taking place, humanist ideas spread across Europe. These currents arrived in Spain as a result of political and military ties with Italy.

Humanist ideals led to the Renaissance, which reevaluated humanity’s worth and revived the culture of classical antiquity. God did not lose a predominant role but was instead relegated to a different plane of influence and no longer the answer to all problems. Once again, fame was appreciated as a virtue and a legitimate right of human beings. Glory, prestige, and power were emphasized—values considered formerly as pagan. The Church was also influenced by these ideas and began to incorporate Renaissance components into its buildings, structures, and ornamentation. The style employed was inspired by the new architectural and artistic trends of the Cinquecento, or Italian Renaissance.

Leon Battista Alberti, considered the first theoretical artist of the Renaissance, blended both the ancient and the modern in his perspective, thus espousing the ancient and modern praxis that had been initiated by Filippo Brunelleschi but with a humanist slant. In Spain, the treatise Medidas del Romano by Diego de Sagredo, who had trained in Italy during the 16th century, was widely read; the work was published for the first time in 1526, with numerous reprints afterward. In his treatise, Sagredo describes how a tomb should look, emphasizing the need for ornateness, and proposes the use of both biblical and pagan elements from antiquity, showing in one illustration an “arcosolium” in a classical style.

During the Renaissance, funerary monuments were designed to show the states of grandeur, triumph, and immortality, emphasizing the virtues and qualities of the deceased individual. In theory, only clerics as well as those affiliated with the Church and with a high economic status were buried in tombs or in the church—and even according to a hierarchy as well. For the rest of the population, individuals may or may not have had any marker or placard attached to their graves, and they were buried either inside the church or outside in the church cemetery. Those with greater economic means and close personal relationships with the church were buried closer to the main altar. The further from the altar, the poorer the person. Some enjoyed the privilege of having their own chapel, where they were buried alongside relatives.

The trend of placing funerary sculptures together with funerary monuments began as an attempt to achieve historical permanence. In Spain, Renaissance funerary sculpture was developed during the mid-fifteenth century.

During that period, the funerary monument may or may not have included a funerary sculpture. Initially, there were no Spanish Renaissance sculptors; sculptures and works were imported from Italian workshops, and it was even necessary to contract Italian sculptors to create works in Spain. These masters of Italian sculpture subse-

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quently trained the first generation of Spanish Renaissance sculptors, and from then on, works were created on the Iberian Peninsula.

At that time, the workshops of the Robbia family from Florence, the Gazini and Aprili workshops of Genoa, and the workshops of Naples were renowned. An example of the Italian marble tombs in Spain is the tomb of Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza, which was created between 1493 and 1504 for the Cathedral of Toledo and which has a Roman-style triumphal arch. Its creator is unknown; also unknown is whether it was imported from Italy or created by an Italian sculptor in situ. Around 1508, the tomb of Juan de Aragón y de Jonqueras, the Second Count of Ribagorza, was created in Neapolitan workshops and placed in the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey. The Italian tomb of canon Baltasar del Río, the Bishop of Scala (Salerno), was imported to the Cathedral of Seville in 1521, and the tomb of Fray Francisco Ruiz, Bishop of Ávila, was imported in 1524, to mention a few.

The contracted sculptors who worked in the Spanish kingdoms purchased the marble in Italy, almost always in Carrara, and brought it to Spain to create the work. Some of the Italian sculptors that worked in Spain include Domenico Fancelli, Pietro Torrigiano, and Jacobo Florentino (nicknamed Torni or El Indaco by the sculptor Giorgio Vasari). Some of the first Spanish Renaissance sculptors are Vasco de la Zarza, Felipe Vigarny, Bartolomé Ordóñez, Diego de Siloé, Juan de Balmaseda, Juan Rodríguez (disciple of Vasco de la Zarza), Juan de Juni, Damián Forment, Joly y Juan de Moreto, and Juan de Ávila, among many others.

Over time, religious figures were almost entirely done away with, although religious content was shifted into the decoration, incorporating elements that alluded to religious events or figures. The treatises of Italian architecture were jealously guarded in the diocesan libraries and in the hands of the masters and artists, especially those of Sebastiano Serlio, as well as Vignola, Vitruvius, Leon Battista Alberti, and Palladio. In addition, some sculptors possessed engravings by Italian masters, Albrecht Dürer, and other old masters.

The Funerary Monument of Alessandro Geraldini Bishop Alessandro Geraldini died in the city of Santo Domingo. The exact date of his death has been a subject of discussion and dispute. His epitaph indicates that he died on March 8, 1524. At the time of his death, the Cathedral of Santo Domingo was undergoing construction; consequently, “He was initially entombed in the presbytery of his Cathedral, and his remains were later moved to the chapel of Christ in Agony, which exists at that Cathedral, depositing it in the urn that is found there on top of two reclining lions.”8 The Latin inscription on his tomb reads: “Hic iacet Rmus Alexander Geraldino Patricius—Rom. Epsii S.D. Obiit - Anno Dni MDXXIIII die VIII Mensis Marcii.” (“Here lies the Most Reverend Alessandro Geraldini, of Roman nobility, the Second Bishop of Santo Domingo, who died on the eighth day in the month March in the year of our Lord fifteen hundred twenty-four.”)

The mausoleum of Alessandro Geraldini was built inside the third Gospel side-chapel or the north side of the cathedral, counting from the main chapel toward the west, beside the northern door. Over time, the chapel came to be known as the Chapel of the Two Lions or the Chapel of Christ in Agony.9 Beginning in the 17th century, it was called the Chapel of Holy Christ of Viera or Vieira10 in association with Lorenzo de Vieira, who offered economic support to the church at that time.11 It is also known as the Chapel of Diego del Río12 or the Geraldini Chapel.

It is likely that its construction was completed between 1542 and 1550, given that it was still not complete in 1540, as it was said that “it was still necessary to build ten chapels that are called hornezinas, or niche chapels, which are five on each part because two are already completed and another two are being built.”13 In addition, Bishop Rodrigo de Bastidas arrived in 1542, after having been in Venezuela for two years as the interim governor, and he again commenced the construction at the cathedral with the aim of creating “the segment that is designed and somewhat connected to the sacristy…and the tower for holding the bells and the clock.”14 This work was done by builders that were already on the island and as well as by others who arrived in 1541. Documents indicate that the chapel was completed before 1549,15 because an account from 1550 mentions that it was completed.16

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Christ in Agony Chapel also known as Geraldini’s Chapel. © Courtesy of Virginia Flores Sasso

Vault of the Chapel of Christ in Agony or of Geraldini. Stone vault, spherical that rests on shellshaped pendentives, very common in Renaissance stonework. © Courtesy of Virginia Flores Sasso

The chapel and the funerary monument were ordered to be built by Geraldini’s servant, the clergyman Diego del Rio; Del Rio together with Onofre Geraldini took possession of the bishopric of Santo Domingo at the end of 1517 on behalf of Bishop Geraldini, as mentioned earlier.

Diego del Rio held the position of treasurer of the cathedral at the time of its construction, but for several years prior, he was responsible for the collection of tithes. According to an interrogation in 1532, Diego del Rio “is responsible for the tithes and he collects them and he gives them out and distributes them however he wishes without any involvement in their division or collection by a public notary or the cabildo as is required by the building committee so that they can be provided with a full account whenever the individual or individuals so request it.”17 The chapel has a rectangular ground plan that is almost a square, measuring approximately 17.5 Spanish feet (4.88 meters) by 16 Spanish feet (4.48 meters). It is covered by a circular stone dome, a type of spherical vault that rests on pendentives in the shape of shells, which were quite common in Renaissance masonry. Two carved rings stem from its center, decorated in the shape of a garland of flowers and fruit and delicately painted with pastel colors. This painting was discovered in 1988 during restoration work, which immediately revealed the original colors that once existed.18 The square or almost square floor and the circular dome are expressions with a clear meaning within the context of Humanism: squares were images of the earth and humankind, whereas the circle was considered a perfect figure, as Plato states in his Timaeus and Philebus—an expression of the heavens.19 Consequently, by placing these two images in the chapel, the human and the divine, the permanence of virtues, and the nobility of the deceased beyond death were represented. Further indicated was that the deceased person would continue in eternity due to having been a faithful follower of Christian virtues.

Initially, the entrance of the niche chapel was defined by a pointed arch, like all the others, but during its construction, this pointed arch was altered into a semicircular arch flanked by two fluted columns with a Corinthian capital and square base, very much in keeping with the Renaissance style of the time. Its walls are made of stone masonry, with the exception of the west wall. That wall was built from a rammed-earth wall that it shares with the next chapel. On the eastern wall, there is a large but shallow niche that may have been an altarpiece at some

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point. This has been theorized on the grounds that the chapel was initially “dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian,”20 the physician twins.

Geraldini’s tomb is attached to the north wall of the chapel. On that same wall, on both sides of the tomb, there are two semicircular arch windows and stone tracery, which permits the entrance of light. The monument is made from coralline limestone, likely originating from the same quarry as the rest of the cathedral’s material.

The monument that holds the mortal remains of Bishop Alessandro Geraldini is a triumphal arch, framed by a small entablature composed of only a few straight bands that make up the cornice, with an undecorated frieze and the architrave with two small decorative moldings. On the entablature at each corner, there is a widemouthed jar or amphora (perhaps a chalice)21 that is mutilated due to having a conch-shaped pendentive placed on top. In the middle and at the top, there is a placard in the shape of a scroll that reads, “This chapel was built by canon Diego del Río.”

The entablature rests on two rectangular pilasters with moldings. The pilasters feature a capital decorated with acanthus leaves in the corners and caulicoles that are under the stem of a flower located in the center. The bases of the pilasters have a simple foundation, with a pedestal with molding and a plain plinth. The pilasters communicate classical values, such as the Greco-Roman traditions of honesty and justice, within the interior space.

A flared semicircular arch emerges from the pilasters, achieving the perspective that was used so often during the Renaissance and calling attention to the center of the tomb. The intrados of the arch is decorated with coffers in a clear Renaissance style. On the exterior, as if it were delineating the arch, a type of stone cord is carved and ends in a tassel on each side. Inside the large arch that makes up the tomb, there is a semicircular window with elaborate stone tracery in the shape of a fan, which serves as the background.

The sarcophagus is an “arcosolium” made from stone, and at the center the episcopal shield is carved out.

The sarcophagus is suspended on a robust pillar with a curved profile that opens onto the upper section serving as the base. This, in turn, sits atop two lions seated back-to-back.

Since antiquity, the presence of the lion has been associated with funerary monuments, symbolizing protection and vigilance as well as strength, and it is in this sense that the lion’s image has been represented in emblematic literature. Some Roman tombs feature lions as guardians against evil.22 They also represent resurrection.

In 1650, canon Gerónimo de Alcocer described the mausoleum as “a sumptuous tomb made from stone which much like a very handsome urn is atop two stone lions with several moldings and the Bishop’s coat of arms.”23 In this funerary monument, the presence of Italian influences can assuredly be seen, as well as the association with the Italian treatises that circulated during the time of its construction and also the reciprocity of the Spanish perspective of Diego Sagredo in his Medidas del Romano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alcocer, Luis Gerónimo. “Relación Sumaria del estado presente de la Isla Española en las Indias Occidentales.” Boletin del Archivo General de la Nacion, no. 5 ( January - April 1942).

Alemar, Luis E. La Catedral de Santo Domingo. Descripción HistóricoArtístico-Arqueológico de este portentoso templo, Primada de las Indias.

Santo Domingo: Editora de Santo Domingo, 1933.

Dussel, Enrique. “El Episcopado Hispanoamericano. Institución Misionera en defensa del indio (1504-1620), Una colección de estudios sobre el fenómeno religioso en América Latina.” Sondeos, vol. 4, no. 35. Cuernavaca, México: Centro Intercultural de Documentación, 1970.

Flores Sasso, Virginia. “Arquitetcura de la Catedral.” In Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo, edited by José Chez Ch., Eugenio

Pérez M., and Esteban Prieto V. Santo Domingo: Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español, 2011.

Giménez Fernández, Manuel. Política inicial de Carlos I en las Indias. C.S.1.C. Madrid, 1984.

Jesús María González de Zarate. “El arte sepulcral en el Renacimiento en la Vitoria del siglo XVI,” Ondare: cuadernos de artes plásticas y monumentales. Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, Eusko Ikaskuntza, no. 6 (1989), 149.

Ybot León, Antonio. La lglesia y los eclesiásticos españoles en la empresá de Indias, vol. 2 (Barcelona: Editorial Salvat, 1963).

Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, Proceso contra Álvaro de Castro, 1532. Colección Cesar Herrera, vol. 2, Colec-

THE FUNERARY MONUMENT TO ALESSANDRO GERALDINI AT THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTO DOMINGO

ción Quinto Centenario, Santo Domingo, 1995.

Palm, Erwin Walter. Los Monumentos Arquitectónicos de la Española, vols. 1, 2. Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 2002.

Paniagua Pérez, Jesús. “Vida de Alejandro Geraldini.” In Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo, edited by José Chez Checo, Eugenio Pérez M., and Esteban Prieto V. Santo Domingo: Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español, 2011.

Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio, ed. Apuntes y Documentos I. Ciudad Trujillo: Librería Dominicana, 1957. ________Relaciones Históricas de Santo Domingo, vol. 1. Collection and Notes by E. Rodríguez Demorizi. Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1942.

Santiago, Pedro J. “La Catedral Primada: Obra y Fabrica. Pleitos

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entre partes y diezmos del azúcar. (Document for study. 15331557),” Colección Documental Herrera I. Casas Reales 19 (October 1988).

Schäfer, Ernesto. El Consejo Real y Supremo de las Indias su historia, organización y labor administrativa hasta la terminación de la Casa de Austria. Madrid: Marcial Pons, Ediciones de Historia, 2003.

Tisnés Jiménez, Roberto M. CMF. Alejandro Geraldini, Primer Obispo Residente de Santo Domingo, en la Española, Amigo y Defensor de Colón. Santo Domingo: Archbishopric of Santo Domingo and Office of Construction and Museums of the First and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Indies, 1987.

Ugarte, María. La Catedral de Santo Domingo, Primada de América. Colección Quinto Centenario. Serie Catedral Primada. Santo Domingo: Comisión Dominicana para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario del Descubrimiento de América, 1992.

ENDNOTES 1 Roberto M. Tisnés J., CMF, Alejandro Geraldini, Primer Obispo Residente de Santo Domingo, en la Española, Amigo y Defensor de Colón (Santo Domingo: Archbishopric of Santo Domingo and Office of Construction and Museums of the First and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Indies; Amigo del Hogar, 1987), 117.

2 Antonio Ybot Leon, La lglesia y los eclesiásticos españoles en la empresá de Indias, vol. 2 (Barcelona: Salvat Editores, 1963), 47.

3 Ernesto Schäfer, El Consejo Real y Supremo de las Indias su historia, organización y labor administrativa hasta la terminación de la Casa de Austria (Madrid: Marcial Pons, Ediciones de Historia, 2003).

4 Jesús Paniagua Pérez, “Vida de Alejandro Geraldini,” in Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo, ed. José Chez Checo, Eugenio Pérez M., and Esteban Prieto V. (Santo Domingo: Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español, 2011), 88.

5 Enrique Dussel, “El Episcopado Hispanoamericano. Institución Misionera en defensa del indio (1504-1620), Una colección de estudios sobre el fenómeno religioso en América Latina,” Sondeos no. 35, vol. 4 (Cuernavaca, Mexico: Centro Intercultural de Documentación, 1970).

6 Manuel Giménez Fernández, Política inicial de Carlos I en las Indias. C.S.1.C. (Madrid, 1984), 285.

7 Roberto Tisnés, op. cit.

8 Tisnés, 222.

9 Luis E. Alemar, La Catedral de Santo Domingo. Descripción Histórico- Artístico- Arqueológico de este portentoso templo, Primada de las Indias (Santo Domingo: Editora de Santo Domingo, 1933), 36.

10 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi (ed.), Apuntes y Documentos I (Ciudad Trujillo: Librería Dominicana, 1957), 104.

11 Luis Gerónimo Alcocer, “Relación Sumaria del estado presente de la Isla Española en las Indias Occidentales,” Boletin del Archivo General de la Nacion (BAGN), no. 5 ( January-April 1942): 59. The Vieira family does not appear in the parish books until

1672, when Salvador de Vieira died. Cfr. ASD. Cathedral. Book I Entierros (1666-1701), f. 66v; C. Larrazábal, op. cit. IX (1980), 88.

12 Erwin Walter Palm, Los Monumentos Arquitectónicos de la Española, vols. 1-2 (Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 2002), 33.

13 Pedro J. Santiago, “La Catedral Primada: Obra y Fabrica. Pleitos entre partes y diezmos del azúcar. (Documento para estudio.

1533-1557). Colección Documental Herrera I,” Casas Reales 19, October 1988, 20.

14 Pedro J. Santiago, Op. cit. 21.

15 Palm, op. cit., 33.

16 Ibid.

17 Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, Proceso contra Álvaro de Castro, 1532, Colección Cesar Herrera, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Colección Quinto Centenario, 1995), 21.

18 Virginia Flores Sasso, “Arquitetcura de la Catedral,” in Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo, ed. José Chez Checo, Eugenio Pérez M., and Esteban Prieto V. (Santo Domingo: Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español, 2011), 334.

19 Jesús María González de Zarate, “El arte sepulcral en el Renacimiento en la Vitoria del siglo XVI,” Ondare: cuadernos de artes plásticas y monumentales. Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, Eusko Ikaskuntza, no. 6 (1989), 149.

20 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Relaciones Históricas de Santo Domingo, vol. 1 (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora Montalvo, 1942), 224.

21 María Ugarte, La Catedral de Santo Domingo, Primada de América. Colección Quinto Centenario. Serie Catedral Primada.

Comisión Dominicana para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario del Descubrimiento y Evangelización de América, Santo Domingo, 1992, 84.

22 González de Zárate. Op. Cit. 23 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Relaciones Históricas de Santo Domingo, vol. I, op. cit., 225.

Façade of the cathedral and its bell tower. © Giovanni Cavallaro

• CHAPTER 24

The Italian Influences on the “Catedral Primada de América (First Cathedral of the Americas)”

By Esteban Prieto Vicioso Rector coordinator of the Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español, director of the Oficina de la Obra y Museos de la Catedral de Santo Domingo, researcher at UNPHU

Bishop Alessandro Geraldini’s crest on the south portal of the cathedral. © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

any Italians have left their imprint on the Catedral de Santo Domingo, Primada de América (First Cathedral of the Americas).

Some are associated with the history of the cathedral, its creation and development, while others are associated with its construction and artistic contributions, as well as its conservation and restoration. The first of these was Pope Julius II, who in the Romanus Pontifex papal bull of August 8, 1511, created and dedicated it to Our Lady of the Incarnation.

Pope Julius II was born as Giuliano della Rovere in Albissola near Savona on December 5, 1443, and died in Rome on February 21, 1513, at 69 years of age. He began his papacy on November 26, 1503. He was considered to have been a brave warrior, earning himself the nickname Julius the Terrible. The fame associated with his name is primarily due to the reestablishment of the Papal States and the liberation of Italy from its domination by France.

Even so, he did not neglect his duties as the spiritual head of the Church.1 He was a true aficionado of the arts, and he commissioned major paintings and sculptures from various renowned artists, including Raphael, Bramante, and Michelangelo. Among the most prominent are Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, as well as the colossal Moses sculpture that embellishes his mausoleum at the San Pietro in Vincoli basilica.

Following the death of Fray García de Padilla, the first bishop appointed to the recently created diocese of Santo Domingo, but who never actually governed his see, as he died in Spain prior to undertaking the voyage to Santo Domingo, Pope Leo X designated by way of papal bull issued on November 23, 1516, the Italian Alessandro Geraldini as the second bishop of Santo Domingo. He assumed the leadership of the Dominican Church on October 6, 1519, thus becoming the first resident bishop of Santo Domingo.2 Alessandro Girolamo Geraldini was born in Amelia, Umbria, Italy, around 1455. He was a diplomat and a great humanist. According to José Luis Sáez in his Episcopologio de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo, Geraldini after serving in the military in Spain became a royal cup-bearer in 1469. Following his ordination to the

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priesthood, he served as chaplain to Queen Isabella I of Castile and one of four preceptors to Infantas María and Catalina.

On March 21, 1521, Geraldini began the construction of his cathedral, but this work was not finished due to his death three years later on March 8, 1524.

He was buried in the Major Chapel, and his remains were later moved to a mausoleum in the chapel built in his honor by the priest Diego del Río. Sáez also notes that Geraldini’s primary interest as bishop was the construction of a true cathedral.

The magnificence of the cathedral that Geraldini started to erect is reflected in the following poem that he wrote while arranging for the main church in the city of Santo Domingo to be built:3

My Queen, and Queen of all heavens, I would like to build a temple worthy of your glory and honor.

I will dedicate all of my efforts, all of my hopes and aspirations, until seeing the stones laid and my wishes coronated.

May the lofty columns rise, like prayers up to the heavens; and may their arms interlace, with the vaults supporting them.

You are the sovereign Queen of the most sovereign kingdom and the Divine King placed his pious throne within your womb.

Indeed, your temple can lack not gold nor silver, nor the brilliance of the heavens nor polished marbles.

What on Earth is fleeting, your abode shall make eternal; and burn all vanities in the flames of incense.

You, Holiest Mother, gaze with your serene face upon our work and bless our efforts always.

You who bring joy to the cheerless, and shield under your cloak the unprotected masses, grace us with respite and comfort.

The enchantment of your eyes, the tenderness of your breast will stand out in your temple in heavenly paintings.

Through its naves will the cadenced Psalter echo; and along with David and the Saints, our town will sing of you The hands of the messenger will bring bundles of lilies on that day that announces the plenitude of time.

A snow white dove will fly over your temple, bearing the olive branch that it offers to the Earth and to the heavens, and the joyful voices of the messenger will again be heard: “Ave Maria, full of grace, the Eternal Lord is with you.”

And you, mighty Queen, the Dove of our heavens, cover this Earth and these people with your wings.

In the middle, crucified Christ will rise on the cross, with his arms extended and his heart open to draw us all into his chest.

All of the arts will together shine in the concert that will be

Plan of the cathedral following the works by Father Billini in 1877.

(Office of Works, 2011). © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

THE ITALIAN INFLUENCES ON THE “CATEDRAL PRIMADA DE AMÉRICA”

Plan for the bell tower designed by Paolo Medici. (Historical Archives of the Archbishop of Santo Domingo). © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

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heard for centuries within the vaults of this temple.

The stones will swiftly rise, mocking their immense bulk and the immensity of their weight; because art shall free them from their slow movement and they shall intertwine like palms, covering your basilica.

The blazons that shone in Rome now appear, and now the Papal tiara shines so incredibly bright; and if it wears three crowns, it was no small feat when the Popes dictated the laws onto the entire world. Here are the proud eagles of Cesar adorned with the most beautiful crowns, memories of the Quirites, that the left side illustrate; and to the right, the land and sea ruled by Mars, and the splendid chariots covered in light and fire shall be adorned with Phoebus.

And the noble Geraldinis, with generous ancestry, shall shine with their own splendor, like the sun in the heavens and with the flame of Minerva burning brightly on their heads: Minerva who brings peace to the world and ensures its progress.

Alejandro built this temple, a pious and good bishop, who to many Kings he will leave many wise documents; who worshipped the Muses, through the Parnassus rising until reaching the highest summits of the heavens.

On February 12, 1546, Pope Paul III created the ecclesiastical province of Santo Domingo by means of the Super universas orbis ecclesias papal bull, thereby bringing the Cathedral of Santo Domingo to the city. He concurrently appointed Alonso de Fuenmayor as the first archbishop of the Americas. Pope Paul III, whose secular name was Alessandro Farnese, was chosen as pope in 1467, and he died in his native city of Rome in 1549. His remains are found in Saint Peter’s Basilica in a mausoleum designed by Michelangelo and built by Guglielmo della Porta. His papacy is considered to have been one of the most productive in the annals of the Church.4 Another Italian that made a significant impact on the Cathedral of Santo Domingo was Monsignor Rocco Cocchia, the apostolic delegate in the Dominican Republic from 1874 to 1882. During his tenure, major works were carried out at the cathedral, including the restoration of the presbytery, recovering its original areas levels, and the installation of an Italian marble floor in the interior of the cathedral.5 Upon his birth in 1830, Fray Rocco Cocchia was baptized as Angelo Antonio. In 1874 he created the Honorary or ad honorem Council of the cathedral. He also consolidated the work of the seminary, merging it with the Jesuit college of Colegio San Luis Gonzaga in 1875. He died in Chieti, in the region of Abruzzi, Italy, in 1901, and his remains were later transferred to the church of San Rocco, in his native city of Cesinali, Italy.6 The restoration works done in the cathedral were commissioned by Monsignor Rocco Cocchia with the priest Francisco Anatalio (Xavier) Billini, the son of Giovanni Antonio Billini Ruse, a native of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, who came to the island in 1805 as a soldier in the service of France.7 On April 7, 1877, Father Billini initiated the repair and restoration works of the cathedral, which was one of the main renovation projects carried out on the monument up until then. The works consisted of the restoration and expansion of the presbytery, while recovering areas from the levels of the original presbytery. This work enabled the discovery of the real remains of the Genoese admiral, Christopher Columbus, which were still located in his crypt. Also, at that time, with the approval of the Executive Body of the Municipal Council for the city and several prominent individuals, the deteriorated lower choir that occupied two sections of the central nave of the cathedral was eliminated.8

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Father Billini also placed new marble floors in the three naves and side chapels of the cathedral, for which the tiles were imported from Italy by the L. Cambiaso y Co. trading house. All these works, in addition to the general cleaning, painting, and repair of multiple furnishings were completed, thereby enabling the church to be blessed by Monsignor Rocco Cocchia, then Bishop of Orope and Apostolic Vicar of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo. Monsignor Cocchia also displayed an interest in the clothing worn in the cathedral, sending the white garments to be restored in Naples, Italy. This consisted of the set of vestments that were used by the priests, the deacon, and the subdeacon during the solemn masses.9 During the prelacy of Archbishop Adolfo Alejandro Nouel y Bobadilla (1906-1931), and particularly during the 1910s, another important plan was implemented for the intervention and restoration of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. With the intention of enriching his cathedral, he commissioned a design from the Italian marble mason Paulo Medici to complete the bell tower, which was delivered to him in 1907, though it was ultimately never built.

Just two years after his investiture at the Catedral Primada de América in 1908, two works created by Paulo Medici arrived in Santo Domingo: the mausoleum of Archbishop Fernando Arturo de Meriño Ramírez and a new marble baptismal font, which was donated by Archbishop Nouel y Bobadilla for the purpose of commemorating the fourth centenary of the creation of the Bishopric of Santo Domingo on August 8, 1511.

The mausoleum is sculpted in white marble with golden inlays, with a figure on the upper section that represents Archbishop Meriño adorned in the vestments in line with his rank. On the right side of the mausoleum, the sculptor’s signature can be seen. The inscription reads: PAVLUS MEDICES MARMORARIVS ROMANUS FECIT ROMAE MCMVII. Also by Paulo Medici are the ornamented marble basin from the sacristy and the commemorative placard from the pronouncement of the cathedral as a minor basilica and the coronation of Our Lady of Altagracia. On this placard dated 1920, the signature of Pope Benedict XV appears; he was born in Genoa in 1854 as Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa and died in Vatican City in 1922.

In 1916 and 1917, the Italian architect Alfredo Scaroina carried out important projects in the cathedral following a general plan submitted by Archbishop Nouel to both him and the prestigious architects and engineers Nechodoma, Báez, Medici, and García. As part of these projects, blueprints were drawn up for the entire building; the foundations were underpinned; the old windows which had been walled in were rebuilt; structural reinforcement works were carried out; and the bishop’s throne and the choir stalls were restored.

Another major project planned by Scaroina during those years was the modification and expansion of the presbytery, which was extended to cover two sections of the central nave, as reflected in its current size today.

During this expansion, four sections of the old stalls of the lower choir were restored and then replaced, after

Baptismal font by Paolo Medici in 1911 (Borrell, P. J.). © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

Mausoleum of Archbishop Meriño by Paolo Medici (Borrell, P. J.). © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

THE ITALIAN INFLUENCES ON THE “CATEDRAL PRIMADA DE AMÉRICA”

Marble basin in the sacristy of the cathedral (Borrell, P. J.). © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

Remodeling of the presbytery by the architect Alfredo Scaroina. © Photo by Mañón, collection of the Office of Works of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo

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having been dismantled during the restoration of the cathedral in 1877. Alfredo J. Scaroina Montuori was born in Avelino in the Campania region of Italy on July 17, 1864. He studied at the University of Milan and later at the University of Rome, which enabled him to devote himself to civil engineering, bridge and road engineering, and architecture. He went to the Dominican Republic in 1890 on a vacation, but he decided to establish residence in the city of La Vega, where he married Fresolina García Godoy in 1904. He was responsible for major construction projects in the cities of La Vega, Moca, Cotuí, San Pedro de Macorís, and Santo Domingo.10 On October 11, 1935, Pope Pius XII granted the miter of the Archbishop of Santo Domingo to Ricardo Paolo Pittini Piussi, who was born in Tricesimo, Udine, Italy on April 30, 1876. During his ecclesiastical rule, no major works were carried out on the Cathedral of Santo Domingo; work was limited to maintenance and cleaning projects, the restoration of the organ from the upper choir, and the installation of new lighting fixtures. One significant project carried out during those years, however, was the restoration of the Cathedral Archives, rescuing them from the termites and moths that were destroying the records.11 In 1953 a huge organ was installed in the Chapel of the Souls. It had been built in one of the most reputable, specialized houses of Italy, in Fologno, but it had to be dismantled 30 years later due to destruction caused by moths and termites, thereby enabling the clearing out of the chapel in which the mausoleum for the first archbishop of Santo Domingo, Alonso de Fuenmayor López (in office 1546-1554), is located.

The Archbishop Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez (cardinal since 1991) created in 1984 the Office of Works and Museums of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, which immediately undertook major restoration projects in anticipation of the celebration of Fifth Centenary of the Discovery and Evangelization of the Americas.

The completed works included the laying of a new Italian marble floor in the three naves of the temple and in the atrium; this was done after archaeological research was carried out in those areas. These projects were headed by Dino Campagna, an engineer of Italian descent born in Santo Domingo. He also coordinated the creation of six sculptures and the coat of arms for Carlos V in the workshops of Ditta Enrico Arrighini e figlio, founded in 1870 in Pietrasanta (Lucca), Italy, to be placed on the main façade of the cathedral. These marble masons also transported the mausoleum that held the remains of admiral Christopher Columbus to the Columbus Lighthouse, which from 1898 through 1992 was located in the central nave of the cathedral.

This mausoleum was built with Italian marble from the quarries of Carrara.

In 2005, the architects Esteban Prieto Vicioso and Virginia Flores Sasso remodeled the presbytery of the cathedral using Italian marble for both the flooring as well as the new altar, in keeping with the new Liturgy.

Two non-Italian professionals who received training in Florence and Rome are restorer Ángela Camargo

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Central nave of the cathedral, toward the Major Chapel (Borrell, P.J.). © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

Presbytery of 2005. © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

and architect Esteban Prieto Vicioso. In the work on the cathedral, both have applied knowledge obtained during their training in Italy, thereby leaving an important imprint. Ángela Camargo, who studied in Florence during the flood of 1966, was thoroughly involved in the salvation of the city’s cultural property, becoming one of the “Angeli del fango di Firenze.”12 Twenty years later, she turned her attention and formidable skills to the Catedral Primada de América. She restored the cathedral’s main façade, the Altarpiece of the 12 Columns, the vault of the Chapel of the Most Holy, the Chapel of Fuenmayor, the Chapel of Bishop Geraldini, and that of Our Lady of La Antigua, among other contributions.13 The team of professionals and technicians who worked with Ángela Camargo included the stone specialist Ernesto Tucciarelli and the stonemason Giovanni Pierini,14 both Italians.

Since 1984, the Dominican architect Esteban Prieto Vicioso, who studied at Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza and specialized in architectural conservation at the International Center for Conservation of Rome, has been working on the restoration of the First Cathedral of the Americas. He currently holds the position of Director of the Office of Works and Museums of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo and Architect-Curator of the Cathedral.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Alfau Durán, Vetilio. “Síntesis Biográfica del Padre Francisco Xavier Billini.” In Francisco Xavier Billini. Obras I, Anales, cartas y otros escritos, 15-17. Recopilación Hugo E. Polanco Brito, Academia Dominicana de la Historia. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1987.

Batlle Pérez, José M. La portada de la Catedral de Santo Domingo, Colección Banreservas, Serie Historia, vol. 2. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1996.

Billini, Francisco Xavier. “Relación sobre los trabajos de reparación de la Santa Iglesia Catedral.” In Francisco Xavier Billini.

Obras I, Anales, cartas y otros escritos, Recopilación Hugo E. Polanco Brito, Academia Dominicana de la Historia. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1987.

Camargo, Ángela. “Florencia, 1966: Los Ángeles del Fango.” Ars Sacra, no. 41 (2007): 23-32.

Camargo, Ángela. “La Catedral de Santo Domingo, Primada de América 1988-1992, El V Centenario.” Ars Sacra, no. 41 (2007): 47-63. Ecclesiastical Bulletin 1940.

Enciclopedia Católica online, https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/ Papa_Julio_II.

Enciclopedia Católica online, https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/ Papa_Paulo_III. Penson, Enrique. Arquitectura Dominicana, 1906-1950, vol. 1. Santo Domingo: Mediabyte, s.a., 2005.

Prieto Vicioso, Esteban. “Restauración.” In Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo, edited by José Chez Checo, Eugenio Pérez Montás, and Esteban Prieto Vicioso, 373-431. Patronage of the Colonial City of Santo Domingo and Center for High Humanistic Studies and the Spanish Language. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2011.

Sáez, José Luis. Episcopologio de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo, Comisión Arquidiocesana para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo: Editora Búho, 2011.

Tisnés Jiménez, Roberto M. CMF. Alejandro Geraldini, Primer Obispo Residente de Santo Domingo, en la Española, Amigo y Defensor de Colón, Arzobispado de Santo Domingo y Oficina de la Obra y Museos de la Catedral metropolitana de Santo Domingo, Primada de Indias. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1987.

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ENDNOTES Façade of the cathedral with the coat of arms and sculptures from the workshop of Enrico Arrighini and son. © Courtesy of Esteban Prieto Vicioso

https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/Papa_Julio_II José Luis Sáez, Episcopologio de la Arquidiócesis de Santo Domingo, Archdiocesan Commission for the Celebration of the Fifth Centenary of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo: Búho, 2011), 32.

3 Roberto M. Tisnés J. CMF, Alejandro Geraldini, Primer Obispo Residente de Santo Domingo, en la Española, Amigo y Defensor de Colón, Arzobispado de Santo Domingo y Oficina de la Obra y Museos de la Catedral metropolitana de Santo Domingo, Primada de Indias (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1987), 385-386.

4 Enciclopedia Católica online, https://ec.aciprensa.com/ wiki/Papa_Paolo_III. 5 Esteban Prieto Vicioso, “Restauración,” in Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo, ed. José Chez Checo, Eugenio Pérez Montás and Esteban Prieto Vicioso, Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo y Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español (Santo Domingo: Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2011), 379-382.

6 Op. cit. Sáez, 136.

7 Vetilio Alfau Durán, “Síntesis Biográfica del Padre Francisco 1 2

Xavier Billini,” in Francisco Xavier Billini. Obras I, Anales, cartas y otros escritos, Recopilación Hugo E. Polanco Brito, Academia Dominicana de la Historia (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1987), 15.

8 Francisco Xavier Billini, “Relación sobre los trabajos de reparación de la Santa Iglesia Catedral,” in Francisco Xavier Billini.

Obras I, Anales, cartas y otros escritos, Recopilación Hugo E. Polanco Brito, Academia Dominicana de la Historia (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1987), 299-301.

9 Op. cit. Prieto, 382.

10 Ibid, 343.

11 Boletín Eclesiástico, 1940.

12 Ángela Camargo, “Florencia, 1966: Los Ángeles del Fango,” Ars Sacra, no. 41 (2007): 23-32.

13 Ángela Camargo, “La Catedral de Santo Domingo, Primada de América 1988-1992, El V Centenario,” Ars Sacra, no. 41 (2007): 47-63.

14 José M. Batlle Pérez, La portada de la Catedral de Santo Domingo, Banreservas Collection, History Series, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1996), 304.

• CHAPTER 25

The Italian Engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi and the Construction of the Dominican National Palace

By Emilio José Brea García Founding member of the Order of Architects of the Dominican Republic

he construction of the building serving as the seat of Government of the Dominican Republic is closely tied to an Italian engineer whose life was dedicated foremost to the conceptual, ideological, and theoretical transformation of Western architecture. In 1927, Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi arrived in the Dominican Republic at the age of 32, full of hope and expectations. In 1925, he had received a degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Polytechnic University of Turin.1 His career choice was likely influenced by the industrial setting of the prosperous city where he had received his training.

During the same year as his graduation, the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was held. This transformational exhibition presented the technological and artistic advances of the period in which the term “Art Deco” was coined to describe the stylistic innovation that would notably influence architectural style.

D’Alessandro Lombardi had been invited to travel to the Dominican Republic by the entrepreneur Amadeo Barletta, then Consul General of Italy in Santo Domingo. After having graduated and earned his degree, Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi considered emigrating to New York in 1926. It was then that he received the invitation from Barletta, who said to him, “Guido, in the United States you’d be a mere grain of sand on an immense beach. But in Santo Domingo, you’ll be the very beach itself.”2 With the outbreak of World War One, D’Alessandro Lombardi was required to join the military; he joined in 1915 and was sent to the Austrian front in 1916. He was wounded in combat the following year, 1917, and confined at the Military Hospital of Rome. It was there while still recovering that he was reassigned to the Military Academy of Modena. Upon returning to the war front, he was wounded again and ultimately discharged from service in 1919.

In the year that D’Alessandro Lombardi arrived in the Dominican Republic, the international architecture industry was heralding the advance of a new type of modernity. Prizes were being awarded in the international competition for design and construction of the site of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. This widely known and celebrated competition engendered debates about new forms and spatial concepts in Western architecture. In Santo Domingo, D’Alessandro Lombardi entered—and won—the competition held for the construction of the port of Montecristi. The completion of the project occurred at the same time as the ouster of President Horacio Vásquez. Consequently, D’Alessandro Lombardi returned to Italy where his parents Luigi D’Alessandro and Emilia Lombardi awaited him in the commune of Bovino, the province of Foggia, where he had been born on December 16, 1895.

Meanwhile, Europe continued to pursue an agenda of change. In 1928, under the patronage of a group of architects concerned with new architectural guidelines and the devastation caused by World War One, the

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First International Congress of Modern Architecture was held. Known as CIAM,3 it took place at La Sarraz Castle in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland. In Santiago, Chile, the Pan-American Union – the predecessor to the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA) – moved forward with a resolution from 1923. It held an international competition for the design of the Columbus Lighthouse to be erected on the coast of the Dominican Republic.4 Meanwhile in Italy, a young D’Alessandro Lombardi was still dreaming about Santo Domingo, for he had not left the country permanently. While he worked in Montecristi, he had fallen in love with the woman who would later become his wife. On April 26, 1930, at a ceremony attended by generals Desiderio Arias and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, as well as President of the Republic Rafael Estrella Ureña, D’Alessandro Lombardi married Carmen Tavárez Mayer. Together they had seven children, six of them boys.

In the previous year, 1929, the results were announced in Madrid for the first phase of the international competition for the Columbus Lighthouse.5 Publications about international architecture started to proliferate. In London, the prestigious magazine Architectural Design was launched, and in Paris the equally prestigious L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui was created. Meanwhile, in New York the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) was founded.

In the Dominican Republic, D’Alessandro Lombardi was obliged to become a Dominican citizen in order to work in the country, and he was appointed as the head of irrigation in the Northern Zone (1930-1932), based in Santiago de los Caballeros. In the same year that Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi married Carmen Tavárez, one of the first two Dominicans with degrees in architecture arrived in the country. He was Juan Bautista del Toro Andújar (18921953),6 a graduate of École Polytechnique in Paris. The other, architect Guillermo González Sánchez (19001970), graduated from Yale University in the United States but did not return to the Dominican Republic until 1936. Meanwhile, in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1931, the results in the international competition for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow were announced. In Brazil, the Englishman J. L. Gleave was declared the winner of the second phase of the international competition for the Columbus Lighthouse.7 In Italy, the second Rational Architecture exhibition was held in Rome. Concurrently, in the United States, Rockefeller Center (Hood-Fouilhoux; Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbet, Harrison & MacMurray) and the Empire State Building (Shrever, Lamb & Harmon) were unveiled in New York.

In Germany, the Columbushaus (Mendelsohn) was inaugurated in Berlin.

In the Dominican Republic, D’Alessandro Lombardi worked far from the capital. It was in 1933 that he was assigned the official duties related to his position. He was commissioned to create the Army Corps of Engineers, and as part of his duties, he would also build multiple forts, primarily in the border zone. He was consequently appointed as a Major for the National Army, a position that he held until 1938. That same year, the Golden Gate Bridge spanning San Francisco Bay in California was unveiled.

While D’Alessandro Lombardi was serving

Engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi. © D’Alessandro Tavárez family collection. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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Opening page: Interior of the National Palace. From the main dome hangs an impressive Florentinestyle lamp, which was brought from Italy. © Thiago da Cunha

Opposite page: The Mercado Modelo on Mella Avenue, shown in the picture the scaffolding of the façade’s great arch. © D’Alessandro Tavárez family collection. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

In the foreground, already laid out, are the small vaults of the arches. In the background, the final casting is prepared on the central vault of the Market. © D’Alessandro Tavárez family collection. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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in the Dominican Army, international Western architecture witnessed the birth of one of its enduring landmarks in 1936: Fallingwater (Kaufmann House) located in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, a project by Frank Lloyd Wright. That same year, the architect Guillermo González Sánchez returned to the country.

A city plan named “The Urbanization of Ciudad Trujillo,” created in 1937 by G. D’Alessandro Lombardi and J. A. Caro Álvarez, included a proposal for the capital building located on current Avenida Máximo Gómez near the western section of the city. It was there in the 1970s that the monumental complex was created for the Juan Pablo Duarte Cultural Center.8 Based on the aforementioned plan, the entire designated area extending to the sea was dedicated to institutional buildings. These would be arranged in keeping with the surroundings, flanking the side streets that were shortened to create space for the capitol building. To the east in that same plan, the site of “La Generala”9 was intended to later become the Presidential Mansion. This was due foremost to the fact that it had been already been located there until that time, and also because it appears that plans were designed to rebuild a stately Government Palace on the site.

In the context of his personal research conducted and later published in local mass media outlets, Dr. Alcides García Lluberes, whose name is traditionally associated with the site, explained the meaning behind the moniker “La Generala.” He noted that a hacienda there had once belonged to brigadier Juan Sánchez Ramírez.

In keeping with the gallantry and flattery of the time, he had called his wife Josefa Delmonte y Pichardo “La Generala,” or “Madame General.” During the process of rebuilding the city in the aftermath of Hurricane San Zenon, the plans followed a Monumentalist architectural style. They sought to introduce propaganda throughout the urban landscape through buildings that would underpin the foundations of the new political regime. Therefore, an area was set aside within this same city plan to create a monument to Generalissimo Trujillo, situated at the site where the silos and buildings for Molinos Dominicanos are located currently. This was done in order to connect the longitudinal axis of Calle El Conde located in the city’s historic center with the Columbus Lighthouse, which was still in its drafting phase and awaiting completion of the final plans that the winner of the international competition was preparing.10 One year prior, in 1936, the Spanish Civil War had erupted, and in Santo Domingo the Dominican Congress carried out a legendary act of obsequiousness.

Lawmakers asked to change the historic name of the city to that of the dictator’s last name. Amidst intense criticism, they changed the name of the capital from Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo, which it was called until 1961. And at that same time, the obelisk of Santo Domingo was erected and built by engineer Rafael Bonnelly García.

In Brazil in 1937, a novel contribution to modern architecture was made. The architectural group Costa, Niemeyer, Leao, Moreira, Reidy and Vasconcelos with the advising of Le Corbusier completed the building that was the site of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, after having completed his work on the Dominican forts on the border, D’Alessandro Lombardi departed for Italy with his family, in 1938. It was also then that Frank Lloyd Wright established Taliesin West, his independent teaching workshop in the United States.

Upon his return the following year, 1939, D’Alessandro Lombardi took part as a contractor in the construction of Santo Domingo’s Mercado Modelo, a project designed by Henry Gazón Bona (1909-1982) and built by José Ramón (Moncito) Báez López-Penha (1909-1994). That same year, the local competition was held for the design of Parque Ramfis park, which was won by architect G. González Sánchez; the construction of the park was com-

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pleted by engineer José R. Báez López-Penha. The Edificio Copello building was unveiled, and plans were drawn up for the authentic Hotel Jaragua, which was inaugurated in 1942 and demolished in 1985.

At Mercado Modelo (45 meters long and 72 meters deep), later known as “Modelo,”11 bold sorts of canopies were used, which at the time was a complete technical innovation.

A central nave measuring 21.6 meters in height and 60 meters in width covered by a parabolic arch with two joints is the most significant feature of the complex. It also contains two rectangular structures between two and three stories high flanked at its sides. Yet the most important project in which D’Alessandro Lombardi would take part had not yet even been drafted, though it was conceived in 1924. This was the National Palace, the seat of the Government of the Dominican Republic, and the most important building erected in the nation up until this time. Between 1939 and 1944, plans were created for the majestic structure measuring 16,500 square meters. And in Brazil in 1943, the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer completed the impressive Church of Saint Francis of Assisi located in Belo Horizonte.12 It was clear that the advisers for the construction of the National Palace wanted to unveil it in 1944, the year in which the plans were finally ready. That year would have presented the perfect occasion, because the centenary of the foundation of the Republic was commemorated with incredible splendor. However, the global situation was worsening, both economically and politically. Europe was experiencing the horrors of war, first with the Spanish Civil War and then World War One. Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic and quite far from the warring parties, a building’s infrastructure was being created that adhered to the ideological guidelines outlined by the apparatus of power controlling the destiny of the Dominican people. The influence was drawn directly from Italian Fascism and German National Socialism, allies to the Spanish Francoism of which the Trujillo regime was a fraternal and stringent adherent.13 These formal, mass architectural plans employing a Monumentalist style proposed to dominate the urban landscape, drawing on the excessive use of classical materials (for example, marble) and to create an imposing presence. They were thus used politically for propagandistic purposes, while concurrently displaying social and physical development and economic progress and enabling the Dominican Republic to produce a skyline of diverse structures that were quite emblematic of its current state.

A considerable number of Spanish immigrants were arriving in the country, capitalizing on state protection measures that aimed to “elevate the culture” and “improve the nation” with a new type of ethnic miscegenation. This time the wave of immigrants included Jews, Lebanese, Spaniards, Italians and other nationalities that were ethnically perceived as “white.” The immigrants arriving under these auspices were to remain in the Dominican Republic and contribute through their work and ethnic diversity to the development of the entire nation. Among them were Spaniards Tomás Auñón, who arrived in 1941 and created the design for the monument commemorating the payment of the external debt or “Financial Independence” erected in 1942, as well as Romualdo García Vera, who was born in Albacete in 1897 and created the Hotel Mercedes in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.14 It was in this context that D’Alessandro Lombardi worked, drafting the plans for the future National Palace that would eventually be erected on a plateau that was still bare at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was located in the northwestern section of Santo Domingo, which was devoid of growth. The wilderness at the beginning of the century came to visually dominate the entire landscape.

At that time, the promontory opened onto a bucolic horizon that was vaguely outlined by scarcely populated areas with makeshift homes covered in palm fronds and reddish-hued roofs topped for the most part with gabled and hipped slopes. These were cut among the lush and thick wooded green area, which still remains there today. By the end of the twentieth century, the outline of that ancestral Santo Domingo still blended into the majestic clouds visible within the infinite depths of the sky where the eastern trade winds form. This

D’Alessandro (wearing a jacket) and Gazón Bona (wearing a white shirt) on the market’s flat roof. © D’Alessandro Tavárez family collection. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

Opposite page: Details on the National Palace’s façade. © Thiago da Cunha

View of the National Palace’s dome and external corridors. © Thiago da Cunha

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The General Customs Office, which later became the “Presidential Mansion.” © D’Alessandro Tavárez family collection. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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raised promontory is also the highest geographic point and would later become the site of the exclusive residential neighborhood of Gazcue15 in the mid-1950s. It is an extremely high point making up the third stratigraphic layer of the local topography, a natural feature that emerges from the reef-studded coastline and meanders throughout the entire city’s bedrock.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the distinguished townsman and landowner Félix María Lluberes made a significant donation to the country in order to build the campus for the former Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, now the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. A large American-style ranch was constructed high upon the foundation together with a vaulted perimetral gallery, which opened onto the east, the south, and the southwest. It had gabled and slanted roofs and attics, consisting of two floors, with the gallery recreated on the top floor following the same dimensions and formal arrangement as the ground floor. With its vast and yet untouched areas and its permanence as the city center, the expanse of Gazcue established a residential precedent for the entire city. It was developed with some reservations toward the beginning of the twentieth century on plots from an extensive property belonging to the magnate Francisco Gazcue. A real estate inheritance would later divide the area into parcels belonging to various descendants of several wealthy families by the end of the 19th century.

General Casimiro N. de Moya in his illustrious “Plan for the City and Surroundings of Santo Domingo” from May of 1900 clearly pinpoints improvements for the villa of Gazcue, and referred to the neighborhood

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using that last name. The “Presidential Mansion” was located at the edges of the neighborhoods of Gazcue and San Carlos and served as a topographic high point for the entire city; the area that it occupied was also called San Carlos Hill. The “Mansion” was used by the American armed forces during the U.S. occupation from 1916 to 1924, and it later became the famous Customs Administration building. In addition to the other sporting facilities that were added during that period of its use, the majestic residence also had a large aboveground circular pool and tennis court, which were indispensable embellishments for the comfort of its occupants.

Located at the periphery of the burgeoning urban-residential sector that was Gazcue, the traditional neighborhood of the upper and middle class at the end of the 20th century, it underwent major transformations in usage, and its presence was assuredly a constant social hub. We can thus assume that it was by consequence and not by chance that on that promontory panoramically dominating the growing city of Santo Domingo, after having been returned to national sovereignty following economic and political agreements that made possible the American de-occupation of the territory, the Government arising from such a unique and critical situation would be located.16 Although the analysis is in the context of Venezuela, we are nevertheless able to make speculations and form opinions that are perfectly applicable to the local Dominican setting. There are indeed some parallels between “La Generala” or the “Customs Administration Building” or the “Presidential Mansion” (as it was called by the time that General Horacio Vásquez already lived there as President of the Dominican Republic from 1924 and 1930). These considerations are environmental, conceptual, and criterial aspects (due to the continuity and permanence) that are familiar to us, and they therefore enable us to draw a certain connection between Miraflores and Gazcue, in that both served as national palaces after having originally been private residences.

It is thus likely that the influence of that physical and symbolic presence would acquire tremendous significance, and would clearly impact the growth and development of the city and its real or utopian urban planning, given its location and immediate surroundings. As Roberto Segre Prando stated: “The growth of cities in population and surface, and the increase in the functions identified with the State’s structures, projected a classic typology beyond the historical Colonial area. The Beaux Arts style reigned for over a century from one end of the North American continent to the other, expressing the institutionalization of national bourgeoisies, the grandiloquent aspirations of liberal governments or military dictatorships. The choice to either use fewer or more elements from the code – colonnades, friezes, pediments, domes, etc.– and the selection of the stylistic forms depends on the cultural level of the ruling class, or on the degree of dependence with regard to the metropolitan centers, as well as the resources available and the functions that such symbolization demand. Rich nations such as Mexico, Argentina or Brazil not only concentrate the buildings within the

Courthouse. Project presented by the General Bureau of Public Works. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

Following the proposal of the engineer J.R. Báez López-Penha, this new vision of the future City of Santo Domingo was conceived by Guido D’Alessandro and J.A. Caro Álvarez. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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Map of Santo Domingo showing its boundaries, by Casimiro N. De Moya. © Public Domain

Scale model of the original proposal for the Dominican Republic’s governmental headquarters. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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capital, incorporating an unprecedented number of functions –presidential palace, national congress, municipal seats, courts, central post office, national library, central police, cathedral, ministries, hospitals, barracks, museums, etc.– but they also distribute them within the provincial capitals. In turn, countries with limited resources must settle for the monumentalization of the presidential palace or the Palace of Justice, erected in the vicinity of the precarious colonial buildings.”17 In Santo Domingo, this analogy can be seen in two structures erected within the context of the Monumentalist rhetoric that underpinned the ideological discourse of the Trujillo dictatorship (19301961).18 Both are “palaces,” following the inherited tradition of reifying and symbolizing power by means of formal codes taken from classical forms. In these particular instances, they were filtered through a sort of eclecticism that rendered the aesthetic intentions almost Baroque in their artistic effects. Created during the Centenary of the Republic, a period of construction and commemoration, the Dominican National Palace and the Palace of Justice are dissimilar in the use of resources for their imagery. Yet they reflect the principles espoused by Roberto Segre, as demonstrated by their locations, which are not far from “the precarious Colonial buildings,” and due to both of them having been created as part of a formal attempt to present one single image, topped by a vaulted dome.19 The Palace of Justice erected in 1944—based on a design by Mario Lluberes Abreu (1906-1967)—was built on a block situated only a hundred meters from the walls that separated the original historic center from the rest of the city, which was expanding to the west and to the north. In the residential neighborhood that would grow at the beginning of the 20th century under the name of Ciudad Nueva, or New City—a clear allusion to the fact that it was leaving the past behind—the rest of the city was built; it had grown only gradually and within a very limited perimeter for almost four hundred years. The historicism of this building is very clearly accentuated. Striated columns from the middle section adorn the façades, attempting to achieve an attractive, texturized surface. The remainder consists of impeccable geometrization of the gaps and openings reserved for the doors and windows.

In keeping with the commemorative nature of the Centenary of the Republic, the building resorts to a formal code for identification that emphasizes the solidity and robustness necessary to provide a sense of stability and strength, as well as balance and security (it is almost a perfect cube). In addition, its use and purpose are by definition linked to the loftiest ideals of humanism as the very foundation of all of society itself. Thus, the impartiality of justice is represented by the invulnerability of forms that symbolically guarantee its lofty purpose. Its colonnades affixed to a sturdy and solid cubic structure, consisting of slightly elevated planes and windows with Mannerist decorations, render it resistant to any attempts at intrusion along its four façades. Its visible symmetry is reflected in the rhythmic nature of the openings for passage and ventilation, which are raised in com-

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parison to the height of the building. This leaves no question as to its stylistic influence, which is clearly reliant on the most stereotypical ideas of the era.

The National Palace, in turn, is located in the environs of the Historic and Monumental Center of the city.

This enables us to reflect on Roberto Segre’s statements regarding the Dominican examples as the basis of his opinions. It is clear that this was possible, because the city’s dimensions were so small that it could only have been done this way. The city of Santo Domingo’s lack of growth was tied to its economic development, which consequently hindered a different process from having been possible, either quantitatively or qualitatively.

Still, the eclectic historicism of the National Palace clearly and palpably evokes elements of neoclassicism and an irrefutable Italian tradition. It served as both a visual symbol and a formal representation of long-awaited stability, balance, security, prestige, pride, Monumentalism, and the serenity or austerity that would confer significance upon its location. It was also achieved through its almost perfectly symmetrical proportions, at least in the construction of the four façades. The design of the Palace was created between 1939 and 1944, and the plan was quite likely influenced by a group of Dominican and foreign architects with a Beaux Arts education. Among them are the Puerto Rican of Spanish descent, Benigno de Trueba y Suárez (see note 18); Franco-Dominican Henry Gazon Bona (1907-1982); and the Dominican Humberto Ruiz Castillo (1895-1966), born in Las Matas de Farfán. Other individuals were also involved in various projects related to the process, its design, and also its construction.

In an article in the La Nación newspaper dated September 16, 1946, a photograph shows a group from the Association of Engineers and Architects (ADIA) visiting the site during the completion phase of the National Palace. They were received for a guided visit inside of the Palace by D’Alessandro Lombardi, in addition to

National Palace modern façade. © Photo by Ángel Álvarez

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Diagram and partial calculations of the dome of the National Palace. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

A group of engineers from the ADIA (Association of Engineers and Architects) accompanied by their spouses on a visit to the Executive Palace, while under construction. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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the “young and competent professionals Ramón and Carlos Trueba” [sic]. It is very likely that the ideologues of the Trujillo regime would have preferred traditional and classic shapes and lines for the National Palace over the bold and innovative shapes and lines characteristic of new modernity.20 Similar considerations would also prevail such that the models created from state funds that Trujillo bookmarked for architecture, as well as those that he designated to make urban planning a political action, would follow this idea of creating a modern (and model) building like that of the market that was opened in 1944, which would also represent a “modern” nation.

It is worth noting that in the years in which D’Alessandro Lombardi was ordered to assume responsibility for the works slated for the new seat of the government, the grand master of modern Dominican architecture, Guillermo González Sánchez, had already produced three significant monuments within the urban architectural dynamic of the city. These would launch the modern movement, formally linking him to the international style of so-called rational architecture that arose during the peace imposed in the period between both World Wars: a. Ramfis Park (1937-1939)21 b. Edificio Copello (1939)22 c. The authentic and original Hotel Jaragua (1939-1942)23 These three projects by González Sánchez are distinctly hallmarked by the modernist and revolutionary trends of the era, and the rather unique circumstances that the country was experiencing at the time. González Sánchez had received a Beaux Arts education, but his intellectual mastery was developed during his personal search for codes that were representative or distinctive within architecture. Translating a contemporary building’s representation of power into a communicative language that would also afford it an artistic accent was a task that could not be entrusted to the hands of an innovator. This was due to the risk of adopting a code that was too audacious, especially for “communicating,” as was suggested above.

During its turbulent process of urbanization, Santo Domingo had managed to surpass the limits imposed by its own walled defense system dating back to the time of the Spanish Conquest. This system was created on just two of the corner posts from the original grid that was planned around 1502, maintaining the Ozama River as the defense point to the east and the estuary and the Caribbean Sea as the defense point to the south. That

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View of the Presidential Residence, with its roof severely damaged, probably caused by Hurricane San Zenón in 1930. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

old city was now rapidly expanding toward the sector beyond the defense walls, extending toward fields that primarily sloped toward the east. This is due to the fact that the geological fault that divides the city’s bedrock abruptly ascends at its northern side. This made it subject to unusual phenomena of different types, including those arising within the country itself, as well as those from countries within the region. Thus, it assimilated fundamental influences for the development of social, political, and economic life. Its architecture, an inherent aspect of sociocultural development in an emerging nation, was the true reflection of the isolationism within which the political events of recent years had forced it to exist.24 The physical process of transformation in Santo Domingo was thus very slow, lacking a pace that would enable it to establish an immediate goal for its horizon and future. From the moment that the independent nation proclaimed itself to be a republic, in 1844, a long period elapsed in which virtually nothing with a permanent and transcendental character was built throughout the entire country or that would endure and be recorded within the collective memory of the Dominican people. This only came about with the International Competition for the design and construction of the Monumental Lighthouse dedicated to the memory of Christopher Columbus, which took place in 1928.25 This competition can be considered as the starting point of a redemptive process of architectural activity that had been almost otherwise completely lacking.26 It is perhaps in the fertile and consequently prosperous region of the Cibao where the most eloquent yet modest examples can be found of a nascent architecture reflecting the economic progress of the emerging business and social sectors. The regional capital of Santiago de los Caballeros and other provincial capital cities, such as La Vega, San Francisco de Macorís, and Moca, with their civic centers (main squares, religious

View of the National Palace’s construction. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

Marble quarry, Villa Ramfis, Samaná. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

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Details of the National Palace’s dome during construction. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

The burial of engineer Guido D’Alessandro.

Shown is the point at which the coffin is being removed from the church of San Juan Bosco and is heading toward the graveyard. © Collection of the D’Alessandro Tavárez family. Courtesy of José Chez Checo

institutions, and government buildings) and the transportation infrastructure provided by the railroads, finally afforded the luxury of formal and ideological representation of a framework symbolizing the end of the 19th century. Yet these, too, continued to formally rely on models from European cities. Let us take as an example the Consistorial Palace of Santiago de los Caballeros to understand the grandiloquence that was sought in the symbolic representation of its architecture. Moreover, before Santo Domingo would even come to be seen as a city on the rise, San Pedro de Macorís in the eastern region guided the nation’s progress and business and commercial development along the paths of prosperity, which is evident in the construction and thus architectural boom that took place there. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that Santo Domingo assumed such leadership for the physical and urban development of the Dominican cities. Unlike these interior cities mentioned above, the southern cities of Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macorís were supported by maritime cabotage that allowed for a minimal level of exportation and importation. This, in turn, unleashed an economic power that capitalized on the emergence of the sugar cane industry. As an exportable good, it quickly became the fulcrum for the job development that drove progress for the next sixty years and concentrated capital within these cities, polarizing economic growth between the Cibao and the southeast.

In this context of environmental sustainability, the political apparatus that fiercely governed the entire country strengthened its own image through the use of formal architecture placed at the service of the state. Supported by a demagogic effort that was consonant with its nationalist spirit, yet contradictorily arose from his own military training by the United States, Trujillo feigned humility. He also chose to steer national destinies during the first years of his rule from an outdated building inherited from the foundational center of the city.

It was a show of false modesty that capitalized on the stupor produced

by Hurricane San Zenon, which completely destroyed the city. 27 The Presidential Mansion, the high point in the panoramic neighborhood of Gazcue, must have experienced much of the fury from the weather-related phenomena that pummeled the city only a few days after brigadier Trujillo’s ascent to the presidency.28

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During the construction process of the National Palace, the dictator officially gave orders for approximately three years from what is currently the Museo de Las Casas Reales, the former House of the Royal Audience and the Captaincy General and Chancery. This building would inherit aspirations to power that were commensurate with its solid presence, facing the open space looking onto the river. Its size is abruptly truncated by the edge of the street, which separated it from the first of two sundials built in 1753 during the time of the Spanish Conquest of the island.29 Covered by the patina of time and various layers of styles that the years had imposed on its surface both indoors and outdoors, the two-story building with its immense presence and leafy cornice is a typical “Government Residence.”30 The construction of the Palace lasted much longer than anticipated due to international wars that affected the market. Some of the raw materials required for the physical construction were created by the hands of Dominicans and extracted from Dominican quarries, mines, and forests (such as marble, sandstone, mahogany, and other woods). However, the cement and the steel had been ordered from European companies, and war had already spread throughout the entire old continent, thereby hindering the transport of those materials. It is for this reason that a group of specialized Cuban workers came to the country and also brought wood and finished furnishings with them that would adorn the rooms and spaces of the Palace.

While the construction of the National Palace progressed in the Dominican Republic, Frank Lloyd Wright

National Palace modern façade. © Photo by Ángel Álvarez

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Green Room of the National Palace.

Designed by the engineer Guido D’Alessandro, it was inspired by the Royal Palace in Milan. © Administrative Ministry of the Presidency

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began working on the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1946. And in the very year that the seat of the Government of the Dominican Republic was completed, 1947, Kenzo Tange unveiled the Peace Center in the demolished city of Hiroshima, the site of an atomic crematorium and a great source of shame for all of humanity. On June 7 of that same year, the International Competition for the Basilica Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey was held in Santo Domingo.31 Meanwhile, the National Palace was unveiled, blessed, and inaugurated in August 1947.

As can be seen, the planning and construction of the building that is the seat of the Government of the Dominican Republic is a project that was conceived and developed during periods of war throughout the world. While North America and Europe battled, the latter saw many of its most magnificent historic sites destroyed. Meanwhile, the Dominican dictator consolidated his own authority and created icons to buttress his political propaganda, of which the National Palace was the most representative. It was a subliminal tool for persuasion designed and built to serve as an unmistakable allusion to the peace, progress, and development imposed during the world’s vicissitudes that resulted in the bloodshed of humanity. Meanwhile, the individual that had directed the construction work for such a monumental project had taken ill. Seven years later, Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi died at noon on March 15, 1954. His remains are found at the Cementerio de la Avenida Máximo Gómez.32

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ENDNOTES Information acquired from the obituary in Boletín de la Asociación Dominicana de Ingenieros y Arquitectos (ADIA), June 1954, 37.

“The thesis for his final exam in 1925 was about the study of a self-operated regulator, a self-regulator for pressure and fast shut down” [sic]. The original diploma is kept by his descendants in Santo Domingo.

2 Phrase extracted from biographical information provided by his family.

3 Eight were held between 1928 and 1956, the last of them in Dubrovnik, former Yugoslavia. See Chapter Three of Historia Crítica de la Arquitectura Moderna, Estudio paperback Collection (Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 1981).

4 Concurso para el Faro a la memoria de Cristóbal Colón, Albert Kesley, p. 155.Washington: Unión Panamericana, 1931, 5 The announcement took place on April 20, 1929. A total of 456 proposals were submitted from 44 nations, representing four continents (North America, South America, Europe, and Africa), and 2,400 different drawings were displayed in different formats and presentation techniques in the halls of Buen Retiro Palace (April 28, 1929). Concurso para el Faro a la memoria de Cristóbal Colón, Albert Kesley, Unión Panamericana, 1931, 155.

6 After Hurricane San Zenon made landfall on September 3, 1930, multiple reconstruction projects were undertaken throughout the entire Dominican Republic, primarily in the capital city, which was almost completely destroyed by the hurricane that passed through its center. Del Toro Andújar presented ideas that were not taken into consideration; among them was the recovery of the areas that were parallel to the walls in order to create a linear protection barrier for them. But rather than seen as based on urban planning, his ideas were instead interpreted as political and were consequently ignored to the extent that he had to go into exile in Caracas, where he died on March 8, 1953. He was born on July 1, 1892. Archives of Grupo Nuevarquitectura (GNA).

7 Joseph Lea Gleave was born in Cheshire, England, in 1907. He was the Director of the Manchester School of Architecture, where he had completed his own studies. He died on January 10, 1965 (photo in Revista La Española 92, vol. 3, October 1988, from the Comisión Dominicana Permanente para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario del Descubrimiento y Evangelización de América).

8 The architect Dunoyer De Segonzac, coauthor with Pierre Dupré of the winning project for the Basilica Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey, 1944, in an interview that he granted to us in 1982 (Grupo Nuevarquitectura Inc.— GNA—together with architect Ornar Rancier), told us that the dictator asked him for a similar temple but larger in size to be built at that site. De Segonzac told them that the sanctuary was actually in Higüey and not in Santo Domingo. Archives of GNA. 9 Manuel de Jesús Mañón Arredondo, “Viejos nombres de terrenos y lugares del Distrito Nacional,” Listín Diario, August 17, 1983, 11.

10 The English architect Joseph Lea Gleave, winner of the second phase of the competition that took place in Rio de Janeiro, 1931, submitted the final plans in 1948. Archives of GNA. 11 See Revista Municipal del Distrito, July-August, 1942.

12 Giuseppe Rímoli, during informal conversations about the construction of the National Palace, shared very intimate recollections related to his closest relatives, who were Italian immigrants that had to leave each other behind, some remaining in the Dominican Republic and others continuing on to Brazil. His 1

father, Humberto, who had arrived from Italy in 1935, worked as the warehouse manager for the project, while his uncle César, who had arrived from Brazil in 1922, arrived in the capacity of D’Alessandro Lombardi’s personal secretary.

13 See Bernardo Vega, Nazismo, Fascismo y Falangismo en la República Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 1985).

14 Architect Romualdo García Vera had also worked with the Czechoslovakian and naturalized American citizen Antonín Nechodoma (1889-1928), as well as Benigno de Trueba y Suárez (1887-1948) on the restoration and consolidation of the central bell tower of the church of San Pedro Apóstol in San Pedro de Macorís at the end of the 1920s. His body was found on November 30, 1935, apparently shot down while he was going to the Diez building worksite, where he worked with De Trueba. Archives of GNA. 15 Manuel de Jesús Mañón Arredondo, op. cit.

16 Silvia Hernández de Lasala, a Venezuelan architect and researcher, in her educational text titled Mulaussena (Caracas, Venezuela: Editorial Ex-Libris, Fundación Pampero, 1990), which discusses the work by the influential family of Venezuelan architects Antonio and Luis Malaussena in the chapter titled “La Representación Urbana del Proyecto de la Nueva Sede del Poder Ejecutivo” (pp. 300-311), enables us to recall the similarities that arose from the heritage of the site, the customary use of the site, and the pre-existential roots for the case of Santo Domingo by analyzing the relationship between the city and the building that is the site of the national government. She writes: “Even though the existing Miraflores Palace was not originally designed as the head of the Government but instead the private residence of Joaquín Crespo, it is possible to state that long before 1950 that building already served for both the common man and for the one that aspired to hold the highest offices, as the symbol of the highest level of power, represented in Venezuela by the President of the Republic.”

17 See Chapter Four, titled “Atributos de la centralidad urbana: los símbolos de las estructuras del Estado Burgués,” of Roberto Segre Prando, Las Estructuras Ambientales de América Latina (Santo Domingo: Ed. Siglo XXI, 1977), 134-135.

18 For more information on the subject, we recommend reading the text Arquitectura Dominicana en la Era de Trujillo, written by French architect Henry Gazón Bona (1909-1982), Major in the National Army and prolific builder who designed a large number of institutional buildings during the dictatorship of Trujillo. He is responsible for, among many other notable works, the prototypes for the “palaces” of the Dominican Party, “Trujillo’s Monument to Peace,” now called “Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración” (or simply “The Santiago Monument”); and Castillo del Cerro in San Cristóbal. A detailed list of the works from that period may be consulted by reading Volumes I and II of Las Obras Públicas en la Era de Trujillo (“La Era de Trujillo”: 25 años de historia dominicana” Collection), from 1955, written by the engineer Juan Ulises García Bonnelly.

19 See Revista de la Secretaria de Interior, Policía y Marina 1, September 30, 1927.

20 In his superb work, Historia Crítica de la Arquitectura Moderna, (Barcelona: Editorial G.G., Colección Estudio paperback, 1981) Kenneth Frampton in the second part discusses “La arquitectura y el Estado: Ideología y Representación. 1914-1943” and states the following on page 212:

THE ITALIAN ENGINEER GUIDO D’ALESSANDRO LOMBARDI

“The modernist trend of reducing all forms to abstraction resulted in an unsatisfactory way of representing the power and ideology of the state. This iconographic deficiency to a large extent justifies the survival of a historicist focus of the building during the second half of the 20th century. The long-standing perception of a need to recognize the persistence of this residual tradition is due to fellow historian, Henry-Russell Hitchcock. However, his term ‘the new tradition,’ coined in 1929 as part of an effort to distinguish a certain conservative trend in the works of pioneers, has hardly stood the test of time. In a general sense, the term may be interpreted as a proof of the inability of the abstract form to communicate” (sic). Emphasis by the author.

21 Located at the edges of the “Ciudad Nueva” neighborhood and the suburban development of Ensanche “La Primavera,” it subliminally highlights the future discourse of public open forms.

It includes an attractive terrace facing toward the south, with predominant views thereof, and at its highest point in the center there is a pool that replicates the sea. There once was a majestic fountain there that faced the edified enclosure for the support structures on a single level, surrounded by arcades and solid walls devoid of any color. The park is essentially for children, which allows for creating risers that smoothly ascend due to the slopes in the paving.

22 A huge and innovatively curved multilevel building located on the imposing corner of the historic Calle El Conde (de Peñalba). Its presence is reduced toward the lower level and then recovers its vertical surfaces in deep layers that afford the rest of the structure the sensation of being suspended as it subtly rises up five stories high. It also provides the sidewalk with a covered walkway that is a modern allusion to classical arches, although it does so with the use of a structural cantilever and not through the support of columns that are more recessed, thus enabling the mass of the first floors to really stand out.

23 His pinnacle work. Very respected and famous among all of the buildings of the era, not only in the Dominican Republic but also beyond, for which it served as inspiration. Its impact transcends the local and regional history of the architecture of the Caribbean and Antilles. Demolished in 1985 after a searing controversy that involved then-current economic and political interests, the building was a quintessential testament to Rationalist architecture as an almost Cubist interpretation with a tremendous sense of landscaping for a structure facing the sea, which runs parallel. It was respectfully high (five stories) with smooth planes opened by deep, square-shaped cavities that decrease the effect of sunlight on the rectangular façade and a terrace that faced the sea aiming to break up the apparent monotony of the rooms, all within the most scrupulous purism and axial geometry of impeccable planimetry for the usage that was fashionable during those times.

24 Segre Prando, in the subsection “La ciudad valor de cambio: El imperio del consumo” (Op. cit., p. 137), makes the following reflections: “By opting for the classical model, the architecture of the liberal Latin American bourgeoisies transcribed the essential content of its political agenda; to consolidate institutions, to render visible their timelessness, to demonstrate the stability of the ruling class, their culture and their predominance over the rest of society; it is the urban materialization of a timeless or ideal universal culture, forged by a landowning aristocracy that by exploiting the riches from the interior of the country conceives of the city as a space in which their social existence unfolds.”

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See Revista La Española ‘92, Issue 3, cited above.

Dominican architect, urban planner, historian and architecture critic of the Greater Caribbean, Eugenio Pérez Montá, and architect and landscaper Manuel Vaiverde Podestà (died 1988), referred to the competition as “the most important one in the universal history of architecture.” Revista La Española ‘92, 27.

27 “Cataclismo en Santo Domingo,” September 5, 1930.

“An unusually violent hurricane has today [September 3. Correction by author] struck the capital of the Dominican Republic; hundreds are dead in the streets of the city, and the Government has declared martial law. Based on official calculations, three fourths of all dwellings have been destroyed, and Santo Domingo is completely lacking in potable water. A large part of the island’s population has no home or food. The hurricane had winds of 250 km per hour and destroyed homes and buildings as it passed. The streets are blocked by the debris, especially in the poor suburbs of the capital. Based on initial calculations by official organizations, the numbers can be summarized as follows: 1,000 deaths, 4,000 injured, 4,700 buildings completely destroyed, and approximately 29,000 people without a home.” Crónica del Siglo XX (Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores, S. A., 1986).

28 Ramón Lugo Lovatón, Escombros (Ciudad Trujillo: Editora El Caribe, 1955).

29 The other one is in Bánica, a Spanish settlement from 1774 bordering Haiti that has had a sundial since 1794. See Erwin Walter Palm, Los Monumentos Arquitectónicos de la Española (Santo Domingo: Universidad de Santo Domingo), 1955.

30 Similar to those that the Argentine historian and architect Ramón Gutiérrez alludes to in his book Arquitectura y Urbanismo en Iberoamérica. “‘Government palaces’ in the Americas tended to use the former palaces of the viceroys and governors – when they existed – while the legislative branch or municipal government tended to reuse cabildos or town halls.” From the aforementioned text, in the chapter “La arquitectura academicista entre 1870 y 1914: Arquitectura de Gobierno,” (Madrid: Manuales Arte Cátedra, 1983), 421.

31 A total of forty projects were considered from twelve American and European countries. The competition was won by the Frenchmen D. De Segonzac and P. Dupré. Archives of the GNA. 32 On March 16, the newspaper El Caribe reported the acts of mourning with a photographic spread mentioning the people that had sent bouquets and wreaths.

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• CHAPTER 26

The Dome of the Dominican National Palace and Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi

By Jesús D’Alessandro, PhD Director of the UNIBE School of Architecture.

Director of the Urban Planning Department of the National District of Santo Domingo

Portico with a Classical Greek-style pediment at the entrance to the National Palace of the Dominican Republic. Photo facing northwest. © Thiago de Cunha

he National Palace, unveiled in 1947, is the seat of government in the Dominican Republic, and it is unquestionably one of the country’s cultural icons. Its façade appears on peso notes, in official government documents, in the press, in photos and accounts of recent national history, and in anything that tells our individual stories. Although it was built and inaugurated in the 1940s, the desire to bring this monumental work to fruition had been present in local circles of power since at least the 1920s. This last assertion can be made based on statements published in the 1924 Report of the Secretary of State for Development and Communications. Like other neoclassical public buildings around the world, the iconic entrance of the palace is a portico that evokes a Greek temple with its pediment or frontispiece (see image 1), crowned by a unique cylinder-base structure that dominated the Santo Domingo skyline of the time (see image 2). This characteristic round object that many of us call a dome has reached the twenty-first century full of meaning. Family tradition informs us that, for the architect, the Italian engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi, this was one of the most difficult parts of the structure to build. His widow, Carmen Tavárez, lamented that the proper execution of the dome was ultimately injurious to Guido’s health, in that he had to remain standing and immobile for many hours a day looking up, taking measurements, and providing instructions to the building workers (see image 3). A decorated Italian hero of World War I, D’Alessandro Lombardi certainly understood self-sacrifice; however, the back and neck pain that he developed while overseeing the construction reminded him that he was no longer an energetic youngster.

Nonetheless, he did whatever was necessary to ensure that the work was perfectly executed. The dome was a fundamental part of this great project, one inspired in the work of other Italians.

The Palace’s dome is more specifically the combination of three elements—a lower cylindrical segment or drum surrounded by 16 columns, a hemispherical dome or cupola with decorative ribs, and a small upper tower called a lantern. Despite the fact that the columns of the dome have a rather Tuscan appearance and are not paired, their tangential proximity to the inner core or cella and their fragmented entablature offer a parallel with Michelangelo’s dome in St. Peter’s Basilica, which was built from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries and which is also ribbed (see images 4 and 5). The interior of the Palace dome includes, at its base, a Doric frieze forming a ring in which triglyphs and metopes alternate (see images 6).

However, this resource of European architectural vocabulary, very fashionable in the High Renaissance and neoclassical periods, had its origins in a discreet intervention prior to St. Peter’s Basilica, a commission that occurred in the beginning of the fifteenth century. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Castile commissioned Donato Bramante to design a small chapel in the courtyard of a convent in Rome called San Pietro in Montorio, in the place where the apostle Peter is believed to have been martyred. Giv-

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en the sacred nature of this commission, it is believed that Bramante was inspired by ancient Roman circular-based temples dedicated to the goddess Vesta (Summerson, 2001) (see images 7), to which he included some original modifications. The result was a building with a circular base and Doric order, the latter perhaps due to the sobriety associated with the apostle’s masculinity. On the periphery, 16 columns surround a concentric nucleus (cella) that exceeds them in height, covered by a hemispherical dome and crowned by a pinnacle. This structure is commonly known as Bramante’s “little temple” or tempietto (see image 8). Shortly after its construction in 1502, architects such as Sebastiano Serlio and Andrea Palladio reproduced this ingenious solution of sacred space in their publications, and so flourished the culture of tempiettos that crowned great western buildings from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Although it is true that the Nabataeans were already using circular Roman temples to crown sacred buildings in the first century BC (see image 9), Bramante’s unique conception became seminal in his time.

There is certainly much more that can be said about the dome which stands vigil over the Caribbean, as well as about the tempietto; however, what remains fundamental is that they are sacred objects, or at least, bear great symbolic value due to their origin. Thus, for a range of reasons, the Palace’s dome, and all its other components, were of enormous importance to D’Alessandro Lombardi; he would not give up until he had completed the work, just as he had done on the Austrian front while fighting for Italy. His service record indicates that he was wounded in battle twice before the Italian Republic gave him a final discharge in 1919, awarding him the Inter-Allied Medal of Victory and the Commemorative Medal of the European War. The Dominican National Palace was inaugurated in 1947 in a ceremony to which the dictator Trujillo did not invite D’Alessandro Lombardi. In 1950, Italy awarded him the Italian Solidarity Medal for his contributions to the reconstruction of that country after World War II, and in 1954, having dearly loved his family, and having demonstrated great passion and courage in his passage through this world completing his life as a tempietto, he passed away.

Dome over the entrance to the National Palace of the Dominican Republic. Photo facing northeast. © Thiago de Cunha

Plan of the dome roof.

In this image, one can discern the rib design on the dome. © Jesús D’Alessandro

THE DOME OF THE DOMINICAN NATIONAL PALACE AND GUIDO D’ALESSANDRO LOMBARDI

Guido D’Alessandro with his wife Carmen Tavárez and their youngest son, Alessandro Leonardo. © Jesús D’Alessandro

Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi. © Jesús D’Alessandro

Photo illustrating the drum, hemispherical dome, and lantern, of Tuscan exterior order.

In this image, one can discern the ribbing on the dome. © Thiago da Cunha

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Sketch taken from L’Architecture de la Renaissance (1892)

by Léon Palustre. © Public Domain

Sketch taken from L’Architecture de la Renaissance (1892)

by Léon Palustre. © Public Domain

Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, 2004.

Credit: Picture by Wolfgang Stuck, 2004 / Commons Wikimedia

THE DOME OF THE DOMINICAN NATIONAL PALACE AND GUIDO D’ALESSANDRO LOMBARDI

Interior of the dome of the National Palace.

The Doric frieze of triglyphs and metopes can be seen forming an annular base for the dome. © Thiago da Cunha

Roman temple with a circular base from classical antiquity, dedicated to the goddess Vesta. © Detroit Publishing Co., 1890-1900 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C.

The Templete or Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome by Bramante (1502). © Photo by Quinok / Wikimedia Commons

The Treasury (AlKhazneh), Petra, Jordan, first century B.C. © Picture by Graham Racher, 2011 / Wikimedia Commons

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THE DOME OF THE DOMINICAN NATIONAL PALACE AND GUIDO D’ALESSANDRO LOMBARDI

Photographs of the National Palace’s interior. © Thiago da Cuhna

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• CHAPTER 27

The Italian Training of Modern Dominican Architects, 1950 - 2019

By Gustavo Luis Moré Director of the magazine Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana

International cultural context Architecture in postwar Italy Local university training The configuration of the “Italian Axis” t was the postwar period, and the Western powers were in the process of reconstruction and realignment.

The United States of America experienced its time of glory, and as the victor it had a massive impact on global culture. International masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe were carrying out their latest works, leading the way for figures such as Eero Saarinen, Louis Kahn, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Paul Rudolph, and Aldo van Eyck. The revolutionary atmosphere was palpable, and it would extend its detonations in the 1960s with groups such as Team X and Archigram, followed by the extraordinary works of Foster, Piano, and Rogers—the Pompidou Museum, for example. The 1950s witnessed the emergence of Latin America and the groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art—Niemeyer, Costa, Villanueva, Barragán, Ramírez Vázquez, Romañach, Bermúdez, Vegas, Salmona, Zabludowsky, Testa, and a long list of others.

These were years of great cultural intensity and monumental political changes in which the phrase “anything goes” apparently took hold, and which seems to prevail to this day. Italy experienced a uniquely powerful rebirth in modern architecture, this time also embracing engineering. Pier Luigi Nervi stands out in particular, in his work a structural designer who fused architecture, engineering, and construction into a single discipline. His projects highlighted the Rome Olympics in 1960; they transformed Turin and other cities that received their elegant and amazing structures. Other authors excelled with their exquisite works: Franco Albini, whose Rinascente building in Rome opened to the delight of many; Giovanni Michelucci, the famous Florentine architect behind the Chiesa della Autostrada; the visionary Carlo Scarpa, Venetian of universal character, with his detailed architecture and his design characterized by a highly refined taste. These were the years of the awakening of Italian industrial design, initially so concentrated in Milan, with its links to firms such as Flos, Artemide, Cassina, Poltrona Frau, IGuzzini, etc.

According to the monographic magazine 2G, Issue No. 15 (Italian Postwar Architecture 1944 - 1960) edited by Luca Molinari and Paolo Scrivano: After the idiosyncrasies experienced by the introduction of the modern movement in fascist Italy, architectural production of the country was reborn after World War II. The modern movement combined with a more local vision linked to a strong historical tradition and to the construction in well-established historic cities. During these years, Italy became a bulwark of modern world architecture that

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prepared the field for reflection in all subsequent contributions of a global scope by Italian theorists in the 1970s.

Buildings for commercial firms, housing groups, public buildings by architects such as Ernesto N. Rogers and his group BBPR, Gardella, Moretti, Ridolfi, Quaroni, Albini, Figini-Pollini and Michelucci that, together with the strength of Italian design that it exports to the entire world and the power of the Italian specialized press as a means of international reflection, all contributed in making this stage of Italian architecture one of the most fruitful episodes of European architecture in the second half of the twentieth century. Significant works such as the BBPR Velasca tower, the “Girasole” residential building in Moretti or the residential neighborhoods of Ridolfi, Albini and Figini-Pollini.

Such was the panorama in Italy. In a parallel reality, the Dominican Republic was experiencing the outset of the Trujillo regime. Within this scheme of things, there were various Italians present in the Dominican Republic who excelled within the context of architecture. Alfredo Scaroina had already participated decades before in various public works, including the San Cristóbal City Council building. Amadeo Campagna (1893-1962) from Santo Domenica Talao, who had studied engineering in Naples, launched and carried out works in Santiago and Puerto Plata. In 1927, the engineer Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi settled in Montecristi. He would undertake many important works during the era, including the National Palace of the government. In 1927, the engineer Baldassare Guaschino (1898-1950) also made his mark at the Ingenio Angelina sugar mill, and in installing the cable car over the Higuamo River, as well as in infrastructure works.

Around 1950, when this story actually begins, there were still eleven years remaining to the Trujillo era.

Young people seeking a career in architecture had no other alternative than to attend classes at the University of Santo Domingo (USD) and pursue a degree in architectural engineering, as it was understood in those years, until the curriculum was changed after the Reform Movement of 1965. It was not until 1966 that Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU) was founded, and there were no other possibilities aside from the USD, later UASD. When Trujillo was assassinated on May 30, 1961, Dr. Joaquín Salazar was the Dominican ambassador to Rome, and he managed to successfully steer a course through the strong winds of this transition.

Italy, as noted, already excelled as an icon of postwar architecture worldwide, and therefore architecture and Italy seemed to be an inevitable equation. The schools of Rome and Milan were of great renown, boasting the greatest academic talent in Italian design. This was how this pilgrimage of young Dominicans to the Italian academies began, and it was Calventi who broke the ice. According to M.S. Gautier, “Calventi was never calm; he was always very restless; and he achieved what he set out to do.” It is to this spirit of achievement that we owe the transfer of the first Dominican to the Italian classroom, a journey that has been repeated dozens of times in the nearly 70 years that followed.

Below is a chronologically sequenced list of Dominican students who attended Italian schools of architecture. The list may certainly not be complete; however, we should note the following interesting tendencies:

Office building of the Shell CONALCO complex, c. 1966, by the Architects Manuel Salvador Gautier and Erwin Cott. © Gustavo Luis Moré Archives

Opening page: South view of the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic complex, work

by Rafael Calventi, won by public contest in 1974. © Ricardo Briones

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La Vega Cathedral, c. 1982, finished by architect Pedro Mena based on an original design by Erwin Cott, greatly modified. © Gustavo Luis Moré Archives

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• The flow of students and the alternation of study locations; at first Rome, and later Florence, Venice, and Milan.

• The leading role—both in the public sphere and in private practice—assumed by many of those who were trained in Italy on their return to the Dominican Republic. It is difficult to say for sure, but in our opinion, of all the student migrations that have taken place in the Dominican Republic, there does not seem to be another more influential in local culture than the Italian one, until the flourishing of Barcelona as a destination after the events of 1992, and this latter assumption is yet to be proven.

• This academic flow has been referred to as the “Italian Axis,” in truth referring to the first group that went to La Sapienza in Rome in large numbers. However, we will see whether this name fits in terms of the rest of the catalog of figures reviewed here briefly.

This chapter represents an initial approach to this remarkable phenomenon.

Manuel Salvador Gautier (August 1, 1930). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1955-1960. Salvador Gautier completed various courses in Rome in order to validate his degree after leaving the classrooms of the University of Santo Domingo in 1955. He was a student of Pier Luigi Nervi, who was working at the time on the projects for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. In 1961, he worked at an architect’s studio in Basel, Switzerland. He returned to the country after Trujillo’s death in 1961, following the appointment of his father as secretary of public works in the Dominican Republic. He later served as director of the Regulatory Plan for the Historic Center of Santo Domingo, and general director of the National Housing Institute. He has spent much of the rest of his career involved in the restoration of the Convent of Las Mercedes in Santo Domingo.

Héctor Ramón Morales (n.d.). Università degli Studi di Roma. Little is known about this architect, who apparently attended but did not finish formal studies at La Sapienza.

Glauco Castellanos (1932 - 2012). Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1965 – 1972. Initially focusing on art studies, Castellanos remained for quite some time in the city of Florence, where he established relationships and carried out some noteworthy professional projects. Upon his return to Santo Domingo, he served as professor of art and history at UNPHU for decades. He was one of the most renowned artists and art restorers in the country.

Rafael Calventi (March 18, 1932 - August 19, 2018).

Università degli Studi di Roma, 1951 – 1960. The first Dominican student of architecture in Italy. He completed the entire curriculum at La Sapienza. Shortly after having begun his studies in architectural engineering at the University of Santo Domingo, he became disenchanted and decided to study at La Sapienza, Rome, allegedly because a relative of his was a diplomat at the Dominican Embassy in that city. This connection opened the door to a notable group of young people who today we could group in the “Italian Axis,” a dozen students located almost all in Rome, who were the vanguard of architects trained in Italy. Many of these students returned to the Dominican Republic and worked on several important projects in the country. Calventi took advantage of the advanced level of architecture he had attained in Italy in the 1950s, and was an outstanding student of Pier Luigi Nervi. After completing his formal studies in Rome, he settled in Paris, where he worked in the studio of Pierre Dufeau, and later in New York City with Marcel Breuer

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and I.M. Pei, where he shared an office space with Richard Meier.

Víctor Bisonó Pichardo (March 10, 1933 - May 13, 2017). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1954-1965, 1966-1968. Born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Bisonó Pichardo graduated from the Colegio de La Salle in that city.

He later worked in Rome and completed his degree in architecture in 1964. He served as deputy director of the DNA Urban Planning Office and director of the Monumental Heritage Office. His main work in the field of restoration was at of the ruins of the Monastery of San Francisco.

Manuel Polanco (October 22, 1933).

Università degli Studi di Roma, 1959-1960.

After two years of studying Civil Engineering at McGill and Cornell Universities, Polanco transferred to Rome and studied architecture under Pier Luigi Nervi during that extremely productive period marked by the works for the 1960 Rome Olympics. Polanco continued to carry out projects both in the Dominican Republic and in Ecuador, where he has properties and family ties.

Anselmo Brache Batista (December 4, 1935). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1953-1956. The second Dominican to study at La Sapienza, where he completed his first two years, eventually completing his degree at USD. Upon his arrival in Italy, the acting Dominican ambassador was César Piña Barinas, and the first secretary was Cirilo Castellanos. Telésforo Calderón and Pedro Troncoso followed as ambassadors. Elías Brache, Nicolás Vega, and Tulio Franco were at the Vatican campus. Brache served for twelve years as deputy director general of the National Housing Institute, during which period he drafted plans for the Jobo Bonito housing project in San Lázaro and San Miguel. He was also an official of the National Housing Bank.

Erwin Cott (November 27, 1936 - December 20, 2013). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1956-1961. Perhaps one of the most restless students of the “Axis” group in the 1950s. Like Gautier, he completed various courses in Rome in order to validate his degree after leaving the classrooms of the University of Santo Domingo. He traveled extensively in Europe, eventually ending up in Rome and stopping in Paris, where he lived for a time. He became a partner of Gautier in one of the most renowned firms of the 1960s, Cott & Gautier, which had a large inventory of works of considerable significance for local culture. The firm won the competition for the Cathedral of La Vega in the late 1960s, later executed with modifications made by the architect Pedro Mena. He was the founder and chairman of the Society of Architects of the Dominican Republic.

José Horacio Marranzini (January 9, 1937). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1960-1961. He was in Italy until Trujillo’s death, prior to leaving for Madrid, where he completed his formal studies in architecture at the Polytechnic University. He took freehand drawing with Prof. Alfredo del Fiore, at the Villa Borghese School of Architecture, and his course of study overlapped with that of the first group of Dominican students at La Sapienza, Rome.

Milan Lora (September 23, 1937). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1962 - 1964. He validated his studies at the USD, from which he eventually graduated. He is the mastermind behind numerous tourism and housing projects, including the Sheraton Hotel on Avenida George Washington, in Santo Domingo, in asssociation with Manuel Baquero Ricart. He also distinguished himself as a perspective artist.

Christian Martínez Villanueva (March 5, 1939). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1961 - 1967. He took courses in architecture and interior design. In his productive professional career, he has had the opportunity to

Agencias Bella Building, by architect Leopoldo Franco. © Drawing by architect Franco from the Gustavo Luis Moré Archives

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Barranca 1 Vacation Residence, in Casa de Campo, c. 1984, work by the architect José Horacio Marranzini. © Archive Gustavo Luis Moré

connect for various reasons with Italian products and works of art. He is one of the architects who maintained strong artistic, professional, and commercial links with Italy.

Gianni Cavagliano Strozzi (November 1, 1939). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1960 - 1962. He began his studies at USD, from which he graduated, returning after two years in Rome. The reason for his trip to Italy was to avoid political difficulties with the Trujillo regime. He devoted his career mainly to institutional and domestic interiors. He collaborated with the architects Edgardo Vega Malagón and Manuel Baquero in various noteworthy projects. He is the son of Mario Cavagliano, who, with his wife Dirce Strozzi de Cavagliano, served as an official at the Italian Embassy to the Dominican Republic for more than 50 years.

César Iván Feris Iglesias (April 30, 1940). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1967 - 1968. Feris Iglesias attended La Sapienza, which validated the subjects he had taken at UASD, and was part of the first graduating class in architecture in the country. In Rome, he completed his thesis on a multifamily housing unit, just as he had done with his outstanding qualifications in Santo Domingo. Upon his return to the Dominican Republic, he served as professor of the history of architecture at UNPHU for more than 30 years, providing countless students with an excellent education in the humanities. He completed additional studies in Yugoslavia and Ravenna. He has made important contributions in local architectural culture. He served as director of the Museum of Casas Reales and chancellor of the Catholic University of Santo Domingo.

Leopoldo Franco (November 30, 1940). Università degli Studi di Roma, 1961 - 1968. He completed the full curriculum at La Sapienza. During his stay in Rome, he formed a group of fellow students and later professionals that collaborated in the drawings of his university professors’ projects. This group later became a professional society. An astute writer, he was the chief architect of the FHA at the National Housing Bank for many years. He is the draftsman behind many important works of private and institutional architecture, such as the buildings for Agencia Bella, Seguros Pepín, and Avelino Abreu.

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Esteban Prieto Vicioso (May 17, 1950). Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza; International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome, ICCROM; Università degli Studi di Bologna, Istituto di Antichità Ravennati e Bizantine 1972 - 1974. After graduating with a degree in architecture from the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU), he took the intensive specialization course in Architectural Conservation at ICCROM, where he was a student of prominent Italian professors such as Piero Gazzola, Carlo Ceschi, Guglielmo De Angelis d’Ossat, Enrico Quaroni, Roberto Bonelli, and Giorgo Torraca. He also carried out research in Yugoslavia, Bologna, and Venezia. In Ravenna, he completed a course on Byzantine art and a course on the Italian art history at the Società Dante Alighieri in Rome. One of the most important specialists in the restoration of monuments and historical centers in Latin America, Prieto Vicioso served prominently as director of the Office of Cultural Heritage of the Dominican Republic from 1986 to 1996, performing countless works of great relevance throughout the country, particularly in the Historic Center of Santo Domingo. He has served as vice president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and participated in international consulting projects, conferences, and seminars around the world. Subsequently, he developed a parallel passion for the subject of Dominican vernacular architecture.

For decades he has worked as a restorer of the Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor in Santo Domingo.

He earned his PhD in architecture in Mexico and has been a university professor for over 20 years.

The Dawn of Postmodernism Italy in the 1980s and the Strada Novissima The Rise of the Florentine Node Local University Expansion Although it has not been a critically established point, there is something of a tacit agreement that Italian architecture is so comfortably rooted in its own culture, and its trunk so solid, that it has never been permeable to avant-garde trends, without them paying tribute to that powerful technical skill that Italianism has developed over the course of more than 20 centuries. It is more accurate to think that these trends originated, on many occasions, from within. Such is the case of the birth of the movement called Postmodernism by critics who coined the term in the late 1970s, particularly Charles Jencks. The Italian texts produced by Aldo Rossi or Manfredo Tafuri from the 1960s, or by the American established at the Accademia Americana in Rome, Robert Venturi, were fundamental in the transition from orthodox rational modernism to a more flexible, open modernity, in which the history of architecture had a predominant role. On this issue, no other country was as militant as Italy.

This skill manifested in Italian architecture to embed the international influences of the moment within its own culture has given it extraordinary validity in the face of the eternal dynamics to which it inevitably submits. Such was the prevailing spirit at the beginning of the 1980s. The first Venice Biennale dedicated to architecture hosted a pivotal exhibition in its facilities at the Arsenale, called La Strada Novissima, a montage that consolidated an image that was embraced by the entire planet, as a symbol of the new direction in architecture during those years. Those who studied in Italy at that time were greatly influenced by the spirit of the times, not only because of the biennial exhibition but also because of the innumerable professional publications— Domus, Dedalo, Zodiac, Controspazio, and particularly the doyen, Casabella Continuità—and books written by intellectuals such as Rossi, Portoghesi, Tafuri, Dal Co, and Gregotti.

This zeitgeist had, in fact, been an undercurrent since the 1970s. From then onward, a second wave of Dominican architects flocked mainly to Florence, showing less and less interest to Rome. The School of Architecture of the Università degli Studi di Firenze was led by a famous team of professors, and both the subject of project composition—mostly requested in the first half of the 1970s—and the restoration of monuments and historic centers was palpable in those years, due in large part to the great floods of 1967 in Florence and

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Partial view of Independence Park in Santo Domingo.

Restored and transformed by architect Christian MartÍnez Villanueva c.

1976. © Archive Gustavo Luis Moré

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Venice, involving high-profile international relief efforts. The main subject of study was undoubtedly restoration of monuments and historic centers, a discipline led by Professors Gennaro Tampone and Francesco Gurrieri in their classrooms at the Palazzo Rucellai or at the headquarters of the Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana, which hosted the Centro Studi di Restauro dei Monumenti e Centri Storici, an academic institution sponsored with international cooperation through the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, the options for the academic study of architecture had considerably expanded. Specialized schools and departments were established at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), the Universidad Dominicana de Organización y Método (O & M), the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), and the Universidad Central del Este UCE, which joined the existing ones such as the UASD and UNPHU. Many of the graduates from schools in Italy become instructors at these schools upon their return: Calventi, Gautier, Cott, and Báez at the UASD; and Fernández de Castro, León, Mena, Castellanos, Moré, and Marranzini at other institutions.

Bichara Khoury (March 12, 1947). Società di Gestione Avanzata, Urbino, 1980. Invitation through the Design Department of the Secretary of State for Public Works. For many years he was a professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, UASD. He was president of the Society of Architects of the Dominican Republic and has devoted himself to carrying out design and construction projects of various kinds.

Apolinar Fernández de Castro (February 8, 1948). Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1971-1974. Thesis: “The sviluppo della Società dependent nella Repubblica Dominicana e i suoi riflessi nella architettura e nella urbanistica” (The Development of Dependent Society in the Dominican Republic and how it is Reflected in Architecture and Urban Planning). His specialization was urban design, under the supervision of Prof. Domenico Cardini. He validated his degree with the Catholic University in Washington, D.C., by submitting a thesis and research on the subject of restoration of monuments. At the time, Mr. Dominici was serving as the ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic. He has authored various important residential projects and developed a line of industrial and interior design of great relevance to local culture.

Adoris Martínez (July 18, 1950). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1985, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. Thesis: “Giardino de la Montalve e Villa Quiete nella via di Boldrone.” She has been an official of the Office of Cultural Heritage, subsequently the Office of Monumental Heritage, for many years.

Gabriel Báez Risk (September 3, 1950). Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1975- 1977. His major area of study was urban planning. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He became a professor through M. S. Gautier, then dean of the Faculty of Architecture at UASD. In Florence, he studied under Carlo

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Aymonino and other noteworthy instructors. He has carried out various residential complexes and real estate projects. He served as vice president of the Dominican National Council for Urban Affairs and deputy director of the National Housing Institute. He also partially coincided with Pedro Mena while studying in Florence.

Atilio León (March 9, 1951). Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1972- 1974. He was assistant to Prof. Domenico Cardini, Istituto di Composizione, on the recommendation of Glauco Castellanos. He devoted his studies mainly to the area of architectural ​​ design. Upon his return to the Dominican Republic, he became a professor of various subjects at the UNPHU School of Architecture and Urban Planning, where he also later became dean.

Pedro Mena Lajara (April 6, 1952). Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1972- 1976. He began his studies with a series of seminars on restoring historic urban centers, taught by Piero Sampaolesi, Gamberini, Mastrodicassa, Ghio, and Gurrieri, among others. He also took courses in Rome with Bruno Zevi and Leonardo Benévolo.

His degree was validated at the Polytechnic of Madrid. He is the designer of many works, especially of a real estate nature, and a second project executed for the Cathedral of La Vega, based on the original project by Erwin Cott.

Carmen Amelia Castro (July 21, 1954). Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1979-2019 Thesis: “Le Cascine e dintorni: un progetto di recupero urbanistico” (Le Cascine and surroundings: an urban regeneration project, in tandem with Bruno Droghetti), 1989 under the direction of Prof. Marco Massa. During her studies, she met Prof. Gabriele Corsani, whom she later married. They both live in Italy to this day. She obtained the title and professional recognition of Architect in Florence in 2003. She has worked as an instructor at the Università

Interior of an apartment in Gazcue, Santo Domingo, by architect Fernandez de Castro. © Ricardo Briones

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degli Studi di Firenze and carried out numerous architectural restorations, in parallel with research works and published texts.

Rosa Natalia Rodríguez Pellerano (August 18, 1955). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici 1981, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana. She also studied in the Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia.

Alfredo Marranzini Pérez (October 25, 1955). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1980, Palazzo Rucellai campus. Thesis: “Restauro della Loggia dei Bianchi, Firenze” (Restoration of the Loggia dei Banchi, Florence). He graduated with a degree in architecture from UNPHU April 1979. He has been director of the School of Interior Design at the School of Architecture and Arts at UNPHU and has carried out various private residential, commercial, and interior architecture projects.

Manolita Miguel (November 3, 1955). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1981, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. She also studied in the Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia.

Gustavo Luis Moré Guaschino (May 3, 1956). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1980, Palazzo Rucellai campus. Thesis: “Restauro della Loggia dei Bianchi, Firenze” (Restoration of the Loggia dei Banchi, Florence). He graduated with a degree in architecture from UNPHU in April 1979. He is the son of Mariuccia Guaschino de Moré, who was an official of the Italian Embassy in the Dominican Republic for more than 40 years, and who is remembered by several of those whose names appear herein for having been instrumental in processing the scholarships for Dominican students so that they could transfer to Italy. He was director of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at UNPHU and director of the OPC Cultural Assets Inventory Center. He has been the winner of numerous design competitions and biennial awards, including those for the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice and the National Library.

He was founder and first president of the Dominican DoCoMoMo (Study Group for the Documentation and Conservation of the Architecture of the Modern Movement), and has authored several noteworthy books on architecture and urbanism in the Caribbean and the Dominican Republic. He has been director and editor of the journal Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana since 1996.

Fernando González (April 15, 1957). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1985, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. Thesis: “Capella Bellosguardo.” He worked from 1986 - 1989 at the Office of Cultural Heritage, and at the Office of the Regulatory Plan for the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. He has devoted himself to the design and construction of homes and commercial premises.

George Latour Heinsen (December 12, 1957). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. Istituto di Architettura e Urbanismo di Venezia, 1985-1998. Latour had a long, rich and productive sojourn in Italy, which began with the course on restoration in Florence, then as a PhD student at the renowned Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning in Venice (Università IUAV di Venezia) and then as a collaborator in the Vittorio Gregotti studio in Milan for 12 years. Since his arrival in Florence, he maintained an excellent relationship with the director of the program, Gennaro Tampone, for whom he served as an assistant in the same course for four years. In Venice, he was a student of Manfredo Tafuri, a great philosopher, historian, writer, and professor, among other noteworthy professors. His professional stint with Gregotti left an imprint on his architectural approach and style. He has carried out work in the Dominican Republic of continually greater stature.

José Mejía (December 19, 1957). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1982, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. He was designated Liaison between the National District City Council and the Office of Cultural Heritage (1984), and consultant for the improvements to the Monument to the Restoration in Santiago de los Caballeros (2007).

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Carlos Ernesto del Castillo Valle (January 13, 1958). Università degli Studi di Roma 1981 - 1983. Del Castillo Valle studied urban and regional planning, later working on several projects with Pablo Mella and Rafael Bisonó. He has devoted his professional career to private construction and public works through his firm Constructora Del Castillo CxA. He was an advisor to the Dominican Ministry of Culture from 2000 to 2004.

Ninouska Nova (June 2, 1958). Università degli Studi di Roma 1983 - 1984, with a specialization in urban planning applied to metropolitan areas. She has had a prolific international career as an architect and interior designer.

Julia Vicioso (May 19, 1961). Università degli Studi di Roma: Master’s degree in Restoration (1987 - 1990).

Professors: Sandro Benedetti and Giuseppe Zander. She graduated from UNPHU with a degree in Architecture in 1983, submitting a final thesis on the History of Architecture. Post-graduate research degree in conservation of architectural assets from the Facoltà di Architettura, dipartimento di Storia, Restauro e Conservazione Architettonica. Professors: Giorgio Torraca, Arnaldo Bruschi and Giovanni Carbonara. Specialization in stone materials at the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro (ICR), Rome (1996-1997). Professors: Gisela Capponi and Antonella Mezzagora. Member of the Council of the ICCROM and of the Council of the Medici Archive Project, Florence. Master’s and doctorate degrees in History and Conservation of Monuments at La Sapienza University, and at the Vatican School of Paleography and Archives and at the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome. Thesis: Basilica San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Awards: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation-Latin America and Caribbean Fellow New York in the Humanities category; Istituto Italo-Latinoamericano; Samuel H. Kress Post-Graduate Research Fellowship and Ministerio per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali.

She is a member of the Medici Archive Project, the Renaissance Society of America; Italian Art Society, the Roma nel Rinascimento, ICOMOS and ICOM. She currently holds a diplomatic position at the United Nations Agencies in Rome.

Mauricia Domínguez (September 22, 1962). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1986, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. She worked on restoration of a citrus greenhouse in Florence. Current president of the Dominican DoCoMoMo, she has been an instructor at several schools of architecture in the Dominican Republic, and is the author of several design and restoration projects. She is a researcher and associate editor at the journal Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana, and director of research at the School of Architecture and Arts at UNPHU. Lil Guerrero (February 24, 1957). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1988. Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in

Apartments in the area surrounding the Hotel Ambassador Polo Field, designed by Atilio León, c. 1976. © Archivio Gustavo Luis Moré

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Perugia. Thesis “Restauro della Villa Fabar” (Restoration of the Villa Fabar). Partner of Elena Trotta, a prominent Venezuelan architect. She also studied Urban Planning at the Politecnico di Milano. She has worked as an architectural designer, and has worked on prestigious projects such as the National Conservatory of Music in Santo Domingo, together with Pedro Haché.

Yudelka Czech (December 6, 1964). Istituto Lorenzo di Medici, 1988 - 1997. She took courses in art history, interior design, and architecture. She began her architecture studies and obtained her degree at the PUCMM in Santiago de los Caballeros. Later, already in Florence, she married and developed a fruitful apprenticeship that, due to her enormous talent and great curiosity, has made her one of the most important interior architects in the Dominican Republic.

Gustavo Ubrí (February 2, 1957). Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, 1989. Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. He later went to the city of Fermo to study language. He completed a group thesis as was customary in this course. He has been an official of the OPM and a university professor.

Italy in the Twenty-First Century Milan: The Third Node Academia and the Local Professional Practice In the last two decades, Italy has witnessed a noteworthy process of revitalization in its urban centers. Undoubtedly, the epicenter of this movement is the metropolis of Milan, a dynamic European city of great allure, which has carried out various programs, both for the restoration of its architecture and historic districts and for new works, some of them internationally recognized, which also incorporate urban sustainability programs. Milan has prepared itself to receive large influxes of tourists—as in all of Italy—and, consequently, to serve as a venue for new architecture students who come to the renowned Politecnico di Milan to train and specialize.

In terms of new architecture, Italy has always worked on a smaller scale when compared to countries like Germany, England or Spain. The efforts seem to be concentrated on the restoration and new use of historical structures in arrangements with pieces of beautiful workmanship, thanks to the extraordinary domain of Italian design.

It is precisely in this domain that Milan has welcomed a new generation of young interior designers, who attend recently established schools of remarkable quality, such as the Scuola Politécnica di Design, the Domus Academy, the Istituto Marangoni, or the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti.

Meanwhile, several schools of architecture continue to operate in the Dominican Republic, and at least UNPHU and UNIBE offer well-reputed interior design programs. It is still difficult to enter into a specialization, graduate or master’s degree program locally. The PUCMM and UNPHU have somehow, and with some hesitation, managed to become the academic institutions that offer these courses, sometimes affiliated with foreign academies. Nonetheless, it is still important to think about traveling abroad to specialize. Italy continues to be a very worthwhile alternative, not only because of the quality of its programs, but also because of the relative simplicity of the registration procedures for foreigners and the low cost.

Richard Moreta (January 27, 1964). Università degli Studi di Milano, and NABA 2002-2004. Master’s degree in Architecture and Design “Futurarium.” Graduate research program in architecture and design. Thesis: “Miniloop (Architecture) / Lips.” Professors: Alessandro Guerriero, Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Giovanni Sacchi, Antonio Riello, Cinzia Ruggeri, Clara Mantica, Luigi Serafini, Mario Consiglio, Claudio Cetina, Luigi Benardi, Occhiomagico, and Umberto Eco. Courses: Master’s degree in European Urban Studies and PhD Program (Candidate) Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany (2014). Master’s degree in Global Public Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economics and Public Administration, Moscow (2018). He currently works in Miami.

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Torre San Francisco office building, 1991, by architects Gustavo Luis Moré and Jordi Masalles. © Archivio Gustavo Luis Moré

Orisell Medina (March 18, 1974) Università degli Studi di Firenze, 2002-2003, Graduate studies in Urban Design, Cities with Aquatic Fronts. Director of the PUCMM School of Architecture, Santo Domingo campus.

Anabelle Hiraldo (September 18, 1978). Università degli Studi di Roma, 2014 - 2015. Master’s degree in enhancement and management of smaller historic centers, environment, culture and territory. She graduated from PUCMM, Santiago, in 2007. She has worked in urban planning and heritage issues at the National District Municipal Office, the Ministry of the Presidency, and the Office of Monumental Heritage.

Sonia Bautista. Università degli Studi di Firenze, Centro Studi Restauro Monumenti e Centri Storici, Collegio degli Ingegneri della Toscana campus. Italian Language Course for Foreigners in Perugia. We understand that this architect has passed away, but we have not been able to obtain more information.

Tulio Mateo (October 30, 1982). Università IUAV di Venezia, 2008 - 2009, Master’s degree in Urban Development and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Thesis: “UNICEF Child-Friendly Schools: A project to change lives in Africa.” Graduated as an Architect at UASD with the thesis: “A Neotropical Zoo in Santiago de los Caballeros.” He has devoted himself to providing assistance in areas impacted by natural disasters and to humanitarian aid. Other studies: 2019, Humanitarian Shelter Coordination (Master’s Level Short Course), IFRC, UNHCR and Oxford Brookes University. 2018, Rethink the City: New Approaches to Global and Local Urban Challenges, Delft University of Technology. 2018, Training as Facilitator in “Community-Led Disaster

THE ITALIAN TRAINING OF MODERN DOMINICAN ARCHITECTS, 1950 - 2019

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Risk Management Planning,” Catholic Relief Services. 2012, Training of Trainers - Sphere Standards and the Humanitarian Charter, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 2012, Evaluation and quality management of humanitarian aid, Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action IECAH. 2012, Training for facilitators on “Participatory Approach for Safe Shelter Awareness” (PASSA), IFRC and the Habitat for Humanity.

Patricia Sención (May 6, 1983). Domus Academy, 2010, Milan. Master’s degree in interior and living design. She studied architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana. She has worked as an interior architect in remodeling and designing residential spaces, while participating in the second interior design fair in Santo Domingo. She currently owns and operates a store called Residenza in this city.

Mizoocky Mota (February 9, 1985). Università IUAV di Venezia, 2012-2014. Master’s degree in landscape architecture and sustainability. Thesis: Regeneration of the river landscape and urban development of the banks of the Río Ozama. Noteworthy professors: Benno Albrecht, Carlo Magnani, Lorenzo Fabian, and Emanuele Garbin. Graduated from UNPHU with the thesis: Architecture as a response to society: integration and context. Other studies: Postgraduate course on Urban Resilience and Climate Change at the University of Córdoba, Argentina, 2018. Positions: General Coordinator of the School of Architecture and Arts since 2016, Territorial Analyst II at the General Directorate of Territorial Planning and Development of the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD) since 2017. She currently works as a professor at the UNPHU School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Laura León (March 18, 1985). Domus Academy, Milan, 2011. Master’s degree in interior and living design.

She has collaborated in the Aurra de la Rocha Design Workshop since her return to the Dominican Republic.

María del Mar Moré (March 5, 1987). Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, 2009 - 2010. Daughter of the architect Gustavo Luis Moré and associate in Moré Arquitectos, she has carried out numerous institutional, domestic, and commercial projects for architectural interiors. She graduated from the UNIBE School of Interior Design, where she has also lectured on her projects.

Anita Ramos Hernández (July 4, 1987). Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, 2009 -2010. She graduated from the UNIBE School of Interior Design in 2009. She has devoted herself to home interior design. She is the granddaughter of the architect Rafael Tomás Hernández and daughter of the architects José Ramos and Ana Rosa Hernández.

Patricia Hane (September 24, 1987). Domus Academy, Milan, 2011 - 2012. Master’s degree in Interior and Living Design. She has focused principally on domestic interior design and high-rise buildings.

Marlene García (March 23, 1988). NABA, Milan, 2010. Master’s degree in the New Domestic Landscapes course. She is a member of the Contín García Design Collective.

Lorena Jiménez (July 6, 1988). Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, 2009 - 2010. She has devoted herself primarily to commercial interior design, and she is the proprietor of the Letto Casa store. She graduated from the UNIBE School of Interior Design.

• CHAPTER 28

Altos de Chavón: A Mediterranean Village Nestled in the Caribbean

By Alba Mizoocky Mota López General Coordinator of the UNPHU School of Architecture and Urban Planning

he Dominican Republic has one of the most evocative urban architectural ensembles in the Caribbean, located in the province of La Romana southeast of Santo Domingo—the replica of a sixteenth century European village. Built in the 1980s, and inspired by the model of a Mediterranean village, Altos de Chavón is located on a precipice above the Chavón River. Also called the “Ciudad de los Artistas” (City of Artists), it is part of the more extensive resort/residential complex of Casa de Campo.

Altos de Chavón was conceived in 1974 under the design guidelines and original planning of the Dominican architects José Antonio and Danilo Caro Ginebra, following the idea of Austrian ​​ industrialist Charles Bluhdorn, founder and chairman of the conglomerate Gulf & Western, with the aim of promoting and preserving national art and culture.

The project was built between 1976 and 1980 by the Italian architect Roberto Coppa, who came to the Dominican Republic to work on interior design for his friends, the renowned Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis and his actress wife Silvana Mangano. It was there that Coppa became acquainted with Bluhdorn and initiated collaboration on the “City of Artists.” Coppa’s professional career focused on the world of cinema and set design, as well as the influence of Italian culture in the construction and completion of his most famous project, Altos de Chavón.

A native of Rome, Coppa worked in the design, production, and mounting of stage sets, mainly for the Italian and American film industries, collaborating for years with Federico Fellini, one of the most important directors in the world of cinema, and Luchino Visconti, who aside from being a famed film director also directed opera, classical ballet, and theater. Between 1967 and 1989, Coppa worked in set design at Paramount Pictures, which was owned by Gulf & Western, thereby establishing the initial link between his role as set designer and architect.

The work at Altos de Chavón began in 1976 with the construction of an adjacent highway and bridge over the Chavón river, using materials from nearby quarries, with Coppa diligently overseeing the design of every detail alongside a team of artisans. Dominicans who worked in stone, wrought metal, and wood gave life to the cobbled streets and pathways, coral stone fountains, and terracotta buildings, ultimately creating a magical effect through the transformation of local production complemented by invaluable Italian experience and training.

For six years, each decorative detail, staircase, alley, and building that make up the Altos de Chavón complex was hand-sculpted, evidencing the skill of the architect in inventing and reinventing each piece until he achieved the Mediterranean atmosphere that prevails.

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The complex is situated on a high plateau approximately 100 meters from the Chavón River; it features winding cobbled streets and a central square, where the small Catholic church San Estanislao is located. This beautiful, two-toned church of stone and brick features a neoclassical-inspired entrance, a small rose window, and a double bell tower extending from a vertical wall. The tower can be accessed by an external stone staircase.

The church of San Estanislao also contains a reliquary with some of the ashes of the patron saint of Poland, the country of origin of Pope John Paul II, who donated them to the Dominican archdiocese on the inauguration of the church in 1979.

A few meters away is the Altos de Chavón Regional Archaeological Museum, inaugurated in 1981, which features a pre-Columbian exhibition hall documenting the invaluable heritage of the indigenous cultures of the island. The museum’s holdings include more than 3,000 objects from different areas of the Caribbean and Central America, which were amassed over a period of 40 years by the collector Samuel Pión.

The City of Artists has become a multidisciplinary point of reference for the field of design in its various branches, such as graphic design, illustration, fashion design, and the visual arts, most notably through the Escuela de Diseño de Altos de Chavón (Altos de Chavón School of Design), founded in 1983 and affiliated with the Parsons School of Design in New York.

The town also houses countless arts and crafts workshops, focusing on pottery, basketry, textiles, and screen printing, as well as boutiques, restaurants, and galleries that display works of art by famous Dominican artists, making the village a major destination for locals and foreigners and creating a vibrant environment of cultural exchange set among cobble-stone streets with a breathtaking view of the Chavón River.

The Altos de Chavon complex in its first phase of construction. © Arch. Adolfo Despradel

Opening page: Aerial view of the Altos de Chavón Amphitheater. © Thiago Da Cuhna

ALTOS DE CHAVÓN: A MEDITERRANEAN VILLAGE NESTLED IN THE CARIBBEAN

View of the Altos de Chavón precipice above the Chavón River. © Thiago Da Cuhna

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The erroneously titled Altos de Chavón Amphitheater, set in lush foliage, is an architectural work inspired by classical Greek theaters. The complex comprises three elements: the circular-shaped orchestra at the center, the stage behind it that rises toward a rectangular coral stone wall (where the dressing rooms and the open auditorium are located), and the semicircle rising in front of it, where the audience sits. With regard to amphitheaters, “amphi” in classical Greek means precisely in two parts, and thus would imply two orchestral units forming a closed ellipsoid structure.

Since its inauguration on August 20, 1982, the amphitheater with its seating capacity of 5,000 has served as the venue for countless performers from around the world, including Frank Sinatra, Carlos Santana, Gloria Estefan, Juan Luis Guerra, Elton John, Andrea Bocelli, and Ana Gabriel, among many others. This entertainment complex is the work of the architect Nano Lebrón.

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The importance of Altos de Chavón as a location for Hollywood films, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), is surely due to the stunning visual impact of the Chavón River set amid profuse tropical rainforest vegetation. Coppola’s film received six Oscar nominations, ultimately winning three awards, in addition to three other Golden Globes awards, three Bafta awards, and one at the Cannes Film Festival. Thus, this inspiring Dominican landscape has become the backdrop within the global arena for the “seventh art.”

The influence of Italian culture in Altos de Chavón is manifested in values that ​​ transcend the physical details of design or the stylistic elements of decor, emanating instead from the atmosphere of harmony created fortuitously from the paradox of a replicated sixteenth-century Mediterranean village nestled in the tropical landscape of the Caribbean, thereby creating a singularly cultural milieu in the region.

With the construction of Altos de Chavón, three fundamental elements of the Dominican-Italian relationship became evident: 1. Cultural wealth was multiplied by uniting Italian craftsmanship in time-honored artisanal trades with the privileged experience that is developed when great artists and pioneers in the performing arts work alongside Dominican artisans who elevate their own know-how to the highest standards of balance and excellence in design.

2. The architectural style developed in Altos de Chavón reflects an authentic Mediterranean character, mixed with the tropical ambience that proliferates in the Caribbean. Due to the design of its elements, the materials used, and land use aimed at showcasing and enhancing local talent, gastronomy, and culture, a synergy is created through the fusion of fine living and the fine arts.

3. The creation of an artistic community has made Altos de Chavón a global benchmark in terms of education, dissemination, and the creation of a common culture oriented toward creativity and design.

Finally, Roberto Coppa’s architectural legacy at Altos de Chavón should not be understood as a unilateral

Historical views of Altos de Chavon. © Alba Mizoocky Mota López

The Church of San Estanislao, Altos de Chavón. © Thiago Da Cuhna

ALTOS DE CHAVÓN: A MEDITERRANEAN VILLAGE NESTLED IN THE CARIBBEAN

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transfer or implementation of values that are solely inherent to Italian culture—understood as emanating from architecture, a Mediterranean lifestyle, or specific design elements that have been created in the “City of Artists”—but as a project and a process of a shared heritage that continues to enrich both countries, and which impresses any visitor to this fascinating Mediterranean borgo nestled in the Caribbean.

Church of St Stanislaus

Archeological Museum

School of Design

Amphitheater

Location of major structures. © Alba Mizoocky Mota López

BIBLIOGRAPHY Girma, Lebawit Lily. Moon Dominican Republic, rev. ed., Moon Travel Series. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2019.

Sutton, Horace. “Altos de Chavón Puts You in 17th Century.”

The Tennessean, February 20, 1983.

AAA Pro_file 07, Los Caro: tres generaciones de arquitectura, urbanismo y construcción en la República Dominicana, Febrero 2016 AAA 069, Archivo de Arquitectura Antillana, Casa de Campo: pasado, presente y futuro de una leyenda, Noviembre 2018 https://www.casadecampo.com.do/es/experiences/altos-dechavon/

Aerial view of the complex of houses in “Portofino Square” and “Barlovento Street.”

The close proximity of the architectural portion to the water and boats in the Marina is evident. © Thiago da Cunha

• CHAPTER 29

The Influence of the Porto Rotondo Marina on the Casa de Campo Marina, La Romana

By Diego Fernández Entrepreneur

Gianfranco Fini he diaspora of Italians who planted the seed of their identity in the New World dates back centuries.

For the island of Hispaniola, this link with Italy has been present due to a Pleiad of men and women who have sailed the waters of the Atlantic to make this island their home since 1492. Regardless of the historical differences that may have marked their journeys, and whether these occurred as solo voyages or in the subsequent migratory waves, a common feature stands out—beginning with Alessandro Geraldini, the first resident bishop of the New World, who promoted the construction of the first cathedral in the Americas, or Juan Bautista Cambiaso, one of the heroes of Dominican independence and father of the Dominican Navy, as well as many other families who are honored in this book—all without exception were pioneers of a legacy that has continued to gain importance over time. Any discussion of Casa de Campo Marina in the Dominican Republic would end up as synonymous with its architect, Gianfranco Fini, a lover of sailing and art who lavished both passions into this architectural work, creating a benchmark in the contemporary architecture of the island. When conceiving the Casa de Campo Marina, Fini succeeded with the precision of a surgeon, naturally incorporating it into the already successful Casa de Campo resort, but adding a taste of old nautical traditions, a passion that had been reserved in the country for a very small group of fishing enthusiasts. Subsequent generations have thus been able to adopt a lifestyle not previously available in the main port cities, as evidenced by the hundreds of boats that have become permanent residents docked at the Marina.

The Architect and the Marina Gianfranco Fini discovered the Dominican Republic in 1988, upon the invitation of a friend who had entrusted him with the design of a villa. At that time, his reputation as an architect was already quite solid: a few years earlier he had participated in an international competition for the remodeling of the Gouvià Marina in Corfu, Greece, immediately after receiving the commission to rebuild the old port of Porto Rotondo, which he transformed into a modern and efficient marina that became the soul of the luxurious Costa Smeralda in Sardinia.

Upon his arrival in the Caribbean in the late 1980s, Casa de Campo was already fairly well-known by jetsetters as a prestigious resort, stretching seven kilometers along a lush and wild coastline and overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Following the proposals involving his recent work in Porto Rotondo, and with a mind full of images of the small ports dotting the Mediterranean, Fini proposed a preliminary project to Central Romana, the main shareholder of Casa de Campo. Thus, during his stays at La Romana, he began to design a small marina that he later presented to the Central Romana Corporation on February 23, 1994. The initial idea was embraced as a

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Panoramic view of the entire marina, including “Plaza Portofino” and the “Ensanada”; at the center, the “Paseo del Mar.” © Thiago da Cunha

practical solution; however, Fini proposed to aim higher by suggesting a fully functional marina. The Roman architect pursued his vision with a passion by delivering three other proposals, between 1994 and 1997. These blueprints served as the subject of countless meetings and endless modifications, until the June 1997 version, which was finally approved in November of the same year, as a conceptual proposal that was later polished for market presentation. Fini then began working on a schematic version of the project: a simple presentation that gave the general idea of ​​the marina, focusing on defining the types of apartments and a general outline of the docks with moorings, which would be proposed to a select audience of owners and visitors to Casa de Campo. The presentation of the preliminary project took place several months later at La Romana Country Club; it was cheerfully embraced by all stakeholders, convincing all of the validity of the operation.

From that moment onward during the following two years, the real design work for “La Marina” had commenced and was carefully studied in every minute detail, from the manhole covers to the texture and spectrum of the roof tiles—and everything in between. The project was positioned on the west side of the Chavón river, in a swampy and discontinuous area nearly at sea level, which the locals had been using as a sand pit for construction. The total area of intervention ​​ was approximately 220,000 square meters on the land side, and approximately 110,000 square meters on the sea side, for a total of 330,000 square meters. In July 1998, Fini and his newly arrived daughter Nicola, a recently graduated architect who joined the design team, officially began construction on the entire port, including the breakwater and concrete piers, as well as on the homes along the plaza and on Calle Barlovento. They then proceeded to the houses along the Ensenada with terraces and private docks on the water and the gardens and parking lots and the shopping center, the yacht club, and any other visible element of the architectural landscape of the Casa de Campo Marina that we enjoy with renewed pleasure upon each visit. However, before the actual construction work began, it was necessary to prepare the area, a very arduous and complicated process.

Any visitor arriving today at the Marina for dinner or for boarding a vessel might not be able to visualize how much work was required to complete this project. Preparation of the intervention area began with back-

THE INFLUENCE OF THE PORTO ROTONDO MARINA ON THE CASA DE CAMPO MARINA, LA ROMANA

The sundial bears the name of the square, Piazza Portofino. The name was given by architect Gianfranco Fini to recall one of the most beautiful marinas in the world, that of the Ligurian village harbor: Portofino, a worldwide synonym of elegance and exclusivity and an inspiration for the Casa de Campo Marina. © Thiago da Cunha

Panoramic view of the broad “Calle Barlovento” that leads to the port and the docks. © Thiago da Cunha

Following pages: Doors by sculptor Thomas Gismondi in the Cathedral Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

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hoes to extract mud mixed with sand up to four meters deep near the sea. The hollow left from the extractions was filled with an initial layer of large boulders, and later with smaller and smaller rocks, until the last layer of about 80 centimeters, which was made with loose compacted caliche, settled in layers, until the final elevation was established: 2.5 meters above sea level. This was also the height of the entire project, with the exception of Piazza Portofino, which is 45 centimeters lower, making this square a natural meeting place with the glamourous atmosphere of the stages Fini used in the design for the Italian Opera. The square is interconnected by roads to the port and the docks, which have been established at 1.6 meters above sea level throughout ​​ La Marina. The separation of the entire land-based part from the sea was carried out using concrete bulwark panels six meters high with an inverted T base, deposited at the bottom and joined laterally by interlocking.

In order to ensure safety from flooding, a divider was inserted between La Marina and the Río Chavón in the form of a long, thick concrete wall almost five meters high, placed along the embankment. Despite the fact that there were many companies involved in the construction phase—which were mainly Dominican, with each one focusing on a very specific area or task—the work was carried out in an organized manner, and harmoniously completed three years later. The Marina was inaugurated in 2001 by Dominican President Hipólito Mejía. The operation immediately achieved great commercial success, so much so that a year later, in 2002, Central Romana decided to expand the port. Fini redesigned the old breakwater, modifying its height and transforming it into the Paseo del Mar, a charming pedestrian promenade bordered by palm trees and gardens, with restaurants, yacht services offices, boutiques, and culminating in a building in the shape of an old lighthouse that is used as a restaurant and pool bar. The expansion of the Marina involved the construction of a new 1 km breakwater, which was built in the open sea, at a depth of five meters. The operation allowed for the recovery of an area to accommodate a shipyard and four new docks with 171 moorings, bringing the total number of La Marina docks to 354 units. The new breakwater, the shipyard, and the four new piers with the Paseo del Mar were inaugurated in 2006 by the subsequent president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernández.

Fini’s legacy in the Dominican Republic extends beyond his many villas nestled in this prime resort location, and the crown jewel of his work at the Casa de Campo Marina. His work was epitomized by the locals as “La Marina,” not only for the first luxurious full-service marina on the island, but also by becoming an icon of Dominican pop culture that influenced the lifestyle of the latest’s generations with his platform to embrace love for the sea. His work became the spark and proven concept of his vision of an island open to the world, surrounded by a circuit of marinas that would lure the yachting world to rediscover this enchanted island for generations to come. Fini made the Dominican Republic his home, and he has become a vital part of the social fabric, dedicating his talent for art and architecture as a mentor to a new generation of brilliant architects, and devoting more time to painting and his granddaughters, while leaving the daily task of Studio Fini in the hands of his daughter Nicola.

LITERATURE AND THE ARTS

• CHAPTER 30

Marcio Veloz Maggiolo: A Writer of Italian Descent at the Very Heart of Dominican Literature

By Danilo Manera Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Milan, director of the chair of Dominican studies “Marcio Veloz Maggiolo”

In each of my novels there are characters that were previously part of a passion or a memory, which little by little went about creating a false memory within me, a memory that although it was something original, with the passing of years became something else, and which can no longer be remembered the way it felt because it had to become transformed into a kind of absurd story, anomalous and filled with illusion, better than the authentic or more convincing than the already forgotten original story.

Marcio Veloz Maggiolo

arcio Veloz Maggiolo was born in Santo Domingo (then newly baptized Ciudad Trujillo) on August 13, 1936. A poet, novelist, historian, archaeologist, social anthropologist, university professor, journalist, politician, painter, and diplomat, he is unquestionably one of the most prominent and prestigious intellectual figures of Dominican culture. Unanimously recognized as the most prolific and versatile author of Dominican letters, with a vast list of publications, he is also one of the most important voices in Latin American literature. With a Bachelor in Philosophy and Letters from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and Doctorate in the History of the Americas (with a specialization in Prehistory) from the University of Madrid, he is a member of the Dominican Academy of Language, the Dominican Academy of History, and the American Anthropological Association of the United States. He has held the positions of Undersecretary of State for Culture, Director of the Museo del Hombre Dominicano, and Director of the Museo de las Casas Reales. As a diplomat he has served as Dominican Ambassador to Italy (1963-1964; 1983-1985), Mexico (1965-1966), and Peru (1982-1983).

Of Italian blood in his maternal line, Veloz Maggiolo is the great-grandson of Bartolomeo Maggiolo Pellerano (1825-1878), a native of Genoa and the son of Giovanni Battista Maggiolo and Rosa Pellerano Costa, natives of Santa Margherita Ligure. Bartolomeo arrived in the country together with his maternal uncle Giovanni Battista Pellerano Costa (1806-1880) and with his son, his cousin and contemporary, Vincenzo Benedetto Pellerano Costa (1825-1893), who married María de Belén Alfau Sánchez in Santo Domingo and was the father of the illustrious Arturo Pellerano Alfau, who founded the largest Dominican newspaper, El Listín Diario, in 1889. The great influx of Ligurians to Hispaniola occurred, in effect, in the nineteenth century, when families of shipowners, shipbuilders, and sailors arrived in Santo Domingo. During the time of the Dominican War of Independence against Haiti, the presence of these Ligurians proved essential. In the 1844 uprisings, two Genoese joined the pro-independence forces: Giovanni Battista Cambiaso and Giovanni Battista Maggiolo, who contributed their ships and their men to the cause of the Dominicans. Maggiolo lost the ship María Luisa in the war and, despite his contract with the State, never claimed reimbursement for the

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losses suffered. In 1856, Giovanni Battista Maggiolo returned to Genoa. His sons later made the return trip to settle permanently in Santo Domingo. Bartolomeo Maggiolo Pellerano fathered Manuel Américo Maggiolo Ravelo, who in turn begat Mercedes Rosa Maggiolo Núñez as his daughter, who married Francisco Javier Veloz Molina. These are the parents of Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. Today there is an honorary Marcio Veloz Maggiolo Chair at the University of Milan, which is dedicated to Dominican studies in Italy.

Veloz Maggiolo’s list of published works is as varied as it is extensive. His collections of poetry include El sol y las cosas (1957), Intus (1962, Premio Nacional de Poesía/National Poetry Award), La palabra reunida (1981), and Apearse de la máscara (1986), as well as the complete collected works of poetry: La sonora armonía–poesía reunida (2016). He has also written works for children and younger readers that include De dónde vino la gente (1978), El jefe iba descalzo (1993), La verdadera historia de Aladino (2007), Las bodas de Caperucita (2008), Ladridos de luna llena (2008), and La iguanita azul (2012). He is the author of various short story anthologies, such as El prófugo (1962); Creonte: seis relatos (1963, which includes a one-act play); La fértil agonía del amor (1982, Premio Nacional de Cuento/National Short Story Award); Cuentos, recuentos y casi cuentos (1986); and Palabras de ida y vuelta (2006), as well as the novella La dictadura y su magia (2009) and the anthology Cuentos para otros milenios (2000). Veloz Maggiolo is also a highly prolific novelist, having published the following works: El buen ladrón (1960); Judas (1962, Premio Nacional de Novela/ National Novel Award); La vida no tiene nombre (1965); Los ángeles de hueso (1967); De abril en adelante (1975); La biografía difusa de Sombra Castañeda (1981, Premio Nacional de Novela); Florbella (1986); Materia prima (1988, Premio Nacional de Novela/ National Novel Award); Ritos de cabaret (1991, Premio Nacional de Novela); Uña y carne. Memoria de la virilidad (1999); El hombre del acordeón (2003); La mosca soldado (2004); Memoria tremens (2009); Confesiones de un guionista (2009); Los dueños de la memoria (2014); El sueño de Juliansón (2014); and La Navidad: memorias de un naufragio (2016). In addition to the aforementioned awards, he won the Caonabo de Oro in 1994 and the National Literature Prize in 1996, for all of his work, part of which has been translated into Italian, English, French, and German.

His scientific and critical works, and other scholarly writings include: Cultura, teatro y relatos en Santo Domingo (1969); Arqueología prehistórica de Santo Domingo (1972); Medio ambiente y adaptación humana en la prehistoria de Santo Domingo (two volumes, 1975-1976); Sobre cultura dominicana y otras culturas (1977); Arte indígena y economía en Santo Domingo (1977); Las sociedades arcaicas de Santo Domingo (1980); Sobre cultura y política cultural en la República Dominicana (1980); La arqueología de la vida cotidiana (1981); Panorama histórico del Caribe precolombino (1990); La isla de Santo Domingo antes de Colón (1993); Archeologia della scoperta colombiana (Rome, 1994); Trujillo, Villa Francisca y otros fantasmas (1996, Premio Feria Nacional del Libro 1997); Barril sin fondo: antropología para curiosos (1996); Historia, arte y cultura en las Antillas precolombina (1999); La memoria fermentada: ensayos bioliterarios (2000); Antropología portátil (2001); Santo Domingo en la novela dominicana (anthology, 2002); El bolero: visiones y perfiles de una pasión dominicana (2005; in collaboration); Mestizaje, identidad y cultura (2006); Historia de la cultura dominicana: momentos formativos (2012); and Memorias reversibles (2012).

It is obviously impossible to give an exhaustive account of such a vast and diverse portfolio of works, even more so in these few pages. Therefore, we will choose a specific perspective, employing a few titles from this immense bibliography. There is, however, one nearly constant feature: the writings of Marcio Veloz Maggiolo revolve around memory, in all of its variations, from history to fantasy, that is nourished upon the infinite forms and versions that each witness or character or epoch, according to his point of view, believes to be true or recognizes as being fabricated. It should also be noted that individual memory, collective memory, apocrypha, and the vicarious (intertwined or inserted by others) become fused, and thus the memory fixed by historians and the one transmitted by popular culture, and the dissenting understanding, all become united and confused within a magical mindset. It is a great fermentation that continues to complicate itself with the passage of time, a kind of intoxication that makes the stories ambiguous and multifaceted, as they are built from the fragments of this infinite plurality.

By the time Marcio Veloz Maggiolo had written his first short novels, this underlying thematic mood had already been active in some way. In El buen ladrón (The Good Thief, 1960), the narrating voice is that

Opening page: Architect A. Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, “Italians in Dominican Life,” El Siglo,” October 27, 2001, 6E. © Juan Bosch Library Funglode

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Marcio Veloz Maggiolo during the First Week of Dominican Literature in Italy.

Genoa, October 2001. © Danilo Manera

of Denás’ old mother, who, impervious to the message of Christ, embraces the corpse of her son without believing in the promise of paradise received during the crucifixion. In Judas (1962), the traitorous apostle feels that he is making a sacrifice for Christ, that is, that he is predestined to play an important role in the mechanism of salvation, and the kiss on the Mount of Olives is a symbol of gratitude for this opportunity.

However, he soon perceives that there is no great resurrection with the attendant divine glory, being forced to accept his failure and the status of “second martyr” of Christianity. The story is made up of two letters, which are presented as authentic, one from Judas to Father Simon and the other from his brother Moabad.

This is how Judas’s dramatic past life and courage are transmitted as “a soul that protests from eternity.”

We note that the second letter reaches the author in a French translation that was brought from Italy in the nineteenth century by an ancestor. La vida no tiene nombre (Life Has No Name, 1965) takes place in the eastern Dominican Republic during the U.S. invasion of 1916. The work revolves around a gunman by the name of Ramón “El Cuerno,” who tells us about his life, tribulations, and motives before he was shot. Once again, a character speaks directly: the son of a Haitian maid and object of social discrimination, he opposes the occupation forces to demonstrate that he is “more Dominican” than others, as he fights for national sovereignty.

Thus, he discovers the servility and cowardice of his fellow villagers, who are sold to the gringos. Ramón kills his abusive father and falls into the trap set by his brother, who turns him over to the Americans as a bandit and inherits the property. Personal failure is inserted into the collective failure of rebels who are impelled to behave like criminals.

Already in this first phase, the works of Veloz Maggiolo (as analyzed by the scholar Nina Bruni) reveal an existentialist nature, as history is rendered a complex and opaque process when viewed with the eyes of these silenced protagonists. If we turn now to the works of maturity, set in Villa Francisca, the capital neighborhood in which the author spent his childhood and youth, we find multiple structures in which reality is transformed into multiple realities and thus becomes richly grained and filled with contradictions. For exam-

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ple, in the novel Ritos de cabaret (Cabaret Rites, 1991, which has served as the subject for studies by Fernando Valerio-Holguín, Pedro Delgado Malagón, and others), the autobiographical background contributes to the launching of a prodigious collective mechanism, a choir capable of mixing gossip and lyrical impulses, the individual visionary precipices, and the general fresco of an era and a society, punctuated by the names of streets and musicians.

Veloz Maggiolo’s pen is moved by the hum of heterogeneous and sometimes incoherent memories, with their simultaneous chronology that makes times coexist, thereby proposing a more complex consequentiality. Thus, in these pages, the voice of the main witness alternates with that of an external narrator, with excerpts from newspapers and with the voice of the neighborhood chronicler, Persio, the bearer of memories and to a large extent the author’s alter ego. And in the end, the possibility is even hinted that the whole skein of stories is nothing but the result of madness. Yet, this fragmentation of discourse does not disconnect it to the point of reducing it to the level of nonsense. On the contrary, the multiplicity of reflections gives us a more vivid popular ballad that describes a nation through a neighborhood and its key place: the cabaret, which is a mix of bar, dance hall, and brothel.

The cabaret is the kingdom of the bolero, an amalgam of street music, alcohol, and gloom; a dance created from seduction and languor, which is danced on tiled floors, where one pursues one’s object of desire, while besieged by oblivion and abandonment. The bolero is Papo Torres’s way of knowing, forcing his restaurant customers to listen to past successes as he pours new liquor into the bottles of the scalding years.

And it is also the school of Papo Junior and the soundtrack of the death of Samuel Vizcaíno, during the heroic days of popular resistance.

The novel takes place in the last years of the tyrannical Trujillo regime and culminates in the 1965 civil war, a key juncture in recent Dominican history. Despite the defeat, it was no longer possible after 1965 to rein in the sense of awareness and the demands for civil rights, which can flourish like the verses of a song between the tables of precariousness, in the embrace of dance, in the tenacity of passion.

There is a feeling of fatal cyclicity in the son who repeats the story of his father, which descends into incest, even physically helping him to regain his most remote and fundamental love. And there is a feeling of despair in defeating democratic dignity. But in the whirlwind of the narrative, the symbols are wisely open-ended and versatile: the cabaret, the tangle of music, sex, and politics, from which emerges the image of a prostituted nation, but it is also a space of freedom, dissent, and rebellion. And the bolero is not only about nostalgia but also a way of understanding events and dreaming about the future.

Another deeply Dominican and ambivalent musical symbol—in the sense that it can transmit rebellion or oppression, acceptance, or opposition—is the merengue. Veloz Maggiolo dedicates El hombre del acordeón (The Man with the Accordion, 2003) to a merengue virtuoso, Honorio Lora, who taught the dictator himself to dance (this particular rhythm was considered something of an official soundtrack for the regime). The novel describes the death of the accordionist and the theft of his accordion, but also the resurrection of his corpse as a spirit by the work of two sorcerers through a Vodou ritual known as desunén, and, above all, the love of Honorio, which always returns.

The narrator/researcher, who many years later must reconstruct what transpired, clarifies before beginning: “All the characters in this story are true, except the author,” and then points out: “If I had started to write wanting to distinguish the true from the false, I would never have achieved a more or less coherent story, so the reader must agree with me that I sometimes use disjointed voices, phrases that, I imagine, were logical at one time, road stories that came to me in various ways, and that I cannot justify without referring to the stages of a common magic that is still practiced.” Indeed, the novel makes use of confusing testimonies and discordant legends, memories and rumors, its main source being a calié, a storyteller at the service of Trujillo. Therefore, many doubts remain, and many supernatural events are interwoven, associated with the myths and popular beliefs of the Northwest Line, that border zone between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which, at the time of the events, had just suffered the terrible “Perejil Massacre” (1937), which is

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alluded to in the text. Thus, the magical and musical revenge for the death of Honorio also serves as a condemnation of the ethnic purge referred to as “el corte” (the cut).

El hombre del acordeón (The Man with the Accordion, 2003, the subject of critical studies by Sergio Callau, José Rafael Lantigua, Rita de Maeseneer, Fernando Valerio-Holguín, Julie Sellers, Néstor Rodríguez, and others) retrieves and extols the fascinating figure of the “rayano,”1 one of the marginalized groups in the official culture (still stained with Trujillismo), which find a noble space in Veloz Maggiolo’s writing, along with the Black, the Haitian, the Indigenous, and the campesino. Furthermore, the author, as usual, masterfully employs intertextual relationships with other discourses, from anthropology to history and from popular culture to archaeology.

Novels such as Florbella and La mosca soldado (which have been dealt with by such scholars as Rafael Rodríguez-Henríquez, Sergio Callau, Núria Sabaté Llobera, and Daniel Arbino) are nourished by emotions and archaeological experiences. But we like to conclude with what is, until now, the last novel by Marcio Veloz Maggiolo: Navidad (Christmas, 2016), subtitled Memorias de un naufragio (Memories of a Shipwreck), which once again deals with history, distilled memories, and fantasy. It is dedicated to the first years of colonial Hispaniola, after the landing of Christopher Columbus.

In the first chapter of the text, which is the longest, Nathaniel, seeking refuge in a Hieronymite monastery in Seville, writes a long letter to his confessor, Fray Tomás de Abril, recounting his twelve-year adventure in the Indies. Nathaniel is one of the three survivors of the annihilation of the Fuerte de la Navidad, the first European settlement in the Americas, which Columbus built with materials from the wreck of the Santa María. On his return during the second trip in 1493, he discovered that it had been destroyed and the inhabitants massacred by the indigenous people in revenge for the abuses of the constable Diego de Arana and the other Spaniards. Apart from Nathaniel, only his uncle Luis de Torres—the Jewish expert on Middle Eastern languages ​​who was put in charge of learning and translating the native languages—and the gypsy Casilda— who had embarked as the concubine of the cartographer Juan de La Cosa—manage to escape. They had all taken refuge with the natives, and by 1505 they eventually succeeded in returning home.

We closely follow the vicissitudes of Nathaniel, a Maghrebi of short stature and very black hair, that the Nuhuirey mistress Jariquena disguises as a Ciguayo with vegetable pigments to darken his skin, which was already quite dark. He suffers the mutilation of half of his tongue by the Caonabo chief, so that he is unable to tell anyone what happened. The subsequent pages are filled with many characters from those pivotal years: Columbus and his family members, the rebel mayor Francisco Roldán, Fray Ramón Pané, Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, and the indigenous chiefs Anacaona, Guacanagarix, and others. But above all, Nathaniel learns the manners, customs, and myths of the Taíno, practices the ritual ingestion of Cohoba, and manages to better understand their beliefs and their worldview. For this reason, he sees the unjust cruelty of the persecution of the natives by Columbus and other rulers. The narrative itself, which jumps from one event to another, like a toa frog, vividly brings us back to the oldest conflict of cultures in the Americas, thereby reconstructing the pulse of life and the intensity of emotions among the natives of the island, in a way that can only be done by an author with an enormous knowledge of the pre-Columbian Caribbean. The objective of Nathaniel’s detailed report is to return to Santo Domingo, with the help of the Hieronymites, to whom he will deliver a part of the profit, because on the island his wife Jariquena, who is surely waiting for him, will reveal the hiding place of the treasure buried in the Fuerte de la Navidad and never found.

From the end of the first chapter, and particularly in chapters II – IV, the tone of the book becomes less subjective; the voices multiply; materials taken from the Archivo de Las Indias in Seville are included; and the plot line becomes more accelerated and scattered, amid a haze of variations and with several theatrical blows, that cast a grim light on Nathaniel’s claims and his final days. Indeed, his testimony is not believed: the hidden treasure is considered a lie. The Taíno areito and cohoba and tobacco ceremonies are viewed as satanic. Nathaniel feels like a “Taíno martyr.” Judged as a heretic by Fray Antonio de los Ángeles Custodios, he is burned at the stake.

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Jariquena, tired of waiting for him, had gone off and married the Count of Villavicencio and traveled to Spain for the ceremony, in 1516, as Countess Angustias, on the basis of an agreement with the Hieronymites, to which a part of her assets would go. But the rest will be inherited at the death of the old Count. And then she returns to her native island. Fray Tomás de Abril also receives a punishment. And Casilda, after spending a season in a convent, becomes the lover of a marquis and owner of taverns. Her newly acquired power enables her to cast her chastity into the flames.

A motif developed in the book is that of Nathaniel’s uncle, Luis de Torres, a Converso Sephardic Jew, who is transformed into something of a behique2 among the Taínos, preaching a fusionist form of Judaism.

According to him, whose real name was Josef Ben Hailevi Haviri, the Colombuses were crypto-Jews. Here we are interested in remembering a curious detail: it is said that Luis de Torres met Bartholomew Colombus in Portugal, who used the meticulous nautical maps drawn by the Genoese cartographer Vesconte Maggiolo. Bartholomew informs Luis de Torres that his brother, Christopher, had devised new routes to navigate beyond where he had arrived so far, with the help of one of Vesconte’s descendants. It is a small wink from the author to refer to his Italian ancestry, in this innovative historical novel, which reflects on how uncertain, intangible, and subjective the truth in fact is, thereby proposing alternative readings of that decisive moment in the history of the Americas. The “shipwreck” in the subtitle may thus also be that of a dream which is impossible to interpret.

In this narrative tour de force, Marcio Veloz Maggiolo confirms himself as a generous, enlightened, and courageous writer, who has managed to create almost an entire body of literature, crossing all borders with imagination and empathy, even dialoguing with the flying Rayano witches and the Hupias3 of the Guayabal of Coaybay, the “distilled sky” of the Taínos.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bruni, Nina. “El Trujillismo en Uña y Carne de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.” Revista Mexicana del Caribe 7, no. 13 (2002): 153-179.

——— Ruptura y viraje. La narrativa de Mario Veloz Maggiolo 19601975. Santo Domingo: Editora Nacional, 2015.

Callau Gonzalvo, Sergio. “Mulatas volanderas” (sobre El hombre del acordeón). Riff- Raff, no. 23 (Fall 2003): 68-70.

——— “Marxismoficción dominicano” (sobre La mosca soldado).

Riff- Raff, no. 26 (Fall 2004): 51-54.

Lantigua, José Rafael. “Cuatro ensayos breves sobre Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.” In Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. El poeta, el narrador, el ensayista (selección de José Rafael Lantigua), 415-433. Santo Domingo: Ediciones Ferilibro, 2006.

Maeseneer, Rita de. “El hombre del acordeón de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.” In Encuentro con la narrativa dominicana contemporánea, 113-118. Madrid: Frankfurt am Main, Iberoamericana, 2006.

Manera, Danilo. “La verdadera historia de Aladino y Las bodas de Caperucita de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.” Tintas. Quaderni di letterature iberiche e iberoamericane, no. 1 (2011): 292-295.

Rodríguez, Néstor E. “Merengue, vudú y nación: el panteón ENDNOTES The inhabitants of the region abutting the border with Haiti (translator’s note).

2 Sorcerer or shaman (translator’s note).

3 Spirits of the deceased (translator’s note).

1

rayano de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.” Revista de estudios hispánicos 50, no. 3 (2006): 679-689.

Rodríguez-Henríquez, Rafael. Fuentes de la imaginación histórica en la narrativa de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010.

Rosario, Fari. “Sobre La Navidad: memorias de un naufragio de Veloz Maggiolo.” Ciencia y Sociedad 42, no. 3 (2017): 101-104.

Sabaté Llobera, Núria and Daniel Arbino. “Excavar el trujillato en La mosca soldado de Veloz Maggiolo.” Caribe 17, no. 1-2 (20142015): 61-76.

Sellers, Julie A. “Nebulous Boundaries: Geographies of Identity in El hombre del acordeón.” Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 39, no. 1 (March 2015).

Valerio-Holguín, Fernando, ed. Arqueología de las sombras. La narrativa de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. Santo Domingo: Editora Amigo del Hogar, 2000.

——— “Tres excavaciones arqueológicas en la obra de Marcio Veloz Maggiolo.” In Aproximaciones a la literatura dominicana 1981-2008, edited by Rei Berroa, 265-280. Santo Domingo: Banco Central de la República Dominicana, 2008.

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Statue of Christopher Columbus in the historical city center of Genoa. © Andrea Vierucci

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• CHAPTER 31

Italy and Literature (Testimonial)

By Manuel Salvador Gautier Architect and winner of the National literature prize of the Fundacion Corripio and the Ministry of Culture

n 1956, the Italian government awarded me a scholarship to study monument restoration at the University of Rome’s School of Architecture. I did, indeed, arrive in Rome and ultimately earned a degree from that school, as well as the title of PhD in Architecture. Being in Italy and, especially in Rome, means being thrown into a cornucopia of knowledge about the beginnings of our civilization. The Roman Empire established a wide range of institutions from which nearly everything we do today is derived. I was there from 1956 to 1960, at a time when Italy was in full recovery from the ravages of World War II and beginning to explode in prosperity. Films such as Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City and Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine had traveled the world, and tourists could be spotted everywhere, but above all, the economy was making great strides, and Milan had become one of the most important cities in Europe.

The architecture school at the University of Rome was located in the exclusive Parioli neighborhood, opposite the Villa Borghese park, one of the most beautiful sectors of Rome at the time. Touring the streets of Rome was a true delight for any architect, given that both its narrow streets and buildings maintain a stylistic unity that began with the Renaissance. The Colosseum, the ruins of ancient Rome, and the Appian Way are singularly and collectively impressive.

In literature, Italy boasts of Dante Alighieri, whose Divine Comedy is his most renowned work and who can be included with Miguel de Cervantes of Spain and William Shakespeare of England to form, arguably, the most outstanding trio of authors in the world. In the 1950s, writers such as Cesare Pavese and Alberto Moravia excelled, while Pier Paolo Pasolini emerged with his narratives and his films, which were groundbreaking in terms of what was being done at the time. I read several of them. I personally met Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, when he had not yet started his career as a film director but which eventually made him famous worldwide.

At that time, he had already published a book of short stories and directed various plays. In one of those plays, he cast my fellow pensione companion Angelo Zanolli, who was a theater and film actor. Patroni Griffi often came to converse with him, and I sometimes joined them. It is surprising how simple these famous people can be in more intimate settings. Patroni Griffi engaged in pleasant conversation and was quite humorous; he would also bring with him his newly written works, which he would then read to us.

I am an opera lover. The winter opera seasons at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma were an extraordinary experience for me. I heard the tenors Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Franco Corelli; the sopranos Mirella Freni and Renata Scotto; the baritone Tito Gobbi, and many more. I also heard the famous Maria Callas, though at La Scala in Milan. Whenever the opening of ticket sales was announced, I made sure to buy a ticket in the first row of the balcony; as a student, I could not pay for the higher-priced seats, but in that row the work could be best appreciated. I learned about set design and movement on the stage, period clothing,

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and orchestra direction. I heard Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Wagner—in short, all the composers whose operas were performed at the time (as they are today).

I would often take excursions around Rome with friends: to Ostia, which served as the main beach for the city; to Cerveteri, the Etruscan necropolis; to Viterbo, with its conglomeration of typical nineteenth-century houses, and many other places.

All the same, I never neglected my studies. At the college, I would meet with the professors in the six subjects that were required of me, as part of the revalidation I was undergoing for my career as an architect and engineer in Santo Domingo. I passed them one by one until only architectural composition remained. This subject was taught by a professor named Silverio Muratori, who evaluated the work I presented to him by pointing out aspects that needed improvement. Ultimately, I had to make some huge panels with building’s plans and elevation which I had designed, drafting everything brick by brick—it was a huge job. But I learned a lot from him, so much so that when I became a university professor in my own country, I applied his teaching methods, pointing out to my students all the problems in their respective projects.

All of these and other experiences influenced my literary training, which in turn greatly contributed to expanding my knowledge and imagination in general.

Valle Giulia, building that houses the School of Architecture of the University La Sapienza, Rome. © Lalupa / CC BY-SA

Opening page: Detail of the San Lorenzo Cathedral’s façade in Genoa. © Andrea Vierucci

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View of the inner courtyard of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. The courtyard overlooks Piazza de Ferrari. © Andrea Vierucci

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Paul Giudicelli, Ceremonia, completed in 1953, oil on canvas, 75x100 cm, Santo Domingo, Casa Mella Russo Museum. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Casa Mella Russo Museum

• CHAPTER 32

Italy’s Influence on Dominican Art

By Jeannette Miller Poet, narrator, essayist and art historian. Winner of the National Prize of Literature (2011)

Reference Points for the Cultural Ties between Italy and the Dominican Republic in the Nineteenth Century ntil the mid-nineteenth century, the trickle of Italian migration to the Dominican Republic consisted primarily of priests, merchants, and those with scant resources who came to seek a better life. However, forty years after the proclamation of Dominican independence (1844), Francisco Gregorio Billini, a Dominican writer, politician, and educator, was elected president of the republic (18841885). He is considered one of the most significant figures in Dominican history. Francisco Gregorio Billini was the grandson of Juan Antonio Billini Ruse (1787-1852), a native of Piedmont, who arrived on the island of Santo Domingo in 1802.1 At the beginning of the twentieth century, the growth of the sugar industry served as a catalyst for the arrival of Italians who settled mainly in Santo Domingo and La Romana; thereafter, the habits and culture of the Italian peninsula began to blend with Dominican customs.2 During that time, one of the best reference points regarding the cultural links between Italy and the Dominican Republic can be found in the articles written by the culture and art critic Rafael Díaz Niese in the Diario Itinerante published in the famous Cuadernos Dominicanos de Cultura in the 1940s.3 From these annals, we find that Díaz Niese, one of the most highly educated Dominicans at that time, was a fan of Italian culture and that he visited Italy and walked wherever he could in order to know its museums and architecture, of course without neglecting music, theater, and literature, thus achieving a deep knowledge of the classical canons, aware that they were the basis of Western culture.

Díaz Niese promoted the creation of the Dominican art academies, which were founded beginning in 1941, and he was also head of the General Directorate of Fine Arts, an official entity that included the National Symphony Orchestra (1941), the National School of Fine Arts (1942), and the Theater School of National Art (1946), etc.

In books, essays, and articles, important Dominican writers before him had described the magnificences of Roman, Florentine, and Venetian monuments and museums, emphasizing, in particular, the visual arts.

Such writers include the novelist Tulio M. Cestero, author of Sueño de una mañana florentina (Dream of a Florentine Morning)—which was part of a travel journal with personal testimonies titled Hombres y piedras: al margen del Baedeker (Men and Stones: on the Sidelines of the Baedeker, 1915)—and Rafael Abréu Licairac, author of Recuerdos y notas de viaje (Travel Memoirs and Notes, 1907).

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Italy’s presence in the Dominican Republic began

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to grow incrementally, encompassing sectors of the economy such as agriculture and commerce, while also making inroads into the world of art. Dominican art was not limited to reproducing classical style and themes, but it did include the presence of Italian educators who had traveled or lived in the Americas and taught art during their stay in the Dominican Republic.

Italy was a mecca for painters such as Juan Ramón Fiallo Cabral, who created two oil portraits of the Puerto Rican philosophical writer Eugenio María de Hostos and who mentioned Fiallo Cabral in his writings, where he “praised some of his paintings and advocated that the young artist return to Italy.”4 A similar request was made by Agustín Jiménez, who “in 1933 asked the Dominican government to repatriate him or to assign him a subsidy to continue his studies in Rome.”5 It is important to note that two masterpieces by the father of Dominican sculpture, Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta, One of Many (1903) and Caonabo (1915), which appear at strategic points in the city of Santo Domingo, were sent to Italy by the Dominican historian Pedro Troncoso Sánchez to have them cast in bronze.

Between 1949 and 1953, Troncoso Sánchez served as ambassador to the Holy See, and then as ambassador to Italy from 1956 to 1958. He was also appointed Minister of Education in 1952.6 Over the course of the twentieth century, a dynamic cultural exchange between Italy and the Dominican Republic was forged. The presence of Italians in the Americas—as a result of economic, social and political factors—grew markedly in the Dominican Republic with the outbreak of World War I (1914), taking on a different and more augmented form after the death of the dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961.7 In addition to Dominicans traveling to Europe, contacts with Italian art occurred in other countries in the Western Hemisphere. For example, various renowned Dominican artists received their training under Italian masters in the United States and Venezuela: Alejandro Bonilla (1820-1901), painter and draftsman, lived in 1868 in Caracas, where he studied with an Italian master from whom he learned the portrait technique; Elena Cabrera (1942), a painter, draftswoman, and installation artist, took painting classes in New York with the Italian professor Luis de Donato; and Antonio Guadalupe (1941), a painter and draftsman, enrolled in classes in the United States with the Italian professor Prillo Grinilli. Furthermore, a sizable number of major Dominican painters, sculptors, and photographers who left their mark in Dominican art history were the descendants of Italian immigrants.

Since the late twentieth century, an increase in cultural exchange between the two countries can be measured by the creation of the Casa de Italia in 1994. Located in the colonial city of Santo Domingo, this cultural center offers Italian classes and art exhibitions, as well as conferences on subjects of mutual interest to both countries, and other cultural events and activities.

Similarly, exhibitions of Dominican art have been presented in Italy, and publications on Dominican literature have been issued, several of them compiled by Professor Danilo Manera of the University of Milan, in-

Epifanio Billini (Credited), Presbítero Francisco Roca y Castañer, second half of the 19th century.

Daguerreotype, Dominican Republic.

Adriana Billini, Retrato de una Infanta Oil / canvas, 157 x 87 cm, 1930, Santo Domingo, Museum of Modern Art. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Museo de Arte Moderno

ITALY’S INFLUENCE ON DOMINICAN ART

A painting by Margarita Billini de Fiallo depicting the Dominican Convent and the Chapel of the Third Order in the Colonial city of Santo Domingo. © Alberto Emilio Fiallo Billini

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cluding I cactus non temono il vento. Racconti da Santo Domingo (Feltrinelli, Milan, 2000); and Onde, farfalla e aroma di café (Edizioni Estemporanee, Alessandria, Italy, 2005). In 2005, the famed Dominican photographer Polibio Díaz participated in the Venice Biennale. In June 2006, Dominican Culture Week was held in the Italian city of Fuggi, which featured films, plays, talks, and artisan exhibitions, with the aim of disseminating Dominican art, culture, and history. In November of the same year, Italian Culture Week was celebrated in Santo Domingo.

These events were sponsored by the mayors of both cities and by the corresponding tourist offices. In 2007, the artists Attilio Aleotti (Italian) and Ángela Hernández (Dominican) launched a photographic exhibition titled De Lo Nimio [Poetic], which was held at Casa de Italia in Santo Domingo and also at the Ducal Palace in Pavulo nel Frignano in 2008. In 2011, the Dominican Ministry of Culture issued the bilingual anthology (Spanish and Italian) of Dominican poetry, Cantos del aire. Antología de poesía dominicana contemporánea (Milan: SE Ediciones). This anthology was translated and edited by the Italian Emanuele Bettini8 and featured the works of twenty-two Dominican poets. In 2017, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) awarded the title of Honorary Professor to the literary critic and scholar Giovanni Di Pietro for his contributions to the analysis of Dominican literature. Di Pietro, a second-generation Canadian of Italian descent, has also lived and taught in Santo Domingo.

Returning to the visual arts, some of the most noteworthy works executed by Italian artists in the Dominican Republic include the marble statues of the Founding Fathers—Duarte, Sánchez and Mella—created by the Italian Nicola Arrighini (1905-1977) in 1976, and located inside the National Pantheon. Likewise, the monumental entrance door of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Altagracia in Higuey, made of bronze with a layer of 24-carat gold plating, was executed in 1988 by Tommaso Gismondi (1906-2003), a prominent Italian sculptor of religious images.

Below we will refer to the connections between Dominican artists and Italy based on two situational criteria: family ties, which will include Italians who decided to live in the Dominican Republic and those who, having been born in the Dominican Republic, are descendants of Italians; as well as those artists who lived or received their training in Italy, and those who received instruction under Italian artists and educators elsewhere. For reasons of length, we will limit this study to the most renowned artists.

Dominican Artists Who Have Connections with Italy based on Family Ties Sharing a surname does not necessarily mean having a common ancestor, and sometimes the origin of the surname may be traced back to different regions and cities. That is why we have included the origin of the surname in Italy and the origin of the surname in the Dominican Republic, based on information found in sources that appear in reference publications, and in the genealogical capsules made by different members of the Dominican Institute of Genealogy, mainly those that are part of the research project titled Inmigrantes italianos en Quisqueya (1-9) published by Julio A. González Hernández.

Epifanio Billini (1820-1892). Billini is an Italian surname originating in the Piedmont region.9 A painter, draftsman, and photographer, he was the uncle of Francisco Gregorio Billini, who served as president of the Dominican Republic (1884-1885); brother of the well-known philanthropist Francisco Javier Billini (Father Billini); and the first to open a daguerreotype establishment in 1857. He is considered the father of Dominican photography.

Adriana Billini (1863 - 1946). Daughter of Epifanio Billini. A painter and draftswoman, she was born in Baní, Dominican Republic. She taught at

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the School of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba, where she directed a private academy using her own methods to teach drawing. Her work is closely linked to Dominican themes. Her paintings were displayed in the most important Dominican exhibitions, such as the National Exhibition of 1907, where she obtained the First Prize for Painting for her romantic oil canvas, Portrait of a Girl.

Rafael Arzeno Tavárez (1914 - 1972). Arzeno is an Italian surname from Liguria.10 A musician, painter, and draftsman, Arzeno Tavárez was born in Puerto Plata, where he studied under the Menard sisters and in Santo Domingo under Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta. He traveled through the United States and Europe where he was able to study the great works of the Italian, Spanish, and Flemish Renaissance. In 1942, he founded the San Rafael School of Painting in Puerto Plata, where several well-known artists, such as Jorge Severino and Rafi Vásquez, received their initial education. He participated in numerous national exhibitions and competitions.

Margarita Billini de Fiallo (1909 - 1990). As we have already seen, the surname Billini originates from the Piedmont region, in the northern part of the Italian peninsula.11 A painter and draftswoman, she was born in Santo Domingo and died in the same city. From a young age, she attended the Academy of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture of Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta, under whom she learned Academic Classicism. Her first solo exhibition took place in 1971, which portrayed colonial monuments as they were originally built, thus greatly assisting in subsequent restoration projects. This exhibition was donated to the Dominican Government.

In October 1986, she launched her second exhibition under the title Homenaje a mi Tierra (Homage to My Land) in protest against deforestation. Her third and final solo exhibition, Tras las Huellas de la Evangelización (Following the Footsteps of Evangelization), took place in 1990 at the Museo de las Casas Reales under the patronage of the Permanent Dominican Commission for the Celebration of the Fifth Centennial of the Discovery and Evangelization of the Americas. In this exhibition, she displayed 16 oil paintings that reproduced the 16 churches initially built in the Dominican Republic during the colonial period.

Billini de Fiallo also exhibited her work in important group exhibitions and biennials, such as Santo Domingo and Art (1978) sponsored by UNESCO. In 1990, the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo asked her to exhibit as a special guest at the XVII National Biennial of Visual Arts.

Elsa Divanna (1927 - ?). Elsa Divanna was born in Italy.12 A painter, draftswoman, and sculptor, she moved to Santo Domingo where she studied at the George Haussdorf Academy. She then attended the National School of Fine Arts (ENBA), where she graduated in 1948, winning two prizes: one for painting and the other for sculpture. From 1950 to 1955, she taught drawing at ENBA, and in 1955 she went to France and Italy for several years.

Her work depicts women and ancient scenes, landscapes, and still lifes that have affirmed her as a painter with a solid academic background.

Divanna’s work was shown in numerous individual exhibitions, and she participated in important group shows, such as the Rio de Janeiro Women’s Exhibition (1948), the First Spanish American Biennial of Madrid (1951), and the São Paulo Biennial (1951). At the IV National Biennial of 1948, she shared the painting award with José Vela Zannetti. At the V Biennial of 1950, she received the University of Santo Domingo Award (presently the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo). In 1969, she presented a retrospective exhibition at the Cultural Heritage Office, and in 1982 she exhibited in a solo show at the Casa de Bastidas.

Paul Giudicelli Palmieri (1921 - 1965). Giudicelli is a surname that is found in various regions of Italy.

Paul Giudicelli’s parents were from Corsica.13 A painter, draftsman, ceramist, and muralist, he was born in San Pedro de Macorís. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo. He had his first solo show in 1952. Paul Giudicelli was a multidisciplinary talent whose work was groundbreaking in terms of Dominican modern art. He researched Taíno pictographs and captured the nation’s cultural past in experimental work focusing on geometric abstraction. Giudicelli, who never left the country, created his own pigments, using a formula that he referred to as oil-tempera-plastic with which he achieved an earthy surface in his paintings.

Unfortunately, contact with this toxic mixture led to his death from cancer. Abstract Expressionist and Expressionist Geometric were some of the terms he employed to define his work. In researching Taíno pictographs

ITALY’S INFLUENCE ON DOMINICAN ART

Crismar, Deconstruction, 1986, sculpture in iron, wood, iron wire, 308x178x100 cm, Santo Domingo, Museum of Modern Art. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Museo de Arte Moderno

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and the Afro-Caribbean syncretism of the bateyes, he achieved new approaches to subject and surface, thereby influencing the artists of his time. His great conceptual ability and pictorial mastery have made him a key figure in art, not only in the Caribbean, but also across the hemisphere.

José Ramón Rotellini (1942). Rotellini is a surname originating in Tuscany.14 A sculptor and draftsman, he was born in Santo Domingo. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts, where he received awards in drawing and sculpture. Later he attended the Academia San Fernando in Madrid and had his first solo exhibition in Santo Domingo in 1969. He has won prizes in national contests and biennials. His work approaches humanity and nature in figurative and abstract modalities, preferring vertical compositional approaches that endow his sculptures with a spirituality that also employs symbolism. He uses wood, metal, cement, and other materials, which he sometimes combines in harmonic solutions. A professor at the National School of Fine Arts and at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Rotellini has also created outdoor sculptures, including a noteworthy composition utilizing asymmetrical and symmetrical elements and situated on the Avenida 27 de Febrero, in Santo Domingo.

Adolfo Piantini (1946). Piantini is an Italian surname of unidentified origin. The first member of this clan to arrive in Santo Domingo, José Eugenio Piantini (1791-1871) emigrated from Italy in the early nineteenth century.15 Adolfo Piantini’s primary medium is painting. He was born in Santo Domingo and studied at the National School of Fine Arts under Gilberto Hernández Ortega, and at the Art Students League in New York.

He had his first solo show at Casa de Teatro in 1966. His importance on the Dominican art scene derives from his focus on religious iconography utilizing thick black lines, as well as monumentally treated Dominican themes, which are characterized by an ingenious approach to colorism. He has participated in numerous group shows, biennials, and competitions, thereby achieving a considerable level of renown. He currently lives in the United States.

Aquiles Azar Billini (1965). As previously noted, the surname Billini originates from the Piedmont region.

Aquiles Azar Billini was born in Santo Domingo. He is a painter, draftsman and photographer, as well as an evangelical pastor and the head of the Achilles Azar Ministries. He studied architecture at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU) and at the Iberoamerican University (UNIBE). He graduated from the Altos de Chavón School of Design, where he also later taught. He has participated in group and biennial exhibitions, and received various prestigious prizes, including First Prize for Drawing in the XIII Eduardo León Jiménes Art Contest (1990); First Prize for Painting at the XIX National Biennial of Visual Arts (1994); and Photography Prize at the XXIII National Biennial of Visual Arts (2005).

Johnny Bonnelly (1951). Bonnelly is a variant of Bonelli, a surname widely found in Italy, predominantly in the northern central region.16 A sculptor, he was born in Santiago de los Caballeros. He studied architecture and crafts in the Dominican Republic and France. In the 1980s, his approach shifted, thereby bringing major changes to Dominican sculpture. The use of wood, ribbons, gangorra, and colored metals to make

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his objects allow him to obtain a novel image that interweaves erotic, religious, and popular themes, most notably with mobile sculptures that affect space from different angles. He has won prizes in biennials and national competitions. His erotic Trip Sculpture of a Ciguapa can be viewed on the Avenida 27 de Febrero, in Santo Domingo.

Pascal Mecariello (1968). Mecariello is Italian surname originating in Campania.17 An Instalation artist, ceramist, and photographer, he was born in Santo Domingo in 1968. He achieved prominence in the 1990s through awards in competitions and biennials, most notably the Grand Prize at the XXV National Biennial of Visual Arts in Santo Domingo (2009).

An autodidact, he has attended engraving and ceramics workshops in the Netherlands and also dabbled in digital art.

Orlando Menicucci (1949). Menicucci is an Italian surname from Tuscany.18 A painter and draftsman, he was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Self-taught, he was a founding member of the Friordano group, a collective that arose at the Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, which proposed opening the exhibition spaces to the public. Some of its members experimented with extra-pictorial materials and resources. Considered an important figure of the School of Santiago, Menicucci has exhibited on numerous occasions and received many prizes and recognitions, most notably the Painting Prize at the XIII National Biennial (1974) for his work 0, 1, 3, 1, 0, 1.

Luis Nova (1957). Nova is an Italian surname from Milan.19 Nova, a renowned Dominican photographer, was born in Santo Domingo in 1957. He studied Industrial Psychology at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University (UNPHU). He later became part of the Fotogroup. In 1981, he presented his first solo exhibition at the Nouveau Art Center. He has exhibited on numerous occasions and was awarded important prizes and recognitions in biennials and national competitions, including the Grand Prize at the XIX National Biennial of Visual Arts (1994) for his color photograph Captive of Time. Since 1984, he has devoted himself to professional photography. He has specialized in social photography, artistic portraiture, design, and the production of book covers.

Josefina Romano Pou (1917-1980). A Roman Italian surname which literally means a native of Rome.20 A self-taught painter and draftswoman, she achieved fame in the mid-1960s, after having won prizes in two consecutive competitions by the firm E. León Jimenes: First Prize for Drawing in 1967 and Third Prize for Painting in 1968.

Carlos Sangiovanni (1949). Sangiovanni is an Italian surname from Valenza, Piedmont.21 A graphic artist and designer, he was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts.

He studied woodcut in Puerto Rico and later at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Rodríguez Faccio University of San José, Costa Rica, with a scholarship from the OAS. He has exhibited successfully at home and abroad.

He has won awards in national contests and biennials. He is currently Vice Chancellor of APEC University.

Inés Tolentino (1962). Tolentino is an Italian surname from Milan.22 A painter and draftswoman, she was born in Santo Domingo. She studied at the APEC School of Art and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where she received a master’s degree in visual arts and art sciences (1980). She then went on to complete a PhD in aesthetics at The Sorbonne. She has had solo exhibitions and participated in group

José Ramón Rotellini, Femenino 90, 1989, wooden sculpture, 130x70x39 cm, Santo Domingo, Museum of Modern Art. The work was awarded the second prize for sculpture at the XVII National Art Biennial in 1990. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Museum of Modern Art

Adolfo Piantini, Desgarramiento, 1983, collage / canvas, 96.5 x 119.5 cm, Santo Domingo, Museum of Modern Art. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Museo de Arte Moderno

ITALY’S INFLUENCE ON DOMINICAN ART

Johnny Bonnelly, Tibu tours, 2003, painted iron and aluminum sculpture, 70x64x37 cm, Santo Domingo, Museum of Modern Art. The work won third prize for sculpture at the XXII National Art Biennial in 2003. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Museo de Arte Moderno

Orlando Menicucci, El Trueque, s.d., acrylic on canvas, 102x152,5 cm, Santo Domingo, Museum Casa Mella Russo. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández / Museo Casa Mella Russo

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shows, contests, and biennials in Santo Domingo, Washington, D.C., Lima, San Juan, Cagnessur-Mer, Paris, and Mexico. The prizes she has received include First Prize for Drawing in the Student Competition of the Royal Bank of Canada (1977, Revelation of the Year); Arawak Gallery Prize, (1986); Víctor Choquet National Prize, Ministry of Finance, Paris (1987); and Honorable Mention in Drawing, Domecq Contest, Mexico (1987).

She had her first solo show at La Galería in 1985.

Her work, focusing on drawing, combines images from the past with blurred texts and unusual details, forging an idiom that references both cinema and literature.

Vicente (Tico) Tolentino (1933-2013). As we have already seen, the surname Tolentino originated in Milan. An architect and photographer, Vicente Tolentino was born in Santo Domingo. A member of Fotogroup since 1983, he also served as director of that group on several occasions. He participated in numerous contests and biennials, and in 1990 he received the Best Photograph of the Year Award for Fotogrupo, and first place in the Photography Category, at the XVII Biennial of Visual Arts in Santo Domingo for his work Pobreza Cándida (Candid Poverty).

Freddy Ginebra Giudicelli (1944). The surname is of unidentified Italian origin, although his grandparents were from Corsica. Freddy Ginebra Giudicelli is the nephew of the contemporary artist and instructor Paul Giudicelli. Founder and director of the Casa de Teatro (1974), Ginebra Giudicelli is also an accomplished playwright, actor, columnist, and creator of major festivals and competitions, including 7 Días con el Pueblo (7 days with the People, which ran from November 25 to December 1, 1974). He has been a patron of the arts throughout his life, as well as a promoter and key figure in Dominican art and culture. Among many other accomplishments, he opened the Casa de Teatro to photography exhibitions in 1981, a time when the medium was not considered an art form in the Dominican Republic.

Marcio Veloz Maggiolo (1936). Maggiolo is an Italian surname originally from Sardinia. Marcio Veloz Maggiolo is the great-grandson on his mother’s side of the Italian Bartolomeo Maggiolo Pellerano (Genoa,

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1825) and the son of Mercedes Rosa Maggiolo Núñez and Francisco Javier Veloz Molina.23 He was born in Santo Domingo. He is a writer, archaeologist, and anthropologist, and he is considered one of the most important intellectuals in the Dominican Republic. He studied painting at the National School of Fine Arts where he was an outstanding student of Gilberto Hernández Ortega, Yoryi Morel, and other great national painters.24 In 2006 he presented an exhibition under the title Gramática del Color (Grammar of Color), consisting of drawings and paintings, within the framework of the IX edition of the Santo Domingo International Book Fair, which was also dedicated to him.

Dominican Artists with Ties to Italy—Either through Educational Stints or Sojourns in Italy or through Study under Italian Instructors Elsewhere Alejandro Bonilla (1820-1901). A painter and draftsman, Bonilla was born in Santo Domingo. He participated in the process of independence and depicted crucial moments in Dominican history in his work. In 1868, he lived in Caracas, where he studied with an Italian instructor from whom he learned techniques in portraiture.

Bonilla is the first to deal with the subject of sugarcane and machinery used in the sugar industry.25 Juan Ramón Fiallo Cabral (1874 - ?). This Dominican painter emerged in the late nineteenth century.

He studied in Italy and created two portraits of the Puerto Rican philosopher and educator Eugenio María de Hostos. Hostos wrote a sketch where he “praised some of his paintings and in which he advocated that the young artist return to Italy.”26 Marian Balcácer (1967). A photographer who was born in Santo Domingo. She studied at the Altos de Chavón Academy, at the Parsons School of Design in New York, and at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Milan, Italy (1987-1990), obtaining a degree in photography. She has participated in numerous photographic collectives with the group Visiones X Ocho. In 1996, she won an award at the International Film and Photography Festival, called the Festival des 3 Continents, in Nantes, France. She lives in Milan where she runs a photography studio.

Elena Cabrera (1942). Painter, draftswoman, and installation artist. She was born in Moca, Dominican Republic. In Santo Domingo, she graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in 1963 and in that same year obtained First Prize in the Poster Contest of the National Office of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo. She studied in Mexico and at the Art Students League in New York, where she was a disciple of Jack Farragazo and where she participated in group shows. She also attended drawing classes at the Salmagundi Club and painting classes under the Italian professor Luis de Donato. She traveled to Europe, where she visited museums and galleries.

She had her first solo show at the Casa de Francia in Santo Domingo in 1978. In 1989, she promoted her work in a collective that brought together 45 Dominican artists. She has taught at the University of Santo Domingo (UASD). Her figurative work presents approaches framed within Surrealism. Her subsequent schematic figurations project internal dynamics. At the 1984 National Biennial, she presented an installation titled Deforestation 2000, one of the first Dominican works to focus on this subject.

Antonio Guadalupe (1941). A painter and draftsman, Guadalupe was born in Moca, Dominican Republic.

He studied painting and drawing in his hometown under Poncio Salcedo. In 1959, he obtained a scholarship to study at the National School of Fine Arts, where he studied with Gilberto Hernández Ortega. Later, he moved to New York and enrolled in classes taught by Italian professor Prillo Grinilli. He had his first solo exhibition in Santo Domingo at the Dominican-American Cultural Institute (ICDA) in 1968. His work, which features geometric figures, makes use of large formats and diluted drawing with which he has captured the cultural references of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the island and of our Afro-Caribbean culture. He also incorporates figures from Dominican history, such as the campesino leader Mamá Tingó.

Cristian Martínez (known professionally as Crismar, b. 1939). An architect, sculptor and installation artist who was born in Santo Domingo. He studied in Italy. Beginning in 1967, he turned his artistic focus to mobiles composed of huge painted plexiglass plates that he hung at the International Airport of the Americas and

ITALY’S INFLUENCE ON DOMINICAN ART

Inés Tolentino, Tina, 1965, 2018, acrylic on canvas, 150x120 cm, artist’s collection. © Photograph by Mariano Hernández

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in the lobby of the National Library. Those works create a new perspective that dialogues between painting and sculpture for the Dominican public. Among the public monuments that he has designed, the most important is the mausoleum containing the remains of the three founding fathers of the country: Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, and Ramón Matías Mella. Inaugurated on February 27, 1976, and located in Parque de la Independencia, it is part of the path to the Puerta del Conde, the site where Dominican independence was proclaimed on February 27, 1844. The statues of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella located in the Interior of the mausoleum were created by the Italian artist Nicola Arrighini.27 Geo Ripley (1950). Born in Venezuela, Ripley is the son of Dominican political exiles. Since he was a child, he showed interest in painting and drawing. In 1967, he won the Second Drawing Prize of the Third Annual León Jimenes Art Contest for his work in mixed media on paper entitled Inspiración. He received a master’s in visual arts from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, UASD (1972), and completed the postgraduate course “New Materials for Sculpture” (1973-75) at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. He has taught at the Simón Bolívar University of Caracas (1976), the Art School of the APEC University (1978), and the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (1980), as well as fulfilled the role of visiting professor through the Access Project at Buena Vista University in Iowa (1995). In 1972, he inaugurated his first installation in Santiago de los Caballeros. He is considered one of the initiators of performance and installation art in the Caribbean area.

Carluis Pérez Abreu (1975). An architect and photographer born in Santo Domingo. Pérez Abreu studied at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University, the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo (1991-1993), the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin (1993-1994), the Milan Polytechnic (2001), and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (2001-2003). In Santo Domingo, he took courses in Creative Photography (2007-2008) and Digital Photography (2007) with Polibio Díaz and Héctor Báez, respectively. Since 2005 he has been a member of the Colectivo Escritura del Espacio and has participated in group exhibitions. Part of his photographic work reproduces architectural structures and spaces, both ancient and modern, from the major cities of Italy. He has taught at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, PUCMM (2005-2010).

An ever-expanding exchange of customs and cultural visions As we have seen, relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic have become increasingly close over time. The number of Italians who come to live in the country and the Dominicans who emigrate to Italy continues to expand, thereby establishing an exchange of customs and cultural visions that brings us closer together. As a consequence, the mutual interest in both cultures has gained momentum in approaches where a synthesis of elements from both cultures and histories has become quite significant.

The artists noted above are part of a much larger group that will emerge as research becomes more comprehensive, demonstrating the ties that have always existed between Italy and the Dominican Republic, yet within the realm of the arts.

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NOTES Francisco Gregorio Billini Aristi was born on May 25, 1844, in the city of Santo Domingo. His parents were Hipólito Billini Hernández (1822-1903) and María de Regla Aristi Guerrero (b.

1823). Francisco Gregorio’s father was part of a family of eleven siblings, children of Juan Antonio Billini Ruse and Ana Joaquina Hernández González. Among these are José Antonio (b. 1812), Epifanio (b. 1820), Hipólito (b., 1822), Miguel (b. 1827), and Francisco Xavier (b. 1837). The first three are considered national patriots, while the last two embraced the priesthood. The last was the famous philanthropist Father Billini. The origin of the Billini family goes back to the town of Alba, in the Piedmont region of Italy, where Juan Antonio Billini Ruse was born, the son of José Antonio Billini and Juana Dominica Ruse. Juan Antonio belonged to one of the battalions that made up the Leclerc expedition in 1802. Having been wounded, he retired to the town of Baní, where he settled. There he became the foundation of an honorable family that produced heroes, photographers, poets, artists, philanthropists, and a president. http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicasdescendencias-presidenciales-francisco-gregorio-billini/.

2 es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmigración_italiana_en_República_ Dominican.

3 In the General Index of Cuadernos Dominicanos de Cultura 1943-1952, Diario Itinerante aparece como La Vida Itinerante.

1943-1952 Los Cuadernos Dominicanos de Cultura ... – PUCMM. investigare.pucmm.edu.do:8080/xmlui/.../20.../ EEED_19800949_79-104.pdf.

4 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Pintura y Escultura en Santo Domingo, Colección Pensamiento Dominicano (Santo Domingo: Julio D. Postigo e Hijos Editores, 1972), 105.

5 Rodríguez Demorizi, Pintura y Escultura en Santo Domingo, 122.

6 http://academiadominicanahistoria.org.do/wpcontent/uploads/2017/07/troncososanchez.pdf.

7 es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmigración_italiana_en_República Dominicana.

8 http://www.aracneeditrice.it/aracneweb/index.php/autori. html?auth-id=242044.

9 BILLINI. Origin of the surname BILLINI in the Dominican Republic. Juan Antonio Billini Ruse (1787-1852), a native of Alba Pompeii, Piedmont arrived in the early nineteenth century. He was a merchant and shipowner. He married Juana de Mota Arvelo in 1811 in Santo Domingo. After his first wife died, he married Ana Joaquina Hernández González in 1819. http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-2/.

10 ARZENO. Origin of the surname ARZENO in the Dominican Republic. A native of Zoagli, Genoa province, Liguria, Sebastián Arzeno (1781-1851) arrived in Puerto Plata in the mid-nineteenth century. He married María del Carmen Rodríguez. http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-1/. https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/ lang/es/cognomi/Arzeno/Italia/.

11 BILLINI, 19.

12 DIVANNA. Origin of the surname DIVANNA in the Dominican Republic. José Divanna Majolino (1869-1964), from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, married María Sánchez Rodríguez (b.

1879) in 1894 in Santiago, where they ran a business in the Palmer Hermanos commercial establishment. http://www.idg.org.do/capsulas/abril2018/abril201821.htm. http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-4/.

1

Jeannette Miller, Paul Giudicelli: sobreviviente de una época oscura (Santo Domingo: Publicaciones Galería de Arte Moderno), 1983. https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/es/cognomi/Giudicelli/Italia/.

14 ROTELLINI. Origin of the surname ROTELLINI in the Dominican Republic. Luis Rotellini Fago, from Rome, married Evelina Coén Mansuit in Santo Domingo in 1849. http://www.idg. org.do/capsulas/mayo2018/mayo201819.htm. www.ancestrositalianos.com.

15 PIANTINI. Origin of the surname PIANTINI in the Dominican Republic. José Eugenio Piantini (1791-1871), a gunsmith, emigrated from Italy to Santo Domingo in the early 19th century.

He married Florentina Blanchard (b. 1794). http://www.idg.org.do/capsulas/mayo2018/mayo201812.htm. http://www.tutto-italia.com/cognomi-p.htm.

16 BONNELLY. Origin of the surname BONNELLY in the Dominican Republic. The siblings Francisco Ulises (1825-1870), José Arístides, and Anne Nelly Bonnelli Coutín emigrated in 1846 from Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands, to Puerto Plata. They came accompanied by their mother, María Luisa Coutín (b.1800), who had already been widowed by Pedro Bonnelli (1798-1843), a native of Corsica. The surname underwent changes in Puerto Plata and became Bonnelly. http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-2/.

17 www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/es/cognomi/Meccariello/Italia/.

18 MENICUCCI. Origin of the surname MENICUCCI in the Dominican Republic. Orestes Menicucci Chiardini (1876-1950) was born in Fucecchio, Tuscany. He arrived in Santo Domingo in 1902. He was a sculptor, decorator, and artist who worked in painting and plaster ornamentation. He married María Mercedes Rodríguez Núñez (b. 1884) in La Vega in 1909. Julio Amable González Fernández, “Unique Surnames (6 of 9),” Hoy, Areíto supplement, Genealogical Capsules, July 14, 2012. http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-6/.

19 https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/es/cognomi/ Nova/Italia/.

20 ROMANO. Origin of the surname ROMANO in the Dominican Republic. Antonio Romano de Rivera, a native of Montecalvo, Campania, Avelino, married María Josefa Díaz Félix in 1814 in Azua. http://www.idg.org.do/capsulas/mayo2018/mayo201819.htm.

21 SANGIOVANNI. Origin of the last name SANGIOVANNI in the Dominican Republic. Originally from Valenza, Piedmont. Domenico Sangiovanni Cino and his wife María Rosa Grisolía Di Vanna arrived in Samaná at the end of the 19th century from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, accompanied by their three children: Bonifacio (d. 1928), Paolo (d. 1936), and Vincenzo Sangiovanni Grisolía (b. 1880). The Sangiovanni Grisolía brothers were merchants and owners of the Sangiovanni Brothers business establishment. Paolo married Matilde Pérez Álvarez, while Vincenzo married María Balbina Pérez Álvarez in 1904. Later, the spouses Giovanni Sangiovanni Forestieri and Giuseppa Russo Di Puglia (1882-1975) and their three children, Inmaculada, Ercilio Ernesto, and Luis Sangiovanni Russo, left Santa Domenica de Talao, Cosenza, for America. After a stopover in Cuba, they arrived in Puerto Plata in 1919, http://www.idg.org.do/capsulas/mayo2018/ mayo201819.htm 13

ITALY’S INFLUENCE ON DOMINICAN ART

http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-11/.

22 https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/es/cognomi/Tolentino/Italia/.

23 https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/es/cognomi/ Maggiolo/Italia/.

Edwin Espinal, “Marcio Genealógico,” Hoy Digital, August 13, 2016.

24 Veloz Maggiolo, “Mi padre fue como el maestro con un único alumno. Minerva Isa,” Hoy Digital, September 16, 2014.

25 Antonio Fernández Spencer, Catálogo de la Inauguración de la Galería de Arte Moderno, December 17, 1976, 19.

26 Rodríguez Demorizi, Pintura y Escultura en Santo Domingo, 4.

27 https://www.listindiario.com/zona-de.../Parque-Independencia.

REFERENCES BOOKS Bettini, Emanuele. Cantos del aire. Antología de poesía dominicana contemporánea. Milán: Edizioni SE, 2011.

De los Santos, Danilo. La Pintura en la Sociedad Dominicana. Santiago: Publicaciones U.C.M.M., 1979.

Manera, Danilo. I cactus non temono il vento. Racconti da Santo Domingo. Milán: Feltrinelli, 2000.

Manera, Danilo. Onde, farfalla e aroma di café. Alessandria, Italia: Edizioni Estemporanee, 2005.

Miller, Jeannette. Historia de la fotografía dominicana, two volumes. Santo Domingo: Colección Centenario Grupo León Jimenes, 2010.

----------Historia de la Pintura Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Impresora Amigo del Hogar, 1979.

----------Importancia del contexto histórico en el desarrollo del arte dominicano. Cronología del arte dominicano: 1844-2005. Santo Domingo: Secretaría de Estado de Educación Superior, Ciencia y Tecnología, 2006.

----------La mujer en el arte dominicano. Santo Domingo: Ediciones Banco del Progreso Dominicano, 2005.

----------Paul Giudicelli: sobreviviente de una época oscura. Santo Domingo: Publicaciones Galería de Arte Moderno, 1983.

Miller, Jeannette and María Ugarte. Arte dominicano: 1844-2000.

Escultura, instalaciones, medios no tradicionales y arte vitral. Santo Domingo: Colección Cultural Codetel, 2002.

----------Arte dominicano: 1844-2000. Pintura, dibujo, gráfica y mural, vol. 4. Santo Domingo: Colección Cultural Codetel, 2001.

Moya Pons, Frank. “Evolución de la población dominicana 15002010.” In Historia de la República Dominicana, vol. 2. Madrid: Editorial CSIC, 2010.

Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio. Pintura y Escultura en Santo Domingo, Colección Pensamiento Dominicano, vol. 49. Santo Domingo: Julio D. Postigo e Hijos Editores, 1972.

Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio. Caricatura y Dibujo en Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1977.

Suro, Darío. Arte Dominicano. Santo Domingo: Publicaciones Ahora, 1969.

CATALOGUES, NEWSPAPERS, JOURNALS, AND ONLINE SOURCES Adróver de Cibrán, Belkis. “Celeste Woss y Gil Ricart.” Revista Ahora, no. 993, December 2, 1982.

Cartagena Portalatín, Aída. Galería de Bellas Artes, Colección Balu-

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arte. Santo Domingo: Edición Brigadas Dominicanas, 1964.

Espinal, Edwin. “Marcio Genealógico.” Hoy Digital, August 13, 2016.

Fernández Spencer, Antonio. Catálogo de la Inauguración de la Galería de Arte Moderno, 1976.

González Hernández, Julio Amable. “Inmigrantes italianos en Quisqueya (1-9).” Hoy, Areito supplement, Genealogical Capsules, March 24, 2018, http://hoy.com.do/capsulas-genealogicas-inmigrantes-italianos-a-quisqueya-.

Grillo, Rosa Maria. Emigración italiana a las Américas. Universidad de Salerno, https://www.dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/4748020.pdf.

Isa, Minerva. “Veloz Maggiolo: Mi padre fue como el maestro con un único alumno.” Hoy Digital, September 16, 2014.

Miller, Jeannette. Apuntes sobre la abstracción en las Antillas del Caribe Hispano. Plástica 1, no. 21 (September 1993).

Sullivan, Edward and Jeannette Miller, Marianne Tolentino, Elizabeth Ferrer. Modern and Contemporary Art of the Dominican Republic. Americas Society, Spanish Institute, 1996. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmigraci%C3%B3n_italiana_ en_Rep%C3%BAblica_Dominicana https://ancestrositalianos. com/apellidos/. www.apellidositalianos.com.ar/ https://novecentoweb.com/noticias/apellidos-italianos-origen-difusion-y-curiosidades/. https://listindiario.com/zona-de-contacto/2008/11/16/81306/ parque-independenciahttp://www.archivohistorico.sanluis.gov.ar/ http://www.museodeibozzetti.it/assets/files/mdb/collezione/ artisti/s001451.php https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_GismondiInstitutoDominicanodeGenealogía, Inc. http://idg.org.do/capsulas/ capsulas.htm http://enciclopediadominicana.org/Francisco_Gregorio_Billini https://www.heraldrysinstitute.com/lang/es/.../Maggiolo/Italia/.../8144/ www.tutto-italia.com/cognomi-p.htm

• CHAPTER 33

Italian Sculptors in the Dominican Republic

By Myrna Guerrero Villalona Director of the Bellapart Museum in Santo Domingo

he presence of Italian sculptors in the Dominican Republic dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century, with the creation of important works of public art that have become iconic in the public squares and emblematic spaces of Dominican culture. These works in bronze and marble have enriched Dominican sculptural heritage through their use of techniques and materials that up until that time were applied by few Dominican sculptors. Arturo Tomagnini (Pietrasanta, Lucca, Italy 1979–1957) and Nicola Arrighini (Pietrasanta, Lucca, Italy 1905–1977) were the architects of the statues of leading figures in national history, such as Juan Pablo Duarte and Gregorio Luperón, as well as the monumental ensemble of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella at the Altar de la Patria (Altar to the Homeland), in addition to various fountains, and the Monumento a la Caña (Monument to Sugar Cane). Tommaso Gismondi (Anagni, Italy 1906–2003), known as “the sculptor to the Popes,” was commissioned to create the bronze doors for the Basilica of Higüey, a place of pilgrimage and a Catholic sanctuary where the Virgin of Altagracia, Protectress of the Dominican people, is venerated. Another Italian sculptor, Aurelio Mistruzzi (Villaorba 1880 – Rome, Italy 1960) worked for Rafael L. Trujillo and was the author of the dictator’s equestrian statue, a work destroyed in 1961—the year of the “tyrannicide”—when all vestiges of the oppressor’s glorification were obliterated.

The Monument to Duarte by Arturo Tomagnini After national independence was declared in 1944, the actions of the “Trinitarians”1 were dismantled with the physical elimination of some and the exile of others, among them Juan Pablo Duarte; consummation of the Annexation to Spain under the directive of Pedro Santana (1861–63); and reestablishment of the republic after two years of struggles during the Restoration (1863–65). With Gregorio Luperón as the head of the liberals, the Dominican Republic transitioned into democratic life and proceeded along a path marked by rivalries between liberals and conservatives, groups or parties led by Gregorio Luperón and Buenaventura Báez, respectively, who contended for control of the State until, in 1882, Ulises Heureaux-Lilís assumed the presidency.

Heureaux-Lilís remained in power until the end of the century (1899), excluding a few short intervals during which other presidents held the office. Throughout this period, the figure of the national hero of independence, Juan Pablo Duarte, was plunged into oblivion, until February 27, 1884, when his ashes were deposited in one of the chapels of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, in a solemn ceremony organized by the federal government, the city council, and the inhabitants of the capital city. Ten years later, Emiliano Tejera asked the National Congress in a memorable speech, delivered on February 27, 1894, to erect a statue in honor of Juan Pablo Duarte, the Trinitarian hero whom Msgr. Tomás de Portes e Infante, the first archbishop of the Domin-

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ican Republic, received upon his return from Curaçao on March 15, 1844 with the greeting, ¡Salve, Padre de la Patria! (Hail, Father of our Homeland!).

Now the City Council itself intends to carry out another work of gratitude and inspiration: the creation of a bronze statue, representing the illustrious patrician, which will be placed in the public square bearing his name, the theater of his first victory in 1843 against the party that imposed oppression.

An eminently national work, it is supported and sustained by thirty-five municipalities; thirty boards; eighteen newspapers, and countless citizens, aware of their duty, scattered throughout the Republic and abroad. For this act of reparation, the Central Monument Board, made up of the undersigned, and on behalf of the Santo Domingo City Council, has the honor of asking the Honorable National Congress for their permission to enact a law to erect the statue on the aforementioned site, and the funds which the nation must contribute for such a just and patriotic work (Blanco Díaz, 2010, 237).

Tejera’s request received no immediate response; however, in 1887 the Dominican painter Alejandro Bonilla created a portrait of Duarte based on memory, from when the painter met Duarte in Venezuela, and by using the daguerreotype of the Venezuelan Prospero Rey from 1873. A second recreation of the face of Juan Pablo Duarte, based on Bonilla’s work, was carried out in 1890 by Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta, in both pictorial and sculptural versions, as noted by Duarte biographer Belkis Adróver de Cibrán: “Abelardo created several busts and a high-relief of Juan Pablo Duarte; and the monument project, commissioned by the Most Excellent City Council of San Pedro de Macorís.

The first bust appears to be from the year 1890, inspired by the famous portrait of Alejandro Bonilla” (Adróver de Cibrán, 1974, p. 99). This image created by Abelardo, according to Adróver de Cibrán, is the most well-known and well-regarded among Dominicans and accepted as an accurate depiction. In 1913, the sculptor made a second bust of Duarte, evidencing greater mastery of sculptural technique. This piece is considered “... an ‘Abelardian’ Duarte, far from Bonilla’s influence and where the artist incorporated some autobiographical features” (Nacidit Perdomo, 2015). The piece was officially commissioned for the Gallery of National Heroes at the Palace of the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C. The work was commissioned in 1913, with a payment order issued by Congress in March 1925 (Adróver de Cibrán, 1974, 99) for one thousand [...] pesos in American gold to cover the necessary expenses to cast the bust of Father of the Homeland Juan Pablo Duarte in plaster and send it to Washington to be placed in the Gallery of National Heroes within the building of the Pan-American Union of that city […] (op. cit., 102).

Later, another thousand American gold pesos were earmarked “to sculpt the bust of Duarte in marble and have it placed in the Gallery of the National Heroes of the Pan American Union in Washington” (op. cit., 104). Don Federico Henríquez y Carvajal refers to the “Abelardian” Duarte: “A new bust, smaller, with softer lines, with more life, has now emerged from the creative hands of the artist. […]

I have been surprised to find in this one, features of elevation and serenity, of intense life, barely outlined in the other bust. There is more life in it, as well as the psychological intensity of the apostolate and his heroism, and the new bust therefore achieves greater intellectual power. It is the Duarte of redemption and martyrdom (op. cit., 107).

Two years later, Rodríguez Urdaneta created a clay model for Duarte Breaking the Chains of Oppression or Proclamation of Independence at the request of the San Pedro de Macorís City Council. In this project, Duarte appears standing on a pedestal, in heroic proportions, while carrying in his left hand the proclamation of independence and extending his right hand in a gesture of being sworn in; an image of Liberty—identified with the Republic—was to be situated on the lower part of the pedestal, with the broken chains of oppression in

Opening page: Doors by sculptor Tommaso Gismondi at the Cathedral Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

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Duarte Memorial by Arturo Tomagnini at Duarte Park in Santo Domingo. © Giovanni Cavallaro

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her right hand and her other hand lifting a veil to uncover her face, a symbol of liberation. Abelardo’s project, however, was never carried out.

In 1919, the sculptor also produced bronze busts of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella—by then recognized as fathers of the homeland—that were commissioned by the Santo Domingo City Council; also produced were three plaster high-reliefs, with species of parchments serving as the background and Duarte’s face framed by the national flag, Sánchez’s by a palm, and Mella’s by a laurel.

The city of Santo Domingo would have to wait until 1928 for the idea of the ​​ Duarte Monument proposed

by Emiliano Tejera in 1894 to be revived through an international competition, announced on March 19, 1928.

The Italian sculptor Arturo Tomagnini was the winner (Rodríguez Demorizi, 1977, 134). The artist received 25,000 gold pesos for the work (Adróver de Cibrán, 1974, 113).

It should be noted that, at the time, Spanish, French, and Italian artists were brought frequently to Latin America to carry out monumental works. The Italian Pietro Tenerani designed the sculpture of Simón Bolívar in the Plaza Mayor in Bogotá (1846); Salvatore Ravelli was the creator of the Columbus Monument in Lima (1860); and Giuseppe Graziosi created the Columbus Monument in La Paz. Works by the Catalan artist Agustí Querol i Subirats include the Monument to Justo José de Urquiza (1920) in Paraná, Argentina, consisting of a marble pedestal and a bronze equestrian sculpture by Mariano Benlliure; and the Monument to the Spanish in Buenos Aires, Argentina, inaugurated in 1927. The Frenchman Louis Rochet created the Monument to Pedro I in Rio de Janeiro (1862), while Paul Landowski was the author of the admired Christ the Redeemer of Corcovado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1931 (Gutiérrez Viñuales, 2004). In Santo Domingo, we have the statue of Bishop Billini (1898) and the Columbus Monument (1887), both by the French sculptor Ernest Guilbert. Also, the Mausoleum of Columbus, depository of the admiral’s remains, was designed by the architect Fernando Romeu and the sculptor Pedro Carbonell Huguet at the end of the last century. This funerary monument was located in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo until 1992, when it was transferred to the Columbus Lighthouse, where it remains to this day.

By 1928, Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta (1870–1933) was entirely focused on photography; bronze casting was barely being carried out in the Dominican Republic, which would explain why Arturo Tomagnini won the competition for the Duarte Monument. Tomagnini (Pietrasanta, Lucca, Italy 1879 –1957) was an artist with vast experience in creating monumental works in various Latin American countries. In Panama, he carved in Carrara marble the frieze on the façade of the National Institute of Panama, a work which represents the themes of art, literature, and science and which measures 8.8 by 1.6 meters (1911). In Argentina, Tomagnini created several works, including the equestrian sculpture of General Belgrano, a bronze inaugurated on October 28, 1919 in Santiago del Estero, as well as the monument to Lieutenant Origone, carved in Carrara marble and inaugurated on July 8, 1917 in Villa Mercedes, San Luis.

The Juan Pablo Duarte Monument consists of a granite-clad concrete pedestal placed on a square base separated from the ground, a first level comprising square pieces of granite and a series of staircases with four steps each that are repeated on all four sides. The blocks that support the pedestal are organized such that there are three casts in bronze to form a very balanced and significant group, which results in an overwhelming sense of balance, rationality, and harmony. In the upper part of the monument, facing west, stands the figure of the illustrious Juan Pablo Duarte—head raised and looking toward the horizon, the fingers of his right hand touching his chest, and his left hand holding a parchment inscribed with the words “God, Country, Liberty— Dominican Republic.” On the front of the pedestal is a sculpture, also in bronze, of the goddess Victory—an allegory of the Dominican Republic—sitting with her right arm raised and holding a laurel wreath. Next to her, standing, is a young Apollo, half naked and rendered in bronze, with his right arm extended toward Victory’s right thigh and his left arm supported by a sword. Behind him, on the right and left, are two eagles with their wings spread and incised ornamental details with Art Deco characteristics, thereby identifying the monument with its time, as well as a kind of cushion with incised leaves decorating the pedestal supporting the figure of Duarte. The eagle motif is also found on the eastern part of the pedestal. At the foot of the statue, there is a plaque with the following inscription:

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Juan Pablo Duarte Fundador de la República Dominicana [Founder of the Dominican Republic] 1813 – 1838 – 1844 – 1876 The dates refer to the birth of Juan Pablo Duarte, the foundation of the secret society of La Trinitaria, national independence, and the death of this national hero.

On the northern side of the pedestal there is a medallion with a high-relief inscription of the Bastion of February 27 framed by a laurel wreath, while to the south, another medallion displays the national coat of arms. The eastern side presents a plaque on which a fragment of the letter sent by Juan Pablo Duarte to his mother and sisters (from Curaçao dated February 4, 1844), requesting the donation of his property for the cause of independence and headed by the motto “Todo por la Patria” (Everything for the Country). References to the Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta Monument to Duarte project are present, and the physical features of the Duarte image reflect the busts created by the Dominican sculptor. However, the standing figure of a young Criollo woman intended to symbolize the republic was replaced in Tomagnini’s version by a figure of Greco-Latin inspiration.

In a solemn ceremony attended by municipal, educational, civil, military, and religious authorities, the Monument to Duarte was inaugurated on July 16, 1930, the anniversary of the creation of La Trinitaria, as reported in a newspaper column from the time: THE APOTHEOSIS OF JUAN PABLO DUARTE Yesterday afternoon, July 16, the Duarte Monument was unveiled.

This solemn event, which the city attended en masse, paid tribute to the illustrious patriot with all due admiration and gratitude.

Beautiful speeches were delivered by Federico Henríquez y Carvajal, a longstanding and fervent Duarte supporter; by the Honorable President of the Republic, Rafael Estrella Ureña, [...] always supportive of patriotic deeds; and by Francisco A. Lizardo, president of the City Council, who received the monument on behalf of the First City of the Americas.

Students and faculty from the schools of the capital filed past the statue, depositing their floral offerings at its feet.

Schoolchildren sang the Hymn to Duarte, accompanied by the Municipal Band.

And—a magnificent touch to this ceremony—the statue was unveiled accompanied by the chords of the National Anthem, while the Ozama Fortress erupted in thunderous artillery salutes, in honor of the Father of Our Country.

From the summary that we provide of these acts, it can be understood that they represented a true apotheosis.

All as it should have been. (Listín Diario, July 17, 1930, 1) The inauguration of the monument represented a patriotic celebration rarely seen in the city, which was filled with Dominican flags, while those present wore their best clothes to honor the founding father on that memorable occasion.

The Interregnum of the Dictatorship – Aurelio Mistruzzi During the thirty years of the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (1930 - 1961), the excessive exaltation of the tyrant and his relatives took the place that had been previously reserved for the nation’s heroes, as images of Trujillo multiplied across the country—in photographs, paintings, and sculptures. One of the most

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admired was the equestrian statue in San Cristóbal, the dictator’s birthplace, the work of the Italian sculptor Aurelio Mistruzzi (Villaorba, 1880 - Rome, Italy, 1960), a work that was demolished after the ruler’s assassination.

Sculptor and medal artisan to the Vatican, Aurelio Mistruzzi was trained at the Academies of Venice, Milan, Breda, and the School of the Art of the Medal in Rome. Prior to World War I, he worked on sculptural decorations at the Municipal Palace of Udine. At the end of the war, he made monuments to dead soldiers, as well as religious statuary. One of his works can be found in the Basilica of San Antonio de Padua. From the twenties onward, he devoted his efforts more specifically to the making of coins and medals, including the coin of Pope Pius XI and that of Pius XII. One of his best-known civil works is the Fontana delle Rane (Girl with a Frog fountain) in Monza, Italy.

His last work was the equestrian statue of Trujillo, made from two cast-bronze sections, 6.5 meters high and placed on a 12-meter pedestal, in 1957. The sculptor received payment of US$90,000 and began work in 1956, after being selected from several renowned sculptors. According to Néstor Uribe Matos, the artist was inspired by the equestrian statue of Frederick William II of Prussia in Cologne, Germany, and that it may have been Trujillo’s visit to the Vatican and the signing of the Concordat in 1954—whereby the Catholic religion would be acknowledged in all official acts of the Dominican Republic—which inclined him to select Mistruzzi, given that he was a sculptor who was very close to the Holy See and who served as its medal artisan (Uribe Matos, 2019).

Referring to this sculpture, Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi points out that “the beautiful equestrian statue erected at the entrance to San Cristóbal, the birthplace of the Generalissimo, was demolished and destroyed in the delirium of devastation that occurred at the fall of the political regime” (Rodríguez Demorizi, 1972, 135).

Previously, in 1952, Mistruzzi had made a bust of Julia Molina, mother of the dictator, destined for Montecristi. The work’s arrival in the Dominican Republic was featured in the Dominican press (El Caribe [C. T.], August 3, 1952, 24).

Nicola Arrighini in the Dominican Republic From 1966, the leading role in the realm of Dominican politics was assumed by Joaquín Balaguer Ricardo, president from 1966 to 1978 and 1986 to 1996, secretary of Education and president of the republic during the Trujillo regime, and a great admirer of the arts and Greco-Latin antiquity. President Balaguer developed a policy of extreme controls and physical elimination of his opponents, while, on the other hand, becoming

Bronze equestrian sculpture of Gregorio Luperón on the Puerto Plata boardwalk, executed in 1971 by Nicola Arrighini. © Fausto Ortiz

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Bronze equestrian sculpture of Gregorio Luperón on the Puerto Plata boardwalk, executed in 1971 by Nicola Arrighini. © Fausto Ortiz

The Listín Diario issue of August 17, 1971 reports the inauguration of Avenida Luperón in Santo Domingo and the unveiling of the statue of the hero, by the Italian sculptor Nicola Arrighini. © Archivo General de la Nación

the promoter of important public works, many of which were accompanied by sculptures made by the Italian artist Nicola Arrighini (Pietrasanta, Lucca, Italy, 1905 - 1977); Arrighini was from the same place as Arturo Tomagnini, mentioned above.

Arrighini came from a family of sculptors active in Pietrasanta from 1870. An internationally recognized firm that executed public art projects in several countries was founded by his grandfather, Luca Arrighini (1845– 1915); his father, Enrico Arrighini (1880–1955), also worked there. Nicola studied in Carrara and was part of the “Gruppo dei Vageri Viareggini,” headed by Lorenzo Viani. He pursued an active career in which he participated in numerous exhibitions in Italy, including the Milan Triennale, the Rome Quadrienniale, the Venice Biennale, and the Paris Biennale.

In the 1940s he was recognized as a “Professore di Arte.” Specializing in marble carving, his works, including most notably La Fede (Faith)—a life-size female sculpture now in the collection of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan—are greatly admired. He created busts of Saint Pio of Pietralcina, the painter Lorenzo Viani, Msgr. José Guerra Campos, President Kennedy, Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul II. He collaborated with Giovanni Ragazzi in mosaic work, and carried out works for the Chiesa di Santa Teresa del Bambin Gesù in Tombetta, Vero-

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Bronze statue of hero Gregorio Luperón

by Nicola Arrighini.

Inaugurated on August 16, 1971 in Santo Domingo. Today, this work is located outside the Monument for the Heroes of the Restoration in Santiago de los Caballeros. © Fausto Ortiz

na; the Chiesa Madonna dei Remedi in Palermo, Sicily; the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in New York; and The Sanctuary Church of St. Anthony in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Arrighini is the author of the Stations of the Cross in Villa de la Quebrada (1949–51), in the Municipality of Belgrano, in the city of San Luis, Argentina. That sculptural ensemble comprises the fourteen stations and 62 life-size figures carved in marble. It was inaugurated on May 3, 1952. Nicola Arrighini died in a car accident in 1977. The family’s business concerns have continued in the hands of his descendants.2 President Balaguer’s public beautification project aimed to effectuate “a policy of acknowledging the values ​​of national identity, admiration, and respect for national heroes and patriotic figures, and disseminating these values among the citizens, so that their actions serve as an example to emulate, especially for future generations in which the origin of the Homeland should be instilled” (Listín Diario, September 8, 1971, 4).

The aforementioned goals and criteria were put into practice on the occasion of the 132nd anniversary of the birth of General Gregorio Luperón, a major figure of the Restoration (1839–1897). This commemoration was marked by the inaugurations of avenues and promenades that included equestrian statues of the Hero of the Restoration in Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata. On August 16, 1971, Avenida Luperón was inaugurated, and a two-ton bronze statue created by Nicola Arrighini was placed at the new avenue’s intersection with Mirador Sur Avenue in a ceremony presided over by President Balaguer; Secretary of State “without Portfolio” César Herrera; the high command of the Armed Forces and military academies; representatives of the Dominican Academy of History, the Duartiano Institute, and the secretaries of the Interior, Police, and Education; and various civic associations. The Presidential Guard, in full uniform, opened the event by playing the National Anthem, accompanied by a 21-gun salute, after which the historian César Herrera, secretary of State and director of Information, proceeded to read an encomium to Gregorio Luperón that highlighted the following:

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Luperón embodied, more so than any other figure, the virtues that allowed the Dominican people to emerge victorious from the great trials of their history [...] the leader of the Restoration shall always be in the memories of successive Dominican generations, as an authentic product of the people [...] the moral forces that have always allowed Dominicans to overcome their bitterest misfortunes, and to decisively vanquish their most persistent oppressors, and who achieved a miracle of August 1, 1863, so that an epic without peer could be realized in which almost the entire nation descended into conflagration and where thousands of men from the two opposing sides lost their lives (Listín Diario, August 17, 1971, pp.1 and 4).

The bronze statue of Gregorio Luperón, by the Italian Nicola Arrighini, positioned outside the Monument for the Heroes of the Restoration in Santiago de los Caballeros. © Fausto Ortiz

At end of the commemoration, following the speech and the placement of floral offerings, a mixed brigade of the Armed Forces held a military parade.

Shortly after the ceremony held in Santo Domingo, a similar commemorative act took place in the city of Puerto Plata on September 8, 1971—the inauguration of the Malecon Gregorio Luperón and the equestrian statue of the hero, a ceremony graced by the presence of President Balaguer; the Civil Governor of the province; the Municipal Trustee and President of the City Council; other members; representatives of civic and cultural institutions; members of the National Development Commission; representatives of the Legislative Chambers; battalions of the Armed Forces; and the Presidential Guard in full uniform—on a day that declared popular rejoicing in the province of Puerto Plata. The Organizing Committee of the event issued a public invitation to encourage attendance and in hope of a large audience: The Organizing Committee invites all to the glorious tribute that will be paid to the distinguished General Gregorio Luperón in the city of Puerto Plata, on September 8, 1971, by order of His Excellency, the Constitutional President of the Republic, Dr. Joaquín Balaguer. It is also our pleasure to INVITE all the people in Puerto Rico, as well as all admirers of the renowned hero, and the people of the Republic, to the act of unveiling of his equestrian statue and the inauguration of the beautiful seaside promenade that bears his glorious name (Listín Diario, Tuesday, September 7, 1971, 4-A).

Both of the aforementioned sculptures are by Nicola Arrighini. They are cast in bronze and correspond to a model that had been quite popular in public statuary since ancient times. The model was employed to honor the memory of great historical figures, as can be seen today in the work commemorating Emperor Mar-

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cus Aurelius (second century) that is located in the Capitoline Museum in Rome; this work served as a model during the Renaissance for Donatello’s Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata (1447–1453) in Padua, and Il Colleoni by Andrea de Verrocchio in Venice (1488). This type of sculpture became quite prevalent during the Baroque period, and appeared in the twentieth century throughout Latin America to exalt the memory of independence heroes.

The statue inaugurated in Santo Domingo presents Luperón at a gallop, with a sword in his right hand and the horse with its left leg raised and its head veering to the left, paralleling the body of the rider, who is dressed in a military uniform and hat and whose feet are held in the stirrups. The animal’s musculature is impressively rendered in a sculpture that inspires respect and admiration. Currently this work is in front of the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration in Santiago de los Caballeros.

In the Puerto Plata piece, Arrighini presents a challenging Luperón who is seen leading his forces into battle. He is also outfitted in military uniform, with his feet in the stirrups, and with the horse depicted with front legs raised. Both sculptures have granite-covered pedestals indicating the dates of the birth and death of this hero of the Republic Restoration.

A few years later, with the inauguration of the Teatro Nacional (National Theater), on August 16, 1973, a new opportunity arose for Nicola Arrighini, who was then commissioned to design two fountains to be placed in front of the theater. The Italian sculptor carried out the work, but by some strange circumstance they were not located in the designated place until 2018, when the building underwent refurbishment and—on instructions from Culture Minister José Antonio Rodríguez—the fountains were inserted in the location for which they had been originally designed, at the front of the building by the main entrance, and to the north of the compound, near the Metro station.

These cast-bronze Baroque-inspired fountains from Arrighini’s workshop are embellished with allegorical motifs in theater and music. They include female figures that evoke the muses and sea creatures placed in various overlapping registers with references to Greek mythology, in a set articulated by harmonious curves, recesses and projections, water features, and movement. Today they are undoubtedly the most beautiful fountains in the city of Santo Domingo but which, unfortunately, are not kept in permanent operation, a situation that contributes to their progressive deterioration.

Later, when the remodeling of Parque Independencia (Independence Park) and construction of the Monument to the Fathers of the Homeland were proposed in 1976, President Balaguer recommended using the services of Nicola Arrighini. The architect Christian Aníbal Martínez Villanueva (Crismar), designer of the Altar de la Patria (Altar to the Homeland), visited the sculptor in his workshop in Pietrasanta, Italy, to explain the details of the project. On this occasion, Arrighini worked with marble at the express instruction of the Dominican president, according to the architect Martínez Villanueva, because the objective was “to respect the memory of the patriots, and for Balaguer, marble represented eternity.” It was decided to work with Carrara marble; the quarry from which the material came “is only intended for the statuary of national heroes.” The marble is pure white and veinless, and it is extracted by laser. After polishing, it acquires great transparency.3 The busts of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella created by Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta in 1919 set the benchmark for the work displaying the faces of the Trinitarians. The 3.85-meter-high work rises imposingly on 2.3-meter pedestals, also fashioned from marble.

Duarte is dressed in formal attire, including a bowtie, his hair and mustache neatly groomed, fob at his side, his right hand inside his pants pocket, and his left hand resting on his thigh. Sánchez is also presented

Large sculpture group depicting Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella, made in 1976 in Carrara marble by the Italian artist Nicola Arrighini for the Shrine of the Homeland of Santo Domingo. © Fausto Ortiz

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Monument to the sugarcane by the artist Nicola Arrighini. Santo Domingo Este. © Giovanni Cavallaro

formally attired and well groomed; he holds a founding document in his right hand, while his left hand rests on a pedestal. Meanwhile, Mella appears in military dress, holding his hat in his hand, while his left hand is in the hilt of a saber.

The unveiling of the new Altar of the Fatherland, on February 27, 1976, was one of the milestones for the centennial of the death of Juan Pablo Duarte. The name “Altar de la Patria” was officially ascribed through Law No. 1185 of October 19, 1936. The remains of the founding fathers, which for many years lay in the Chapel of the Immortals in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, were transferred to the Altar de la Patria within the Puerta del Conde in 1943 and from there to their current residing place. This emblematic site was remodeled with the intention “of integrating the Altar de la Patria within a larger ensemble, in keeping with its historical significance. The entire monumental group representing the colonial and republican periods form a conglomerate linked by paths that form the cross of our flag, transforming the area into one of ​​reverence and respect.

Ramparts, old and new roads, moats and monuments, all form a unit that embodies the historical patriotism of our people” (El Caribe, February 27, 1976, 2).

Arrighini later created the Monumento a la Caña (Monument to Sugarcane), a sculptural ensemble cast in bronze and inaugurated in 1992 on a small public square located on the eastern bank of the Ozama River, in Santo Domingo Este province. The design of the project is the work of architect Martínez Villanueva; sculptural elements are by Nicola Arrighini; and the bronze casting was produced at the Fonderia d’Arte Massimo Del Chiaro in Pietrasanta, Italy.

The Monument to Sugarcane consists of a cart loaded with cane drawn by six oxen accompanied by a family, with the father leading the oxen, the wife behind bearing a basket of food on her head, and a child perched atop the cart, representing the families that worked in cutting and milling of sugarcane. The figures have been idealized with Europeanizing features, eliminating any vestige of the African origin of the people who have generally toiled in this activity in the Dominican Republic. In this work the artist creates a work freed from historical or mythological ties. The monument is one of the most beautiful sculptural ensembles in Santo Domingo. It is particularly noteworthy for the realism and volume of the animals and the sense of movement expressed by the male figure.

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Tommaso Gismondi and the Doors of the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia The French architect André-Jacques Dunoyer de Segonzac (1915–2018), designer of the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey—an architectural work inaugurated on January 21, 1971, and characterized by striking modern lines and exposed reinforced concrete—originally conceived a very simple and linear entrance portico to the sacred wooden enclosure, in harmony with the general concept of the work, as evidenced in the project drawings in the book on the basilica published by Banco Popular (Dunoyer de Segonzac, 2000, 194 –195, 268). After fifty years, the bishop of the diocese of Higüey, Msgr. Hugo Eduardo Polanco Brito, succeeded in having the Italian sculptor Tommaso Gismondi (Anagni, Italy 1906–2003) design bronze doors that were installed on the portico in 1988. For this project, Polanco Brito had the full support of President Balaguer and Pope John Paul II. Gismondi was considered the official sculptor for the popes, due to his work with both Paul VI and John Paul II, for whom he designed two medals, as well as for his work on the doors of the Vatican Library and the Vatican Apostolic Archive.

In his work, Gismondi drew inspiration from the doors created by Lorenzo Ghiberti at the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence (1452). He divided his version into eight panels, on which he recreated fundamental milestones in the devotional history of Our Lady of Altagracia. Apparitions and miracles of the Virgin—from the beginning of the devotion in 1504 to the gift of a crown for the effigy of the Virgin by Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Dominican Republic on January 25, 1979—are reflected in Gismondi’s work. Each event is identified with the corresponding dates. The following themes appear using the spaces

Basilica Cathedral Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia, Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

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Doors by sculptor Tommaso Gismondi in the Cathedral Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

in the eight panels: (1) 1504–1508: in the background we can see the house of Juan Ponce de León, which currently exists. On the left, the figures of the Adelantado and Captain Juan de Esquivel, founder of Higüey, and on the right, the figures of the chief Cayacoa and his wife, baptized under Catholic rites with the name of Catalina, who appears kneeling; (2) 1508–1514: Appearance of the image; (3) 1512–1572: Construction of the Sanctuary in Higüey; (4) January 21, 1691: Battle of La Limonada, the event from which the dedication of a feast day to Altagracia originates; (5) August 15, 1922: Coronation of the Altagracia image during the U.S. intervention of 1916-1924, at the Puerta del Conde. Msgr. Alejandro Nouel appears on the right and the papal representatives on the left; (6) The dates of the construction of the church (1954–1972) and the signature of the creator of the bronze panels, Tommaso Gismondi 1988; (7) April 1, 1959: the Pope confers the title of Minor Basilica; and panel (8) January 25, 1979: Visit of John Paul II, during which he crowns the image of the Virgin.

A side door, to the left of the paneled ones mentioned above, includes an image of the Virgin and two inscriptions: “Pope John Paul II visited the Dominican Republic on January 25, 1979 and offered a tiara to the Virgin of Altagracia. On October 12, 1984, the church began the celebration of the Quincentennial of the Discovery of the Americas, proclaimed the ‘Marian Year’ from June 7, 1987 to August 15, 1988.” Below the text is a recreation of the arrival of the Spanish on the island that includes the legend: “October 12, 1492. The beginning of colonization in the Americas.”

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Another side door, on the right, presents in the upper register an image of St. Joseph and, in the lower register, the national coat of arms with the date of independence, February 27, 1844. In the center is the coat of arms of Msgr. Polanco Brito and the inscription: Archbishop Hugo Eduardo Polanco Brito, First Bishop of Santiago, 1958–65, Apostolic Administrator of Santo Domingo 1966–70, Archbishop Coadjutor of Santo Domingo 1970–75, 2nd Bishop of Higüey 1975 […] dedicates this bronze door to Our Lady of Altagracia, August 15, 1988, Closing of the ‘Marian Year’.

In the supporting framework of the doors are found the coats of arms of the Apostolic Nuncio, BF Collaco; Cardinal OA Beras (Octavio Antonio Beras Rojas); Bishop Pepén (Juan Félix Pepén Solimán, first Bishop of the Diocese of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia); Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, Archbishop of Santo Domingo; and those of the bishops of the dioceses existing in 1988: La Vega, JA Flores (Juan Antonio Flores Santana); Santiago, R. Adames (Roque Adames Rodríguez); San Juan de la Maguana, T. F. Reilly (Thomas F. Reilly) and R. Connors (Renaldo G. Connors); Barahona, F. M. Rivas (Fabio Mamerto Rivas Santos); San Francisco de Macorís, Jesús Moya (Jesús María de Jesús Moya); Mao-Montecristi, J. P. Abreu (Jerónimo Tomás Abreu Herrera); Baní, P. Tejeda (Príamo Pericles Tejeda Rosario).

The portico is framed by a beautiful recreation of an orange tree, which, according to tradition, is where the image of the Virgin of Altagracia first appeared. Orange tree branches adorn the intervals between center panels and side doors. The eight central panels bear similar compositions with human figures to the right and left of each one—except one in which a tree appears—while the main theme is worked in the center. This design adds coherence and harmony to the whole, despite the possible stylistic monotony.

Explanatory plaque on the doors of the Basilica Cathedral Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia, Higüey that reads: “The Virgin of Altagracia in her image has miraculously chosen Higüey as her home since 1508; her house is the first sanctuary in the Americas. It was previously located in the old temple for four centuries, from 1572 to 1972, when the image was moved to this basilica, designed

by Ar. Pierre Dupre and J.A. Dunover de Segonzac.

It was given in 1972 to Monsignor Juan F. Pepén, First Bishop of Higüey, by President Dr. Joaquín Balaguer, who today donates this door on behalf of the Dominican people to the Altagratian diocese, created by Pope John XXIII in 1959. Paul VI granted it the title of Basilica.

Inauguration of this door, August 15, 1988, closing of the “Marian Year.”

Artwork by sculptor Tommaso Gismondi, built in Italy, in the city of Anagni, residence of Popes during the Middle Ages.” © Thiago da Cunha

Doors by sculptor Tommaso Gismondi at the Cathedral Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

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The Cathedral Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

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The doors of the Basilica of Higüey comprise a monumental work of 38 m2 of bronze with 24-carat gold plating, the unveiling of which took place at noon on Saturday, September 10, 1988, presided over by President Balaguer and attended by Vice President Carlos Morales Troncoso, members of the presidential cabinet, the papal nuncio, Msgr. Blasco Francisco Collaço, the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Msgr.

Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, and several bishops of the country, as well as civil, municipal, and military authorities.

Msgr. Polanco Brito offered a description of the work to those present, and revealed that its cost was DOP 2.5 million, a sum contributed by the Dominican Government, and that “these bronze doors with gold plating to protect them from the scourge of salt air, emanating from the Caribbean Sea that bathes this region as a whole, are unique in the world, since they are not embedded between walls, but are positioned as a wonderful set of three doors, surrounded by an orange tree, to fill the gap that allows entry to the sanctuary” (Listin Diario, September 11, 1988, 14). The gates of Gismondi were blessed in Rome by Pope John Paul II on June 1 of that same year.

However, the event was soon overshadowed by the arrival of Hurricane Gilbert, which ravaged the southwest coast of the country on the night of September 11, 1988.

Another work by Tommaso Gismondi incorporates the symbols of the evangelists: the eagle of Saint John, the angel of Saint Matthew, the bull of Saint Luke, and the lion of Saint Mark. These images are found at the eastern gate to the Plazoleta de los Curas, next to the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, at its access on Calle Isabel la Católica street in the Colonial City. The bronze pieces are attached to an iron band in the center of the door; all the figures are winged. These small works were the last made by Tommaso Gismondi for the Dominican Republic.

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As we have seen, over the course of the twentieth century the production of public works of art by Italian artists for the Dominican Republic was quite noteworthy. These sculptors immortalized key figures in the collective memory of Dominican history, such as Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Ramón Matías Mella, and Gregorio Luperón. They also created fountains, basilica doors, and sculptural ensembles, in addition to the works commissioned to Aurelio Mistruzzi by the dictator Trujillo. The works carried out by Arturo Tomagnini, Nicola Arrighini, and Tommaso Gismondi have demonstrated and reaffirmed their artistic value by enduring over time—defying the onslaught of hurricanes, earthquakes, and vandalism—and have thus become a vital part of Dominican artistic heritage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Adróver de Cibrán, Belkis. Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta. Su vida, sus obras, y sus maestros. La Coruña, Spain: Impresora GRAFINSA, 1974.

Barbieri, Sergio. Los Medallones. 16 pinturas del siglo XVIII. Santo Domingo: Publicaciones Museo de la Altagracia, 2013.

Cassá, Roberto. Padres de la Patria. Colección juvenil vol. 5, Comisión Permanente de Efemérides Patrias. Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2008.

Dunoyer de Segonzac, André J. Basílica Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia. Santo Domingo: Colección Banco Popular, 2000.

Gutiérrez Viñuales, Rodrigo. Arte público en Latinoamérica. Algunas experiencias entre la investigación y el coleccionismo. Granada, Spain: Universidad de Granada, 2015. __________. Monumento Conmemorativo y espacio público en Iberoamérica. Madrid: Cátedra, 2004.

Jimenes Grullón, Juan Isidro. El mito de los Padres de la Patria.

Debate histórico, rev. ed., vol. 213 (Carlos Sánchez, Ramón Lugo Lovatón, Oscar Gil Díaz, Juan Isidro Jimenes Grullón, Máximo Coiscou Henríquez, Ismael Hernández Flores, Juan Bosch, Víctor Garrido Puello). Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2014.

Lluberes, Antonio, SJ. Breve Historia de la Iglesia Dominicana 1493– 1997. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1998.

Martínez, Diana and Lizandro Pérez. Arte Urbano en los Espacios Públicos de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo, 2009. Exhibition catalogue.

Mella, Pablo, SJ. Los espejos de Duarte. Santo Domingo: Instituto Filosófico Pedro Fco. Bonó, Ediciones Paulinas, Ediciones MSC, 2013.

Montenero, Giulio. Aurelio Mistruzzi 1880–1960. Udine, Italy: Arti Grafiche Friulane, 1974.

Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio. Pintura y escultura en Santo Domingo.

ENDNOTES Members of the secret society called La Trinitaria, which was founded by Juan Pablo Duarte and which sought to secure freedom from the occupation by Haiti (translator’s note).

2 Museo dei Bozzetti website: http://www.museodeibozzetti. it/assets/files/mdb/collezione/artisti/s001451.php.

3 Interview conducted with the architect Martínez Villanueva on June 27, 2019.

1

Colección Pensamiento Dominicano. Santo Domingo: Julio D. Postigo e Hijos Editores, 1972. __________. En torno a Duarte. Centenario de la muerte de Juan Pablo Duarte, vol. 42. Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 1976.

Tejera, Emiliano. Escritos diversos. Andrés Blanco Díaz, editor.

Colección Banreservas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2010.

INTERVIEW, NEWSPAPERS, AND INTERNET REFERENCES Crismar Martínez Villanueva, architect. Interview by Myrna Guerrero Villalona, June 27, 2019.

El Caribe (C. T.), August 3, 1952, 24.

El Caribe, February 27, 1976, 2.

Listín Diario, July 17, 1930, 1.

Listín Diario, September 7, 1971, 4-A. Listín Diario, September 8, 1971, 4.

Listín Diario, August 17, 1971, 1, 4.

Listín Diario, September 10, 1988, 1, 9-10.

Listín Diario, September 11, 1988, 1, 14-15.

Listín Diario, September 12, 1988, 1.

“Artists – Fonderia d’Arte Massimo Del Chiaro – Pietrasanta > Arrighini Nicola,” www.delchiaro.com Bodas de Oro del Instituto Nacional de Panamá–Nido de Águilas, 1959, 13. Exhibition catalogue, www.bdigital.binal.ac.pa.

Museo dei Bozzetti Pierluigi Gherardi, Pietrasanta, Italia, www. museodeibozzetti.it.

Nacidit Perdomo, Ylonka. Duarte es Abelardo. www.acento.com, January 25, 2015.

Uribe Matos, Néstor. Cosas de San Cristóbal: El monumento ecuestre a Trujillo, Part 3. www.almomento.net, April 16, 2019.

The Basilica Cathedral Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia, Higüey. © Thiago da Cunha

Roberto Caggiano conducts the tenor Napoleon Dihmes in the rehearsal of the Night of Opera. © Blanca Delgado

• CHAPTER 34

The Italian Legacy in Dominican Music and Culture

By Blanca Delgado Malagón Researcher

he term legacy, used figuratively, refers to something inherited, or even something spiritual passed on from those who lived before (“the legacy of Rome,” for example).

By extension, its meaning can encompass exemplary manifestations, whether individual or collective, which have served as milestones in the history of a given people.

The Patronage of an Italian: Anselmo Copello At the end of the nineteenth century, the Santiago region, favored by the benefits derived from the large-scale production of Dominican tobacco destined mainly for the European market, witnessed an influx of Italian nationals seeking a better life on Dominican soil.

Anselmo Copello (1879), a native of Santa Margherita Ligure (Genoa), who settled at a young age in Santiago de los Caballeros, would soon adopt the thriving Cibao as his small homeland. In that city he worked with his brother José in the La Habanera cigar and cigarette factory—later converted into Compañía Anónima Tabacalera—where he climbed the ranks to the position of president, and where he excelled for his spirit of service and his actions as an innovative entrepreneur.

Among his many charitable initiatives, Anselmo Copello in 1930 created the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra—under the direction of maestro Julio Alberto Hernández—a 30-member institution, which brought together the most outstanding figures of the classical musical scene of that time, most notably, Juan Francisco García, Pepé Echavarría, Luis Alberti, Max Guzmán, Morito Sánchez, Juan Sánchez, Pablo Bornia, César Pacheco, Antonio Pereyra, Oscar García, Arcadio Aybar, Bruno García, Apolinar Bueno, and Piro Valerio.

Due to the generous patronage of Anselmo Copello, this important nucleus of Dominican musicians was able to enjoy economic stability, which helped to provide the favorable climate that, in turn, led to the birth of several fundamental works in the Dominican musical repertoire. Anselmo Copello’s contributions to Santiago society were indeed numerous, and to honor his memory, one of the streets of the city bears his name.

Dominican Musicians of Italian Descent During the long period of recurrent political instability that plagued the Dominican Republic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, official attention to music as an instrument of collective education began to gain in importance, in large part through the consolidation of military bands, which were transformed into true “symphonic groups,” as they were mostly made up of the best musicians of that time.

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Francesco Montelli. © Blanca Delgado

Carlos Piantini, Director of the National Symphony Orchestra (19841994). © Blanca Delgado

At that deplorable time for the country’s musical culture, the providential presence of a descendant of Italians from the Ravello region, José de Jesús Ravelo (1876), came to fill a significant gap during this long period of official abandonment in the musical training of Dominicans, thereby vindicating the artistic heritage of his ancestors. His fervent and altruistic devotion to this noble cause would make him, over the years, a patriarchal figure in the music of the Dominican Republic.

Ravelo’s interest in music seems to have originally been inspired by conversations with the children of the Dominican writer Manuel de Jesús Galván, while his only formal studies (in music theory and clarinet) were under Juan Francisco Pereyra. All of his later training was acquired on his own, making Ravelo one of the most noteworthy self-taught musicians in our country’s expansive musical culture. The passion of his life centered on the music of Giuseppe Verdi, and Ravelo came to consider himself a disciple of the great Italian composer.

In 1894, at merely 18 years of age, Ravelo was appointed director of the Banda Pacificador, which he directed until 1900. When Eugenio María de Hostos introduced choral singing to musical education, Ravelo became the first teacher of this subject in the country, in addition to serving as music teacher at the Instituto Salomé Ureña and at the Colegio Santo Tomás.

In 1904, at the initiative of Juan Bautista Alfonseca, the Octet of the Casino de la Juventud was founded, which, under the direction of José de Jesús Ravelo, would showcase the music of the great Italian composers.

In 1908, he founded the Musical Lyceum, and in 1920 he was appointed director of the Municipal Band. In 1928 he served as president of the First Dominican Congress of Music, and in 1931 he became the artistic director for the HIX station.

On April 7, 1939, his oratorio La Muerte de Cristo (The Death of Christ) was presented for the first time in the Metropolitan Basilica, sung to four voices by a mixed choir of 60 voices and an orchestra of 40 instrumentalists; this work became part of the tradition of Easter, continuing to this day.

On March 23, 1940, Ravelo was inducted by the Dominican Government into the Order of Duarte, Sánchez, and Mella in the rank of Officer.

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In the 1940s, the outbreak of European wars would bring a wave of Spanish exiles, including figures from the highest cultural echelons (composers, writers, journalists). During this same period, the United States of America, for its own strategic reasons, would lavishly send the best of its art to its neighbors in the south.

These exchanges would soon be reflected within the Dominican cultural context.

On July 1, 1940, the Dominican government created the General Directorate of Fine Arts, under the direction of Dr. Rafael Díaz Niese, and on August 5, 1941, the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by the Spanish pianist and composer Enrique Casal Chapí. On March 1, 1942, by means of an Ordinance of the National Council of Education, the Musical Lyceum (founded by Ravelo in 1908) would close, and the National Conservatory of Music and Recital was created, which, beginning on January 13 1942, would be directed by the renowned German maestro Edvard Fendler. On January 29, 1942, Luis Rivera took the reins as new director of the Administrative Council Band (former Municipal Band) to replace José de Jesús Ravelo, who had directed it for over 25 years.

At this new juncture in the cultural arena, and following his retirement, the revered José de Jesús Ravelo would go on to be considered one of the most significant figures in Dominican music history, not only for his works, but also his important contributions to education. A major street in the capital bears his name, and the recital hall of the National Theater was designated as the Sala Ravelo in 1973.

Mary Siragusa Mary Siragusa studied music at the Liceo Musical and was later a student of the German-Cuban teacher and pianist Manuela Jiménez, who was based in Santo Domingo in the 1940s.

She was named as professor at the National Conservatory of Music and Recital, following its creation on March 1, 1941. There she carried out commendable work as an educator and was considered one of the most fruitful. She served as a teacher for Floralba Delmonte and Miriam Ariza, the two most prominent pianists the country has produced.

Her performances as a pianist inspired exceedingly enthusiastic comments from critics, who came to consider her as one of the legitimate promises in the art of the keyboard, in which the Dominicans had already achieved authentic strides. With her limpid, truly virtuous style, she had proven herself a consecrated artist who knew how to interpret the great classics with evident virtuosity.

In 1947, she performed on the terrace of the Dominican Library in a historic duo recital with her teacher Manuela Jiménez. Both received generous praise from critics in the field. A year later, in 1948, at the Instituto Dominico Americano, she returned to play alongside Jiménez and the young pianist Ramón Díaz, Jr. Her last appearance as a pianist was a four-hand recital for the Music Club, with the pianist Aida Bonnelly, in 1950.

The Spanish critic Alfredo Matilla—who became a resident of Santo Domingo in 1941— commenting on one of her interpretations of Franz Schubert’s extremely challenging Impromptu in B-flat Major, published the following in his column: “Simple in expression and achieving perfectly all the effects, Mary Siragusa is now no longer a promise but an evident reality.”

Her disappearance from the stage was probably due to her admirable dedication to married life, which has given her the satisfaction of transmitting her artistic gifts to two of her children and seeing them become prominent figures in the Dominican cultural scene.

María de Fátima Geraldes Siragusa (Pianist) (Ciudad Trujillo, May 7, 1953). A Dominican pianist and educator. She was a student of Vitalia Félix and Manuel Rueda. On August 14, 1973, she presented her graduation concert as a student of piano and advanced music courses at the National Conservatory of Music. She completed advanced music course in Florence under Orazio Frugoni, and at the International Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna under E. Mazek and H. Medjimorec, specializing in chamber music and accompaniment of the art song and German oratorio.

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Fernando Geraldes Siragusa (Conductor) (Ciudad Trujillo, November 10, 1959). Geraldes studied piano and violin and orchestral conducting in Europe (1977). He served as pianist and choral director of the Saint-Germain-des-Près Church (1989) and artistic director of the Musici Europeae Choir, Paris.

He was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Montlhéry in France (July 14, 1998), and the Medal of the Upper House of the Assembly, within the framework of the 9th ed. of the Week of Latin America and the Caribbean in France. Artistic director and teacher at the Thomery Conservatory, conductor of the Nemours Vocalys choir, and leader of the ensemble Verseaux du Loing.

Vicente Grisolía, who made his proclivity for the piano known from the age of six, studied piano under Alicia Menard and Enriqueta Zafra and made his public debut at the age of 15 at the Teatro Apolo in Puerto Plata, his hometown.

In 1939, he completed a teaching degree in piano at the Liceo Musical de Santo Domingo, and when he moved to the capital in 1944, he began advanced studies in piano at the National Conservatory of Music and Recital in the class of Paula Marx de Abraham, graduating in 1946 at the age of 22.

In New York City he was a student of Hedwig Kanner-Rosenthal, and in Rome he studied Advanced Repertory under Germano Arnaldi. Upon returning to the Dominican Republic in 1964, he began a fruitful career teaching advanced piano courses at the National Conservatory of Music.

With the National Symphony Orchestra, Grisolía performed works by Beethoven, Chopin, Delgadillo, Liszt, and Luis Rivera. He played duets with both Elila Mena and Ramón Díaz, Jr., and he performed to resounding acclaim as a soloist in the United States.

For more than twelve years he performed on Dominican Radio and Television, along with violinist Jacinto Gimbernard in a program titled Música de los Grandes Maestros (Music of the Great Maestros), which marked a milestone in the cultural life of the country.

Grisolía performed in New York at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Carl Fischer Hall, and Avery Fischer Hall. In Puerto Rico, he performed in San Juan on Cultural Television and at the Casa Blanca, in addition to the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. In El Salvador, he has played in the Concert Hall of the Conservatory of Music of San Salvador.

He has been referred to as a highly professional pianist, the quintessential accompanist for singers and instrumentalists.

Carlos Alberto Piantini Espinal was born on May 9, 1927, in San Carlos de Tenerife, near Santo Domingo, where his Italian great-grandfather, José Eugenio Piantini (1791-1871), originally settled.

He began his music theory studies at the age of seven under Josefita Heredia, and shortly thereafter, he studied violin under Guillermo Jiménez. At the age of ten, he gave his first public performance, and beginning in 1938 he was a student of the Austrian violinist and educator Willy Kleinberg, during the three years that this renowned maestro was living in the Dominican Republic. He then continued his studies with the Czech

The National Symphony Orchestra with its director Roberto Caggiano in 1951 in the main hall of the General Directorate of Fine Arts, today known as The Royal Houses Museum. © Blanca Delgado.

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Santiago de Compostela Philharmonic Orchestra conducted

by Julio Alberto Hernández. The orchestra is composed of Juan Francisco García, Pepé Echavarría, Luis Alberti, Max Guzmán, Morito Sánchez, Juan Sánchez, Pablo Bornia, César Pacheco, Antonio Pereyra, Oscar García, Arcadio Aybar, Bruno García, Apolinar Bueno, and Piro Valerio, among others. © Blanca Delgado

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violinist Emil Friedman, who had arrived in Santo Domingo in October 1940, and would be in charge of preparing his debut and putting in his student’s hands the indispensable tools needed to achieve future success.

On August 5, 1941, when the National Symphony Orchestra was founded, and directed by the Spanish Enrique Casal Chapí, the young Carlos Piantini, barely 14 years old, was designated for the second violin section of the brand-new institution, in which he would debut as a soloist on May 15, 1944, under the direction of Casal Chapí.

After completing advanced studies in violin in Mexico (1944-1946) under Joseph Smilovits and Henryk Szeryng, and harmony courses under Manuel M. Ponce, Carlos Piantini on his return to the country was promoted to the first violin section of the Orchestra, ultimately achieving the position of conductor.

During his sojourn in Mexico, Piantini performed on Mexican radio with the famous Mexican maestro Julián Carrillo. At the helm of the Sinfónica H. Steele, he played concerts and recitals, belonged to some of the major orchestras of Mexico as the first violin, and frequented the circles of musicians and intellectuals who had flocked to Mexico City due to the war raging in Europe.

With the passage of time, Piantini would be accompanied on the piano by Ninón Lapeiretta, Julio Alberto Hernández, Vicente Grisolía, and Manuel Rueda, in a historic recital.

In the 1970s, Manuel Simó (director of the Symphony Orchestra), with his proverbial generosity, gave the then violinist Carlos Piantini the privilege of using the foremost Dominican musical institution as a venue on 22 occasions, so that he could further practice as guest conductor. His knowledge of conducting was solidified during his long years as a violinist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. That experience, which was invaluable for Piantini, would result in a series of spectacular concerts that soon brought another dimension to his artistic career, positioning him years later as the most successful Dominican conductor.

The intense period of apprenticeship with the National Symphony Orchestra may have served as a stimulus for his decision in the 1970s to abandon his position among the first violins of the New York Philharmonic, and to travel to Vienna to begin formal orchestral conducting studies with Hans Swarowsky, before finally embarking on his career.

Between 1973 and 1978 as artistic director for the Piantini National Theater, he worked tirelessly to develop a historic opening festival, in addition to ambitious programs that always aroused a tremendous response from the Dominican public. The tangible achievements of his management have not been surpassed in the 46 years of existence of that cultural center.

Beginning on March 28, 1984, Piantini became musical director of the National Symphony Orchestra and remained in that position until December 29, 1994, when the category of “Laureate Director” was created, with Piantini in mind.

In the 1990s, his professional importance abroad was solidly established in parallel with his responsibilities as director of the National Symphony Orchestra. He continued to conduct operas and concerts in Italy, while establishing himself more permanently in the United States, as a professor at the Florida International University School of Music, where for several years he was in charge of orchestral studies and the string instrument

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department. There he formed an orchestra that was communal in its origins and later made up mostly of students from the school.

He then resided in the city of Miami for several years and died on March 26, 2010 in a hospital in Port Jervis, New York.

Arístides Incháustegui stated the following in a radio program dedicated to the memory of Carlos Piantini: This unforgettable creator of music began his career as a young violinist in love with classical music, who fought hard to transform the building of the National Theater in his own country into a true national theater, the home to artists who would achieve the miracle of perfecting their skills for an increasingly wide, receptive, and enthusiastic audience.

Dante Salvador Cucurullo Pérez was born in San Juan de la Maguana on January 13, 1957. His ancestors came from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza (Calabria).

He began his music studies under Dr. Dante Cucurullo, his father, and under the instructor Monina Cámpora de Piña. In 1971, he was awarded a scholarship by his teacher Manuel Rueda to continue piano studies at the National Conservatory of Music in the city of Santo Domingo.

In 1981 he graduated with honors as a Teacher of Advanced Music Courses, with a specialization in Musical Composition, from the National Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of maestro Manuel Simó. He also obtained a teacher’s certificate in music, with a specialization in piano, and completed a baccalaureate in Music (magna cum laude) from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. In 2019 he was professor of Composition and Piano; director of the Punta Cana Academy of Music and Arts; and director of the Camerata Infanto-Juvenil del Este-RD (Children’s Chamber Ensemble of Eastern Dominican Republic), the Chamber Orchestra of Haina sponsored by the Refidomsa Foundation, and the musical programs of the Aula Cultural.

He has served as assistant director of the National Conservatory of Music, professor of Musical Composition and Fingering, founder and director of the Contemporary Philharmonic Orchestra, assistant director of the National Symphony Orchestra, director of the Juan Pablo Duarte Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatory, and a professor of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo for a period of three years.

Dante Cucurullo has participated in international festivals of electroacoustic music composition and orchestra conducting in Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Cuba, Chile, the United States, and France.

He studied conducting under Álvaro Manzano (Ecuador) and Luis Gorelik (Argentina). He created and directed the Manuel Simó Concert Season for 15 uninterrupted years. He has won seven national music awards, including the José Reyes and three Talía de Plata awards as musical conductor, and has collaborated in the creation of musical scores for plays.

As a composer, he has written works for piano, orchestra, solo orchestra, electroacoustic, and choral works, as well as for ballet and performance. On August 6, 2018, he premiered his Cantata a los Trinitarios, in an act of the Constitutional Court, and put into circulation an album with a selection of his symphonic compositions recorded live with the National Symphony Orchestra.

In 2019 he conducted at a concert titled Clásicos Dominicanos del Siglo XX (Twentieth-Century Dominican Classics), sponsored by the Dominican Petroleum Refinery and as part of a large-scale project that aims to preserve the symphonic repertoire of the Dominican Republic.

Italians in the Dominican Republic The broadcasting station La Voz del Yuna—founded in Bonao by José Arismendi Trujillo Molina on August 1, 1942, and later relocated to the Dominican capital in May 1946—made changes to its usual programming to adapt to new audiences. Among the proposed innovations was the sporadic participation of the National Symphony Orchestra in its programming.

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The soprano Mara de Martini and the baritone Rafael Félix Gimbernard in the first “Ópera Night” at Teatro Olimpia. © Blanca Delgado

When attempting to implement this initiative, a never-disclosed conversation seems to have caused a misunderstanding between the two institutions involved, which led to a telegraphic communication being sent by the station’s founder to the Dominican Ambassador in Rome, Telésforo Calderón, requesting that he hire musicians from post-war Italian institutions, as well as soloists, to work at La Voz del Yuna, with the specification that only “the best” be sent, which is precisely what happened. This fortuitous incident would fill Santo Domingo with some of the greatest musical talents of Italy at that time, and the positive effects of the influx were immediate.

The first ten musicians who were contracted arrived in the Dominican capital on February 25, 1947. The group included violinists Danilo Belardinelli, Francesco Montelli, Amedeo Fortunati, Mariano Dessi, Carlo Renzulli and Fulvio Montanaro; cellists Luigi Fuscili and Ennio Orazi; and violists Guglielmo Morelli and Ferdinando Cortellini.

Within this first group, perhaps the most outstanding figure was Danilo Belardinelli (Rome, Dec 8, 1915), a concert maestro from the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, a renowned soloist in Europe, and conductor of the famous Quartetto Belardinelli.

At La Voz del Yuna, Belardinelli was concertmaster for the Orquesta Salón and Orquesta de Arcos - conducted by Enrico Montelli - and he performed as the soloist concertmaster of the first violins in the Italian Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he directed the Conjunto Intermezzo and regularly appeared as a soloist on different radio programs and live performances within the aforementioned radio programming.

On October 22, 1947, his first performance as soloist for the National Symphony Orchestra took place at the Teatro Independencia in the capital city, along with the Italians Mariano Dessi, Ferdinando Cortellini, Ennio Orazi, and Laura Girardi Cacciapuoti.

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His daily appearance in various areas of La Voz del Yuna’s programming brought Belardinelli new audiences across the Dominican Republic. He toured the interior of the country accompanied by Dominican pianist Vicente Grisolía, with whom he also appeared on November 18, 1948 at the Teatro Independencia, in a concert sponsored by the INTARIN Concert Society.

As a teacher of violin, his most promising students in Santo Domingo were Jacinto Gimbernard and Nidia Mieses, both of whom would achieve great success in their respective careers, nationally as well as internationally.

At the end of his two-year contract, Belardinelli left the Dominican capital, in the last days of April 1949, returning in 1975 to take part—now as conductor—in the production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, which was presented at the Teatro Nacional as part of its Ópera 75 festival.

Francesco Montelli was born on October 1, 1896, in Rome. The culturally infused atmosphere that enveloped his early youth at the beginning of the twentieth century contributed significantly to his devotion to music.

After graduating from the Accademia Santa Cecilia, he had the opportunity to play under the direction of Arturo Toscanini and was one of the founders of the Quartetto di Roma. In Europe, Montelli was an eminent musician who obtained the highest distinctions in chamber music and one of the most outstanding members of the influx of Italian artistic talent that La Voz Dominicana brought together in the Orquesta de Arcos Italianos, conducted later by maestro Roberto Caggiano. He was also part of the Quartetto Belardinelli, which also comprised at the time Danilo Belardinelli, Fulvio Montanaro, and Luigi Fusilli. Montelli would later become founder and director of the Ars Nova Quartet based in Santo Domingo, together with maestros Jacinto Gimbernard (violin), François Bahuaud (cello), and Giovanni Constantino (1st viola).

Montelli’s innate perfectionism and natural curiosity also led him to excel in the field of music criticism.

But among his many facets, mention should also be made of his specialization in sound technique, knowledge that he acquired while studying at the BBC in London.

For many years, he served as director of the Recordings Department at La Voz Dominicana, proving essential in the creation of the most important discography related to the history of broadcasting in the Dominican Republic. As a result, many major foreign artists expressed strong preferences for having their recordings made in the studios of that institution.

Francesco Montelli remained active as a violinist for the Symphony until 1965.

He lived in Santo Domingo until his death on April 14, 1966, and he requested that he be buried in this city, where he left indelible memories in both the musical and social scene for his extraordinary artistic talents and his generous and humane personality. His granddaughter Maria Pía Montelli later studied singing in Italy, and his great-granddaughter Mariangela Franco Montelli—daughter of the Dominican bassist Moisés Franco Trujillo—who inherited his love of the violin, currently has a brilliant career in Italy and is on a promising path toward success.

The second group of Italian musicians hired by La Voz del Yuna, which arrived five months later, on July 9, 1947, included eight new maestros, all of the highest academic and artistic caliber: Roberto Caggiano (conductor), Lorenzo Ticchioni (horn), Silvana Samproni (violinist), Laura Girardi Cacciapuoti (harpist), Sydney Gallesi (oboist), María Luisa Faini (pianist), and the pianist duo formed by Mario Carta and Enrico Cagna-Cabiati. This group of musicians would also hold academic positions during their sojourn in the country, and the imprint of their outstanding work still remains palpable.

Roberto Caggiano was born in Potenza, a province in the Basilicata region of Italy. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition under Bernardino Molinari at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he debuted as conductor with the Augusteo orchestra and also taught harmony.

He arrived in the Dominican capital on July 9, 1947, hired by José Arismendi Trujillo to organize a symphony orchestra at La Voz del Yuna with Italian and other national musicians. Although the original project

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Actors posing at Teatro Olimpia. © Blanca Delgado

did not come to fruition, it was followed by the creation of the Orquesta de Arcos, which Caggiano directed, made up of Italian musicians at the service of the company, who presented a special program weekly through this important radio station. In 1949, at the end of his two-year contract, Caggiano returned to Italy, but the following year he was back in Santo Domingo, on directions of José Arismendi Trujillo so that he could assume direction of the National Symphony Orchestra, which had fallen into a critical period under the direction of the Mexican Abel Eisenberg.

In an interview with Manuel Rueda in 1983, Caggiano recalled that the nearly ten years he spent conducting the Symphony had been the most inspiring period of his life. There he had found friends and musicians of great artistic and human value, who joined in his efforts with the authorities to raise the salaries of musicians and who supported him in his initiative to defend affordable programs for a nascent group that ultimately achieved great success due to his professionalism.

From his first public concert as co-director of the NSO, on December 21, 1950, at the Social Worker’s Center, the plan this brilliant director had outlined proved a success—to improve the orchestra, and move from the simple to the complex, thereby gradually encompassing the great works of the repertoire, based on the technical progress that the different sections were making.

On June 1, 1951, Roberto Caggiano was appointed principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, and on October 30 of that same year, he presented the first Opera Night in the country at the Teatro Olimpia, in a groundbreaking gala event sponsored by the General Directorate of Fine Arts, with scenes from the operas Rigoletto, Aida, La Traviata, and the overture of La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi, in which seven solo voices and a choir of eleven male voices participated. The event was repeated at the Teatro Julia in Santo Domingo, and then went on to San Cristóbal, San Pedro de Macorís, and Barahona.

On October 7, 1955, the news was published that the maestro Caggiano had presented a concert in Rome

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The group of 10 Italian musicians hired by La Voz del Yuna is welcomed by the musical director of the radio station, Ángel Bussi (third from right), and by an unidentified official. © Blanca Delgado

with symphonic works by Dominican authors, through the Italian radio and television consortium (RAI). “I conducted this concert,” said Caggiano, “with my heart fixed on this country that I love so much, and which I consider my second homeland. I was very flattered when the audience enthusiastically applauded the compositions of Dominican musicians. The resonance of the concert in Italian musical circles filled me with great satisfaction and pride, in that the musical talent of this country was revealed.”

In 1959, Caggiano conducted his farewell concert on three occasions with selections from Handel’s Messiah, with the participation of the National Choir, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the soloists Olga Azar, Ivonne Haza, and Arístides Inchustegui, together with Francisco Montelli (violin), François Bahuaud (cello), and Lilliam Columna (harp).

Mario Carta (1906) was born in Mandas, Cagliari (Sardinia). He began his studies under the tutelage of his father and then went on to study harmony with Mario Pilati and Cesare Dobici. At the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, in Rome, he graduated from piano and composition under the guidance of teachers Silvestri and Petrassi. He was a brilliant concert pianist, recitalist, conductor, and arranger, and he also composed music for films.

As half of the piano duo of Carta and Cabiati, Carta gave concerts at major music venues in Europe and the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and the American Academy of Music in Philadelphia.

He also did extraordinary work at La Voz Dominicana, where he was an exclusive artist for several years, beginning in 1947. The Carta-Cabiati duo had a special show on that radio station, which garnered a considerable audience. A truly talented arranger, he guided the first steps of the great Dominican musician Bienvenido Bustamante, who never forgot Carta’s sage advice. He was also responsible for the finest moments in the exceptional career of the Dominican tenor Napoleón Dihmes.

For the 1951 Anniversary Week of La Voz Dominicana, he led a choir made up of artists from the station to perform seventeenth-century music, along with arrangements of contemporary works by Dominican composers. The soloists were Guarionex Aquino and Jesús Faneyte. On this occasion, the choir received unqualified applause; without the need for accompanying instruments, it had managed to achieve quite novel effects based on onomatopoeia, echoing the sounds of the güira, the tambura (a traditional two-headed drum), and the accordion. Mario Carta also added the trumpet blast to the official interpretation of the Dominican Na-

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tional Anthem, creating a version that remained popular for many years.

He frequently performed at other venues around the country, as well as directed the choir of the Luis Muñoz Rivera School in Santo Domingo.

Invitation for the concert of the Italian violinist Danilo Belardinelli, scheduled for November 18, 1948 at Teatro Independencia. On one side of the card, there is a dedication from the teacher “to my dear student Jacinto Gimbernard.” © Blanca Delgado

Enrico Cagna Cabiati arrived in Santo Domingo on July 9, 1947, on a contract with La Voz del Yuna, as part of the Carta-Cabiati piano duo, which, as indicated above, included Mario Carta.

His active participation in the radio programs of that station very soon made various facets of his talent broadly known. In addition to being a member of the Carta-Cabiati duo, he served as conductor, arranger, and solo pianist, as well as conductor of the ensemble that accompanied various artists associated with the broadcasting company.

Among the various events organized by La Voz del Yuna, Cagna Cabiati was responsible for evaluating a young man named Rafael Solano, barely 20 years old—a recent graduate with outstanding grades from the National Conservatory of Music—to determine whether he had sufficient skills to be a pianist for the Orquesta Angelita Orchestra, one of the main musical groups featured by the station.

Having passed the test, and after receiving the corresponding guidance, the young pianist went on to eventually direct Orquesta Angelita Orchestra not long afterward. Rafael Solano—now a legendary artist in the contemporary musical history of the Dominican Republic—owed a great debt to Enrico Cagna Cabiati, who served as a key figure at that early stage of his professional life, guiding him on the path to success.

Maria Luisa Faini was born in Rome. She graduated at the age of 15 from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where she studied under Carlo Angelelli. She then pursued advanced courses under Alfredo Casello, in Siena and in Rome.

She won first performance prizes in 1937, 1940, and 1941, and went on to become a teacher of advanced courses at the Siena Conservatory. With a passionate temperament, she is especially remembered in the country for her piano skills and her infallible musical interpretation. She came to La Voz del Yuna in 1947 and returned to Italy in 1949.

The maestro Adriano La Rosa was born in Genoa on August 12, 1896. He came to the Dominican Republic for ten days as guest conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and ended up staying for many years, leaving a mark most notably as arranger and conductor at La Voz Dominicana.

While in the Dominican Republic, he composed the opera Anacaona, with a libretto by the Dominican Franklin Domínguez. This work, which remains unpublished, was being rehearsed; however, completion of the project was postponed indefinitely.

Italian harpist Laura Girardi Cacciapuoti was part of the second wave of Italian musicians to arrive in the Dominican Republic under contract by La Voz del Yuna in 1947.

Girardi Cacciapuoti was born in Venice on September 9, 1919. She studied at the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello in Venice with the harpist Margarita Cicognari. She studied advanced courses under Ada

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Ruata Sossoli, at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, in Rome. In 1938, she won the Gold Medal and the Diploma of Honor at the Turin National Harp Competition. Later she performed as a soloist at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and the Venice Academy of Ancient Music.

As a recitalist, she performed in Italy, Switzerland, and France. In September 1947, two months after her arrival in the Dominican capital, she was appointed as harp instructor at the National Conservatory of Music and Recital, and shortly thereafter, as harpist for the National Symphony Orchestra. She returned to Europe on August 6, 1949.

Mario Ceccarelli, considered by international critics as one of the most important virtuosos in Italy, was born in Rome in 1906. In Rome he studied under Pietro Boccaccini and in Paris under Ludwig Breitner, disciples of Liszt and Anton Rubinstein, respectively. At the International Competition held in Vienna in 1933, he won an Honorable Mention and a Gold Medal from among more than 500 contestants.

A prolific recitalist, in Italy he was invited to play a private recital before Pope Pius XII, who awarded him the Papal Medal.

He arrived in the country on November 11, 1947, hired by the Dominican government to direct a training course, as a teacher of advanced piano courses at the National Conservatory of Music and Recital. Ceccarelli was highly appreciated by his students and by those who witnessed his performances at the Capital and Independencia theaters.

Tenor Mario Binci was born in Castelfidardo, near Ancona (Italy). He was first tenor at La Scala in Milan and the Teatro Reale dell’Opera in Rome. His voluminous, high-range voice, which easily descended into middle-range, was discovered in the local church choir. He studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1940 he won first prize in the National Contest for Singers. Binci debuted at the Teatro Quirino, from where he went on to Teatro Reale dell’Opera in Rome. In 1949 he debuted at the City Center in New York, where he also sang as first tenor. He later performed in Havana and at the San Francisco Opera. His recordings of opera arias were published under the His Master’s Voice label.

On February 13, 1949, he gave a recital in Santo Domingo, accompanied by the Italian pianist María Luisa Faini.

The Chamber Opera Company of La Scala in Milan, made up of young singers from La Piccola Scala, some already having gained experience at La Scala in Milan, performed in the top theaters of Europe and the Americas.

On its first tour of Latin America, the group was led by Italian-Argentine maestro composer Giulio Cesare Brero. This youthful company had already participated in festivals in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Spain, and Portugal. Upon arrival in the Dominican Republic, its members were interviewed, and the soprano Mariella Adani commented: “It is a great pleasure for me to say something about an authentic Dominican value. I’m talking about Teresita Montes de Oca, who sang with me at the La Scala theater in Milan, in the opera La Volpe Astuta (The Cunning Little Vixen) by Janáček.”

On the night of Saturday, October 18, 1958, La Scala Chamber Opera presented Don Pasquale by Donizetti and La Piccola Arlecchinata by Salieri.

As one critic noted, “A perfectly balanced ensemble of young voices who, in addition to singing, proved to have excellent acting skills, under the right musical and stage direction. […] The performance of La Scala Chamber Opera Company from Milan in the auditorium of the Palacio de Bellas Artes represented a night of true art that will be remembered for a long time.”

The conductor Pierino Gamba was first drawn to music at the age of eight. He began his career in Rome conducting the Opera Symphony Orchestra, and when he matured, he maintained his own enchanting way of making music.

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The National Symphony Orchestra with its director Roberto Caggiano in 1951 in the main hall of the General Directorate of Fine Arts, today known as The Royal Houses Museum. © Blanca Delgado

In March 1960 he was the first guest to conduct the Dominican National Symphony Orchestra, when Manuel Simó was at the helm of this institution. During that season of seven memorable concerts, perhaps the most significant took place on May 16, 1960, when he directed the Dominican violinist Jacinto Gimbernard, with works by Ludwig van Beethoven, and on May 20, 1960, the pianist Elila Mena, with Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra.

Pierino Gamba would return to the country in April of the following year to offer four concerts, in one of which, in addition to conducting, he appeared as a piano soloist in the Concerto in A minor Op. 16 by Edvard Grieg.

His presence in the country is still remembered for the excellence of his musicianship and his alluring personality.

In 1956, the most outstanding event of the 16th Anniversary Week of La Voz Dominicana was the television broadcast of Pietro Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria Rusticana, which included a cast of Dominican performers, the choir and orchestra of La Voz Dominicana, and conducting by Vito Castorina and José Dolores Cerón, and which was produced by Pedro René Contín Aybar with technical direction by Freddy Miller.

According to critics, in this first experiment in the country, “[...] the director managed to represent musical stage work in all its aspects, by means of a magnificent translation of his musical experiences into a visual plasticity that reached heights beyond what would be conceivable. And this triumph of the ensemble is what allows us to hope that this first step through the intricate labyrinth of opera will bear fruit in the future.”

In the following year, and in commemoration of the 17th Anniversary Week of La Voz Dominicana (August 1, 1957), Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata was presented from the María Montez studio on Channel 4, in what was seen as the most brilliant artistic performance in the country, according to local critics.

The cast of Dominican artists was again under the musical direction of Vito Castorina, with a production

by Pedro René Contín Aybar and technical direction by Fredy Miller. The preparation of the singers was headed by the dramatic bass Mario Ferretti, a graduate of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, who had recently been incorporated into the company lineup.

On November 29, 1958, Vito Castorina conducted opera performances staged by Italian maestro Mario Ferretti, through La Voz Dominicana, as part of the celebrations for the 160th anniversary of the birth of Gaetano Donizetti. Dominican participants included Miley Rodríguez, Violeta Stephen, Tony Curiel, Ana Beatriz Beato, Armando Recio, Gerónimo Pellerano, Gladis Brens, and Reynaldo Hidalgo, with excerpts from the operas Elisir d’Amore, La Fille du Régiment, Don Pasquale, and Lucia di Lammermoor.

Five years later, Castorina was appointed member of the selection jury of the Musical Contest of the Cen-

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tennial of the Restoration of the Republic, held in 1963, along with maestro Juan Francisco García, president, and Manuel Rueda, jury member.

On April 25 of the same year, the Compañía Lírica Dominicana, recently created by the tenor Rafael Sánchez Cestero, presented a new version of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana under the musical direction of Vito Castorina and a cast of Dominican artists (except for the soprano Dagmar White). On that occasion, the orchestra led by maestro Castorina scored a new triumph—two standing ovations from the audience.

By then, many of the Italian musicians who had belonged to the La Voz del Yuna (La Voz Dominicana) Radio Circuit since 1947 were already part of the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its conductor, maestro Roberto Caggiano, who, long after completing his memorable mission to the country, had incorporated them into that institution and, more recently, had brought in a new group of ten Italian and four French maestros to reinforce the orchestra and at the same time teach at the National Conservatory of Music.

Closing Observations In the cultural history of the Dominican Republic, the presence of the most prominent Italian musicians— hired by La Voz del Yuna beginning in 1947, with the mission of creating a symphony orchestra exclusively for that station—represented the greatest qualitative leap for the only Dominican radio station that was then broadcasting across the country, and whose programming had been focused on the showcasing of popular music in its highest expressions and toward other aspects of art.

The brilliant music of the violinist Danilo Belardinelli, and of Francesco Montelli with his Ars Nova Quartet, the Italian Bow Orchestra conducted by Roberto Caggiano, and the Carta-Cabiati piano duo, formed by Mario Carta and Enrico Cagna Cabiati, were only one part of the scintillating new world that Italian music opened for thousands of listeners from all over the country: the window to a world to which they had never had access.

Due to the diplomatic skills of the cultural authorities of the moment, the differences that arose in past times between the owner of La Voz Dominicana, José Arismendi Trujillo Molina, and the National Symphony Orchestra were overcome, and both institutions joined efforts aimed at the common purpose of training Dominican musicians.

The Italian instrumentalists who had come from 1947 to La Voz del Yuna were gradually incorporated into the National Symphony Orchestra and the National Conservatory of Music, and Roberto Caggiano’s masterful direction of the Symphony Orchestra (1951 - 1959) would pass into the annals of history as the most glorious period of music in the Dominican Republic, up to that time.

From that time onward, the Dominicans who had the privilege of living through this stellar period fully understood the meaning of the word “excellence” as applied to artistic activity, and it could therefore be concluded that the greatest Italian legacy for Dominican music and culture was this very pursuit of excellence.

Dominican Musicians in Italy Teresa Montes de Oca began her professional career studying under Carlos Moresco. On September 9, 1957, she auditioned for the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and was chosen from 175 applicants. She was assigned to Professor Campo Galiani, and in June 1958 she realized her dream of singing in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In 1998, she was the only Dominican to sing under contract with La Scala in Milan.

Vicente Grisolía (Puerto Plata, 1924). Grisolía studied advanced repertoire with Professor Germano Arnaldi in Rome (Italy) after completing teaching degrees in piano at the Liceo Musical and the Conservatorio Nacional de Música.

Ramón Díaz Peralta (Salcedo, 1932). Díaz Peralta was a student of the master pianist Mario Ceccarelli and

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studied advanced courses at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, after graduating as a piano teacher at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid (Spain).

Ivonne Haza (San Pedro de Macorís, 1938). Haza debuted in 1950 in the Luis Muñoz Rivera School Choir, under the direction of Mario Carta, as the main figure in the opera Ciottolino by Luigi Ferrari. In Italy, she was a student of Inge Schiele de Caggiano, and continued her studies at the Conservatory of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Elena Ambrosio and Ines Alfani Tellini.

Gladys Pérez (Villa Vásquez, 19?). In 1981, Pérez received training in Italy for the teaching of singing with the teacher Lillyanna Muscio Recchia. She was the first singing teacher to graduate from the National Conservatory of Music.

Henry Ely (Santiago de los Caballeros, 1939). In 1964 Ely traveled to Italy and prepared with Inge Schiele de Caggiano for admission to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He studied set design at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, under the direction of the baritone Gino Bechi, who would also be his instructor at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In Milan he received training from the maestro Enrico De Mori.

Catana Pérez (Moca, 1948). Pérez studied graduate courses in piano under Pietro Scarpini and Enma Contestabile, at the Conservatory of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome.

María de Fátima Geraldes (Ciudad Trujillo, 1953). De Fátima Geraldes studied advanced music courses in Florence (Italy) under Orazio Frugoni.

Marianela Sánchez (San Juan de la Maguana, 1953). Under the guidance of Paolo Silveri and Gianna Perea Labbia, Sánchez graduated with a teaching degree in singing from the Conservatory of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. She completed specialized studies with Franco Calabrese, in Lucca (Italy).

BIBLIOGRAPHY De Windt, Julio. Testimonios de un director de orquesta. Rev. ed.

Santo Domingo: Banco Central de la República Dominicana, 2007.

Gimbernard, Jacinto. Treinta relatos sinfónicos. Santo Domingo: Centenario, 2000.

Incháustegui, Arístides. Por amor al arte. Notas sobre música, compositores e intérpretes dominicanos. Santo Domingo: SEEBAC, 1995.

Incháustegui, Arístides and Blanca Delgado Malagón. Vida musical en Santo Domingo (1940-1965). Santo Domingo: Banco de Re-

servas de la República Dominicana, 1998.

Incháustegui, Arístides and Blanca Delgado Malagón. Vida musical en Santo Domingo (1966-1996). Santo Domingo: Banco de Reservas de la República Dominicana, 1999.

Memoria de la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. 25 años: 1941-1966. Santo Domingo: Arte y Cine, 1966.

Solano, Rafael. Música y pensamiento. Crónicas y reflexiones de un músico dominicano. Santo Domingo: Banco Central de la República Dominicana, 2015.

The Italian actress Lyda Borelli (1884-1959), an emblem of Italian silent cinema, was one of the actresses who enjoyed the support of Dominican audiences in the early days of cinema in Santo Domingo. Scene photo of an unknown film. © Public domain

• CHAPTER 35

The Dominican Audiovisual Approach to the Italian Film Experience

By Félix Manuel Lora Professor of Audiovisual Communication and Cinematographic Arts at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra and the Instituto Tecnológico of Santo Domingo

Film arrived in the Dominican Republic on the night of August 27, 1900 in the northern city of Puerto Plata, where the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe device made its debut at the Teatro Curiel theater, an ideal setting for this presentation, which featured films first projected in Paris on December 28, 1895.

This premiere of the film projector was particularly relevant, because the country soon became enamored with an invention that would revolutionize the way images were experienced. Italian playwright and journalist Ricciotto Canudo (1877–1923) would later contemplate this revolution in his essay “Manifesto of the Seven Arts,” published in 1911, regarding it as “art in motion.”

The residents of Puerto Plata were afforded this special opportunity with no small thanks to the initiative of a traveling businessman who arrived in the city—one of the main maritime ports of the country—on the Cherokee steamship in August 1900.

As historian and essayist José Luis Sáez recounts in his book, Historia de un sueño importado, Francesco Grecco was “an Italian businessman who, as was common at that time, had probably acquired a projector and a camera from the Lumières and traveled throughout the Caribbean, showing off his ‘electrical’ apparatus and its reliable film handling over and over again.”1 News about the presentation of the Lumière Cinématographe in Puerto Plata and Santiago was first published in the latter city’s La Redención and then reprinted in the September 14, 1900 edition of Listín Diario in Santo Domingo.

A year before his arrival in the Dominican Republic, Grecco was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he established Grecco & Compañía, a company with which photographer Maurice Hargous (1864–1935) was also involved. After his arrival in the Dominican Republic, his variety show toured La Vega, Santiago, and Santo Domingo; after another tour of Haiti in February and May 1901, he returned to the Dominican Republic for a final tour and then left permanently for Europe in March 1902.

Grecco’s sojourn on the island left an impact on both society and entertainment, introducing film as a new mode of amusement alongside the usual lineup of zarzuela companies, circus shows, and variety troupes.

The residents of the country’s major towns and cities were offered a fresh alternative to their typical evening entertainment.

This first cinematic relationship between Italy and the Dominican Republic—in terms of presentations or the industry as a whole—produced a bridge of legacy and collaboration that would stand the test of time.

By 1910, Italy had nearly monopolized the international film distribution market, and the Dominican Republic began to regularly import Italian film productions. Among these productions were Quo Vadis (1913) and

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Antony and Cleopatra (1913) by Enrico Guazzoni, The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) by Mario Caserini and Eleuterio Rodolfi, Blue Blood (1914) by Nino Oxilia, and L’ereditiera (1915) by Baldassarre Negroni.

This also made it possible to instill admiration for the Italian divas of silent film in the Dominican people, who were already beginning to choose their favorites, such as actresses Francesca Bertini; Giselda Lombardi, better known as Leda Gys; Lyda “La Divina” Borelli, an icon of Italian silent film and femme fatale of her time; and Giuseppa Iolanda Menichelli, known professionally as Pina Menichelli.

This early approach to the film world is attributed to Italian businessman Ciriaco Landolfi, who imported various film productions through distribution companies such as Itala Film and Film d’Art Italiana and presented them on weekends at his theater, Cine Landolfi. Located in the courtyard of Casino de la Juventud at Calle Padre Billini and Calle Arzobispo Portes, this theater experienced growing demand that led to the initiation of a schedule with three weekly film showings. It was later remodeled by J.B. Alfonseca and renamed the Teatro Colón.

As film presentations in the country boomed, the news reporting profession simultaneously began to expand among a group of devotees, which included María Electa Stéfani Espaillat (1884–1962), who is considered the first Dominican filmmaker—a member of the Palau-Alfonseca team—and who collaborated on the “movie magazines” of the 1920s. She was the daughter of Sofía Espaillat (1857–1895) and Italian engineer Pilade Stefani Virgani (1854–1928); her maternal grandparents were President Ulises Francisco Espaillat Quiñones (1823–1878) and First Lady Eloísa Espaillat Rodríguez (1818–1919).

Dominican filmmaker Oscar Antonio Torres de Soto (1931–1968) was one of the first Antilleans to receive a formal education in film at the prestigious Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia—and can be counted among figures such as Gabriel García Márquez, Fernando Birri, Julio García Espinosa, and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea—in Rome in the 1950s. This education enabled him to develop a notable film career in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

Years later, in the second half of the 1960s, the Dominican Republic had achieved steady tourism growth, a circumstance that, along with a surge in local advertising films, prompted some foreign production companies to film scenes on Dominican soil, taking advantage of the country’s natural backdrop.

By the early 1970s, this had triggered the arrival of a significant wave of Italian producers who had discovered that Dominican scenery provided an excellent setting for police, adventure, horror, and comedy stories, genres in high demand by Italian audiences also interested in tales set in exotic locales like the Caribbean.

In 1974, the Italian-German-Spanish film Order to Kill—directed by José Gutiérrez Maesso and starring Helmut Berger, Sydne Rome, and José María Caffarel—was produced.

Italian director Osvaldo Civirani also filmed two Dominican-Italian action and adventure productions en-

The “Casino de la Juventud,” located in Padre Billini to Archbishop Portes Street (where currently is housed the Dominican Association of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors), operated the Landolfi Theater, owned by the Italian businessman Ciriaco Landolfi, a venue in the city of Santo Domingo dedicated to the latest in film entertainment. © Public domain

THE DOMINICAN AUDIOVISUAL APPROACH TO THE ITALIAN FILM EXPERIENCE

The Curiel Theater in Puerto Plata, where Francesco Grecco held the first film screenings in the Dominican Republic. © Edwin Espinal

Following pages: Corales Golf Club and Course at Punta Cana Resort & Club. © Grupo Puntacana, All rights reserved

377

titled Voodoo Sexy (1975), starring Chris Avram, Karin Schubert, and Diogenes Castillo, and La ragazza dalla pelle di corallo (1976), starring Gabriele Tinti, Norma Jordan, Rosanna Schiaffino, Eduardo Fajardo, Hugo Blanco, and Aliro Paulino, Jr. Italian scriptwriter, photographer, and critic Alberto Lattuada chose the town of Las Terrenas, with its beautiful beaches, as the setting for the miniseries Christopher Columbus (1985), a reenactment of the conquistador’s landing, starring Gabriel Byrne, Rossano Brazzi, Virna Lisi, and Oliver Reed.

Some other examples of Italian productions filmed in the Dominican Republic are Cave of the Sharks (1978), Raiders of the Magic Ivory (1988), and Night of the Sharks (1988) by Tonino Ricci; Zombie (1979) by Lucio Fulci; The Overthrow (1987) and Brothers in Blood (1987) by Tonino Valerii; Savana - Sesso e diamanti (1978) by Guido Leoni; Cobra Mission 2 (1988) by Camillo Teti; Tough to Kill (1979) by Joe D’Amato; and The Fishmen and Their Queen (1995) by Sergio Martino.

Actor, director, screenwriter, singer, and comedian Jerry Calà also filmed scenes from Chicken Park (1994) in the Dominican Republic, and numerous television productions—such as Mean Tricks (1992) by Umberto Lenzi, Vacanze ai Caraibi (2015) by Neri Parenti, The Fishmen and Their Queen (1995) by Sergio Martino, and L’isola dei famosi (2003) by Egidio Romio—have been filmed on the island as well.

The exchange of technology, resources, and industry dynamics that has resulted from these Italian productions, filmed fully or partially in the country, has led to advances and pushed many Dominican technicians, some of whom are already working in the field and others of whom are advertising students, to higher levels of professionalism, which has been reflected in local advertising and television.

In 2019, the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX) signed a cooperation agreement with the Italian government, linking their cultural industries. The agreement was signed at the headquarters of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBAC, by its Italian acronym) and attended by the Dominican Republic Film Commission (DGCINE, by its Spanish acronym).

This new cultural alliance has enabled the Dominican Republic and Italy to continue to strengthen cultural ties and elevate the visibility of both countries through the exceptional channel of communication that film provides.

ENDNOTES 1 José Luis Sáez, Historia de un sueño importado: ensayos sobre el cine en Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo: Siboney, 1982), 25.

ECONOMICS AND SCIENCE

• CHAPTER 36

Italian Investment in the Modern Dominican Economy

By Arturo Martínez Moya PUCMM Professor of Dominican Economics and Member of the Monetary Board

This chapter analyzes the historical contributions of Italian investment in the Dominican economy, beginning in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and periodized by cycles, and examines trends in the gross domestic product.1

Years of Political Instability (1844 – 1869) he nineteenth century was marked by profound changes on a global scale, particularly with regard to technologies and the organization of companies and industries. In the Dominican Republic, the transition from artisanal and agricultural activity to mass production occurred when steam and electricity were incorporated into the manufacturing process. This took place during the Separation from Haiti, when the supply of agricultural products was essentially earmarked for consumption by the country’s own population, and little was exported to the markets in the major Atlantic trading ports of Hamburg or Bremen.

From the early years of the young republic, and in order to take full advantage of technological advances, efforts were made to increase the population through policies that favored immigration but which prioritized the entry of entrepreneurs with capital and who were well-versed in modern agricultural production methods that could replace those inherited from the Haitian regime.

Between 1844 and 1848, President Pedro Santana ordered the distribution of state land to foreign immigrants who settled in the country, and in 1847 a decree was issued to grant each immigrant a parcel of 50 acres of public land, along with the corresponding property rights and exemption from any payment of taxes and fees.

In addition, and for the exclusive application to commercial agricultural work, these immigrants were exempted from military service in recognition that economic activities were conditioned by the frequent Haitian army campaigns into Dominican territory, which forced the male population to stand ready at all times to defend the young sovereign nation. As a result, the growth of the economy was limited to an average annual rate of only 0.42% from 1844 to 1849.

It was not only the frequent campaigns of the Haitian army into Dominican territory that disrupted economic activities—political turmoil also existed due to infighting among conservative leaders who were seeking political power.2 Nonetheless economic activity increased in the 1850s, with GDP growing at an average annual rate of 1.08%.

During this time, the economy grew more than 250% compared to the previous five years, partly due to

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the contribution of immigrant workers; those from the Canary Islands were preferred, because they could settle in the country for four years. Immigrants took advantage of the incentives offered to promote commercial agriculture: they paid little for the land; undeveloped land was abundant; and social stratification3 occurred within a population of merely 200,000 inhabitants and population density of only 7.7 inhabitants per square mile.4 Because he did not believe in the viability of an independent and sovereign republic, the caudillo Pedro Santana handed dominion over the Dominican Republic to Spain merely seventeen years after the Separation from Haiti, an act that was rejected by producers, merchants, and the general population. As a consequence, in the period of occupation (1861 to 1865), there were no economic advances, and agricultural production remained perilous in the midst of political turmoil. Thus, there was no formation of a prosperous class of landowners at a time when agrarian property was of little relevance as a criterion for social stratification.

Due to social pressure caused by opposition to the occupation, and to the strong rejection by the people of the tax initiatives of the occupying government, the economy grew only 0.67% per year in the 1860s.

The period from 1844 to 1870 in political terms was marked by the campaigns of the Haitian army in Dominican territory; turmoil caused by the caudillismo of Pedro Santana and Buenaventura Báez, who shared power, as well as 24 administrative changes; and the inability to establish a stable government with a strong constitutional foundation.

As a consequence of all of the above, the economy grew at an average annual rate of only 0.68%, and due to increased immigration, the Dominicans’ per capita income grew by an annual rate of -2.7%.

Italian Investment during the First Decades of a Modern Economy (1870 - 1900) As political leaders failed to fulfill their obligation to establish conditions for a government system based on respect for the Constitution of the Republic,5 agricultural activities—from the Separation of Haiti until 1869— were characterized as high risk, with backward technologies6 and very low labor productivity.

The change in land ownership and imposition of liberal economic measures, such as those in force in European countries, were necessary conditions for a positive flow of foreign direct investment to take place, which in turn would contribute to the introduction of cutting-edge productive technology, sustained growth, and job creation.

Although liberal economic doctrine arrived in the Dominican Republic in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, somewhat later than elsewhere, the founder of the Republic, Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez, along with Pedro Francisco Bonó and Ulises Francisco Espaillat—the greatest exponents of market liberalism in the country—began to make small strides in its implementation.7 Beginning in 1870, with the rise to power of the Blue or Liberal Party,8 liberal economic policies and initiatives aimed at political stability, and based on respect for the postulates of the constitution,9 were put into practice, measures that proved to be fundamental for agriculture to make the transition from subsistence farming to commercial profitability, thus requiring more workers. These qualitative and quantitative changes took place during the years of the Second Industrial Revolution, from 1860 until the start of the First World War in 1914.

According to liberal economic doctrine, it was necessary to boost agricultural worker productivity in order to increase output and meet higher demand in the international market, a formula that also required private capital investment. Based on this postulate, the Dominican economy began to incrementally and progressively enter into the arena of international trade, a development that was reflected in GDP, which grew at an average annual rate of 4.9% from 1870 to 1899.

When these twenty-nine years are analyzed by decade, the importance of the use of new technologies in the sugar industry becomes palpable; since the GDP accelerated, the economy increased at an average annual rate of 3.3%. In the 1870s, between 100 and 200 sugar mills were constructed in the vicinity of Azua, along

Opening page: New drying techniques, equipment, and materials developed in collaboration with Italian companies and universities, and put into practice by the Rizek Group, have allowed the substantial improvement and standardization of this delicate part of the cacao cycle. © Rizek Cacao

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

Early 1950s, Amadeo Barletta, Cuba. © Miguel Barletta

383

with approximately 100 around Baní.10 The economy grew by 4.9% in the 1880s and 5.9% in the 1890s.

As it occurred in other countries, new production technologies were imported with capital from foreign entrepreneurs. Thus, the Dominican sugar industry, which at this stage was far more labor-saving and competitive, became more robust, significantly increasing its range of economies of scale and with sugar occupying the central position in the national economy,11 replacing tobacco, which was a far more labor-intensive product.12 Many of the workers displaced by the new production technologies were absorbed by the coffee- and tobacco-producing sectors, as well as the subsistence economy, although later, when the international sugar market demanded higher volumes, these workers returned to sugar production.

With the opening of the economy to international trade, the need for working capital increased tremendously. This was facilitated by foreign agents and local merchant-wholesalers, who went on to become the first members of the Dominican bourgeoisie,13 as was the case with Miguel Ventura and Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa, the latter known as “Baciccia”14 (1847-1900), who at nineteen years of age was already fully immersed in business and other national economic activity.15 Working astutely, these entrepreneurs and intermediaries generated savings that they then invested in land for the cultivation of sugar cane, while contributing financial support to the production of cocoa, tobacco, wax, honey, mahogany wood, cedar, and oak, as well as leather products,16 which were destined mainly for export markets. Due to their aggressive participation in financial intermediation in the market, the cost of investment was reduced from 10% to 3% per year in the years 1897, 1898, and 1899.17 By the end of the nineteenth century, intermediaries controlled most of the country’s wholesale trade, with the most aggressive participation by Germans and Americans, in addition to Italians, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans.18 The investments made by Italian businessmen also augmented the country’s federal coffers; total government liabilities with such businessmen and those of other nationalities rose from DOP 500,000 at the end of 1884 to DOP 659,000 in 1893, of which a little less than a third (DOP 199,000) was accounted for by Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa and his companies.19 In 1897, 1898, and 1899, the Italian merchant Miguel Ventura lent the government DOP 6,307 in merchandise and capital.20 Attempts were made to establish commercial banks in the last decades of the nineteenth century; however, it was not until 1912 that they began to operate on any normal basis, thereby reducing the number of loans made by foreign merchants and agents to the producing sectors of the economy, to commercial enterprises in general, and to the federal government.

The government authorized the installation and operation of the Banco Nacional de Santo Domingo through a capital investment of DOP 500,000; its main office was located in Santo Domingo, with branches in San Pedro de Macorís, Puerto Plata, and Sánchez. The Royal Bank of Canada also established branches in Santo Domingo and Santiago.

With the entry of major sugar mills principally in the vicinities of Azua and Baní in the 1870s, the second stage of the sugar industry in the Dominican Republic began, following a first stage that had extended from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

This second industrial phase was initially financed with capital from Cubans displaced by the ten-year war (1868 - 1878), and through the initiatives of Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa, who quickly learned the advanced techniques of sugar production and management.

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Carlos Loynaz, a naturalized Cuban-American, built La Isabela sugar mill in Puerto Plata, which he revamped using advanced technology. He sold his sugar from an office that he established in New York.

Local and foreign producers introduced new production technologies into the country, specifically a steam mill incorporated into the Bayona, Santa Ana de Engombe, and Guagimía de los Caballeros plantations.21 They also imported machinery and equipment at a cost of millions of pesos to replace traditional animal-powered mills, the technique employed since early colonial times.

The production process of the new factory was characterized by the extraction of the juice from the cane, utilizing wooden rollers and moved by the force of a horse or an ox.22 The guarapo or juice was then strained and cooked in large copper vessels to manufacture molasses and sugar for internal consumption.

Italian Investments in the New Mills Augmented production of sugar, along with that of cocoa, tobacco, and other products, strengthened the commercial link of the country’s producers with markets in the United States and Europe. This phenomenon underscored the effectiveness of liberal market policies, such as tax exemptions and exemptions on the import of machinery, equipment, and supplies for industry and agriculture; the donation of land; and the easing of immigration caps aimed at increasing the working population in the sugar cane fields.23 These factors were essential for increasing the flow of foreign direct investment and attracting business talent. Along with the country’s rich natural resources, and the hospitality and productivity of the population, these aspects were recurring themes in Dominican diplomatic discourse within European settings.24 In addition to the sugar mills built in Azua and Baní in the 1870s, between 1875 and 1882 around thirty sugar factories were constructed that incorporated major technological improvements, including one in Azua, three in Baní, two in San Cristóbal, one around Santo Domingo, and the rest in the eastern part of the Dominican Republic.

Joaquín Delgado built and operated the La Esperanza steam-powered mill in 1875, and in the same year, the Cuban Juan Amechazurra began construction of the Angelina mill on the eastern bank of the Iguamo River in San Pedro de Macorís, which began operations in 1879.

Italian investments were particularly noteworthy, most importantly those of Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa, who invested heavily in sugar cane plantations and mills. According to the consensus of most historians, his contributions were considerable, especially with regard to his involvement in the General Industrial Corporation and the Vicini Estate Corporation.

Vicini Cánepa’s deep involvement in the sugar business began in 1878. With his own capital he entered into a partnership with Sánchez-Damiron in the construction and operation of the Santa Elena sugar mill, located near Santo Domingo.

The Encarnación plant, founded by the Cuban Francisco Saviñón, became the property of Vicini Cánepa, who also bought two other mills, the Constancia and the Santa Elena, which merged with the Constancia hacienda founded by Joaquín Heredia and subsequently purchased by Cánepa. The result was a significant increase in productivity that put him in a position to compete in export markets.

Due to his successes in buying bankrupt mills, and with the management skills he applied to successful production units, in the 1880s Vicini Cánepa became the main sugar producer in the country. He acquired the Encarnación estate, which Francisco Saviñón had established in Santo Domingo in 1892;25 the Ocoa estate founded by the Italian company Zanetti y Compañía;26 and the Angelina sugar mill formerly owned by the Cuban Juan Amechazurra. He also installed the Italia Sugar Mill in Azua.

In 1896 and 1897 the companies owned by Vicini Cánepa imported new crushing machines and sugar processing equipment from Great Britain.27 As a result of these and other investments by Italian and other national entrepreneurs, in the 1880s foreign direct investment in the Dominican economy totaled US$14.86 million with the following distribution: a) 79.4% or US$11.8 million in sugar plantations and mills; b) 0.57% or US$85,000 in cacao plantations; c) 3.4% or US$500,000 in tobacco plantations; d) 2.7% or US$400,000 in banana plantations; and e) 14% or US$2.075 million in other production activities.

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

385

Vicini Cánepa established the Italia sugar plantation, which extended over nearly 800 hectares in Yaguate, Caoba Corcovada, San Cristóbal, and nearby Nizao. The most sophisticated in the country, it featured mechanical equipment manufactured by the French company Fives-Lille and a sugar production capacity of 3,000 tons daily, as well as a still that produced 3,000 liters of rum daily to which honey produced on the hacienda was added.

For the shipments of sugar, he built a port in Palenque and a 12-kilometer railway28 for which he also supplied trains and cargo wagons. These investments contributed to reducing the cost of transportation so that more essential activities could be prioritized, an approach that enabled him to compete with experienced manufacturers and international competitors owned by families such as the Basses (Alexander and his son William), who had set up the Consuelo Mill in San Pedro de Macorís.

He rescued production units that had gone bankrupt as a consequence of the drop in the price of sugar on the international market in 1883 and 1884, which was due to the excess supply of subsidized beet sugar in European countries29 and to the lack of management and capital needed to import and install new production technologies.

His principal competition was the Bass family. Alexander Bass had been an engineer in Cuba, and in 1890 he operated as an agent for a company in Brooklyn, New York. An entrepreneur with knowledge and experience in the marketing of sugar and other products in international markets, his main mill was the Central Consuelo in San Pedro de Macorís, valued at GBP 700,000.

To compete successfully in the sugar business, Vicini Cánepa incorporated the modern principles and rules of good business, and to take advantage of the most favorable sugar prices in foreign markets, he concentrated sales in the marketing office that he had set up and operated in New York.

As for the capitalization of the sugar industry, Eugenio M. de Hostos calculated the value of farms and mills at US$21,088,750 in 1884, including eighteen in the south of the country, which he estimated to be worth US$11.8 million,30 an amount that was financed by foreign direct investment.

With these data and other information, I have estimated the value of the Vicini Cánepa mills (Angelina, Azuano, Italia, and Ocoa) at US$2,622,224, production units that, in wages for labor, annually circulated approximately US$356,000.31 These units contributed a quarter of the total sugar supply, exploiting an area of 933 hectares (12.2 caballerías equivalent to 1200 tareas) of the 4,200 hectares (55 caballerías) in production when they operated eighteen haciendas along the southern coast of the country.32 Considering the productivity of 600 pounds of sugar per tarea of cane cultivated and taken to the mills, I estimate that the 933 hectares33 of cane at Vicini Cánepa’s haciendas and mills produced 8,784,000 pounds (4,392 tons) of sugar per year, equivalent to a little more than one-fifth of the average total volume of sugar exported by the country from 1881 to 1890.

Italian Investments in Railways and Trains The initial goal for investments in trains and railways was not to expand the activities of buying and selling in the domestic market, although it did have that effect, but rather to speed up and make more efficient the transporting of sugar and other agricultural produce to port for their ultimate export.

The reduction in the cost of transportation, and the increase in productivity in the production and both internal and external marketing of agricultural products, which were benefits generated by investments in trains and railroads, contributed significantly to the separation of sugar manufacturing from more generalized agricultural economies.

The British were able to provide train service from the port of Sánchez with the income generated by import and export tariffs on agricultural and other produce being transported via railroad. The railroads, including the Samaná-Santiago line, increased the tonnage of products transported from the fields to the shipping ports, as indicated in the following table representing the early years of the twentieth century.

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Transport of Goods, Samaná - Santiago Railroad 1907-1912 PRODUCT

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

CACAO

6,146

11,004

8,097

8,470

11,521

13,033

TOBACCO

1,665

968

1,550

1,210

637

1,342

COFFEE

48

80

117

148

348

305

TOTAL

7,859

12,052

9,764

9,828

12,406

14,680

SOURCE: BIA RG 350, SD 17987-8, Report on the Twenty-sixth Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of the Samaná and Santiago Railway Co. Ltd., April 11, 1913. (From: Patrick Bryan, La Transformación Económica de la República Dominicana, 1870-1916, 99).

The sugar businessmen who invested in railroads along the length and breadth of their cane fields had the financial support of the government, which took the form of tax and duty exemptions on imports for a range of goods, including imported machinery, equipment, coal, iron, rolling stock, rails, and ties.

These railroads were used almost exclusively to transport cane from the field to the factory, and sugar from the factory to the shipping ports, without any connection to the local market. As already mentioned, Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa was one of the first entrepreneurs to take the initiative to invest in railway lines within the sugar cane fields, thereby accelerating and optimizing the transportation of raw materials from the field to the factory and sugar from the factory to the port of Palenque.

In 1892-1893 Central Angelina had three miles of railways; Central Puerto Rico, seven; Cristóbal Colon, four; Quisqueya, ten; Santa Fe, twelve; and Consuelo, three. Vicini Cánepa’s initiative was soon imitated by other sugar producers, a joint move that greatly improved the productivity and competitiveness of the sugar industry nationwide.

Although small mills in San Pedro de Macorís still kept ox-drawn carts in use during the 1890s, in 1892 the capitalized power plants had already adopted the railway as a means of transporting raw materials (sugarcane) and finished products. Railroad service was never universal in the 1890s, because the total length of the iron roads did not exceed 30 miles, although this continued to increase in the twentieth century.

In sum, between 1866 and 1896, the investment in railways—which replaced the far slower oxen, carts, and mules—not only reduced the cost of transporting agricultural products34 but the cost of transporting passengers as well. Ten concessions were granted to foreign investors who took advantage of the availability of locomotives on the international market.

The growth of rail transportation required significant investments that, excluding those made by Vicini Cánepa on his estates and those of other sugar producers, totaled US$2,795,000. The concession companies included a) a Scottish company by the name of Baird that built 100 kilometers on the Samaná-Santiago routes; b) a Scottish Company that built the railroad to Puerto de Sánchez; and c) the Shore Line Railroad company, which covered the Santo Domingo-San Cristóbal line.35 This mode of transport competed with other railroad activities, which involved 64 freight cars and five passenger cars at thirty miles per hour, owned by the Central Dominican railway and built with funds from the sale of Dominican government sovereign bonds managed by the Westendorp company in the international financial markets.

Although the train and rail systems were paid for with government loans, they were transferred to the Santo Domingo Improvement Company in the mid-1890s, eventually being taken over by the government in 1908.

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

The Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari accompanied by the President of Grupo Ámbar, Miguel Barletta, and Francina Lama de Barletta.

Santo Domingo, June 6, 2018. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

387

Italian Investments in Maritime Transportation The Dominican economy benefited tremendously from the technological advances of this first wave of globalization, specifically through the increased speed in communication and the reductions in the cost of transporting goods and people by sea. Another benefit occurred with cable communication; using its own capital, the Compañía Telegráfica de las Antillas built the 250-kilometer Santo Domingo-Puerto Plata line, the 100-kilometer Vega-Sánchez line, and the 130-kilometer Santiago-Montecristi line, for a total of 480 kilometers and the sum of US$90,000.36 In the Dominican Republic, the availability of maritime cargo and passenger transport increased when the Clyde Steamship Company, a shipping company, commercially linked the country with the United States after the Separation from Haiti in 1844. The company monopolized maritime transport and set excessive rates, yet it was eventually confronted by Vicini Cánepa, with ships that he had secured on consignment to transport his sugar abroad, which he made available to other producers and exporters of raw materials.37 Due to the competition posed by Vicini Cánepa, in 1905 the government reduced the tariff that it applied to ships in the country’s ports, thereby devaluing sea freight, a measure that the Clyde Steamship Company opposed, arguing that it had had the exclusive concession of the Dominican State since April 3, 1895.38 The move was also opposed by U.S. Consul General Reed, who happened to serve as the representative agent for Clyde.

With foreign investments to expand and modernize internal communication and the augmented supply of maritime transport, the liberal market policies that contributed to opening the country to world trade generated more benefits for Dominicans, which in turn facilitated increase in the flow of foreign capital, accelerating domestic production.

As a consequence of the reduction in transportation costs, the competitiveness of sugar, coffee, cacao, tobacco, and other agricultural items exported through the country’s five principal ports increased exponentially. The ports serving the Dominican Republic during this time included Santo Domingo and Azua in the south, Samaná and Puerto Plata on the north coast, and San Pedro de Macorís in the east.39 The entry into the arena of world trade in the last quarter of the nineteenth century combined with immigration incentive policies explain the upward trend in economic activity in the Dominican Republic, with GDP increasing 383 times between 1844 and 2000, which supposes an annual cumulative rate of 4.3%, and with real per capita GDP increasing a little more than fivefold, at an overall annual rate of 1.5%. Despite an uneven pace when periodizing, the economy grew at an annual rate of 1% between 1844 and 1950. By 2000, per capita income was 3.5 times higher than it had been in 1950.

Over the course of 156 years (1844 - 2000), the population increased 6,700% (125,000 inhabitants in 1844; 150,000 inhabitants in 1871; 383,312 inhabitants in 1887; 458,000 inhabitants in 1898;40 890,000 inhabitants in 1920;41 1,500,000 inhabitants in 1935; 3,000,000 inhabitants in 1960; and 8,500,000 inhabitants in 200042).

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Italian Culture in Dominican Society Italian capital and talent have been present at various definitive stages in the history of the Dominican people, beginning with the arrival of Cristoforo Colombo (Christopher Columbus) and the first resident archbishop in Santo Domingo, Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini, who initiated the construction of the first cathedral in the Americas.

The Genoese Juan Bautista Cambiaso was one of the founders of the Dominican Navy, participating in the naval war against Haitian troops on April 15, 1844. Surnames such as Bonelli, Bonetti, Billini, Campillo, Imbert, and others were present in the campaigns against the Haitian army between 1844 and 1856.

Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos served as provisional president of the republic, assuming power on October 21, 1922, and General José Oliva was in command of the San Pedro de Macorís Fire Department from 1934 to 1961.43 These are merely some of the Italian-Dominicans present in political and military events of the nation.

Immigrant families introduced elements of Italian culture into Dominican society, and to cite just a few examples, we find the Christmas nativity scene, reverence of the figure of La Vieja Belén,44 pizza, pasta, fish, and seafood. The Neapolitan influence led to an expansion in Italian cuisine, most notably through pizzerias, such as Sorrento, the Napolitano restaurant, and the Pizzarelli, Pala Pizza, and Calzone chains.

Some of the important Italian names in a range of businesses include Oreste Menicucci, Nicolás Alterio Gerasuoli, José Oliva Currari, Pascual Prota, Pietro Bolonotto Lanteri, Carlos Marranzini D’Piano.45 In the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, recorded Italian surnames introduced Italian culture during the first decades of the twentieth century, mostly those from Santa Domenica Talao in Calabria, a region that constitutes the tip of the Italian peninsula.46 Of fifty-nine registered Italian surnames, twenty-six came from Santa Domenica Talao, including Pezzoti, Pugliese, De Puglia, Russo, Longo, Campagna, Divanna, Schiffino, Cosentino, Anzelotti Cosentino, Cucurrullo Senise, Sabatino Oliva, and Capobianco Caputo. Two such families, the Demorizzis and Bonellis, settled in the country in the nineteenth century.47 Families from the same Calabrian area settled in and around Santiago, including those of Francisco Bloise Minervino; Silverio Campagna; Luis Ciliberti; Luis, Francisco, and Mario Cino; Carlos Cozza; Salvador Ferzola; Angel and Blas Leogaldo; Nicolás Leone Lagreca; Pascual Marino; Angel Oliva and his wife Antonia Pignataro; Blas Russo; Enrique Sassone Maimone; Nicolás Perrone; Francisco and Genaro Pezzoti; Bruno Figgliuzi; Carlos Grisolía Divanna; and Dr. Vicente Grisolía, among others.

Because the population of Italian descent in the Dominican Republic is estimated at 300,000—one of the largest in the Caribbean region—in addition to the colony of Italian citizens totaling approximately 25,000,48 it is not surprising that this community is present in nearly all sectors of the economy.

The history of cinema in the Dominican Republic begins when the company of the Italian Francesco Greco in Puerto Plata projected eleven films by the Lumière brothers, beginning on August 27, 1900.49 Domingo Russo Cino and his brother Alessandro were the founders of the first pharmacy in the city of Bonao, and the Italian Giuseppe Ruso Cino was the pioneer behind the installation of electrical power in Puerto Plata, La Vega, and Moca; he is also credited with establishing the only cinemas in La Vega and founding the Rotary Club. Arturo Pellerano Alfau founded Listín Diario in 1889, one of the most respected morning newspapers in the country.50

Italian Investment during the Trujillo Era As mentioned earlier, the first Dominican bourgeoisie principally comprised merchant-intermediaries who financed the producers and exporters of raw materials beginning in the late nineteenth century, when there were no formal banking institutions; the second bourgeoisie was formed by entrepreneurs who were re-

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

389

sponsible for financing the modern Dominican economy during the governments of Ulises Heureaux. After his assassination in Moca on July 26, 1899, a period of political instability followed with frequent changes in government.51 Little was produced for domestic consumption by 1908, with only 25 factories and 66 craft workshops operated, manufacturing rum, cigarettes, footwear, and patented pharmaceuticals. Between 1878 and 1900 in Santiago, 28 commercial establishments had been registered, half of which were Dominican-owned, and in Puerto Plata, 19 businesses were registered, of which seven were Dominican; the rest of the business owners originally came from Germany, Italy, Spain, Cuba, or Puerto Rico.52 The limited activity in business and industry explains why, in the first decade of the twentieth century, the economy grew at an average annual rate of only 2.48%, but it recovered in the second decade with an annual increase of 10.89% due to investments in sugar milling and exports through U.S.-based corporations and the Vicini family (between 1900 and 1916).53 The concentration of capital among Americans subsequently shifted in terms of ownership of the then-extant fourteen sugar mills.54 In 1892, 53,823 acres of agricultural land had been developed, an area that increased to 123,335 acres by 1905.55 In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the country’s total foreign trade (imports plus exports) grew at an average annual rate of 9.28%, with an accumulated value of US$115,592,096, or an annual average of US$4,445,850.56 The economy went through expansion and contraction cycles in the 1920s, with an overall annual growth of 3.63%. With the onset of the Great Depression, the rate fell to 1.96% in the 1930s. In 1936, major business ownership could be summarized as follows: 15 foreign-owned, one of which was Italian, and 85 Dominican-owned.57 In 1937, there were 11 industrial companies operating, representing a total investment of US$62,408,322 and 311,956 jobs,58 while 30,000 businesses had been licensed, 82% of a commercial nature.59 However, despite an increase in exports, the economy barely grew by 3.95% in the 1940s. Due to boom-and-bust cycles, economic activity recorded an average annual growth of 4.7% from 1900 to 1949.

During the four decades that followed World War II, economic policy was influenced by the doctrine of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which was founded in 1948. The dictator Trujillo took advantage of ECLAC’s import substitution model to venture into different businesses, capitalizing on funds from the Dominican federal budget.

Trujillo, a rural man by birth, but with a natural talent for business, drew up a plan in early 1930 to create domestic trading companies dealing in the production, exporting, and importing of goods.60 He participated as an entrepreneur in various businesses and factories, including those involved in the manufacture or processing of tobacco, flour, bread, meat, salt, hardware stores, vegetable oil, glass, chocolate, nails, coffee, soap, and footwear, as well as cattle ranches.61 In order to maintain his majority stake in the largest tobacco producer, he forced Ricardo Sollner and the Italian businessman Anselmo Copello to sell their shares in the Tabacalera Anonymous Company, C.A. The former had founded the company and the latter developed it to become the most highly capitalized concern in the country, with assets estimated at US$1.2 million in 1932.

In addition to the sugar, air, and sea transportation businesses, Trujillo owned the Caribbean Motors Co., a Chrysler, General Electric, Goodyear, Atlas, and Firestone dealership, and the Atlas Commercial Co.62 He took over the assets and representation of General Motors, after accusing Italian businessman Amadeo Barletta (1894-1975) of conspiracy to eliminate him as a competitor, which was immediately rejected by the governments of Italy and the United States.63 Barletta was born in San Nicola Arcella, in Calabria, and from Puerto Rico, to which he had immigrated around 1912, he moved to Santo Domingo in 1920. After settling in the Dominican Republic, he established the Santo Domingo Motors company and obtained representation from the U.S. giant General Motors to distribute vehicles, equipment, and spare parts. He also ventured into the cigarette business associated

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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-1935,64 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,65 competing with businessmen who had accumulated capital and experience during the Trujillo dictatorship, as well as others whose business relations with the dictator remained untouched by the democratic governments that replaced the dictatorship.66 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 physical capital by public investments and private sources, and the remainder attributed to labor force factors.67 Given the significant participation of Italian families in capital invested,68 and the corresponding added value, and with the history of the railroad investments already mentioned, these investments were fundamental 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 infrastructure 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

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

An Italian machine, made by Carle & Montanari, used by the Rizek Group for the processing of cacao paste. © Rizek Cacao

391

to develop the dream of the Punta Cana Club tourist complex, on coastal land at the eastern-most tip of the Dominican Republic.

The modest tourist initiative evolved into what is now known as the Punta Cana Group, made up of the companies Punta Cana Beach and Golf, Punta Cana Resort and Club, Punta Cana International School, Corporación Aeroportuaria del Este, Punta Cana Yacht Club, Punta Cana Tourist and Service Corporation, and the Guardians of the East.

Tourism has become the most successful activity for the Dominican economy in modern times, with a positive and growing impact on GDP. The tourist industry contributes approximately 7% to GDP and employs more than 370,000 Dominicans, representing 8% of the employed population (4,715,879 people in 2019); in terms of balance of payments, it annually generates more than $7 billion in revenue.

Due to the push by Rainieri and companies, the tourist mecca Punta Cana Club, combined with what is known as the far-eastern coast of the country, the Macao-Punta Cana area, was declared Tourist Hub No. 3 in 1986. This area accounts for the greatest contributions to the tourism economy of all the country’s tourist hubs, attracting the largest number of tourists from the United States, Europe, Latin America, and other regions of the world to enjoy its mega-marinas, 18-hole golf courses, villas, and hotels. In addition, its natural white sand beaches, coral reefs, and coconut forest were certified by UNESCO as one of the world’s best beach areas in the mid-1960s.

Other Italian families with investments in residential tourism in Punta Cana and Casa de Campo, La Romana, have been generally characterized as having considerable purchasing power.

The entrepreneur Mauro Caslini and family founded the IBI Yachts company in 1996, with exclusive representation in the Caribbean for the Italian brand Azimut-Benetti Group, among others.

With IBI Yachts, Caslini introduced a new way of utilizing the sea—which was previously considered only for fishing—creating a completely new niche market to generate foreign exchange in the Dominican economy, an activity that led to the development of other foreign exchange generators, while also sparking a demand for infrastructure related to corresponding activities and lifestyle.

With intense work in the market and dealing with “after-sales,” Caslini created a complete package including services and sales of spare parts, giving rise to IBC Shipyard, a company that over time has positioned itself as the most vertically integrated shipyard in the Dominican Republic and in the Caribbean, with workshops specialized in mechanics, electronics, carpentry, painting, and “refitting” services.

IBC Shipyard regularly transfers technologies and knowledge to Dominican workers so that they can become updated specialists in different areas, thereby developing previously untapped work niches and placing the Dominican Republic at the forefront in the Caribbean region.

IBC Shipyard invested in a new 300-ton Travel Lift to attract new vessels and mega-yachts to the country, increase the flow of customers on the coasts and marinas of the Dominican Republic, and provide professional service to boats, such as catamarans, which are used by the major tour operator in the country, thereby improving the quality and safety of this type of boat and helping to increase the protection of tourists, coasts, and seas.

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Like most Italian companies steered by family leadership, Mauro Caslini and family (second generation) have acquired technical knowledge and expertise by representing and working for large shipyards between Europe and Asia, making IB Nautica Group one of the most up-to-date and sophisticated nautical companies in the Caribbean, leaving traditions behind and ushering in an innovative luxury nautical culture.

In October 2005, Colaiacovo and family members from Gubbio, Italy, in partnership with the Vicini family and other Dominican entrepreneurs, undertook the initiative of developing the Domicem plant, contributing capital flow and the technical-operational experience of the Colacem structures, coordinated from the central office in Gubbio.

With added value ​​in different goods and services, they have contributed to the growth of the Dominican GDP, as well as generated cash flows and savings in foreign currency. Domicem is present in other Caribbean countries—for example, at its terminal in Montego Bay (Jamaica), managed by the subsidiary company Buying House Cement Ltd., and at Citadelle United S.A., which operates in Lafiteau, about 20 kilometers north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The acquisition of experience and technical knowledge and expertise provides great benefits for the Dominican staff, which is entirely local at the plant located in Sabana Grande de Palenque and the administrative offices in Santo Domingo.

ACEA Dominicana, with 170 Dominican employees, is another company funded and managed by Italian capital and entrepreneurs; this company benefits Dominican society through the transfer of technology and operational knowledge. It is 100% owned by the ACEA Group, which has been operating in the country since 2003, under a management contract for commercial services for CAASD (Santo Domingo Water and Sewer Utility Corporation), and since 2013 for CORAABO (Boca Chica Water Utility and Sewer System Corporation).

The management areas are Santo Domingo Este, Santo Domingo Norte, and the municipality of Boca Chica, providing services to 2,000,000 inhabitants. Commercial management includes the installation and reading of meters, billing, drafting, and updating of the user registry.

Due to the continuity and quality of the services it offers, the Dominican Republic was chosen in 2017

by ACEA as the headquarters of its international holding company, which consolidates the various internationally based companies of the group. It is one of the few international companies that uses the Dominican Republic as a platform.

The participation of foreign direct investment (FDI) by Italian entrepreneurs has been increasing over the years, accounting for US$171.5 million from September 2010 to September 2019. In addition to the flow of FDI, the country has benefited from Italy’s foreign policy, governed by the regulations of the European Union.

Italy is part of the Schengen Area, along with 26 other European countries.

Italy also benefits from the free trade agreements it has signed with the countries of the European Free Trade Association, countries of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP), or the Lomé Convention, and the Generalized System of Preferences of the European Union.

As a result, Dominican exports to Italy have increased during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, most notably such products as cacao beans, green coffee beans, tobacco, handmade cigars, shoes, dried coconuts, medical devices, finished leather for footwear, and rum, among others. Imports from Italy have also been growing, represented by a wide variety of goods, including pharmaceuticals, machinery, and automobiles.

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

393

Real GDP Growth, Tax Revenue and Tax Burden (%) 25

20

Real GDP Growth

15

Tax Revenue 10

Tax Burden

5

1992-2000

1979-1991

1974-1978

1969-1973

1959-1968

1950-1958

1940-1950

1930-1939

1920-1929

1910-1919

1900-1909

1890-1899

1880-1889

1870-1879

1860-1869

1850-1859

-5

1844-1849

0

-10

Real GDP Growth, Tax Revenue and Tax Burden (%) 15

10

Real GDP Growth

5

Tax Revenue Tax Burden

0 1844-1849

1850-1899

1900-1949

1950-2000

-5

-10

Foreign Direct Investment Flows Italian Businesses and Entrepreneurs (2010 - 2019) YEAR

MILLIONS (US$)

YEAR

MILLIONS (US$)

2010

7.8

2015

(0.8)

2011

16.3

2016

48.4

2012

1.4

2017

32.4

2013

(0.3)

2018

24.0

2014

10.0

2019*

32.3

SOURCE: Dominican Republic Central Bank website. *January-September

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Real GDP Growth, Tax Revenue and Tax Burden (%) DECADE

REAL PER CAPITA GDP

REAL PER CAPITA GDP

TAX BURDEN

DECADE

REAL GDP GROWTH

REAL PER CAPITA GDP

TAX BURDEN

1844-1849

0.42

-7.69

0.38

1950-1958

6.43

6.43

18.81

1850-1859

1.08

0.13

0.38

1959-1968

3.24

0.24

13.68

1860-1869

0.67

-2.24

1.15

1969-1973

11.29

5.84

15.20

1870-1879

3.29

0.49

3.78

1974-1978

5.01

5.01

13.51

1880-1889

4.87

4.21

3.08

1979-1991

2.92

0.59

10.42

1890-1899

5.93

4.30

2.82

1992-2000

6.49

2.27

14.17

1900-1909

2.48

0.99

3.71

1910-1919

10.89

8.01

3.60

1844-1849

0.42

-7.69

4.32

1920-1929

3.63

0.99

3.19

1850-1899

3.17

1.59

5.00

1930-1939

1.96

0.98

3.22

1900-1949

4.58

1.08

4.30

1940-1950

3.95

0.99

8.96

1950-2000

5.23

2.72

13.45

Summarized

SOURCE: Arturo Martínez Moya, Crecimiento Económico Dominicano. Evolución del GDP y de los ingresos del fisco, 1844-1950, vol. 224 (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación), 2014.

Real and Per Capita GDP Growth (1950 - 2000) PERIODOS

REAL GDP GROWTH (%)

PER CAPITA GDP GROWTH (%)

1950 - 2000

5.23

2.72

1950 - 1958

6.43

6.43

1959 - 1968

3.24

0.24

1969 - 1973

11.29

5.84

1974 - 1978

5.01

5.01

1979 - 1991

2.93

0.59

1992 - 2000

6.49

2.27

SOURCE: Magdalena Lizardo and Rolando M. Guzmán, Crecimiento económico y acumulación de factores y productividad en República Dominicana, 1950-2000, 2003.

ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN THE MODERN DOMINICAN ECONOMY

395

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bosch, Juan. Composición social dominicana. Historia e interpretación, rev. ed. Santo Domingo: Impresora Arte y Cine, 1970.

Bryan, Patrick. La Transformación Económica de la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 2016.

Castillo, José del. “El resurgimiento de la producción azucarera dominicana como sector de exportación: los límites del trapiche.”

Inazucar 5, no. 28 (November-December, 1980): 41-50.

Censo de población de República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Editora La Trinitaria.

Croes Hernández, Edwin. “El Emporio de Trujillo.” In Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano, La Dictadura de Trujillo, 1930-1961, vol. 5, 431. Santo Domingo: Editora Buho S.R.L., 2014.

Cuevas P., Héctor E. El Azúcar se ahogó en la melaza: Quinientos años de Azúcar. Santo Domingo: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, 1999.

De la Rosa, Adalberto. “Italia y República Dominicana tienen una gran historia en común.” Diario Libre, June 30, 2018.

Espinal Hernández, Edwin. “Italia presente.” In Historia Social de Santiago de los Caballeros 1863-1900. Santo Domingo: Fundación Manuel de Jesús Tavares Portes, 2005.

Grimaldi Céspedes, Víctor Manuel. “Duarte y José Mazzini. Italia y la República Dominicana.” Listín Diario, February 27, 2019.

Hoetink, Harry. Ensayos Caribeños. Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 2006.

----------“The Dominican Republic in the Nineteenth Century: Some notes on Stratification, Inmigration and Race.” In Race and Class in Latin America, rev. ed., edited by Magnus Morner, 40-60.

New York: Columbia University Press,1970.

Hostos, Eugenio María. ”’Falsa Alarma.’ Crisis agrícola.” In Recopilación de artículos de Hostos, vol. 1, edited by Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi. Santo Domingo: Ciudad Trujillo.

Huet, Alfonso. Juan B. Vicini y la acumulación originaria, 1870-1900.

Post-graduate thesis. Santo Domingo: Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, 1980.

Lizardo, Magdalena and Rolando M. Guzmán. “Crecimiento económico y acumulación de factores y productividad en República Dominicana, 1950-2000. Economic and Sector Studies Series. Washington, D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank, 2003.

Malangón, Barceló, J. and Malaquías Gil Arántegui. La Constitución y las reformas constitucionales de la República Dominicana en su primer periodo como nación independiente, 1844-1861. Panamá, 1945.

Martínez Moya, Arturo. Crecimiento Económico Dominicano. Evolución del PIB y de los ingresos del Fisco 1844-1950, vol. 224. Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2014.

Moya Pons, Frank: “Nuevas consideraciones sobre la historia de la población dominicana: curvas, tasas y problemas.” EME-EME: Estudios Dominicanos 3 (November-December, 1974).

----------Manual de Historia Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 1977.

Sang Ben, Mu-Kien Adriana. Pensando el Caribe, vol. 1. Santo Domingo: Editora del Caribe, 2017.

PP AP 49/93, 1911, cónsul general Murray, No. 4638. “Report for the year 1910 on Trade… of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.”

Muto, Paul. La promesa ilusoria. La República Dominicana y el proceso de desarrollo económico, 1900-1930, vol. 119. Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 2014.

Oviedo, José. Influencia de la cocina inmigrante en la gastronomía dominicana, aproximaciones y anotaciones. First Dominican Gastronomic Forum, Santo Domingo, 2015.

Pichardo, José María. Tierra Adentro, vol. 104. Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2010.

Sánchez, Juan J. La caña en Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1972.

University of Glasgow Archives. Order Book No. 30, 1896, Job no.

286, 1897, ff. 188-190.

Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio. Italianos en la vida dominicana, El Siglo, October 27, 2001.

The new President of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, Celso Marranzini, during the inauguration and presentation of the new Board of Directors on October 3, 2019. At the head table the Chancellor of the Dominican Republic, Miguel Vargas, Minister of Industry and Commerce Nelson Toca Simó, the Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hugo Rivera, the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Italy Alba María Cabral, the Ambassador of the Order of Malta Frank Rainieri, the Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari, and his wife Dr. Roberta Canepari. October 3, 2019. © Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce

• CHAPTER 37

The Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce

By Celso Marranzini President of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce

he Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce (CCDI, for its Spanish abbreviation) was founded on March 30, 1987, by a group of Italian and Dominican entrepreneurs as a non-profit association in Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The purpose for which the CCDI was founded is to promote trade, tourism, investment, and economic cooperation between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

The Chamber also aims to promote the internationalization of Italian companies, promote the market penetration of “Made in Italy” products locally, and facilitate contacts between companies in the two countries that operate in the same or related industries or sectors.

As an association of well-established businessmen and businesswomen in the country, the Chamber of Commerce represents a valid tool for fostering economic and cultural relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic by organizing meetings and events aimed at promoting the exchange of business ideas and projects in collaboration with local and international institutions.

In 1991, the Italian government officially recognized the Italian Chamber of Commerce as such, and since then it has been an active member of Assocamerestero, the Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad.

In 2018, the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce appointed a new board of directors comprising some of the most important figures in the country’s business community: Chairman Celso Marranzini, owner of Grupo Multiquimica; Honorary Chairman, the Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Canepari; First Deputy Chairman Felipe Vicini, Executive President of INICIA; Second Deputy Chairman Frank Rainieri, CEO of the famous Grupo Puntacana; Third Deputy Chairman Miguel Barletta, President of Grupo Ambar and Santo Domingo Motors; Secretary Angelo Viro, President of CerArte and Vice President of the Associative Movement of Italians Abroad (MAIE, for its Spanish and Italian abbreviations); and Executive Director Francesco Alfieri, who was appointed in July 2019, in addition to nine board members: Juan Antonio Bisonó from the Constructora Bisono group; Giuseppe Bonarelli, Vice President, CEO of Grupo El Catador; Diego Fernández, Director of the Costa Farms RD group; Salvador Figueroa, Vice President of Institutional Relations of the MARDOM Group; Roberto Herrera, Country Manager of Interenergy Holdings for the Dominican Republic and General Manager of the San Pedro de Macorís Electricity Company (CESPM); Jeanne Marion Landais, Manager of the Internal Management Division of Banco Popular; Manuel Pellerano, Executive Vice President of the renowned newspaper Diario Libre; Carlos Ross, President of Ros Seguros y Consultoría; and Massimiliano Wax, Vice President of the Rizek Cacao Group.

What may appear on first reading as a long list of names and positions in fact represents a significant reflection of the nation’s human and economic history. These are the men and women who, with initiative, cour-

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

age, and, most importantly, a vision of the future, have created some of the most important companies in the country, which employ thousands of people and which are part of the backbone of the Dominican economy.

The current board of directors of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce makes use of the appreciable contribution of the Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari, who from the beginning of his mandate has been guided by the aim of highlighting the importance the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce plays in promoting the “Made in Italy” brand in the Dominican Republic where, according to the National Survey of Immigrants 2012, some 12,0001 Italian nationals legally reside.

Of great interest is the history of the Marranzini family. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a group of siblings and cousins ​​of the Chairman of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce arrived in the Dominican Republic from the small Italian town of Santa Lucia di Serino, a municipality (comune in Italian) in the province of Avellino in the Campania region.

Liberato Marranzini married Concetta D’Amore, and they arrived at the end of the nineteenth century with their children Constantino, Pascual, and Mariucha.

Grandfather Constantino married Amelia Jorge, daughter of a Lebanese-Dominican living in the province of Azua, in the Dominican Republic. Constantino and José del Carmen were the children of this marriage.

Constantino Marranzini D’Amore devoted himself to commerce, gaining a foothold in the southern part of the ​​ country, acting many times as a banker, and organizing the commercial sector in San Juan de la Maguana, where he founded and served as the first chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Production.

The children of Constantino and María Altagracia are Celso, Constantino, Alfredo, and Andrés. Despite the limited descendants of Constantino and Amelia Jorge, the Marranzini Pérez family has grown to include 14 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.

This large family has been involved in numerous professions, including the legal industry, with Andrés in the Marranzini Law Offices; in architecture, with Alfredo specializing in the restoration of monuments at Centro Studi per il Restauro dei Monumenti e dei Centri Storici in Florence, Italy; in medicine, with Constantino (deceased); in chemicals and plastics, with Celso often using Italian technology, and in the social, business, and government areas as Secretary of State and executive vice president of the Dominican State Electric Companies. The grandchildren have been involved in areas as diverse as law, insurance, banking, and gastronomy.

Of equal interest is the story of another board member, Angelo Viro. In 1988, Viro founded CerArte, a distributor of coating and covering materials for floors and walls. In order to expand its line of products and services, a store was opened in 1999 with the name CerArte Accesorios, offering the public an extensive portfolio of ceramic and porcelain products, as well as a wide variety of natural stones, tiling, appliances, and plumbing fixtures.

Full Board of Directors of the DominicanItalian Chamber of Commerce, from left to right: First Vice President Felipe Vicini, Board Member Jeanne Marion Landais, Board Member Juan Antonio Bisono, Board Member Carlos Ros, Secretary of the Board Angelo Viro, Third Vice President Miguel Barletta, SecretaryGeneral Francesco Alfieri, Board Member Massimiliano Wax, Honorary President S. E. Andrea Canepari, President Celso Marranzini, Second Vice President H.E. Frank Rainieri, Board Member Giuseppe Bonarelli, Board Member Diego Fernandez, Board Member Manuel Pellerano, Board Member Salvador Figueroa, Board Member Roberto Herrera. © Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce

THE DOMINICAN-ITALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

High precision Italian mechanics, displayed here by a Carle & Montanari cylindrical refiner, was at the heart of every stage of the Rizek Group’s process from the raw cacao all the way to chocolate. © Rizek Cacao

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In 2000, he joined the CerArte Proyecto family, which is aimed at offering solutions for designers and contractors searching for high quality but well-priced ceramic and porcelain wall and floor tiling, bathroom fixtures, and plumbing materials. In 2009, the CerArte Punta Cana store joined the group. And in 2016, growth continued with a store in Santiago, which offers high end materials in the northern region of the country.

In 2019, CETECA S.A. joined the CerArte Group, Cerramientos Técnicos del Caribe, S.A. located in Las Americas Free Zone Park, the company uses modern state-of-the-art machinery to manufacture doors and windows for the hotel and other tourist industries, as well as exporting and importing raw materials.The CerArte Group is made up of a Family Council chaired by Angelo Viro, with Orazio Viro heading operations, Rosangela Viro overseeing the creative aspect and sales strategies, and Rosario Mañon de Viro overseeing social investment projects and warehousing.

The impact that the Pellerano family has had in various fields of economic, social, and cultural activity in the Dominican Republic deserves special mention. With the help of Mr. Máximo A. Pellerano, the family ventured into the world of insurance by creating what would become the most important insurance company in the country, the Compañía Nacional de Seguros, which later changed its name to Segna.

With a strategic vision, Máximo Pellerano and his son Manuel Arturo Pellerano Peña created the Banco Nacional de Crédito (Bancrédito), which, a few years after its foundation, acquired the Dominican assets of Chase Manhattan Bank, in the first merger of a U.S. bank with a Dominican bank.

At the same time, the Pelleranos became interested in production via free trade zones and created the San Isidro Free Zone, which has become a model of operations in the country, and which has significantly contributed to the nation’s development by creating more than 4,000 direct jobs and by fostering an export culture in the country.

In another area, the Pellerano family’s Grupo Financiero Nacional entered the telecommunications sector through the creation of the Tricom company, which in 1994 broke up the telecommunications monopoly in the Dominican Republic, thereby guaranteeing the further development of this important economic sector.

Tricom was also the first Dominican company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Pellerano media outlets—Rumbo, Mujer Única, and Diario Libre—have been duly recognized for their successes and their breakthroughs in the Dominican press.

Lately, the Pellerano family has ventured into the meat products industry under the Nutriciosa brand, whose products are gaining broad acceptance from consumers.

As can be seen in this thumbnail overview of the Pellerano family enterprises, their contribution has not been limited merely to economic development but also to culture, journalism, and a series of high-impact social responsibility activities in Dominican society.

The story of Massimiliano Wax is also quite unique. This member of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce board of directors was born in Genoa and raised between São Paulo and Belém in Brazil, only to

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return to Genoa, where he graduated with a thesis in philosophy of the law titled “Ethics, Religion and Law in Kant and Kelsen.”

In 1999, in addition to a pro bono mission in Cameroon on behalf of the NGO Mondo Giusto based in the city of Lecco, he won a competition through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the evaluation and preparation of the industrial and commercial plan for a project in the cocoa sector, for which Dominican company Nazario Rizek CxA requested a sizable loan from the Washington, D.C.-based institution.

In 2000, a robust, ongoing relationship began with the Rizek Group, in which Massimiliano Wax has overseen the modernization of the entire cocoa production chain—from the plantation to the development of high-quality chocolate. Among the achievements of this period, we mention the important collaboration with the Department of Food Science and Technology of the University of Milan; the collaboration with Solaris Srl of Monza, Italy, for the drying of cacao beans with original methods and machinery; and various strategic alliances and investments in association with multinationals in the sector that led to the creation of a branch of Ristockcacao SA in Ecuador, in which Wax is a partner of the Rizek Group and of the German multinational Storck AG. In more recent times, mention should be made of the opening of KahKow-themed shops, created by Wax, who is also a partner. These establishments have been designed to offer the public a 360-degree experience, from cultivation of cacao to the production of fine chocolate, thereby contributing to the education of consumers and turning them into demanding connoisseurs. In addition to the Dominican Republic, KahKow is

The Rizek Group’s farm showcases a perfect farming architecture which is the basis for the harmonious development of an excellent cacao plantation. © Rizek Cacao

THE DOMINICAN-ITALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

The Chancellor of the Dominican Republic Miguel Vargas, the Minister of Industry and Commerce Nelson Toca Simó, the ViceMinister of Economy and International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hugo Rivera, the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic in Italy Alba María Cabral, the Ambassador of the Order of Malta Frank Rainieri, and the Ambassador of Italy in the Dominican Republic Andrea Canepari and his wife Dr. Roberta Canepari at the inauguration of the new ItalianDominican Chamber of Commerce. October 3, 2019. © Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce

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present in New York, and shops are soon expected to open in Europe and Japan.

According to the Dominican writer, archaeologist, and anthropologist Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, the number of Dominicans of Italian descent is approximately 300,000, which is in addition to the 50,000 Italians residing permanently in the country,2 thus making this community one of the largest of its kind in the Caribbean region. Many members of the Italian community play important roles in nearly all sectors of the country’s economy. They serve as members of boards of directors and hold top positions at leading domestic and international market companies in the sectors of chemicals, tourism, finance, and the import-export of motor vehicles, making them stalwarts of the Dominican economy.

As Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari stated at an event organized by the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, while referring to the ties that unite Italy with the Dominican Republic, “We are linked not only by great friendship and sympathy, but also by Italian men and women, Dominicans of Italian origin, and friends of Italy who are increasingly committed to creating new opportunities and who until now have resolutely supported the initiatives of the Italian embassy.”

Among the families of Italian origin who have made pivotal contributions to the advancement of the Dominican Republic, the most noteworthy are the Cambiasos, Marranzinis, Pelleranos, Vicinis, Rainieris, Barlettas, Bonarellis, Bonettis, and Billinis.

The Dominican Republic is a leading and rapidly growing country in the region, and the companies and initiatives founded by these and other families provide direct employment for approximately 50,000 people and indirect employment to 110,000, representing 7.9 percent of the Dominican GDP, which totals an equivalent of US$173 billion.3 Between Italy and the Dominican Republic, there are attractive business opportunities structured to generate mutual benefits, thereby contributing to further commercial development. To take advantage of these opportunities, the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce has implemented a relaunch strategy that is divided into four priority activities: • Organizing events aimed at deepening knowledge among members, exchanging ideas and projects. In addition to in-person events, online events will be scheduled in the various forms of webinar, web conference, web training, and web meeting, based on the interest for web-based training and marketing, forms of promotion, and sales, which could offer interesting information and assistance.

• Strengthening relations, as directly as possible, with Italian entrepreneurs to increase commercial exchange between the two countries, while also fostering loyalty through personal relationships.

• Improving communications using the Association’s social networks, so that members become more involved in the initiatives of the Chamber, thus ensuring useful feedback on those initiatives.

• Enhancing the relationship between the Dominican-Italian Chamber and Assocamerestero Italia4 and the Chambers of Commerce of the ACCA Area (Central America, the Caribbean, and the Andean Pact) so as to identify common policies through annual meetings and webinars.

ENDNOTES Registered in the AIRE database (Registry of Italians Residing Abroad) of the Embassy of Italy in Santo Domingo.

2 https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/2fd95edd/files/upload1

ed/Historia_Italianos_Republica_Dominicana.pdf.

CIA World Factbook. GDP (purchasing power parity) 2017.

4 http://www.assocamerestero.com/ 3

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Historic Cloister: this particular structure recalls the former history of the area where the Church of Sant’Epifanio and the Convent of the Lateran Canons once existed. The colonnade houses the bust dedicated to Raffaele Ciferri (right) and his predecessors. Over the centuries, tombstones and sculptures were installed along the wall in memory of the directors as well as key figures in the history of the University of Pavia. (Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

• CHAPTER 38

Science and Environmental Protection in Agricultural Development: Dr. Raffaele Ciferri’s Contributions in the Dominican Republic 1

By Raymundo González Historical consultant of the Archivo General de la Nación and professor at the Salomé Ureña Higher Education Institute

his chapter presents an overview of the significant contributions to agricultural science and botany made by Italian scientist Raffaele A. Ciferri while he was living and working in the Dominican Republic (1925–1932), as well as the impact of those contributions on the future of the natural sciences in that nation.

Raffaele Ciferri was born in the Marche region of central Italy on May 30, 1897, in the city and province of Fermo on the Adriatic coast; he died on February 12, 1964, in Pavia, capital of the eponymous province. He earned a degree in agriculture followed by a doctorate in biological sciences at the University of Bologna. He served as professor of agriculture and botany at a number of scientific institutions, including a national forestry institute in Florence; a vineyard-keeping and winemaking (enology) school in Alba; and the Botanical Institute and Cryptogamic Laboratory at the University of Pavia. From his early days as a scientific agronomist and a mycological and phytopathologic biologist, Ciferri collaborated with other European scholars to create an ample general bibliography on fungi. As a specialist in phytopathology, he had already authored some forty original publications prior to his arrival in the Dominican Republic. One of his mentors was Professor Romualdo González Fragoso (1862–1928) from Spain, known as the father of Spanish mycology; Ciferri collaborated with him from Santo Domingo on a number of studies.

Ciferri began his broader studies of tropical field crops in Latin America—particularly in the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles. He focused on the many problems and diseases of the plants under cultivation. This study immersed him in mycology, one of his specialties, and led to the discovery of numerous species of fungi previously unknown to the biological sciences. He did not limit himself to mycology, however; his vision and curiosity embraced widely diverse fields within the natural sciences, and he developed a very practical sense of how knowledge could be used in benefit of nature and of the human race.

Ciferri returned to Italy in 1932 as deputy director of the Italian Cryptogamic Laboratory in Rome; he later became the national laboratory’s director. He continued his work in various research centers, including the University of Florence, where he was also a professor, and the Center for African Colonial Studies in Rome. For the latter, he carried out significant research that took him to Somalia. Today, Ciferri is considered one of the cofounders of mycopathology and of applied mycology. In recognition, species he discovered may bear the epithet ciferii. The author abbreviation “Cif.” appears after the botanical name when a species is cited.

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The Agricultural School of Moca (1936), where Dr. Raffaele Ciferri worked. © Archivo General de la Nación. Courtesy of Edwin Espinal

Background: Modern Schools and Agricultural Education Until the last third of the nineteenth century, in the industries related to agricultural production for domestic consumption as well as those involved in exportation (tobacco, cacao, sugarcane), the specialists who provided practical expertise had little more than affinity and interest to guide them, rather than any sort of education or formal knowledge of agriculture. In general, it was another cultural element, rooted in rural society, that filled that space. From the mid-nineteenth century until well into the twentieth, most of the campesinos turned for planting advice to the Almanaque de Bristol (Spanish edition of Bristol’s Illustrated Almanac) which, “in the days when communication was minimal and information was scarce, was considered fundamental in countries without a weather service and with limited medical and healthcare services, when other types of calendars were hard to find”; therefore, “The Bristol Almanac informed fishermen about the coastline, while also providing advice about agriculture.”2 The situation varied little with the passing of years, and the Almanac was still available in the late twentieth century.

Eugenio María de Hostos, who was responsible for founding Dominican schools in accordance with modern pedagogical methods, had called for the creation of agricultural farms in association with the normal schools, as a way to establish a scientific basis for growing crops for local consumption and for export. As physician and historian Guido Despradel Batista has written: The vast plan of reforms that Mr. Hostos decided to implement in our country was not limited exclusively to the rational organization of education at both the primary and normal-school levels but aimed further at the establishment of a number of agricultural farms to create a generation of young agriculturists with a consciousness of the cultivation of the earth—a condition that is indisputably the basis for the existence and the progress of the nationality. As he expressed it to his privileged disciple, Professor Joaquín Arismendy Robiou: ‘Let us begin with the normal schools, but we need that for each normal school established in the city there should be a corresponding agricultural farm in the country.’3 Hostos had also advocated setting up agricultural colonies as a means of expanding modern agriculture.4 There were likewise specific proposals referring to the still novel experience of several countries in Europe and the Americas; such was the case of journalist José Ramón Abad, who was born in Santo Domingo but emigrated to Puerto Rico at an early age. Abad was hired by the Dominican government to create a manual about the Dominican Republic that would be taken to the Paris World’s Fair in 1889. He took advantage of this opportunity to include many suggestions and opinions regarding the direction in which the Dominican Republic’s economic and social development ought to move. Among various agricultural initiatives, he gave his support and detailed analysis to the proposal for systems of agricultural colonies, already the object of tentative efforts in the country. Abad proposed limiting the system of military colonies and added a call to create “agricultural communities for correction and beneficence,” following the guidelines set by Pestalozzi and

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Fellenberg; the latter had founded in Bern, Switzerland, “the first establishment for agricultural education of which we have knowledge.”5 This experience radiated through Europe and North America, and Abad noted the continuation of the “agricultural conventions and conferences initiated in Germany and, more recently, of the proliferation of agronomic stations, which are not, as some believe, mere chemical laboratories for the analysis of soil and fertilizer, but rather centers that occupy themselves with all manner of agricultural experiences… . The agronomic stations are currently one of the best auxiliaries to agriculture, because they provide active propaganda for the well-confirmed progress that is being made… . Furthermore, in these stations the new plants are acclimatized, and new crops are studied—the new crops that then begin to enrich our agriculture.” Abad urged his fellow Dominicans: “Let us work to imitate this example.”6 In 1907, Abad reiterated (in the agricultural journal Revista de Agricultura, published by the Secretariat of State for Agriculture and Immigration) his proposal to install an Agronomic Station in the Dominican Republic. He based his argument on the successful example of the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. He indicated that it “has extensive and varied land for experimenting with plants and seeds and for trying out work tools and procedures for cultivation. It also has a well-equipped laboratory for analyzing plants, soils, and fertilizers and for making precise valuations of the produce.” He added that it also had a “Phytology section” operating independently of the Instituto, where all types of insects were displayed, having been collected by specialists; the section published studies on the harm done by insects to both plants and animals. Naturally, these studies, financed by the government, devoted the greater part of their attention to coffee—the principal product of that state—and other major crops such as sugarcane, cotton, and rubber.

At the end of his description of the positive experience of that scientific organism, Abad concluded with a question: “The usefulness of institutions like the one that we briefly review here is indisputable… . When will we decide to set forth on the path that others have trod with such excellent results?”7

Roadblocks En Route to the Agronomic Station Echoing the ideas proposed by Hostos in the early twentieth century, Diputado Eladio Sánchez introduced a bill to create the first “experimental farm schools.” According to journalist José Ramón López in an article published in June 1909 in the newspaper El Dominicano, there was a need to establish at least three such schools: two for tropical crops, located in the north and in the south of the Republic, and another in the center for subtropical ones.8 The following year, in April 1910, Abad wrote in Revista de Agricultura, announcing (with obvious satisfaction) that agronomic engineer A. E. Barthe, director of the Agriculture division of the Secretariat of Agriculture and Immigration, was traveling through the Cibao region to select a site for the Republic’s first agronomic station. Months later, in the “Miscellaneous Notes” section of the same journal, a note appeared mentioning that Director Barthe was continuing his important mission through the Cibao and the province of San Cristóbal. Early in 1911, President Ramón Cáceres gave the inaugural address for the Farm School in San Cristóbal, the first of its type in the Dominican Republic, and the announcement was made of an experimental station to be created in Santiago. A law regarding agricultural education had been passed in 1910, and in 1911 training programs were approved for agricultural supervisors and agricultural engineers.9 The assassination of President Cáceres in November of the same year prevented the consolidation of incipient plans for agricultural education; shortly thereafter, the project melted away under the pressure of political battles and instability.

Noted Dominican engineer Octavio Acevedo announced in February 1919 that the “Department of Agriculture and Immigration is taking the necessary steps to establish a College of Agriculture on land contiguous to the Experimental School” in Haina, San Cristóbal, just west of the capital city of Santo Domingo. The Dominican Republic was at the time (1916–1924) under martial law imposed by the United States, which had suppressed the country’s sovereignty and taken over its institutions. Tardy efforts by the intervening government to rescue the agricultural college translated into a number of executive orders, but economic limitations

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following the depression of 1921 explain the insubstantial results of these measures. True, the Agronomic Station and College of Agriculture did reopen in Haina in 1920, with facilities and equipment for a dairy; a barn; a chicken coop; pigpens; a tool shed; a well or cistern; a water tank; a windmill; a septic tank; buildings for the College, a scale and other equipment; housing for the director’s family and the gardener; and a dormitory.

Police protection was also provided.10 And after that, substations began to spring up, initially in Constanza, Montecristi, and Pontezuela (Santiago), where operations would later include model crop farms or demonstration fields for planting sugarcane, cotton, and other products. This movement continued to spread, resulting—during the Vásquez administration—in a system of demonstration fields for agricultural crops, breeding stations, and organizations of fruit inspectors and agricultural instructors. In general, these workforces were supervised by agronomists and experienced experts, and the activities were focused on improving crops for export and for domestic consumption.

However, even these facilities barely reached the level of the farm schools projected by Cáceres a decade earlier. It was not until Ciferri arrived in 1925 that it could be truly affirmed that science had an impact on Dominican agriculture by means of research, education, and the systematic application of improvements.

National Agronomic Station and College of Agriculture in Moca The occupation of Dominican territory by U.S. Marines ended in July of 1924, following the election of General Horacio Vásquez as president of the Republic. The new administration took on agriculture in earnest as a mainstay of national progress, converting the agrarian program into official State policy. As Walter Cordero aptly states: Although Dominican historiography has not yet applied itself to examining this topic with the attention it deserves, there was an auspicious change in attitude on the part of the national government and society, beginning with the administration of Horacio Vásquez (1924–1930), regarding the search for options to resolve the weighty problem of deforestation without neglecting progress in agricultural and livestock production. The new regime outlined a strategy for development aimed at implementing a modern culture of agriculture, based on technical and scientific procedures conducive to a more harmonious relationship between labor and nature.11 Cordero identifies five key aspects of this plan, although harsh reality required modifications due to what he calls “state ambivalences,” referring to both internal inconsistencies within the measures and contradictions between them. These five aspects are: 1. Reopening and modernization of the “College of Agriculture and Agronomic Station in Haina, with the Italian phytopathologist Raffaele Ciferri designated as director. This institution (later transferred to Moca) became the technical and scientific underpinning of the government’s agricultural policy by means of a novel program of research and instruction, unprecedented in the Republic.” Cordero muses: “During the latter half of the 1920s, this organization’s efforts propelled a surprising advance in systematic knowledge of the country’s flora and fauna. This endeavor was disseminated via a program of publications.”

2. Measures for the use and protection of natural resources. “In September of 1924 … Vásquez introduced a bill before the National Congress to create stricter regulations regarding the conservation and management of forests and water.” In 1925 a law was passed prohibiting the exportation of charcoal.

3. Social and citizen participation, especially by women, that “demonstrates above all the genuinely altruistic concern of its sponsors in favor of nature and the Dominican nation… . In 1924 a group of ladies, presided by Mrs. Consuelo González de Peynado, initiated, at last, a celebration in the

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Republic of Arbor Day, with the objective of promoting, in the schools and in the society, love for and conservation of our flora.”12 4. Creation and demarcation of the Yaque Reserve, in conformity with “the initiative that Dr. Juan Bautista Pérez Rancier had set in motion in 1919 for the delimitation of the Yaque Reserve,” which initiative “was later joined by Dr. Miguel Canela y Lázaro, in his capacity as surveyor.” In 1926, the Vásquez administration allocated funds with which land surrounding the headwaters of the Yaque River was to be acquired.

5. A government program of agricultural colonization, which “collided in some cases with regulatory provisions of the forestry law” and caused one of the so-called state ambivalences in the program, since “the Forests and Waters Act of 1928 eliminated the forest reserves in the country’s principal mountain ranges envisaged in the rescinded Executive Order 586 of 1919.”13

The Agricultural School of Moca, where Dr. Raffaele Ciferri worked. © Archivo General de la Nación. Courtesy of Edwin Espinal

Rafael Armando Espaillat, who served as Secretary of Agriculture in the Vásquez administration, was the one responsible for inviting Dr. Ciferri to the Dominican Republic and for outlining, with Ciferri, a new rural development plan for the nation. An overview of this plan appears in the Memoria (the government’s official log or annals) for 1927 of the Secretary of Agriculture and Immigration. Some relevant aspects of the Ciferri plan are: a) Popularization of modern scientific principles; b) School of Agriculture, Experiences, Demonstrations; c) Rigorous inspection of fruits for export to guarantee the quality of our produce and raise its prestige in the exterior; d) Measures to promote cleanliness of the produce; e) Precautionary measures for growing healthy plants; f ) Creation of the Agricultural Statistics agency; g) Body of technical consultants; h) Office of Information and Dissemination; i) Campaign for seed selection; j) Improvement of our livestock; k) Enrichment of our fauna and flora; l) Creation of the Botanical Garden; m) Creation of parks for the conservation of our autochthonous flora; n) Reforestation and defense of forests; o) Extension of the Meteorological Service; p) Conservation of forests in hydrographic basins; q) Creation of the Jarabacoa National Park; and r) Botanical, geological, and mineralogical studies. Even the lesser points of the program—such as agricultural colonization, the formation of scattered campesino villages, an increase in national production, the opening of secondary roads, irrigation of populated arid regions, the introduction of new crops, the creation of agricultural cooperatives, rural property guarantees—received a positive impact from the scientific development program, defined and applied by means of the national Agronomic Station and the College of Agriculture.

Only 28 years old, Ciferri came to the Dominican Republic by way of Cuba, where he had arrived to work at the Agricultural Experimental Station in Santiago de las Vegas.14 The Cuban institution was under the direction of U.S. agronomist Dr. Josiah T. Crawley, a sugar expert, who had worked at the Louisiana Experiment Station and the Audubon Sugar Institute affiliated with Louisiana State University, where many young Cubans interested in sugarcane agriculture went to study. Crawley had a pragmatic view of education in agronomic sciences, for which cause he had recommended since 1907 the creation in Cuba of “a College of Higher Learning in Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts, situated in a rural area, with sufficient

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First page of the article “Phytopathological Survey of Santo Domingo, 19251929” by Dr. Raffaele Ciferri published in the Journal of the Agriculture Department of Puerto Rico, January 1959. © Archivo General de la Nación

Samples of papaya leaves as published in the article by Dr. Raffaele Ciferri “Phytopathological Survey of Santo Domingo, 19251929,” featured in the Journal of the Agriculture Department of Puerto Rico, January 1959. © Archivo General de la Nación

land for the purpose of demonstration, with its own buildings, laboratories, and workshops,”15 like the one in his native country.

In accordance with common practice among scientists, Ciferri kept in touch with members of this corresponding center in Cuba and strengthened ties of communication and collaboration among these and other institutes in the region, as well as in North America and Europe. Ciferri’s work in the Dominican Republic began in 1925 and concluded in 1932. He was hired by the Dominican government to activate and direct the first station for agronomic studies. This center would teach and train experts in the subject who would further the country’s agricultural development. Ciferri arrived in Santo Domingo16 accompanied by a work team consisting of three other young scientists: Dr. Osvaldo Arrocha, a Cuban veterinarian; Dr. Enrico Balzarotti, an Italian chemist; and Dr. Enea Razeto, an Italian agronomist.

Ciferri’s work, however, fulfilled and transcended these objectives. Under his direction, the agronomic station and college in Haina (San Cristóbal province) was transferred to Moca (Espaillat province), a much more suitable location in the Cibao, the agricultural region par excellence of the Dominican Republic. With the approval of Agriculture Secretary Espaillat, Ciferri established in Moca a scientific and technical complex, unprecedented at that time, for research and the formation of professionals in agricultural development. Within a short time, the intense labor of the two institutes produced incomparable advancement in the development of natural sciences in the Republic.

As discussed above, the first establishment in Haina was the tardy product of the U.S. military intervention that took up the plan outlined in 1910 by Cáceres to establish agricultural farm schools. Years later, the new director needed just a few months to revive the Station in Haina as well as the College, in addition to acquiring all the equipment that was necessary for the purpose at hand. The following year the operation was moved

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to Moca. Rafael A. Espaillat, Secretary of State for Agriculture and Immigration, referred in the Memoria for 1926 to the reinstallation of the School of Agriculture in the fertile Province of Moca. The rehabilitation and activation of the two institutes, as we have seen, was conceived by the administration of Horacio Vásquez (1924–1930) within the framework of a development strategy designed to implement a culture of modern agriculture in the Dominican Republic.

From the dual facilities in Moca, Dr. Ciferri carried out research and communications in collaboration with diverse scientists from Italy, Spain, Cuba, and a number of countries in the Americas. He promoted the hiring of Dr. Erik Leonard Ekman, a Swedish botanist with whom Ciferri developed a deep friendship that endured until Ekman’s death in January 1931. Ekman had accomplished extraordinary work on the island since 1917; for a decade he carried out botanical explorations in Haiti and parts of the Dominican Republic under the auspices of the Berlin Museum and Botanical Garden and the Botanical Department of the Stockholm Imperial Museum.17 When his work with these institutions was complete, he began in 1928 to work for the Dominican government. He continued to explore other zones that he had not previously visited, effecting botanical studies for the National Agronomic Station that Ciferri directed, and giving an unparalleled boost to the systematic study of Dominican flora.

Plans and Achievements under Ciferri’s Direction Moving the agronomic station to Moca was certainly advantageous, although in the short term it delayed the projects that had already been initiated in San Cristóbal in 1925. In effect, Law No. 372 of March 1, 1926 allocated $60,000 for the “establishment of the School of Agriculture and the National Agronomic Station in the commune of Moca, Province of Espaillat,” which immediately activated the move to the new facility. It took nearly half a year to accomplish the “dismantling of material and plants from the Laboratories, Station, and College” and prepare them adequately to be transported. When they arrived in Moca, however, the buildings were neither completed nor ready to receive them. Law No. 636 of April 28, 1927 approved the program of 16 subjects to be taught in the Agricultural College and established two degrees to be awarded: a Bachelor in Agricultural Sciences, for completion of the entire program, and a title of Expert Agronomist that could be obtained after the Bachelor’s degree by performing an additional year as an intern in the same College.18 Being director of the College and Station meant intensive work. In the College, Ciferri was also a professor, assigned to teach courses in Plant Pathology and Botany, with theoretical lessons and practical exercises. At the same time, duties associated with the Station included a great many consultations, both oral and written, regarding a plethora of cases, some brought to him in person and others received in the mail. For each of these inquiries, according to Dr. Ciferri himself, there was a need for “chemical analyses, microscopic determinations, or experimentation, not to mention a bibliographic search.”19 All of this is in addition to the research that he carried out as part of the regular program as defined by the Station, which did not neglect anything that could be of interest for the betterment of agricultural performance. Ciferri was in charge of the phytopathologic laboratory and the phytopathology and mycology collections, among other duties. He was also expected “to institute a service of plant sanitation and quarantine treatment in the Republic.”20 Ciferri was not alone. In addition to the technicians who arrived with him, he collaborated with a group of scientists that he organized shortly thereafter. Together they constituted a formidable interdisciplinary team that overcame and vanquished even the most difficult tasks. If anything can be said to characterize Ciferri’s work, it is that it was always carried out as a team; each was responsible for approaching the task from his respective specialty, and then each presented and discussed the results of his studies with the director and with the rest of his colleagues. This can be seen in the way the Laboratories and Sections present their respective tasks in the work logs of the National Agronomic Station. Further, Ciferri had a gift for integrating professors and graduates, as well as other related persons, into a network of collaborators, each one contributing with reports and knowledge, and using all available means to meet the demands of the institution’s broad vision.

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It was a grand example of cooperation and teamwork that also cast its light into national and international scientific collaboration.

The members of the team that worked at the National Agronomic Station and the College of Agriculture in Moca include the following: Dr. A. E. Barthe, agronomist, one of the veterans of the Department of Agriculture, who replaced Dr. E. Razeto; Dr. E. Balzarotti, chemist; Dr. M. Palacios, zootechnical veterinarian; Dr. G. Russo, entomologist; Mrs. F. de Cervantes, English professor; and many others. There was also an expert staff working in the facilities and offices, including F. O’Diot, teacher of crop cultivation; J. Braun, manager of the Botanical Garden; J. Santos M., Chemistry assistant; L. Quiñones, Entomology assistant; E. Moltoni, ornithologist; R. Perdomo, agriculture intern; J. Sochting, supervisor; G. Sanz, steward of the College; P. A. Rojas and A. de Js. Brache, typists; J. Caballero, mechanical electrician; and C. Rosis, driver.

A group of local and foreign collaborating scientists worked at continuing tasks; these include the presbyter Miguel Fuertes y Lorens, Rafael Moscoso, Erik Ekman, Rafael A. Toro, and Romualdo González Fragoso.

Others collaborated in a variety of ways or on very specific projects: P. Radaelli, Rolando Martínez, the agronomist J. P. Duarte M., Andrés González, César A. Campos, Thomas Erickson, Mario E. Espaillat, Horacio A. Read, Pedro A. Rojas, and Fabio A. Rojas, all of whom Ciferri mentions in the notes of acknowledgment that he customarily included in his reports.

Dr. Raffaele Ciferri in his laboratory at the National Agronomical Station. Moca, Espaillat province, around 1927. © Archivo General de la Nación

Publications The Revista de Agricultura, published by the Secretary of State for Agriculture and Immigration, was the most important organ of popularization and dissemination in the country. Publicized through its pages were plans, projects, advertisements, and important notifications, such as the availability of farm implements, seeds, nursery plants, etc. There were also recommendations for dealing with plagues or diseases affecting crops or livestock throughout the national territory. Articles from other latitudes, as well, were reproduced in Revista’s pages, and farmers could read about a variety of subjects that might prove of interest to them. These articles, however, formed a sort of mosaic or potpourri of agricultural information from regions that might be very different from the tropics; the news could very well be copied from agricultural services in Argentina or in the USA. One of the earliest repercussions of the work of Ciferri and his scientific team of collaborators was the change in agricultural publications. They were now refocused to support the Republic’s national plan for agricultural development and to discuss the immediate problems that must be faced. When the Agronomic Station and the College of Agriculture were established in Haina in 1925, the Secretariat of Agriculture and Immigration announced the suspension until further notice of the Revista de Agricultura and the introduction of the Boletines Técnicos (Technical Bulletins) of the school and station in Haina, now ready to function “in every aspect.” Once the move to Moca was made, the station’s publication service included not only the bulletins but also educational fliers and posters to popularize the message. There were also logs, reports, studies, and papers that appeared in publications—perhaps in the Boletín, perhaps in the form of books or pamphlets.

The Revista de Agricultura, in its editorial dated June 1925, stated:

Previous pages: Agricultural landscape of the Dominican Republic. A rice field during the rainy weather. © Photograph by Giovanni Savino, donated by the author

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The Agronomic Station in Haina, is now being managed by men of Science, whose competence is well-known, and five Series of Technical Bulletins will be published and classified as thus: A. Phytopathology, Microbiology, and Entomology B. Botany and Ecology C. Agriculture, Agronomy, Agricultural Industries, and Forestry Science D. Chemistry E. Veterinary Medicine and Zootechny21 In addition to the exchanges with homologous institutions, reports were published about the studies made at the National Agronomic Station in Dominican journals and also in scientific journals in other countries, taking advantage of the friendly relations with European researchers and editors as well as with those in Latin America and in the United States.

The task of publication included teaching materials used by the students at the College, but there were also circular letters, posters, and small pamphlets designed to reach the general populace with information of interest to all farmers. This variety of formats sought to ensure that activities of the Station were responding to the felt needs of crop growers and livestock breeders. For example, in 1926 the catalog of publications included three pamphlets for dissemination that made reference to everyday problems: two written by Ciferri himself, “The Battle against Mice” and “Twenty-Four Formulas for Fighting Plant Diseases,”22 a third written

by Dr. M. Conti, “Warts in Bovines.” All of these pamphlets were followed up with campaigns. Among the studies published in Boletines Técnicos, from the series on Botany and Ecology, we find: No. 1.- Dr. R. Ciferri and R. González Fragoso, “Parasitic and Saprophytic Fungi in the Dominican Republic,” Series 2 (February 1926); No. 4.- Dr. R. Ciferri and R. González Fragoso, “Parasitic and Saprophytic Fungi in the Dominican Republic,” Series 3 (May 1926); No. 5.- Dr. R. Ciferri and R. González Fragoso, “Parasitic and Saprophytic Fungi in the Dominican Republic,” Series 4 (August 1926); No. 2.- Dr. R. Ciferri and R. González Fragoso, “Parasitic and Saprophytic Fungi in the Dominican Republic,” Series 5 (September 1926). Of these mycological series, at least some thirty-five were published. The following year, in 1927, another circular letter and two Boletines Técnicos were published in the collection on Phytopathology, Microbiology, and Entomology, prepared by Dr. G. Russo, the head of the Entomology Section: “Insects Harmful to Major Crops and Means to Fight Them” (Circular No. 1, March 1927); “The Natural or Biological Battle against Insects Harmful to Crops,” No. 1 ( June 1927) and “Account of Plant Diseases in the Cultivation of Cotton, Eggplant, Onions, Potatoes in the Province of Monte Cristy (sic),” No. 2 ( July 1927).23 For the first time, all of these were original publications.

Collections and Botanical Garden Different collections of scientific interest were made for purposes of both research and teaching. Each collection was analyzed in its respective laboratory under the watchful eyes of specialists in different fields. In 1926, these were the most relevant: Phytopathologic Collection, consisting of 96 jars with plants or plant parts preserved in alcohol or formaldehyde and 164 dry preparations, including several of the types and cotypes of Dominican mycoflora.

Morphological Plant Collection, 31 samples under glass.

Xylologic Collection, with 31 pieces of wood.

Cecidiologic Collection, with 26 samples of cecidia and domiciles (insect galls on plants).

Ornithological Collection, 56 samples, embalmed and mounted.24 Ichthyologic Collection, consisting of 11 unclassified samples.

Mycological Collection of fungi in crops, “varies according to the needs of the study.”25

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Collection of dried plants, consisting of samples brought from all parts of the country.

Entomological Collection, consisting of insects collected in all parts of the country and displayed in 50 boxes and 40 jars.

All of the collections required special care to prevent mildew and other damage caused by tropical humidity. Each collection had specific functions that were often interrelated. For example, a beetle from the entomological collection might be associated with a plant part where the beetle had produced a certain type of damage in the phytopathologic collection; something similar might occur with the ornithological and ichthyologic collection, since both plants and waters may be affected by birds and fish. It is therefore understandable that these collections grow day by day, changing with the rhythm of contributions, consultations, research tasks, and interchanges at the Station.

One example of early and important collaboration and scientific exchange occurred in the year under discussion, 1926. The mycological collection received in trade (for another collection of fungi of the same group that was sent out from here) a collection of Torulopsis (Candida), a reddish pigment sent from the American Type Culture Collection, adjunct to the John McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases in Chicago. The samples were placed under study at the Station in Moca with the collaboration of Professor P. Redaelli.

The Botanical Garden was part of the scientific complex of the National Station and the College as a component for teaching and research. It was designed to have five sections in which the principal native flora as well as exotic plants could be grouped according to species.

Phytopathologic Laboratory It can be said unequivocally that the activation of this laboratory and the others at the National Agronomic Station represented a milestone in Dominican agriculture, with the inception of systematic knowledge of crop diseases as well as the population of plants and trees in the country. If empirical practices were not immediately eradicated, at least a principle of scientific collaboration was established to determine the most effective and efficient means to cure such diseases. That in itself signifies a radical change from the previous approach.

This task was ardently assumed by Ciferri himself, who related that in 1927 he had observed and placed under investigation diseases of Orange blossom (leaf spots), Sweet potato (white blight), Cacao (mold, mildew), Cinnamon (defoliation associated with yeast infections), Onion (leaf spots, rotting of the bulb, etc.), Plum tree (blight), Coconut palm (“anillo cojo,” etc.), Downy myrtle (leaves attacked by fungi), Beans (mosaic virus and anthracnose), Tonka beans (defoliation due to fungi), Fig tree (blight), Lychee (attacks by fungi), Papaya (attacks by fungi and “mal de la piña”), Corn (bacterial infection), Peanuts (blight and others), Mangosteen (apical desiccation of the leaves), Yams (leaf spots), Potatoes (“roña blanca” and mildew), Peppers (anthracnose), Pineapple (rotting at the heart), Licorice (leaf spots), Tobacco (stem rot, brown spot, and others), Tomato (mildew, rotting fruit), Cassava (leaf spots), Rice (damage in varying degrees), Pomegranate (attacked by fungi), Hyacinth (rotting of bulbs).26 Also subject to study were different diseases found in plantains and other popular consumer items.

Entomology Laboratory This laboratory was designed to carry out scientific agricultural studies of insects that are harmful to agriculture. In 1927 the lab had still not been completely installed, despite offering “Entomological Service to

Map of the distribution of forests and crops of the Dominican Republic, as published in the article by Dr. Raffaele Ciferri “Phytopathological Survey of Santo Domingo, 19251929”, featured in the Journal of the Agriculture Department of Puerto Rico, January 1959. © Archivo General de la Nación

DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

A map of the provinces of Santo Domingo, as published in the article

by Dr. Raffaele Ciferri “Phytopathological Survey of Santo Domingo, 19251929,” featured in the Journal of the Agriculture Department of Puerto Rico, January 1959. © Archivo General de la Nación

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the entire Republic.” Insects were collected systematically during field investigations and crop inspection visits. Their place was the Entomological Collection mentioned above, where they were classified according to the plants that they attacked, and also in combination with their entomophagous enemies, predators, and parasites. This collection had a mission to grow into a broad sampler of “Arthropods, Insects, Myriapods, Spiders, Crustaceans, and other groups of animals, for the purpose of forming an Agricultural Zoological Museum, which is greatly needed in this country.”27 The modus operandi was the preparation of biological boxes of the insects, which were observed systematically, to enable the observers to “summarize the life of the insect and of its parasites,” as well as its relations (with plants, other insects, and other sorts of animals), and study its morphology and its scientific classification: a) Linnaean and b) Anderlich-Silvestri. This study procedure was applied to all of the insects, regardless of whether they were noxious or beneficial to Dominican agriculture.

Chemistry Laboratory The primary labors of this component of the National Agronomic Station have to do with soil studies, including the composition of minerals (coal, copper, etc.), the presence or absence of mineral waters, and fertilizers, as well as the plants that produce edible products for consumption or export. The soil study made it possible to judge the potential for adaptation of plants that could be brought in and cultivated in the Republic and to determine which new crops might be the most advantageous. The laboratory also responded to requests from farmers, who would send samples with their common names; the Station provided analyses and, in addition, supplied the scientific names of the plants.

Regarding mineral waters, by 1927 the results were available from the “Analysis of thermal water from the Province of Azua,” determining its levels of hydrogen sulphide and minerals, although the bacteriological analysis was still pending. Comparisons were also made with other thermal springs in Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. Analysis was made of water from the Laguna Salada (Salt Lagoon), whose “high chlorine content makes it unpleasant,” also “almost indigestible and not potable.” Water from Villa Vásquez was also analyzed and found to be “hard water and very difficult to digest.”28 Meanwhile, many agricultural products were also analyzed. These included sugarcane, cacao, coffee, and popular foods such as tubers (sweet potatoes, yams, cassava, plantains) and rice, as well as many different grasses for fodder. From these analyses arose numerous suggestions for the industrial exploitation of many of these products. In 1927, the initiation of “the classification of the soils in the Republic” was envisioned as a major long-term task for the National Agronomic Station. For this project a complex method would be utilized for tropical soils; it was described as “modern classification based on its profiles, that tell us not only what a soil is and what it is worth today, but also its layered strata, its development, its history and its future, that is, its aptitude for improving, conserving, or losing its current characteristics” (p. 360).

Forestry Section One of the most significant challenges was the question of pine forests, because the indiscriminate felling of pine trees was destroying any possibility of a streamlined exploitation of the forest. It was suggested

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that this would be no easy task; it could not be resolved with a simple prohibition. The country needed the forest and had enormous reserves that, it was argued, should be exploited for the sake of the development of the republic (p.357).

The Forestry Section opened with a clear proposal to protect and a potent environmental consciousness.

Ciferri wrote in his report that “countries comprehend the value of their wooded lands only when they have destroyed them; that is when, at great cost and sacrifice, they initiate a project of reconstruction of what they, out of ignorance or greed, have destroyed” (p. 10).

The Dominican Republic has the good fortune, perhaps unique in the Caribbean, of possessing a formidable forest reserve—formidable, but not infinite […]. This wealth has by no means been appreciated, and much less cared for. Furthermore, it constitutes a mass that is almost completely unknown economically.

Ciferri proposed the protection of “obligatory reserve” zones to be supervised by a specialist technician from within the Secretariat of Agriculture and Immigration, a “chief of a Forestry Department, who would be in charge of watching over the national wooded patrimony, in every sense, and particularly that of: 1) delimitation of the zones where clearing or leveling the land must be prohibited; 2) active repopulation where necessary, supported expressly by government order; 3) recognition of the general forested zones and of the potential for rational commercial exploitation, in reference to lumber and to subsidiary industries (extraction

The great fountain of the historic rose garden. Under his management (19421964) Raffaele Ciferri faced the period of post-war reconstruction, giving the main façade of the Botanical Garden of the University of Pavia (Sistema Museale di Ateneo) its current appearance: he dismantled the aquarium-house built by Briosi and built a monumental semicircle staircase that embraces the large fountain. (Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Oval Fountain: during the intallation of the historical rose garden and the main façade, Ciferri placed many fountains, integrating the botanical collections with a classic decor connected to the element of water.

(Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

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of turpentine, resins, gums, substances, colorants, etc.); 4) special courses in the College of Agriculture, for students, and informational workshops, writing pamphlets, etc.”

Hydrobiology Section This section addressed the “problem of the biological study of waters” in consideration of the country’s needs. It is divided into two great chapters: “Fresh Water” and “Salt Water.” The first division covers knowledge about existing fish in the Republic, their connection to the battle against paludism, and the “antimalarial value of these different classes.” It also embraces information about food fish and the value of each class, for internal use or for manufacture and export (p. 10).

As related activities, the Report recommends setting up ponds stocked with native antipaludic fish but using imported fish if necessary. Other hatcheries are for fine food fish, whether indigenous or introduced from the exterior. Ciferri also mentions hatcheries in association with irrigation, for which the Section would work in coordination with the head of the National Irrigation Service. Ciferri highlighted three orders of problems: a) antipaludism (prevention of malaria), adding “mosquiticide fish” to the irrigation system and using other, indirect means such as “planting eucalyptus, planting chara (algae), and planting aquatic Coleoptera and Hemiptera that devour mosquito larvae”; b) introducing fish into the irrigation system; and c) in the irrigation canals, controlling algae and green plants that could obstruct the flow of water (p. 11).

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With regard to salt water, there are “problems of lack of knowledge about salt-water fish,” as to their benefits as comestible fish, but also aimed at the protection of marine fauna by means of “regulating the catching of hawksbill and other turtles for their shells,” as well as “studying the possibilities of other industries derived from the sea,” such as the industry of sponges, mother-of-pearl, and coral, always with regulations. The mission would not be the research alone but also the performance of “practical demonstrations in different parts of the coast of the Republic, with different classes of fish prepared in different ways” (p. 12). The National Agronomic Station of the Dominican Republic, had it maintained this project, would have been the pioneer in the Caribbean region by possessing a department of agronomic hydrobiology.

Detail of the staircase of the fountain in the historic rose garden created by Ciferri with a semicircle shape by placing the staircase that represents the main façade of the building, emphasizing the great fountain.

(Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

Mycological Exploration As head of the Phytopathologic and Mycological Section, Ciferri was in charge of the first mycological exploration in the republic. Initially, a small number of fungus samples was collected and sent to Dr. Carlos E. Chardón, Commissioner of Agriculture in Puerto Rico, “to whom,” Ciferri admits, “are owed important contributions to our knowledge of Dominican mycoflora.” Also, from Puerto Rico and other countries in the exterior, mycological material arrived that was then studied in the laboratory of the National Agronomic

DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Quadrivio beneath the arboretum created by Raffaele Ciferri: under his direction, numerous statues including the four seasons were introduced.

Underneath the tall trees placed by Ciferri, there are flowerbeds and botanical collections of brushwood that flank the main avenue which leads to the Scopolian greenhouses. The arboretum established

by Ciferri extends throughout the area between the departmental building and the Scopoli greenhouses. There are several species, and in this area one can observe the great diversity of shapes, bearing, size, and color of the main trees. The current setting was strongly influenced by Ciferri during the review of the collections in the post-war recovery period, abandoning a more formal approach favored by administration and adopting a collection of tree species more favorable from a scientific and popular point of view and suitable for a university botanical garden.

(Paolo Cauzzi). © Andrea Vierucci

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Station. By 1927, some four hundred species of fungi found in the republic had been studied; and ten series of bulletins had been published, prepared by Ciferri himself together with González Fragoso, covering some three hundred species.29 This self-imposed task was soon reflected in dozens of publications created in the Republic and abroad; it culminated in one of his principal works, Micoflora Domingensis, published in 1929, and on which he would continue to work until he published his integrated botany of the island’s fungi, Mycoflora domingensis integrata, in 1961.30

Report on Cacao In 1928, Ciferri and his team completed their study of the cultivation and production of cacao in the Dominican Republic. This fruit had a long history of cultivation and exportation beginning in colonial times, with both highs and lows. In the early twentieth century cacao occupied a large number of cultivators, great and small, as well as broad swaths of land in the main agricultural regions. Even apart from this, cacao was a crop with high strategic importance to the country.

The report is representative of the type of research that was carried out by the staff at the Agronomic Station and the College of Agriculture under Ciferri’s direction. The investigation took him to every region that produced cacao, and comparisons demonstrated the poor quality of the cacao that was being produced, in spite of the high potentiality of the Dominican product. As he sought the cause of the problem, Ciferri did not limit his questioning to agricultural techniques, as others had commonly done, because the typical response was to blame the low quality of the cacao and other produce on the ignorance of the campesinos. Ciferri went deeper and found that the root cause was the commercial exploitation of the small farmer, who received no incentive whatsoever and would thus end up responding to commercial demand by supplying cacao of infinitesimal quality, which was then more-or-less average for cacao of the Sánchez brand.31

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The report is divided into twelve chapters covering: 1) the cacao-growing industry, both worldwide and local: 2) historical news about cacao, 3) production statistics and importance to the economy, 4) geographic distribution of the cultivation of cacao, 5) climatology and soils, 6) “Species and varieties of cacao and of shade plants,” 7) analysis of cacao and its characteristics, 8) cacao in cultural practice, 9) “Essay on the agricultural ecology of the cacao grower,” 10) rains and harvest, 11) observations on a farm, and 12) “Parasitic and nonparasitic diseases of the cacao plant.” This study, which was made in the midst of the relocation and reinstallation of the Station and the inauguration of the College in Moca, is to this day a model study and a primary reference source for the cacao cultivation and processing industry in the Dominican Republic. Certain chapters of this book stand out for their current relevance, particularly those that refer to climatology and soils, rain and the harvest, and the one that examines the campesino culture. Two others are especially significant: the essay on agricultural ecology and the chapter that deals with diseases of the cacao plants.

Ciferri observed that the buyers’ demand was for quantity, but he did not consider that to be a strategy leading to social development, since it would reproduce not only low-grade cacao but also poverty on the part of the producer, whether a medium entrepreneur or a small campesino. Ciferri therefore proposed improving the quality of the cacao because its potential was so much higher; this needed to be done with the cooperation of the merchants, whose greater knowledge of the different classes and qualities of cacao could contribute to a more accurate assessment and classification of the product. Thus, by betting on quality over quantity, the Republic would be more competitive in the market and gain a greater market share than they currently enjoyed.

This would be much more advantageous for both producers and merchants, given that they could quote a higher price. The objective was viable. To accomplish it, the campesino who grew the cacao needed to share in the enjoyment of the benefits. A fair price would provide motivation to take greater care in the process of preparation, cultivation, harvest, and drying. Of course, the interest and cooperation of the government would be essential to facilitate transport of the product by providing good regional and local roads, which at that time were scarce and barely navigable.

Central Observatory of Agricultural Ecology Moving the Station to Moca made Dr. Ciferri think about the possibility of transforming meteorological observation in the agricultural field in order to “prepare and integrate elements to agrarian ecology.” In his 1926 Report he cordially insists before the Secretary of State for Agriculture on the necessity of augmenting the equipment available at the meteorological observatory in order to elevate it to a Central Observatory of Agricultural Ecology that would work in coordination with the National Meteorological Observatory in Santo Domingo and the existing substations located at various points around the country. If this were done, he states, “together with general meteorology, agricultural meteorology has a calling to be a potent aid to agriculture.”

This “agricultural meteorology serves as the foundation for Ecology applied to agriculture, with the ability to determine the critical periods of the plants, the phenoscopic averages, the percentages of probability of the various meteorological phenomena for each dozen, and the decrease in production resulting from unfavorable meteorological phenomena.”32 In addition to the data provided by the service of the National Meteorological Observatory located in Santo Domingo, which had a network of stations and substations in diverse provinces, the meteorological information of the Station in Moca was complemented by a flow of statistics supplied by the different train stations of the Dominican Central Railroad. With this, it was possible to make a comparative follow-up of the rainfall and temperature at different points around eastern and central Cibao, just as it appears in the annual reports of the National Agronomic Station. Nevertheless, the new proposed development in the direction of a true “agricultural meteorology” would provide more specific observations, with important implications for development in forestry and agriculture. To that end, Director Ciferri requested six “necessary automatic self-recording devices,” to wit: 1) Thermograph for air and soil; 2) Atmometer; 3) Pyranometer; 4) Pluvio-

DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Scopoliane Greenhouses: they were designed by Giuseppe Piermarini, who was involved at the time in rehabilitation work at the University of Pavia.

Construction began in 1776 under the direction of Valentino Brusati. The building, which was then only in the planning stages, was completed in the following years when Giovanni Antonio Scopoli became director of the Botanical Garden.

It is a large straight building with two wings connected by a central body. The two wings (east and west) were characterized by large sloping glass roofs facing south and supported by wooden frames.

The first building was significantly refurbished in the first decades of the 19th century: under the direction of Domenico Nocca, in fact, the wooden structures were completely replaced by masonry, stone, and iron. It was Luigi Canonica who was responsible for the renovation, which largely corresponds to the current greenhouse. (Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

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graph; 5) Anemograph; 6) Mercury barometer for control. The establishment of this observatory would mark the beginning of the work of measuring the cardinal data for “the principal arboreal and herbaceous plants cultivated in the Cibao.”

Formation of Agricultural Professionals The formation of these professionals was the main function of the College of Agriculture, which was also directed by Dr. Raffaele Ciferri together with the National Agronomic Station. As has been shown, the body of technicians at that Station also served as professors at the college; Ciferri, as director of the college, was mindful of their continual education. The environment of investigation and of immersion in the problems related to the nation’s crops as well as solutions, both proposed and experienced, was the context that was most conducive to learning for these technicians in training. A library was created, as well as a document center with dozens of issues of the principal professional journals specializing in the various branches of the agricultural sciences, particularly tropical agriculture, which the college received in trade or by paid subscriptions. These journals disseminated the most current and advanced knowledge available in the field.33 Without a doubt, the college provided the conditions that enabled its graduates to become acknowledged as technicians of the highest quality; to this must be added their training in personal ethics and in respect for nature.

Among other facilities, there was an agronomic experimentation field at the college, as well as an Acclimatization Garden for exotic plants, with a view to introducing into the country such new species of plants and seeds as proved useful. These facilities were the scene of diverse tasks of importation, acclimatization, cultivation, and multiplication of the foreign plants, including ornamental plants and those that were to become part of the Botanical Garden. These facilities were different from the nurseries at the station, where plants were prepared to be distributed for planting. Some plants and cuttings were ornamental; others were forest species,

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Report of the visit of the Secretary of Agriculture Mr. Rafael Espaillat to the National Agronomic Station of Moca, with images of the vegetable garden, tobacco and cocoa plants.

Aquatic species collection of the Botanical Garden of the University of Pavia. © Andrea Vierucci

The great fountain of the historic rose garden. Under his management (19421964) Raffaele Ciferri faced the period of post-war reconstruction, giving the main façade of the Botanical Garden of the University of Pavia (Sistema Museale di Ateneo) its current appearance: he dismantled the aquarium-house built by Briosi and built a monumental semicircle staircase that embraces the large fountain. (Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Historical Hall of the Botanical Garden: this hall is a testament to the past and the illustrious individuals who contributed greatly to the development of the Botanical Garden and to scientific research of the University of Pavia. It houses numerous artifacts and paraphernalia, from ancient microscopes to botanical prints and models as well as portraits and a plaque commemorating the past directors of the Botanical Garden.

(Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

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mainly mahogany. There were plants for industrial or medicinal uses, like eucalyptus; fruit trees, primarily mangos; textiles, like sisal and hemp. Some were foreign plants and cuttings, like elephant grass and Japanese sugarcane. There were also seeds for the same types of plants, except mahogany. Small quantities were also sent to Colombia, the United States, Italy, Germany, and other countries.

Around the middle of 1927, the college graduated its first cohort of new technicians. Minister Espaillat expressed his satisfaction in the corresponding Memoria: “In the month of July the investiture took place for the presentation of the degrees of Bachelors in Agricultural Sciences to the young graduates following two years of continuous studies.”34 These graduates would then become agricultural instructors and fruit inspectors for the Secretariat of Agriculture and Immigration in different points of the country. Espaillat also mentioned that some of those who were not yet sufficiently prepared to study for the bachelor’s degree had received “a corresponding certificate of Study to show for having completed an Elementary practical course for one year.”35 Given the excellent results of the College of Agriculture, Secretary Espaillat set out his vision to the Dominican president in the Memoria of the branch that he directed in 1927: “From the founding of this school, I have thought that, after five years of operations, when we have been able to draw from it the number of bachelors in Agricultural Sciences that the country might need in order to disseminate scientific principles among the farmers, it should be converted into a Polytechnic Institute where pupils—now in much greater numbers—will receive preparation that will qualify them for conscientious work in the field and in other industries that may arise in the republic.”36

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Other Contributions Above all, Ciferri was a scientist; his contributions to biological science that still bear fruit in Santo Domingo long after his time there clearly demonstrate his vocation as an investigator and denote his prosecution and continual deepening of the studies initiated in the Republic. His contributions, however, transcended the plane of biological science.37 His sporadic incursions into biography are one example of this; they were his response to the desire to give testimony to a friendship and recognition to a colleague, in a spirit both critical and generous. Thus, when he was facing the deaths of friends Erik Ekman and Romualdo González Fragoso, Raffaele Ciferri wrote biographical notes highlighting the value of the scientific contributions of both in their respective fields of science.

Translation and Cartographic Criticism The result of his friendship with don Federico Henríquez y Carvajal can be found in the translation into Spanish of the book by Carlo Frati, El mapa más antiguo de la Isla de Santo Domingo (1516) y Pedro Mártir de Anglería (The Oldest Map of the Island of Santo Domingo [1516] and Peter Martyr d’Anghiera). The book is listed as translated by R. Ciferri with a foreword by F. Henríquez y Carvajal. Credit for the publication states that it was printed “under the care of the Dominican Government,” Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, 1929. But most important—and at the same time, most curious—is that Ciferri carefully refuted the criteria, contrary to Frati’s thesis that the map is from 1516, expressed the following year by historian and Capuchin monk Fray Cipriano de Utrera, who opined that the map included in the work by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera and reproduced by Frati was a copy of another earlier one that Utrera placed in 1509, and that the original map therefore corresponded to the earlier date, 1509.

In his critical commentary Ciferri reviews both works, the one by Frati and the one by Utrera; he describes Utrera as “a learned Spanish historian specialized in historical issues referring to Santo Domingo” and presents his key arguments as well as his weak points. Among the weak points, he cites details seen on the specific map of the island included in Anghiera’s work and the proximity of the date proposed by Utrera to those of other maps that do not yet include said details: the world map of Contarini–Rosselli (1506), the celebrated Waldseemüller map (1507), and the Stevens-Brown map (1513). Furthermore, the letter dated June 1511 that Utrera examines in his booklet affirms that there are “fifteen towns on the island”; for Ciferri, this ratifies the date of Frati’s map and constitutes more of an objection to than a reinforcement of the earlier dating that Utrera proposes. In conclusion, Ciferri acknowledges that the date proposed by Frati for the map of the island of Hispaniola sets a limit—a “no-earlier-than” date—and “unless proven otherwise,” it is the only date that can be based on existing historical sources.38 Again, it is Ciferri’s critical skill that can be seen permeating his comments.

Geobotanical Map of the Island Shortly after returning to Italy, in 1936 Ciferri completed and published his Studio Geobotanico dell’Isola Hispaniola. Accompanying the work was a geobotanical map of the island of Hispaniola,39 in which he summarized the knowledge that he had acquired, during his years of intense labor, about the flora of the Dominican Republic. This map is yet to be found, as it has not been catalogued in any of the principal national repositories.

The cartographic essay is the first of its kind in the Dominican Republic, despite the flaws that might be expected in such an endeavor, given the author’s departure from the country. The existence of the map has barely been mentioned in Santo Domingo. It was briefly touched upon by Dr. Carlos E. Chardón, who downplayed its value when he wrote about “Dr. Ciferri’s map, published in Italy in 1934, in which we have found several production errors.”40 Even so, Chardón himself points out the occasional virtue of the map, particularly in reference to the pine forests of the Sierra del Bahoruco mountain range: “These pine forests are not shown on Durland’s forestry map, but they are on Ciferri’s.”41

The collection of Cicadali (Cycadales) is found in the eastern wing of the Scopoli Greenhouses.. The Cycadales, including Cycadaceae and Zamiaceae, whose origin dates back to the Carboniferous or early Permian period and which reached its maximum abundance and diffusion in the Mesozoic Era, are a group of gymnosperm (plants with seeds unprotected by an ovary or fruit) that, in their vegetative and reproductive organization, preserve very archaic characteristics: they often have the appearance of palms, with erect, columnar, and undivided stems, and large compound leaves, leathery with pungent apex; they are plants with unisexual flowers, slow growing and for this reason are particularly valuable for ornamental purposes. (Paolo Cauzzi) © Andrea Vierucci

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Ciferri’s Directorship Comes to an End From the very outset, the regime of Rafael L. Trujillo was clearly incompatible with the country’s social and democratic development, so it is not surprising to learn that it was decided during the dictator’s first term to “resolve, once and for all, the problem of the National School of Agriculture.” The argument was that the school, “under its old organization, was not bearing fruit as expected.” The scientific organization designed

by Dr. Ciferri was accused of pursuing, “in short, a misguided objective”—that of training agricultural technicians or expert agronomists who were “logically destined to become bureaucratic, white-coated professionals instead of technically trained hands prepared to intervene directly in the struggle with the earth.” Thus Trujillo’s “successful reform” of the National School of Agriculture consisted of regressing to the old Experimental Station in Haina, just as originally conceived by the government of the U.S. occupation in 1920, that is to say, “to prepare Teachers of Cultivation and Managers of Rural Farms, a title sufficient in itself to explain the reformation plan devised by the Government.”42 Although in the Memoria for 1930 the new Secretary of State for Agriculture, Rafael César Tolentino, referred only to the rehabilitation of the School of Agriculture and of the Experimental Station (using the names given by the U.S. Marines during the military occupation), it was soon revealed that, in effect, the new Dominican government had repudiated the development of scientific capabilities in the field of agriculture that would have enabled an autonomous, balanced growth from the ecological, social, and human perspective, and consequently would have advanced the goal of independent food sovereignty in the Dominican Republic. Instead, the Trujillo regime preferred to train inspectors of crops and produce, as well as agriculture instructors who

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would conform to directives imposed from above by technicians in the Agriculture Department, without the power to consider variants in soils, climatology, precipitation patterns, river water and irrigation, solar cycles, flora and fauna—in sum, the different ecosystems that it is imperative to study in order to achieve a rational exploitation of nature with the least possible environmental impact. It can be so simple as understanding that the systematic classification of a plant, or of an insect that can harm it, enables us to take advantage of knowledge that already exists in the world and opens the doors to the most effective and efficient solutions. Of course, the narrow vision of the Trujillo regime impeded access to such national benefits.

It is understood that the retraction of the Dominican government’s contract with Dr. Ciferri was triggered by the vast discrepancy between its social and political policies and his scientific viewpoint. This fact was camouflaged when Ciferri was hired in 1932 by a company known as La Yuquera Dominicana,43 located in Santiago. Later that same year Dr. Ciferri was called back to his home country to become the deputy director of the Phytopathologic Laboratory in Rome.

Compilation in Homage Raffaele Ciferri’s pivotal contributions represent a point of departure that is valid today more than ever. He foresaw our present problems when he analyzed the problems of his own time with a true scientific and human sensibility. He believed in the need to develop our own field of natural science in the Dominican Republic and not to create an extension of the science of other dominating countries or of an internal power acting unilaterally, thus cutting off all possible paths to a scientifically oriented agriculture aimed at social and democratic development. Ciferri’s contribution to botanical and agronomic science in the Republic left an imprint and a model for integrating natural science and protection of the environment into a concept of national socioeconomic development.44 This brief sketch of Dr. Ciferri’s labors in the Dominican Republic is intended to call attention to the history of the natural sciences of our country, about which the Dominican National Archive is preparing a special collection. One of the first compilations of documents will be made in homage to the eminent Italian scientist Dr. Raffaele Ciferri, who is equally great for his spirit of humanity and gratitude. Above all, this compilation spotlights his work and thus enables us to recapture his reflections and insight on ecology and social development. At the same time, it reveals roots and solid foundations for the new generations who will be shaping the field of natural sciences in our Republic.

ENDNOTES I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Walter Cordero, notable authority on Raffaele Ciferri’s scientific work, and to Orquídea Correa, director of the Records Department at AGN, for their help and guidance.

2 Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, Barril sin fondo (Antropología para curiosos) (Santo Domingo: Editora de Colores, 1996), 197.

3 Guido Despradel y Batista, “Hostos y la Vega. Las proyectadas granjas agrícolas del señor Hostos,” Clío 7 no. 34 (March-April, 1939): 60.

4 See Eugenio María de Hostos, “Inmigración y colonización” and “Centro de inmigración y colonias agrícolas,” in Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Hostos en Santo Domingo, vol. 1 (Santo Domingo: Ciudad Trujillo, Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 1939).

5 José Ramón Abad, La República Dominicana. Reseña general geográfico-estadística (1888), rev. ed. (Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 1993), 284–285.

1

Ibid., 286–287.

José Ramón Abad, “Un instituto agronómico,” in Economía, agricultura y producción, ed. Andrés Blanco Díaz (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación [AGN], 2012), 493–495.

8 Compare José Ramón López, “Granjas-escuelas experimentales,” in José Ramón López, Escritos dispersos, vol. 2, ed. Andrés Blanco Díaz (Santo Domingo: AGN, 2005), 65–66.

9 On this topic, see “Dirección de Agricultura,” Revista de Agricultura 6, no. 1 (April 1910): 1; “Notas sueltas,” Revista de Agricultura 6, no. 4 (July 1910): 87; “Programas de enseñanza,” Revista de Agricultura 6, no. 12 (March 1911): 23-24; “Inauguración de la Granja-Escuela en San Cristóbal,” Revista de Agricultura 7, no. 1 (April 1911): 2–5; “Estación experimental en Santiago,” Ibid., 39.

All of these notes were written by José Ramón Abad, who was editor of the journal at the time.

10 See Executive Orders No. 265 (24 February 1919) and No. 353 (10 November 1919). The first states the public interest of extend6 7

DR. RAFFAELE CIFERRI’S CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

ing the terrain of the Agricultural Experimental Station (in Haina) under the direction of the Department of Agriculture and Immigration, and the second allocates US$47,400 to finish construction and acquire electrical equipment for said Station in Haina.

11 Walter Cordero, “Medioambiente. Depredación ambiental y preocupación conservacionista en República Dominicana,” Xinesquema, no. 5 (October 2004): 36.

12 Ibid. Walter Cordero quotes Consuelo González de Peynado: “Our countryside is devastated, deprived every day of its trees, destined to a major consumption of charcoal. Planting is a necessity, so that there will be some compensation, taking advantage of the cultivation of crops to provide salutary lessons for the benefit of the student.”

13 Ibid., 36–37.

14 The Cuban institution was founded in 1904 and was the first of its type in Latin America; it is known today as the Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en Agricultura Tropical Alejandro de Humboldt (Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Fundamental Research in Tropical Agriculture).

15 Quoted in Reinaldo Funes Monzote, Despertar del asociacionismo científico en Cuba. 1876–1920 (Havana: Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Cultura Cubana Juan Marinello, 2005), 231– 232.

16 Despite being categorized as a government employee, it was not until 1928, three years after his arrival, that an executive order authorized him to establish legal residence in the Dominican Republic. Decree No. 1009, September 19, 1928. Colección de Leyes, Decretos y Resoluciones de los Poderes Legislativo y Ejecutivo de la República. Año 1928 (Santo Domingo: J.R. Vda. García, Successors, 1929), 289–290.

17 José de Jesús Jiménez, Colectores de plantas de la Hispaniola (Santiago: UCMM, 1985), 72–76.

18 Colección de Leyes, Decretos y Resoluciones, Año 1926, 45–46; and Año 1927, 76–77.

19 Raffaele Ciferri, Segundo informe anual de la Estación Nacional Agronómica de Moca, 1926 (Santo Domingo: J.R. Vda. García, Successors, 1927), 4.

20 Revista de Agricultura 19, no. 8 (June 1925), 247.

21 Ibid., Revista, editorial.

22 Ciferri’s bibliography is very large and is not included in this work; see a brief Dominican bibliography of Ciferri in J. de J. Jiménez, Colectores, 51–54.

23 G. Russo, “Informe de la sección de Entomología,” in R. Ciferri, “Informe de la Estación Nacional Agronómica y Colegio de Agricultura de Moca,” in Memoria que el señor Rafael A. Espaillat, vol. 2, Secretario de Estado de Agricultura e Inmigración, presenta al Señor Presidente de la República (Santo Domingo: Imprenta J. R. Vda. García, Sucesores, 1927), 244.

24 Some of the duplicates were sent to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Milan, where Professor E. Moltoni, ornithological specialist, made scientific determinations of many common names of the stuffed birds. Compare R. Ciferri, Segundo informe, 4.

25 In 1926 several species of fungi were sent for study to the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures in Baarn (Netherlands), Ibid.

26 R. Ciferri, “Informe,” in Memoria, vol. 2, 24–30.

27 Ibid., 33, 40–41.

28 Ibid., 250–251.

29 Ibid., 23.

30 See Raffaele Ciferri, Micoflora domingensis (Santo Domingo: Secretariat of State for Agriculture and Immigration, 1929); Mycoflora domingensis integrata (Pavia: Istituto Botanico della Universita, 1961).

31 Compare Raffaele Ciferri, Informe sobre la producción del Cacao

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en la República Dominicana (Santo Domingo: Secretariat of State for Agriculture and Immigration, 1928), 37–38.

32 R. Ciferri, Segundo informe, 12–13.

33 To give a few examples, here are some of the periodicals received: Abstracts of Bacteriology, American Journal of Botany, Archivo Botánico, Anales Institute Pasteur, Anales Parasitologie, Anales Societé Nationale Botanique, Bulletin C. N. Societé de Biologie, Bulletin Institute Pasteur, Bulletin Societé de Pathologie Exotique, Bulletino della Societé Entomologica Italiana, Facts About Sugar, Gordian, Journal of Agricultural Research, Mycology, Phytopatholgy, Review of Applied Mycology, Revista de Agricultura Tropical, Soil Sciences, and dozens of additional titles originating in Europe and America.

34 The graduates were Juan Pablo Duarte M., Temístocles Herrera B., Manuel A. Moya, Henry López Penha, José Larrauri H., Juan B. Díaz R., Andrés González, César A. Campos, Carlos Báez L., Rafael Perdomo M., Víctor M. Gutiérrez. Memoria correspondiente al año 1927 que al Ciudadano Presidente de la República presenta el Sr. Rafael A. Espaillat, Secretario de Estado de Agricultura e Inmigración, vol. 2 (Santo Domingo: J.R. Vda. García, Successors, 1928), 19.

35 Ibid., vol. 1, 26.

36 Ibid.

37 On this point, his books about medieval Italian numismatics deal with subject matter far removed from biology to which Ciferri made significant contributions.

38 See R. Ciferri’s review of both publications in Archeion: Archivio di Storia della Scienza 12, no. 1 (January–March 1930): 417–419.

39 R. Ciferri, “Studio Geobotánico dell’Isola Hispaniola (Antille),” in Atti Istituto Botanico “Giovani Briosi,” Series 4, vol. 8 (Pavia: University of Pavia, 1936), 1–336. Includes a map of the island’s vegetation. Cited by Chardón, Viajes y naturaleza (Caracas: Editorial Sucre, 1941), 275.

40 Carlos E. Chardón, Viajes y naturaleza, 113.

41 Ibid., 280.

42 “El éxito de la reforma de la Escuela Nacional de Agricultura,” Revista de Agricultura y Comercio 25, no. 59 (August 1934): 1323.

43 Cf. Edwin Croes Hernández, “La depresión económica inicial,” in Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano, vol. 5, ed. Roberto Cassá (Santo Domingo: Academia Dominicana de la Historia, 2014), 166–168. The company mentioned above was part of the dual agrarian policy propelled from the start by the Trujillo regime in an attempt to use foreign capital to modernize commercial agriculture. In this case, La Yuquera was a subsidiary of the American Corn Company. The experiment soon failed as a consequence of the worldwide Great Depression.

44 The so-called Trujillo Plan, elaborated in the early 1940s, consisted of a long-term comprehensive economic development program that would become the basis for the exploitation of natural resources including mining and agriculture, as well as the consolidation of industrial development under the tyranny of Trujillo.

Dr. Carlos E. Chardón, who directed a team made up of various national and international scientists, was commissioned in 1937 to do the baseline study for the Plan. Two years later, Chardón submitted a report that circulated sparingly in mimeographed form. The first edition in book form saw the light of day in 1976, fifteen years after the tyrant’s execution. See Carlos E. Chardón, Reconocimiento de los recursos naturales de la República Dominicana: Informe presentado al Presidente de la República Dominicana, Generalísimo Doctor Rafael L. Trujillo (Santo Domingo: Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos, 1976).

• CHAPTER 39

The Italian Contribution to Mining Development in the Dominican Republic

By Renzo Seravalle Engineer and President of Casa de Italia

Sample of the oxidized residues from the archaeological excavations of the Tainos, who were searching for gold for the Spaniards in the 16th century of the colony, in Pueblo Viejo. © Renzo Seravalle

he history of mining in the Dominican Republic began with the arrival of the first colonizers in the Americas.

Although Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus’s primary motive was to find a shorter and safer route to the east, from where spices and other exotic products of great value came to Europe, he achieved a different outcome. He stumbled upon a world that was completely different from the one he had been seeking, and consequently, there was a shift in objectives and strategies. The search for spices segued into a search for gold and silver, and the mining industry was thus born in the Americas. To honor Spain, the Admiral baptized the island Hispaniola and began to search for the location where the indigenous people were extracting gold they used to make jewelry. The Spanish soon realized that the gold was coming from rivers, streams, and sands in an area they called Cibao in the interior of the island.

According to accounts discovered in the Real Archivo de Indias, gold mining in the Cibao region likely began in 1505, between the contemporary town of Hatillo and the Zambrana valley near the city of Cotuí. Until recently, there were still residues—rust from iron pyrite—lingering from the excavations carried out by the first indigenous miners.

In that area, there was a small population of indigenous people who lived naturally, farming yams and yucca and uncontaminated by Europeans. The colonizers turned them into enslaved mine workers with picks, shovels, working hours, caves on the hillside, etc. Mining would ultimately prove a death sentence for those first farmers-turned-miners. The mine was closed fifteen years later in 1520.

Juan Nieto de Valcárcel was later sent to Hispaniola by the Spanish Crown to reexamine the gold deposits.

He recommended that the ruler restore operations, arguing that, annually, the mines had produced more than a million crowns for the throne.

After those first assignments, there was no other known mining activity. Several mining enthusiasts and experts explored the area with no positive or practical results. A few concessions were allocated, but simply for speculative purposes.

In 1946, Italian geologist and mineralogist Dr. Renato Zoppis de Sena arrived in the Dominican Republic.

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Pueblo Viejo, in front of Tunnel No. 6 Terenzio Seravalle (partially obscured), Manuel de Moya Alonso, Dr. Renato Zoppis, Italo Sartori, and Giuseppe Borrione (1952). © Renzo Seravalle

He had vast experience exploring mines all over the world and was able to gather a plethora of information on the mining history of the Dominican Republic. He conducted the first in situ explorations and presented the Dominican government with a geological study of the country that included an analysis and explanation of its mineral resource potential. The government accepted Dr. Zoppis’s proposal and ordered the Minister of Industry and Commerce to open a mining department. Thus, the Mining Service—the first official office in the Dominican Republic dedicated exclusively to the study and development of mining—was established, and Dr. Zoppis was its first general director. Its first headquarters was located at Avenida Simón Bolívar No. 90, between Avenida Dr. Delgado and Avenida Pasteur, next to Colegio del Apostolado.

Dr. Zoppis traveled to Italy on behalf of the Dominican government to recruit the technicians he needed for his research work. He personally directed the selection of this group of technicians, who were hired for a period of two years with the possibility of renewal and who immediately departed for the Dominican Republic, arriving in the country around the end of 1948 and the beginning of 1949.

The Italians hired by Dr. Zoppis to study in the Dominican Republic were engineer Leonardo Cioni from the Directorate of Mines in Sardinia; engineer Tullio Seguiti, head mining inspector of the Italian Ministry of Industry; industrial mining technician and engineer Alejandro Meani; engineer Adolfo Squillero, former director of the Montecatini chemicals company; German geophysicist Dr. Hans Troyer; geologist Michele Lagana; mineralogist and geologist Terenzio Seravalle, who had previous experience in African gold mines; technician and mechanic Giuseppe Borrione; engineer Antonio Bodo; technician and engineer Adriano Cecchini, chief surveyor; technician Priamo Caprini; surveyor Luigi Reboa; and cartographer Bruno Elías. The most notable Dominicans assigned to this project were Maricusa Catrain, soul of the office and link between the government and the Mining Service; unparalleled surveyor Federico Jerez; Juan Gil, University of Santo Domingo engineering student gaining his first experience in the art of geology and surveying; mechanic Rafael Pacheco; and drivers Flores and Peña.

According to the program that Dr. Zoppis had outlined, research work began immediately. The areas explored were:

Opening page: Pyrite; Copper ore San Francisco, Mata Grande; Native copper, Loma La Mina Pueblo Viejo; Hatillo iron ore; Alabaster, Barahona; Auriferous Quartz. © Renzo Seravale

THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION TO MINING DEVELOPMENT IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Manuel de Moya Alonso, Minister of Industry and Commerce; Foreman Sánchez; Terenzio Seravalle; Dr. Renato Zoppis; Giuseppe Borrione; and Luigi Reboa, land survey technician, in front of Tunnel No. 6. (1952).

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A. Loma Peguera, in the city of Bonao, aided by resident Celestino. In this location, open-pit trenches were constructed to study and quantify the nickel ore in the area. They simultaneously studied and quantified the potential for iron ore in Loma de Caribe.

Canadian mining company Falconbrige was subsequently established as a result of these studies. They began operations in the two areas studied, built a small blast furnace, and created the first iron-nickel alloy in the world. The positive economic outcome for the country is clear.

B. The minerals in the area of Pueblo Viejo, in the Sánchez Ramírez province, near Cotuí, were also studied and quantified. Eight tunnels were created, totaling 750 linear meters. A study was conducted using six rotating probes in boreholes, along sections divided into 250 linear meters, for a total of 3877 linear meters of drilling; plus, an additional geophysical study conducted by magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) was undertaken. The minerals found were gold, silver, zinc, and pyrite in an upper layer of oxides and a lower layer of sulfides. An operating license was ultimately granted to the New York and Honduras Rosario Mining Company, which was only interested in the gold and silver from the upper oxide layer. This was easiest to extract and carried a lower investment cost. After retrieving the surface minerals, the mine was abandoned.

© Renzo Seravalle

The Barrick Gold Corporation is currently extracting the sulfide ore. The positive economic outcome for the country is clear. Data reported from the first half of 2019 confirm this statement: 24,569.87 kilograms of gold was produced for an export value of US$690.45 million. Silver exported during the same period totaled US$29.21 million. Over the course of the operating period, Barrick Gold has contributed US$1,600 million in taxes to the Dominican government.

C. In the Sánchez Ramírez province, Loma La Mina was also studied for the copper ore that is currently being mined there. In La Laguna, Cacaos, Hatillo, and Loma Caballero, iron ore was examined.

D. In other areas: the sands of Monte Cristi were tested for ferruginous material. In Samaná, marble was examined, which prompted the establishment of Marmolera Dominicana C. x A., a marble company in Santo Domingo. In that same area, coal outcrops were also studied. In the Miches area, the Cuarón River was explored for alluvial gold. The Monción and Jicomé areas were surveyed for the presence of gold. The San Cristóbal area and the Mata Grande area in the central mountain range were analyzed for copper ore. The Barahona area was explored for salt, gypsum, and alabaster deposits, and Canoa was explored for onyx. Silica deposits were found in the Villa Altagracia area, which inspired the construction of a glass factory in San Cristóbal. The San Juan de la Maguana and Monte Plata areas were examined for gold-bearing quartz.

E. A first geological map of the Dominican Republic was also developed. This work was personally supervised by Dr. Renato Zoppis.

Due to the importance of developing mining operations in the Dominican Republic, the Mining Service— which was established by Italians as the first official mining office in the country—became the General Directorate of Mining in the 1960s and ultimately the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

• CHAPTER 40

Frank Rainieri Marranzini: Creator of Dreams

By Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben1 Director of the Department of Education, History, and professor at PUCMM

Origins of a dreamer and pioneer ntonio Elizade and Eduardo Yentzen wondered to themselves, “What would life be like without desirable, conceivable, and potentially livable futures? Would it be possible to live without dreaming of something better?”2 They theorized that the collective imagination has set down roots in the world we inhabit, and has become a constituent element of human history, as reflected in “the capacity to dream of a different and better world than the one we have built thus far.”3 Utopia—according to the authors—is above all else an “eschatological tension, something that does not exist, but could exist in the future. It is something that has formed part of the human experience since the dawn of history. As such, it could be said that history requires an eschatology, and therefore utopias.”4 Thus, it could be said that our human condition gives us an attribute which is unique among living beings: our ability to imagine alternate realities, in order to escape the limits imposed upon us by the one in which we live. With the conviction that we must build and rebuild our heritage—that history is built by those up to the task of shaping it—we continue to believe in the need to value utopias and the men and women who chase their dreams, undaunted by adversity.

Frank Rainieri Marranzini has always been a dreamer who worked hard to make his own utopia a reality.

His story is enchanting, because it shows that we can chase after our dreams against unfavorable odds.

Both of his surnames show that his maternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from Italy sometime in the late 1800s to early 1900s. His paternal grandparents, Isidoro Rainieri and Bianca Franceschini de Rainieri, arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1898 and settled in Puerto Plata. They had nine children—two boys and seven girls. Lacking the means to make a living, they decided to try a novel business venture for the time: hotels. Thus, the Gran Hotel Rainieri and Hotel Comercio were established in Puerto Plata and Santiago, respectively.

Life was going well until Isidoro passed away in 1912, leaving 35-year-old Bianca a widow. Their eldest son died shortly thereafter. Bianca held the family together, with her children growing up to make something of themselves and embarking on their own life projects. This is how the Imbert-Rainieri, Ginebra-Rainieri, Harper-Rainieri, Maltes-Rainieri, and Barletta-Rainieri families came to be. Francisco, the surviving son, married Venecia Marranzini, who was of Italian descent, a widow and mother to a young boy named Luis Manuel Machado. Francisco would adopt the child as his own and would father two more children with Venecia: Frank and Fernando.

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The family eventually moved to Santo Domingo. In fact, both Frank and Fernando were born in the capital. Francisco worked as manager of the General Sales Company, a family enterprise founded in Santiago by his uncle William Harper, who married Mafalda Rainieri. Upon Harper’s passing, Francisco had to assume responsibility for the business, as his two cousins Billy and Franky were too young to do so.

Venecia—also descended from Italians who immigrated to the country in the late 1800s—did not limit herself to simply being a housewife. She had grown up around her family’s business ventures, the most wellknown of which was La Casa Marranzini. It operated for several decades, but eventually went bankrupt after the Great Depression hit in 1929. Venecia was a natural businesswoman who taught her children about honest hard work and how to save money. She organized many activities for the family business in order to round out the household finances. This is how the Rainieri-Marranzini family lived during the 31 years of the Trujillo dictatorship.

Frank, the more restless and rebellious of the three boys, became a malcontent for two main reasons. The first was the inherent rebelliousness of a teenager who was deeply troubled by injustice. Due to this rebelliousness, his mother sent him to New York City at the age of 15, fearing retaliatory action from the Trujillo regime.

There, he was forced to survive, his battle against solitude tempering his character. The second factor that drove him to rebel was his close relationship with Antonio Imbert Barrera, an uncle whom Frank admired, loved, and protected.

Imbert Barrera, one of the chief architects of Trujillo’s assassination, was related to Frank through his marriage to Yolanda Rainieri. As many Italian families were prone to doing, they held weekly family gatherings where Frank started to learn about the concept of liberty. To wit, his uncle Manuel had been exiled, and other members of his family had been jailed by the regime. His parents were responsible for delivering their meals each week. On May 30, 1961, Francisco Rainieri had to help Antonio go into hiding.

Another personal tragedy that undoubtedly hardened his character was the death of his fiancée, Leslie Imbert, Antonio’s daughter. They had been together since adolescence and were planning a Catholic wedding.

In February 1970, she traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico—as was the custom at the time—to choose her dowry.

The Compañía Dominicana de Aviación airplane carrying Leslie and her mother crashed into the sea almost immediately after takeoff, killing all 102 occupants.

The Birth, Growth, and Development of Tourism Pleasure travel became a phenomenon that arose after World War I, specifically after 1919, though its worldwide surge occurred in the mid-twentieth century. This was how tourism—sometimes referred to as the leisure industry—became one of the largest industries in world. Despite its growth, however, many economists were reluctant to acknowledge its importance, betting on the consumer goods market instead. As time went by, and tourism’s impact on the global economy forced these ideologues to reconsider their positions, Dominican economists were similarly forced to acknowledge the positive impact it had on the daily lives, culture, and economy of a country well-suited for such an industry.

Despite its slow beginnings in the 1950s, during the Trujillo regime’s death throes, the development of the Dominican tourism industry offered a genuine beacon of hope. It is important to acknowledge that it was after Joaquín Balaguer’s rise to power in July 1966—giving rise to a 12-year regime—that concrete measures were taken to promote tourism in the country.

Dominican tourism scholars agree that tourism on the island truly began to take off starting in 1967, with Executive Decree No. 2536 declaring its development to be in the country’s best interest. During the 1970s, tourism on the island grew considerably with the establishment of the Banco Central del Departamento para la Infrestructura Turística (INFRATUR) along with the INFRATUR fund, though the most significant growth came during the 1980s.

Opening page: Playa Blanca Restaurant, Punta Cana. © Grupo Puntacana, All rights reserved

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The state clearly intended to focus its efforts to develop the economy on three main areas: tourism, tax-free zones, and industrial development under Law 299 of 1968, which granted exemptions from rent, tariffs, and sales tax. Likewise, the Dominican government established several industrial parks within the free zones, invested in infrastructure, and financed independent businessmen, primarily through the Banco Central’s Fondo de Inversión para el Desarrollo (FIDE, or Development Investment Fund). This presented a great opportunity for Dominican tourism.

On June 19, 1971, Law 153—also known as the law for the incentive and development of tourism—was passed. Article 1 of said law clearly stated its purpose to be the establishment of an accelerated and streamlined process for the development of the tourism industry, the fundamental objectives of which would be established at a later date.

The geographic regions destined to receive state funds were designated as “polos turísticos” (tourist zones) through Decree 2152, issued in 1972, and Decree 3133, issued the following year. The East, where the Punta Cana and the Bávaro zone are currently located, did not yet exist in the minds of government officials or economists.

1. FIRST TOURIST ZONE: Costa Caribe, comprising Santo Domingo, Boca Chica, Juan Dolio, San Pedro de Macorís (up to the Higuamo River), and La Romana.

2. SECOND TOURIST ZONE: Costa Ámbar or Puerto Plata. The country’s north coast, stretching from Punta Rusia to Cabrera and comprising La Isabela, Luperón, Long Beach, Cofresí, Puerto Plata, Sosúa, Cabarete, Río San Juan, and Cabrera itself.

Further evidence of Dr. Balaguer’s interest in tourism was his passage of Law 542 on December 31, 1969.

This law created the Corporación de Fomento de la Industria Hotelera y Desarrollo del Turismo (Hotel and Tourism Development Corporation) with the goal of coordinating the nation’s activity toward the development of the hotel industry in general and tourism marketing, specifically.

Thus, the industry that fueled many dreams and expectations brought its first 15 years to a close, heralding the start of a new chapter for the island’s eastern region.

The Dominican East: The Forgotten Macondo During the 1970s, tourism in the country undoubtedly grew, although growth was markedly unequal. Thus far, all development efforts had been concentrated in the North and the nation’s capital, including La Romana.

The deep East was not among the government’s list of priorities, nor did the government agency responsible for investing in tourism include it in its plans. Only a handful of foreign investors showed interest in the region.

Even OAS experts hired by the Balaguer administration had overlooked the region in their technical proposals for the creation of a tourism development plan.

Despite private and official opposition to the idea, some developers—Frank Rainieri among them—insisted that it was necessary to invest in the eastern region, particularly La Altagracia province. They argued it was the only way to end the destitution and neglect that wrought havoc on its residents. These developers also argued that crops such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, and cacao—which made up most of the region’s economic output—were losing their market dominance and would, at best, be subject to destabilizing cycles dictated by the law of supply and demand. The United States was the primary market for sugar, while Spain imported more tobacco. The future of these crops was at the mercy of the changing interests and demands of these imperial powerhouses. Tourism, they argued, was a good alternative for attracting foreign capital.

Convinced of his vision for the region’s future, Rainieri pitched his tourism policy plan to the new government that had formed in 1982. Based on his reflections on the Caribbean’s touristic development and the policies that had been developed and implemented thus far, Rainieri’s plan comprised the following points:

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1. Coordinated marketing campaigns.

2. Establishing aviation treaties with new countries.

3. Economic stimulus based on the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Dominican peso.

4. The development of facilities in which foreign companies operating on Dominican soil could hold their conventions.

5. Decisions making it conducive to properly use existing investments by the Dominican government.

6. Expanded access to INFRATUR resources, in order to increase the number of active projects and prioritized zones. In other words, an inclusion of the country’s eastern region in current plans for development.

7. Modifications to existing legislation that governs the purchase of real estate by foreign nationals, incentivizing them to become temporary residents.

8. The development of campaigns to attract Caribbean cruise ships to Dominican ports, bringing with them the 500,000 tourists that visited Puerto Rico and the Bahamas every year.

9. Encouragement of expatriate Dominicans to visit more often, as they are an important source of foreign capital.5 Despite the persistent chorus of voices that cried out for the region’s inclusion in the government’s plans, the East remained in oblivion. It was as though it did not figure into the government’s priorities, with several proposals going unconsidered by the PRD government. Entrepreneurs from the region eventually came togeth-

View of the pool of the Hotel Westin Punta Cana. © Grupo Puntacana, All rights reserved

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

Haydée Kuret de Rainieri, the Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari with his wife Roberta Canepari, and Frank Rainieri.

Santo Domingo, May 29, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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er to form the Asociación para el Desarrollo Turístico de la Región Este (Association for the Development of Tourism in the Eastern Region).

Once formed, the Association became the primary voice advocating for the development of the East. Its persistence paid off, and in March 1984, President Jorge Blanco could no longer disregard the growth of tourism in the East. Blanco failed to mention, however, that this growth had been achieved through private initiatives and not through government policies.

An essential element of tourism is the image of the country that is being visited, and the events of April 19846 showed the world a violent image of the Dominican Republic. This had a significant impact on the country’s appeal as a tourist destination, a situation that greatly concerned private investors. Some of these investors included the board of directors for the newly minted Club Med. Club Med was able to hold its fishing tournament regardless, managing to attract participation from various countries such as South Africa, the U.S., Mexico, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Curaçao, Aruba, Tahiti, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. All participants, foreign and local, stayed at Club Med’s Aldea de Vacaciones de Punta Cana. The unrest that stoked concern eventually subsided, and the club resumed operations without further complications.

Despite all the problems, limitations, and lack of opportunities, the country’s eastern region continued to grow. In 1985, the national press announced that the Playa Bávaro hotel would open its doors on February 1, with the arrival of a Canadian airplane carrying 120 passengers. The hotel would officially open for business in April of the same year. It was commissioned by Spanish hotel conglomerate Grupo Barceló, based in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The structure housed 400 guest rooms and cost US$10 million, with no financial input from the Dominican government. This move galvanized local investors, and a group from Higüey city—comprising Dr. Manuel Aquiles Cedeño and his siblings—would eventually come together to invest in an ambitious resort of nearly 200 rooms to be built on El Cortecito beach, in Higüey municipality.

A Motivated Dreamer It all began in 1969 when a U.S. resident flew over the east coast of the Dominican Republic in search of good location to establish a merchant marine academy. On this flight, he sighted a five-mile stretch of coast interspersed with white sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and rocky cliffs, all guarded by a barrier reef. He had sighted Punta Cana.

Impressed by the area’s beauty, he convinced a group of American investors to buy a plot of land in what was formerly an isolated area, populated by some twenty rural families living in rudimentary conditions.

Theodore W. Kheel, current president of the Board of Directors of the Puntacana Group, was one of these investors.

Frank Rainieri recalled how inaccessible the area once was, limited to sea, air, or mule routes. He said of his first visit: “When the helicopter landed, one of the families living there ran away, terrified by the giant flying bird.”

The encounter between the American Ted Kheel and the Dominican Frank Rainieri was the start of a business venture, which, 25 years later, would become the fastest-growing tourist destination in the Caribbean. On October 23, 1973, after so much hard work and with high hopes and immense pride, the Punta Cana Club was established as the zone’s first hotel. The hotel was launched with 10 modest cabins, eight employee residences, a clubhouse, a rustic landing strip and a small generator to power the entire compound.7

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Frank Rainieri and his family—his wife, Haydée Kuret de Rainieri, in particular—decided to get a head start on their dream without government support. At first, the small hotel only had its 10 haphazardly built cabins, and both staff and management alike were expected to work in equal measure. Everyone worked directly with the guests, served and cleaned tables, performed room service and more. All that mattered was continuity of service. Slowly, but surely, they began cultivating an enthusiastic clientele.

The 1980s brought many challenges to Punta Cana. Four construction projects in particular were especially demanding: the construction of Club Med, an airport, an aqueduct, and a highway. Club Med would be built on the location of Punta Cana Club’s 10 cabins. An agreement was eventually reached, though the logistics of the project presented a significant challenge. The aqueduct was built through sheer force of will, though the highway and airport required coordination from various government agencies, due to the number of permits required for the latter’s construction and subsequent operation. After a series of protracted negotiations with the Balaguer administration, the completion of the highway project fell to the following administrations.

All that remained was the airport. The public was skeptical that it would ever be finished. An airport in such a remote and inhospitable location, an airport the government seemingly had no interest in, and an airport not even situated in any of the country’s designated tourist zones? The mere thought of it seemed like madness, and the project itself took more than seven years to complete.

Rainieri was convinced that the airport was necessary in order to streamline the influx of tourists to the East by eliminating the long trip from Las Américas airport in Santo Domingo. The project required money, however, and he turned to Ted Kheel for assistance. Kheel was wary of investing further without seeing any results, but Rainieri’s persistence swayed him. With Kheel’s involvement and the funds received from the Club Med construction deal, all that was missing was a designer. Oscar Imbert was the young architect tasked with providing an affordable and practical design for the project. With things set in motion, the airport’s first section was completed in 1985, and it received a single weekly flight with 19 visitors at the start. In the process of further negotiations, the airport project received backing from the Vicini family, Manuel José Cabral, Gustavo Tavárez, and Bernardo Vega, among others.

The hotel was finished, though there was only enough money to cover the construction costs. In order to stock the hotel’s restaurant and get the new facilities up and running, Frank and Haydée had to use their personal dinnerware, and they sold their vehicle in order to raise funds. They finally achieved their utopia, though not without sacrifices.

With Joaquín Balaguer’s return to power in 1986, the tourism industry received a second wind, and the long-awaited dream of integrating the East into the government’s economic plans was realized. In the late 1980s, the office of the Secretary of Tourism established three distinct touristic regions in the country: 1. Costa Caribe (Boca Chica to La Romana) 2. Costa de Ámbar (Puerto Plata), which hosted an international airport and 1,200 total guest rooms.

3. Macao-Punta Cana, which by 1986 hosted an international airport and 800 guest rooms.

The East was finally on the agenda, but there was still much work to be done in terms of roadwork, power lines, and aqueducts. This was eventually achieved through ceaseless lobbying. Starting in the 1990s, the Puntacana Group began to grow into its own and eventually drew international attention. What follows are some of the highlights of this process.

After 25 years of unending work and with no guarantee of success, everything paid off in the end. In time, Punta Cana became a driver of the East’s development. As the group grew, the small airport that only received one flight per week now receives over 60% of the country’s inbound flights, and the eastern region is now the most important tourist zone of the three. The numbers speak for themselves. Doubtless, the partnerships made with Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias gave the project the international visibility it needed.

Aerial view of the Corales Area in Punta Cana. © Grupo Puntacana, All rights reserved

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

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The small business which opened amid all manner of economic difficulties—with only nine cabins that were eventually demolished to make way for Club Med—eventually built a new hotel, despite further economic obstacles and civil unrest in the country. Punta Cana has reached unimagined heights and become a model worthy of imitation on an international level.

One of the more notable aspects about the Puntacana Group is an insistence on including the entire province in its development plans, as opposed to focusing only on the home municipality. This has earned the enterprise the recognition of several provincial organizations and different communities within La Altagracia.

Presently, Punta Cana is more than a hotel; it is a chain of hotels under the Group’s oversight. Punta Cana is more than a beach; it is an international airport. It exudes its own energy and manifests through the social initiatives headed by the Foundations. It is also a city that grows at a steady pace, taking in local tourists as well as professionals fleeing from the pressures of city life and into a place where safety and order are paramount.

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• Milestones in Punta Cana’s History 1995-2009 Punta Cana Marina Marina First stage (fuel dock) Second stage (northeast breakwater) La Yola Restaurant (Original) (Renovations) Housing development Apartment buildings

Date Finished 1995 1998 1995 1998 1995 1996

Housing Development Timeline 1997 – One house built 1999 – Two houses built 2001 – Two houses built 2006 – Two houses built 2007 – Three houses built 2008 – Five houses built

Total: 1 Total: 3 Total 5 Total 7 Total 10 Total: 15

Punta Cana Club Puntacana Club – 10 cabins with two rooms each.

1971

It had a maximum occupancy of 40 guests, though it never reached its potential. Paved the way for Club Med in 1978, the first hotel in the zone with 350 guest rooms.

Hotel Puntacana Yacht Club First stage (100 guest rooms and lobby) First stage (buildings 3, 4, and 5) Coconut grove and Yauya Conference Room Note: Complete remodeling following Hurricane Georges.

Reopened: General renovations.

1987 1990 1995 December 1998 2001

Tortuga Bay Hotel First six luxury villas Final nine luxury villas Start of hotel operations Conference room, restaurant extension

2000 2006 2006 2009

Please note that these expenses were covered by PCB&G and rented by Green Diamond (Tortuga Bay Hotel) for its hotel operations.

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

• PCBG La Cana Golf Course La Cana Golf Course Club House Housing development First stage (Holes 1 through 9) Second stage (Holes 10 through 18)

August 2001 December 2002 2001 2004

Housing Development Timeline 2000: 4 villas built 2001: 4 villas built 2002: 3 villas built 2003: 5 villas built 2004: 20 villas built 2005: 29 villas built 2006: 43 villas built 2007: 15 villas built 2008: 18 villas built 2009: 8 villas built

Total: 4 villas Total: 8 villas Total: 11 villas Total: 16 villas Total: 36 villas Total: 65 villas Total: 108 villas Total: 123 villas Total: 141 villas Total: 149 villas (32 currently under construction)

• Corales Golf Course Housing Development Original (Hacienda) Corales Golf Community (Current) Corales Beach Zoning Projects • Pilot Beach (breakwater and beach zoning) • Corales Beach 3 • Corales Beach 5 • Corales Beach 7 First phase of housing development Future phases will be determined based on sales Corales Golf Golf Club House (temporary)

December 1997

2006 2006 2006 2008 December 2008 2009 2009

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Housing Development Timeline 1997: 1 villa built 1998: 0 villas built 1999: 1 villa built 2000: 2 villas built 2001: 1 villa built 2002: 1 villa built 2003: 2 villas built 2004: 2 villas built 2005: 0 villas built 2006: 2 villas built 2007: 1 villa built 2008: 2 villas built 2009: 0 villas built

Total: 1 villa Total: 1 villa Total: 2 villas Total: 4 villas Total: 5 villas Total: 6 villas Total: 8 villas Total: 10 villas Total: 10 villas Total: 12 villas Total: 13 villas Total: 15 villas Total: 15 villas (1 villa currently under construction)

• Puntacana Village Housing Development Timeline First stage (Founders’ Villas) Second stage Third stage (includes first phase of 1ro de Noviembre Blvd.)

Fourth and fifth stages (and second phase of 1ro de Noviembre Blvd.)

1999 2002 2006 2008

Galerías (Shopping Mall) First stage (includes bowling alley) Second stage Third stage Fourth stage

2002 2004 2007 2009

Puntacana International School (part of FPC) Orphanage (currently part-preschool) First stage of PCIS Second stage of PCIS Third stage of PCIS

1999 2000 2006 2007

Church

2003

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

• Housing Development Timeline First stage (including 41 residences for partners and the orphanage)

1999

First stage of PCIS and school opening (PK-7)

2000

Second stage (two apartment blocks with 16 units total, 4 villas. First stage of Galerías)

2002

Construction of private villas begins.

By year’s end, 20 houses (including four executive housing units developed

by GPC) and two apartment blocks had been built. The church is finished and opened to the public. Total: 24 homes, 40 apartments.

2003

Second stage of Galerías is finalized.

By year’s end, 35 houses and three apartment blocks had been built.

Total: 59 homes, 70 apartments.

2004

36 additional private villas and two more apartment blocks are built. Total: 95 homes, 86 apartments.

2005

Third stage of Village is finalized. Second stage of PCIS is finalized. An additional 65 private villas and two more apartment blocks are built. Total: 160 homes, 110 apartments.

2006

Third stage of Galerías is finalized. Third stage of PCIS is finalized.

First office building is built on the boulevard. A total of 75 additional villas and four more apartment blocks are built.

Total: 235 homes, 190 apartments, and one commercial building.

Fourth and fifth stages finalized. A total of 98 additional private villas, three more apartment blocks, and an apartment cluster are built.

Second commercial building is built.

Total: 333 homes, 437 apartments, 2 commercial buildings.

An additional 11 villas are built, with 74 under construction. A total of 111 apartments under construction. Three new commercial buildings under construction. Projected year-end total: 418 homes, 548 apartments, and 5 commercial buildings.

2007

2008

2009 (to date)

Hacienda Construction begins La Cana driving range renovations

2007 2009

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• GPC General Development: Verón-Punta Cana highway construction begins (Built in 1975-76 by the Balaguer administration, allowing Club Med to be built in 1978, followed by the airport in 1982) CAE-Marina road pavement CAE-Marina road light post installation Construction of tourist and service entry points

1995 1998 2008

Puntacana Shopping Mall First stage of PCSM construction

2008

Industrial Zone First stage of industrial zone construction

2007

Guardianes del Este First guard post constructed CAE garrison built Second guard station built Phase I of surveillance center

1999 2007 2008 2009

• CTSPC, S.A 1. Electrical Infrastructure Until 1998, the hotel’s electrical grid was made up of three 500kW Caterpillar generators located within the hotel itself and an additional 500kW generator located in the CAE. First power station built (phase I, 5MW EMD Generator) First distribution lines built Power station expansion (additional 5MW EMD Generator) Power station expansion (external 5MW CAT Generator) Second power station built (7MW Wärtsilä generator) Additional distribution lines built CEPM connection built (substation)

1998 1998 2000 2003 2005 2005 2009

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

2. Potable water infrastructure The first aqueduct was built in 1982-83 in order to service what would become the PCYC hotel. Until 1997, the system was composed of a wellfield (four wells) and a distribution pipe servicing the PCYC hotel, marina, and airport.

Punta Cana aqueduct expansion (first stage) This expansion (4 wells and additional distribution pipe) was built to service Corales (formerly Hacienda Punta Cana) and provide differentiated service to CAE. It was linked with the power distribution line, and the old diesel water pumps were replaced with electric ones.

1997

Punta Cana aqueduct expansion (second stage) 2007 This expansion consisted of an additional wellfield (ten wells) and the primary water distribution pipe. The main was constructed using lap jointed piping in order to complement the original eight wells’ water output, as well as serve as the new water source for current and upcoming development projects.

Waste management infrastructure The first wastewater treatment facility (Treatment Facility 1) was built in 1994 in order to service the PCYC hotel and what would eventually become The Marina in Puntacana Resort.

Treatment Facility 1 expansion (La Cana Golf Course pumping station)

1998

Treatment Facility 1 expansion (under construction)

2009

(to service the Hacienda project and maintain water quality standards due to increased demand by real estate development in La Cana and The Marina) Treatment Facility 2 built (to service Corales project)

1997

Treatment Facility 2 expansion

2003

(to treat first stage of the Village project and Punta Cana International Airport wastewater) Treatment Facility 2 expansion (to treat Corales expansion and Village stages 3, 4, and 5 wastewater)

2007

PLS collection line, Wärtsilä, Guardianes

2007

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• PC Ecological Foundation Ecological Foundation constitution established Nature trails created Fruit tree garden established Biodiversity Center built Vegetable nursery Apiary Worm compost

1990 1992 1995 2000 2003 2008 2008

Puntacana Foundation Politécnico Ann & Ted Kheel constructed Clínica Verón Reopened Clinic’s water filtration system installed National Police Headquarters built Street access to Barrio Nueva Esperanza & Villa Plywood Verón Elementary children’s park built (con VTech)

2004 2006 2008 2009 2009 2009

PLS Start of operations

2007

• Corporación Aeroportuaria del Este (Eastern Airport Corporation, Cae) Airport open to the public 5000’ runway, terminal, and ramp built (fits two ATR planes)

1984

First airport expansion Runway expanded to 7,500’

1987

Second airport expansion Runway expanded to 9,000’, ramp extended to four spaces and terminal expansion built (fits two planes, one for arrivals and one for departures)

1990

Third airport expansion Runway rehabilitation and re-pavement

1996

Fourth airport expansion Runway extended to 10,150’. ECO taxiway built. Ramp extended by two spaces; ramp hydrant system built. Fuel station built.

Terminal repairs post-hurricane (90%), SSEI first stage.

Fifth airport expansion Exit terminal II built. FBO (currently VIP area) and FBO ramp built.

Customs expansion built. ECO-3 taxiway built. Check-in area expansion (20 additional service counters) built.

1998-99

2003

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

Sixth airport expansion Three additional narrow body ramps built (north ramp.) RADAR operations center built (ASR).

2004

Seventh airport expansion Two additional narrow body ramp spaces built (10 and 11.)

Road to airport entrance from Village roundabout to airport maintenance area built (circuit complete.) New cargo loading area built. Bus terminal expansion built. Meteorology and aeronautics office buildings built.

PRIVATE: new catering facilities built.

2005

Eight airport expansion Doppler RADAR built and operational. DELTA taxiway built. General-purpose ramp, private flight FBO and local flight terminals built. CAE infrastructure maintenance area built. New security checkpoint built and passenger exit area relocated. Public road north of property built.

Additional CESA station built.

2006

Ninth airport expansion New airport entrance built and bus parking expanded. Food court in Terminal I expanded. VIP terminal remodeled and turned into shareholder VIP room. VIP room in Terminal II furnished and decorated.

Perimeter fence built. Two buildings for government employees built.

Check-in area expanded to 20 service desks. SSEI extended (new parkway).

2007

Tenth airport expansion Incinerator built. New perimeter fences built. ECO taxiway repairs, tile replacement on runway 09, ramp 7 tiles replaced.

Airline bathrooms remodeled. Gates 1 through 4 built in terminal I. Master plan updated.

2008

Eleventh CAE expansion 2009 New check-in terminal, offices, and baggage handling room operational.

Security checkpoint expanded and passenger off-boarding area relocated.

New bathrooms built in Terminal I. Basement repurposed for shop warehouses. Runway 27 turning area expanded. Invitation to tender for new runways and taxiways terminated.

Source: Punta Cana archives With the globalization of the economy in the late 1900s and early 2000s, a new paradigm emerged in the world of business: that of corporate social responsibility. Doubtless, this new approach strongly encourages businesses to become leaders, not just in their own industries but also in the communities they serve.

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Punta Cana International Airport Milestones Sustainability within PUNTACANA8 International Airport The terminal was designed with cost and expense savings in mind.

The first terminal lacked electricity and had an open design, to make the most of natural lighting, as well as eliminate the need for air conditioning.

The lumber and rocks that were cleared to build the runway were recycled. The airport’s design made use of locally sourced materials in its construction.

Local equipment and labor was used. It was more affordable to work with local residents than to bring in people to such a remote region.

The preservation of local plant life was necessary. In an area with such rocky ground and general lack of rain, it was more affordable to preserve what greenery already existed, rather than create new gardens.

PCIA, a sustainable airport. In 1984, for purely financial concerns, we unknowingly inaugurated an airport designed in line with the principles of sustainability.

Lessons on sustainability through first-hand experience. The need to overcome a lack of resources taught us our first big lesson about the advantages of sustainability.

The PCIA grew while continuing to practice sustainability. We grew from 84, 000 passengers to 1.5 million while continuing to implement these practices.

Cost savings. To illustrate just how much is saved, we had to build a closed terminal in 2003 due to market considerations. This terminal consumes 150,000 kw/h every month, which represents 20% of the airport’s total power consumption.

The airport’s growth necessitated expansions, with Terminal B’s construction being one of the most significant. The finalized structure masterfully combined modern airport design with Punta Cana’s signature thatched roofing, which preserved the freshness of the Caribbean setting.

ENDNOTES This piece is based on the forthcoming work by José Chez Checo and Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben, Un Sueño Hecho Realidad.

Los Primeros 45 Años del Grupo Puntacana. Work commissioned by Grupo Puntacana, 2016.

2 Antonio Elizade and Eduardo Yentzen, “Hacia un Rescate de Utopías y Sueños Colectivos,” POLIS, Revista Latinoamericana, no. 6 (2003), journals.openedition.org/polis/6416. Accessed August 14, 2020.

3 Ibid.

1

Ibid.

See Frank R. Rainieri, “La Alternativa Dominicana: El Turismo,” (speech) 1983.

6 There was a revolt, and people rose up in protest. The unrest ended with 250 deaths.

7 GPC, Grupo Puntacana S. A., 25 years of GPC archives.

8 Notes prepared for Frank Rainieri Marranzini’s participation in the V Americas Competitiveness Forum, October 7, 2011.

4 5

Inside the terminal at Punta Cana Airport. © Grupo Puntacana, All rights reserved

FRANK RAINIERI MARRANZINI: CREATOR OF DREAMS

Terminal A at Punta Cana International Airport. © Grupo Puntacana, All rights reserved

Following pages: Agricultural landscape of the Dominican Republic.

Rice field with palms. © Photograph by Giovanni Savino, donated by the author

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

JOURNALISM, LAW AND SOCIETY

THE ITALIAN PRESENCE IN SANTO DOMINGO, 1492-1900

451

The first issue of Listín Diario, published on August 1, 1889. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

• CHAPTER 41

Italian Journalists

By Antonio Lluberes, S.J. Professor at the Intec-Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo University, St. Thomas de Aquino Seminary and Instituto Filosófico Bonó.

Director of the Instituto Filosófico Bonó

he Italian migration to Santo Domingo became apparent in the early nineteenth century with the arrival of Napoleonic troops on the island in 1802. Napoleon sent the expedition in an attempt to subdue slave uprisings in Haiti, which was already under French control, and enforce the concessions of the Treaty of Basel of 1795, by which Spain agreed to cede the entirety of the island to France. The expedition brought along Italian soldiers.

Juan Antonio Billini Ruse (1787–1852), from the town of Alba in the Piedmont region, is the first Italian on record in Santo Domingo at this time.1 He was a businessman who resided in Santo Domingo and fathered a family of fifteen children. The many descendants of this family tree assimilated into Dominican society and have taken part in its patriotic and political struggles and its religious, academic, and journalistic activities. Billini Ruse had four children with his first wife, Juana San Carlena de Mota Arvelo. When she died, he married Ana Joaquina Hernández González, who was born in Cuba to Dominican parents. Together they had eleven children. Three of his sons, Epifanio and Hipólito Billini Hernández and José Billini Mota, were signers of La Trinitaria’s manifesto for independence of January 1844, and two of them, Miguel and Francisco Xavier Billini Hernández, were priests. Diocesan priest Francisco Xavier was the most prominent of the children.2 Francisco Xavier (1837–1890) was born in Santo Domingo on December 1, 1837. From a very young age, he was interested in pursuing religious life. He was ordained a priest in 1861. A supporter of the annexation of the Dominican Republic by Spain, he departed for Cuba in 1865 when the defeated Spaniards abandoned Dominican territory. He left Cuba for the island of Saint Thomas, then returned to Santo Domingo on August 1, 1866. During that time, he devoted himself to his priestly commitments, charitable work, and teaching. He founded Colegio San Luis Gonzaga, which he also directed, in 1866, as well as a hospital, asylum, lazaretto, and lottery to support his work.

He established several newspapers, including La Crónica and El Amigo de los Niños, and a public library.

He also had a small printing press for his publications, which included several devotional and educational booklets.3 The second generation of Billinis produced two of the most talented journalists of the second half of the nineteenth century, the brothers Francisco Gregorio and Hipólito Billini Aristi, sons of Hipólito Billini Hernández and María de Regla Aristi.

Francisco Gregorio, affectionately known as Gollito, was born in Santo Domingo in 1844 and died there in 1898. He completed primary and secondary school in his hometown at Colegio del Padre Boneau, where he learned to write in Latin and Italian. He then attended Santo Tomás de Aquino Conciliar Seminary, where Fr. Fernando Arturo de Meriño became his mentor. He was a Blue Party activist who fought for independ-

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ence, political and economic freedom, and economic progress and development. Consequently, he took part in the Dominican Restoration War (1863–1865) in opposition to annexation by Spain. He also fiercely opposed the dictatorship of Buenaventura Báez (1868–1874), an act for which he was exiled in 1868.

When he returned to the country, he served as a public official.

He became a representative of the Azua Province in 1874, Minister of War in 1880, and head of the Senate in 1882. He was also president of the Republic from 1884 to August 16, 1885 when he was forced to resign due to pressure from General Ulises Heureaux, whose influence was growing.

At an early age, he began writing literary works, such as Una flor del Ozama, Amor y expiación, Los enamorados de Carmita, and his most famous work, Baní o Engracia y Antoñita, the first costumbrista novel in the country. It narrated the traditions of Baní, the town where his mother was born and where he spent his youth, and which is also known for its cultural and economic development. When his uncle, Padre Billini, died in 1890, he became director of Colegio San Luis Gonzaga, but he had to quit because he was not successful at this job.

Interestingly, his journalistic work began at a partisan newspaper, El Pabellón Dominicano, the sounding board for the revolution against Báez, and La Voz del Sur, which addressed the issues of his native region. His masterpiece, however, was El Eco de la Opinión, which distributed its first edition on March 2, 1879. El Eco became a mouthpiece to advance the peace and progress that the country experienced during this period. It advocated for exportation, migration, rural itinerant teachers, and the bourgeoning sugar industry.

Two works are worth highlighting: “Haciendas de Caña,” a series of articles he authored and published from June 1870 to September 1880 in which he describes the status of the sugar industry and its development, and the articles written by José Gabriel García from March 1889 to June 1892—at odds with Manuel de Jesús Galván—about the key players of the independence movement and, specifically, the battle of March 19, 1844 and General Pedro Santana’s role.4 His brother Hipólito (1850–1903) was a diplomat and public administrator, and he also worked as a columnist for Eco de la Opinión and Listín Diario. In 1885, while he was acting as consul in New York City, he wrote “Present Condition of the Dominican Republic.” He wrote about border issues and a treaty of friendship with Haiti. In 1901, he published an article in Listín Diario in opposition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, and the contract with the Santo Domingo Improvement Company, the American company that owned most of the Dominican government’s public debt. Although this is important, of even greater journalistic value are a series of articles, written under various pseudonyms and the guise of written correspondence, and dealing with Dominican history, customs, and societal criticisms, that were published in El Eco de la Opinión between 1886 and 1997.5 Later descendants of this family that was so widespread and influential in Dominican society also pursued careers in journalism. One of these was Mario Bobea Billini. According to Carlos Larrazábal Blanco, he was a descendant of José Altagracia Billini de Mota and Narcisa Cruz Figueredo of Baní. Their daughter, Dolores Billini Cruz, married Pedro Antonio Bobea Montes de Oca, and they became the parents of Mario Bobea Billini (1916–1996), who excelled at journalism and floriculture.6

An April 1890 edition of Listín Diario. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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As a young man, he was a member of Los Nuevos, a youth association from La Vega, his hometown. As a member of this group, he wrote in newspapers such as La Palabra and El Progreso as well as in the Los Nuevos journal.

When he moved to Santo Domingo, he covered sports—mostly baseball-related stories—for La Nación. In 1962, after the Trujillo regime dissolved, he cofounded the cultural, political, socialist, and nationalist journal Ahora with Rafael Molina Morillo, also from La Vega.

However, the pinnacle of his career was reached when he was working on the agricultural supplement of El Caribe, which was started in 1981.7 Margarita Billini Bernal, the daughter of Billini Ruse’s fifteenth child, Agustín Billini Hernández, married Antinoe Fiallo, and they became the parents of José Antinoe Fiallo Billini (1943–). Fiallo Billini is a lawyer by trade, but he works as both a journalist and a university professor of sociology and history. As a university student, he served on the board of a newspaper called Ataque, and he later had a radio show called “Matutino Alternativo” (Alternative Morning) for seven years. He has also worked as a columnist for academic journals such as Ecos, Estudios Sociales, and Ciencia y Sociedad; for the newspaper of the Dominican Liberation Party, Vanguardia del Pueblo; and for national newspapers such as Listín Diario and Nuevo Diario.8 The Billinis, in terms of both time period and prominence, were succeeded by the Pelleranos. They were not journalists per se, but rather promoters, owners, and managers of various media outlets from the late nineteenth century to the present.

According to genealogist Julio Amable González Hernández, a scholar of the Pelleranos, Giovanni Battista Pellerano Costa (1806–1880) and María Teresa Costa (1806–1880) from Santa Margherita Ligure in the region of Liguria, Italy, emigrated to the Dominican Republic around 1849 and had a son named Vincenzo Benedetto, who married María de Belén Alfau Sánchez in 1859. Their son Arturo Joaquín Pellerano Alfau, born in 1864, also had a large family that included many journalists and media entrepreneurs and a founder of Listín Diario.9 The main entrance of the Listín Diario headquarters; in the foreground, the bust of Arturo Joaquín Pellerano Alfau, founder of the newspaper. © Courtesy of Listín Diario Photograph by Robert Vásquez

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The façade of the Grupo Diario Libre building, Santo Domingo. © Grupo Diario Libre

Founded on August 1, 1889, Listín Diario is still in existence today, despite periods of adversity. It is an iconic newspaper that often champions its own interests. Over the years, there have been many other newspapers and magazines that have joined Listín Diario.

The newspaper began circulation as a four-by-five-inch sheet that aimed to report the maritime movement of the port of Santo Domingo sponsored by the maritime agency of Messrs. Arturo Pellerano Alfau and Julián Atiles, but which, in a short time, when it reached number 28 of the publication already included French cable news and became a daily publication. In 1921 Pellerano Alfau was replaced by his son Arturo Antonio Laureano Pellerano Sardá (1888-1943).

At the beginning of the century, Listín Diario was the newspaper with the largest circulation in the country. As an example, when Eugenio María de Hostos, the leading intellectual and pedagogue at the time, wanted to express his views to balance some of the more radical ideas of his students who were discussing the draft constitution, he did not turn to El Nuevo Regimen or El Normalista, publications run by his students, but responded in seven installments in Listín Diario.10 Since its inception, the newspaper has sought a standard of impartiality, but it has been forced to live with the vicissitudes of Dominican political life. Pellerano Alfau was imprisoned several times by the dictator Ulises Heureaux. During the military intervention of the United States (1916-1924), the newspaper maintained a constant nationalistic tone. And under the Trujillo regime, Pellerano Sardá was imprisoned for a few days for violating law governing the press. He was then impelled to enroll in the Trujillo party and accept an appointment as a deputy (1937-1940). However, economic and political pressures forced him to close the newspaper in 1942.

Mr. Arturo Pellerano, President of the Diario Libre Group. © Grupo Diario Libre

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Manuel A. Pellerano, Vice President of the Diario Libre Group; Sara Corripio Pellerano; and Rosanna Rivera, Director of Magazines and Communication of Listín Diario and member of the Board of Directors of the Casa de Italia, at an event at the Residence of the Italian Ambassador, Andrea Canepari. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

In 1963, after the assassination of Rafael Trujillo, the Pellerano family led by Carlos Alberto Ricart Vidal, the husband of Nelly Pellerano Lopez-Penha, daughter of a second marriage of Pellerano Alfau, reopened the newspaper under the direction of an experienced journalist, Rafael Herrera. Under Herrera, the newspaper played a leading role in the difficult years that followed the end of the dictatorship, the 1963 coup, and the 1965 civil war, and U.S. military intervention.

In 1970, during a troubled period, the Pelleranos from El Listín (Moisés A. and Máximo A. Rogelio Arturo) produced an evening newspaper, Última Hora, which took a combative tone, and which lasted until June 2003.

They put the newspaper’s direction in the hands of a new generation of journalists—Virgilio Alcántara, Aníbal de Castro, and Ruddy González—in that order of succession.

Ricart Vidal was president of El Listín until 1986. The next presidents were Rogelio Pellerano Romano (1986–1992), Moisés Pellerano López-Penha (1993–1994), and Eduardo José Pellerano Nadal (1994–2000).

As a result of the death of Pellerano Romano, a split occurred in the family that led to the Banco Intercontinental (Baninter) assuming financial and editorial control of the newspaper; in 2000 Ramón Báez Figueroa became president of the company.

The journalistic acumen of the Pellerano family reappeared in 2001 when Manuel Arturo Pellerano Peña, son of Máximo Antonio Pellerano Romano and grandson of Rogelio Arturo Pellerano Sardá, founded the magazines Rumbo and Mujer Única, Sucesos and Farándula, in association with the journalist Aníbal de Castro.

Rumbo was published until December 25, 2003. In May 2001 Diario Libre entered into circulation. Its first edition appeared on May 10, 2001, and publication has continued to the present day, under the direction of Adriano Miguel Tejada and Inés Aizpún, as a free newspaper with the highest circulation in the country.

As an interesting aside, since March 2009 Diario Libre has sponsored Diario Libre Metro, in a limited five-byseven-inch tabloid format, which is aimed at riders of the Santo Domingo metro, for quick reading, featuring varied and succinct articles.

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A new generation, Manuel Arturo Pellerano García, son of Pellerano Peña, has joined Diario Libre, where he serves as vice president of the newspaper company.

The Bonetti family, which has had a considerable presence in the world of trade, business, and the military, did not have major representation in the press like the Billinis and Pelleranos. The first of the family, Giovanni Nepomuceno Bonetti Judice (1782-1840), a native of San Remo, Liguria, arrived in the country at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He married María de las Angustias Garó; their sixth son, José Ramón, born in 1824, married Julia Ernest in 1848. José María Bonetti Ernest, born in 1859, was the initial pillar of the family, in the opinion of his grandson Mario Bonetti.

Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, in his work Seudónimos Dominicanos, makes only three references to the Bonet11 tis. José María Bonetti Ernest, under the pseudonym Chiro, authored the article titled “El amor” that ran in the newspaper El Oasis on September 16, 1855. The children of Bonetti Ernest, the brothers Ernesto and Rodolfo Bonetti Burgos, were sportswriters under the pen names Gigante and Birrito, and Filding McGraw, respectively.

An unusual case given the circumstances pertains to Angello Schiffino, who was born in Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, Calabria. A first-generation migrant, he appeared as early as 1908 in Santiago as manager of the society magazine Amantes de la Luz—the most prestigious of the time—which he had joined in 1907. In 1910 he was one of the directors and editors of the newspaper Ego sum, and in 1913 he directed the political newspaper El Demócrata. A follower of Juan Isidro Jimenes, he served as deputy chairman of the provincial board of the Jimenista party in 1914 and general secretary in 1916. He had literary inclinations, as revealed by

Santa Margarita Ligure, the locality from which the Pellerano family originates. © Andrea Vierucci

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poems he published in 1908, but he earned his living as a merchant; he was registered as a mercer in 1903 and jeweler in 1906. Between 1908 and 1909 he became a partner in the Taveras y Schiffino company. He died in Santiago on May 26, 1932.12 The journalist Salvador Pittaluga Nivar (1933-2006) certainly deserves mention. He is the descendant of Salvatore Pasquale Pittaluga Marsano (1844-1899) from Sampierdarena, Genoa. We do not know Pittaluga Marsano’s profession or the date of his arrival in the country; however, we do know that he married Elisa Cambiaso Robert. In 1889 they had a son, Juan Bautista Francisco Pittaluga Cambiaso (1899-1958), who married Amada Genoveva Nivar León (1898-1988), who were in turn the parents of Salvador Alfredo Pittaluga Nivar, who was born on February 16, 1933 in Santo Domingo.

An attorney, journalist, moderator, and defender of freedom of the press, Pittaluga was among the founders of the National Union of Professional Journalists. He is also credited as the founder-director of the Dominican Institute of Journalism (Instituto Dominicano de Periodismo - IDP), a school that trained a sizable number of media figures as well as politicians in the country. In addition, he created awards such as the “Caonabo de Oro” of journalism and was an ardent defender of the free press through his commentaries. He also worked for international media—ABC Madrid and Radio Wado USA—and directed the television program Actualidades and the short-lived newspaper La Tarde Dominicana. After Trujillo’s assassination in 1961, he played a distinguished role in the struggles for freedom in general and in the practice of journalism. His television program Actualidades provided a popular space for balanced opinion. This enabled him to serve as moderator for the debate between Juan Bosch, the presidential candidate, and the Jesuit priest Lautico García, in the sensitive context of the country’s first free elections in December 1962.13 We have encountered several Italian migrants with the surname Sturla; however, Pedro Conde Sturla (1945-), who now concerns us, is the third generation of Antonio Sturla Chiossone, who had a son (Amadeo Sturla Marrero) with a woman whose last name was Marrero. Amadeo married Asunción Richetti, with whom he reared six children, who were all born in San Francisco de Macorís, and from whom several generations located in the northeast part of the country and Santo Domingo descend. Hilda, one of the daughters, married Alfredo José Luis Conde Pausas, and they had two children, Alfredo and Pedro Conde Sturla, who was born in San Francisco de Macorís on April 2, 1945, and who is still working as a journalist.14 In 1963 Sturla began his studies at the University of Santo Domingo and became a politically militant member of the Popular Socialist Party, which later became the Communist Party. He participated in the Constitutionalist Revolution led by Colonel Caamaño in 1965. His first novel, Uno de esos días de abril (2012), centers on his revolutionary experience. He later studied in Monterrey, Mexico, and graduated with a doctorate in literature from the Università degli Studi di Roma «La Sapienza.” After returning to the Dominican Republic in 1975 he worked intermittently in advertising, and beginning in 1978 he devoted himself to teaching as a professor of history and literature at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, from which he retired with the distinction of professor emeritus after 30 years in the profession. With an incisive and critically direct voice, he has written about literature and history, particularly prose narrative, which he considers a superior and more official literary form. Due to difficulties with censorship, he published in alternative newspapers such as Impacto Socialista del Partido Comunista and Vetas, the literary magazine of dissent. In 2008, he began writing for the cultural page of El Caribe. But where he found far greater freedom was at Clave—in both its online and print editions—and in its successor Acento, which veers more toward literary criticism. He writes frequently for his own column, “Botella en el Mar,” as well as his blog Taller de Letras, where he publishes his works and posts reviews and criticism of his works.

His literary production includes history, poetry, and prose; however, Cuentos negros revertidos (2004), probably his most representative work, is filled with humor, satire, and criticism of anything that reeks of power: state authoritarianism, corruption, racism, ecclesiastical hierarchy, and elitist privileges.

“If someone were to ask me,” he maintains, “for the title which has brought me the greatest pride, I would say that I was a writer, that I was a teacher, that I was once a soldier under Colonel Caamaño.”15

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The ancestors, descendants, and relatives of Marcio Enrique Veloz Maggiolo, according to the most authoritative genealogy, cover a wide spectrum of Dominican history; however, in this chapter we are interested in their direct ancestors of Italian origin. Marcio Enrique is the great-grandson of Bartolomeo Maggiolo Pellerano, who was born in Genoa in 1825 and who arrived in the country along with his maternal uncle Giovanni Battista Pellerano Costa, the founding members of the Pellerano family in the Dominican Republic. Bartolomeo had a son with Carmen Ravelo named Manuel Américo Maggiolo Ravelo who in turn married María Rafael Hipólita Núñez Cabral, from San Cristóbal, on April 5, 1888. The daughter of this couple was Mercedes Rosa Maggiolo Núñez, who became the wife of Francisco Javier Veloz Molina, who then became the parents of Marcio Enrique Veloz Maggiolo, born in Santo Domingo on August 13, 1936.16 Marcio is among the most knowledgeable, versatile, and renowned of the Dominican men of letters. He has cultivated and produced works of anthropology, history, theater, poetry, and journalism, as well as novels and essays. Although he does contribute to newspapers, he is more of an essayist.

As a journalist, he has experienced a full career. He started as a proofreader and then worked as a copy editor. He went on to become a street reporter until becoming a cultural editor for the newspaper El Caribe.

He has worked on the literary supplements Isla Abierta (in the newspaper Hoy) and Colloquio (in El Siglo) and the magazine Ahora.17 His first works are two biblically inspired novels, El Buen robo (1960) and Judas (1962), the latter of which earned him his first national literature prize in the same year it was published. He won other national awards— for novels in 1962, 1981, and 1999; for a short story in 1981; and for poetry in 1961.

In the opinion of critics, his best work on anthropology is Arqueología prehistórica de Santo Domingo (Prehistoric Archeology of Santo Domingo). But aside from a focus on antiquities, quasi-contemporary history has formed the principal inspiration for his works, in a saga that includes the neighborhood of Villa Francisca, the Trujillo dictatorship, and the 1965 Revolution. These are his works: La vida no tiene nombre (1965), De abril en Adelante (1975), Materia prima (1988), Ritos de Cabaret (1991), Trujillo, Villa Francisca y otros fantasmas (1996), El Jefe iba descalzo (1999), and Memoria Tremens (2009). The neighborhood adds “local color” to his narratives. He once confessed to Luis Martin Gómez that “it is a phenomenon that I call barrialidad [neighborhoodness].”18 Over the years, Marcio has gained a considerable reputation, and he is often consulted and widely discussed in the press and in academia. He is constantly reimagining himself and expanding his horizons. As he recently stated, “I am a narrator of my own memory and that of someone else, and these two sometimes intertwine to form another.” He has cast his gaze outward and often given his opinion on a much more expansive neighborhood—Latin America.

The characteristic of Latin America is that it is still looking for a unifying identity that it will not find, because the existing identities are various; and they are also impacted by the effects of globalization and transnationalization. […] [However], we seek an identity with a unifying sense of nationalistic appearance such as the one that Europe once showed us was necessary and possible.19 Not like the nationalism typical of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie, but a spiritual identity that expresses the identity of the peoples.20 A future portrait gallery. In the absence of broader and more specific information, other Dominicans of Italian origin who have participated in the field of journalism have yet to receive their due recognition, yet we wish to acknowledge their contributions in this note.21

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ENDNOTES The Italian ancestry of Pedro Francisco Bonó has yet to be revealed. As stated by historian José Guillermo Guerrero Sánchez, “He had been fluent in French since childhood, as his maternal grandmother belonged to a rich French family from Saint-Domingue, or modern-day Haiti. He Frenchified his name as Bonnau, Bonneau, or Bonenaux until his father informed him that he was, in fact, Italian and that his grandfather went by the name Bonó. Guerrero Sánchez and José Guillermo, “Bonó: Precursor de la Historia Social Dominicana,” Clío, Journal of the Dominican Academy of History (July-December 2006): 172–180.

2 Carlos Larrazábal Blanco, Familias dominicanas, vol. 1 (Santo Domingo: Dominican Academy of History, 1967), 300–302. Rufino Martínez, Diccionario Biográfico-Histórico Dominicano, 18211930, vol. 1 (Santo Domingo: Autonomous University of Santo Domingo Press, 1971), 65–67.

3 Antonio Lluberes, SJ, Breve historia de la iglesia dominicana: 1493–1997 (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1998), 114–115.

4 Francisco Gregorio Billini, in Marcos Antonio Martínez Paulino, Publicaciones periódicas dominicanas desde la colonia, 4 vols., ed. Andrés Blanco Díaz (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, Universidad Central del Este, 2009), 60. Francisco Gregorio Billini, Obra literaria, in Biblioteca de clásicos dominicanos, ed. Juan Daniel Balcácer (Santo Domingo: Fundación Corripio, 1998).

5 Hipólito Billini, Escritos y ensayos, 2 vols., ed. Andrés Blanco Díaz (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2008).

6 Larrazábal. Familias, vol. 1, 301–302.

7 Mario Bobea Billini, Forjador de sueños, ed. María Ugarte and Monserrats Prats (Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 2007).

8 Larrazábal, Familias, vol. 1, 302; and Antinoe Fiallo Billini, interview by Antonio Lluberes, SJ, February 24, 2019.

9 Larrazábal, Familias, vol. 6, 106–109; “Los Pellerano: Una inmigración que produjo notables,” Areíto, Hoy, May 2, 2005; and “Los Pellerano de Italia (1 of 2),” Areíto, Hoy, February 6, 2010.

Leonardo Díaz Jáquez, interview by Antonio Lluberes, SJ, July 20, 2019.

10 “El proyecto de constitución y el medio social,” 3191, 3194, 3200, 3203, and 3204, March - April 1900.

11 Larrazábal, Familias 1, 317-318 and Mario Bonetti, conversation with Antonio Lluberes, SJ, May 10, 2018.

1

Espinal Hernández and Edwin Rafael, conversation with Antonio Lluberes, SJ, January 24, 2019.

13 Larrazábal, Familias 6, 230-231, arrozyhuevos.blogspot. com/2017/06/biografia-salvador-pittaluga-nivar.html.

14 Julio Amable González Hernández, “Inmigrantes italianos a Quisqueya” (9 of 9).

15 Pedro Conde Sturla, “Botella en el mar. Bibliografía informal,” Acento, November 28, 2018.

16 Edwin Rafael Espinal Hernández, “Marcio Genealógico,” Hoy, August 13, 2016. Also see Larrazábal, Familias 5, 1978, 16.

17 For biographical information, see Rafael Molina Morillo, Personalidades dominicanas, 2006 (Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2006), 825-826.

18 “La memoria nunca es la misma,” https://luismartingomez. blogspot.com/2011/01/marcio-veloz-maggiolo-la-memoria-nunca.html.

19 Pedro José Ortega, “Identidad cultural: trasformaciones sociales y retos,” Areito, Hoy, June 1, 2019, 2.

20 Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, “Entrevista con… Santo Domingo,” June 13, 2019.

21 We have found some information regarding Michelle Marinelli Mastuizi, who published the sports and political newspaper El Deportista, in October 1955 in Santiago. Cf. Martínez Paulino, Publicaciones, 245. Giovanni Antonio Mazara is said to have been from the Sesia region, Piedmont; a veteran soldier of the Third Company, he was married in 1812 in Santo Domingo to Ignacia Arjona Ramo, and served as the society pages editor of the newspaper El Heraldo, 1933. Others say that he was a native of Burco Dalis, a veteran soldier of the Third Company in 1813. Cf. Martínez Paulino, Publicaciones, 193 and Larrazábal, Familias 4, 112. Giovanni Ferrúa Lluberes, an attorney, journalist and painter, the son of Juan (Giovanni) Ferrua. Juan and two other brothers founded the first lithography press in the country. Giovanni wrote for El Caribe and Ahora magazine. He focused on cinema, art, culture in general, and manners. His stories and scenes about commerce and the street life along Calle El Conde, the most important street in the city of Santo Domingo, are particularly noteworthy. Víctor Manuel Grimaldi Céspedes (1949 -), journalist, politician, historian, and diplomat, possible descendant of Giuseppe Grimaldi Carpresse, born in 1891 in Scalea, Cosenza, a businessman who married Mercedes Suriel Suazo in Santo Domingo.

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Milton Ray Guevara, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic, during the conference “Contributions of Italy to Constitutional Law” held on October 25, 2018 at the Ibero-American University (UNIBE).

The event was held as part of the celebrations for the 120 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic. © Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE)

• CHAPTER 42

Chief Justice Milton Ray Guevara on Italy’s Contributions to Dominican Constitutional Law (Summary of remarks by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic at a conference held on October 25, 2018) Summary by Wenceslao Vega Boyrie Former Professor of Law History at the Catholic University of Santo Domingo (UCSD)

ecognizing that constitutionalism began in England, France, and the United States, it is nevertheless worth noting the theoretical contributions of Italian jurists who, according to Chief Justice Milton Leónidas Ray Guevara, were the first to analyze the concept of the constitution, even when it was not yet a subject in law schools. The magistrate mentions the works of Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Santi Romano, and others at the universities of Palermo, Ferrara, and Bologna in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this framework, the most innovative contributions of these pioneers involved the concepts of autonomy of constitutional law over others and the supremacy of the constitution over laws and rulers. Ray Guevara acknowledges, however, that it was rather theory that prevailed over jurisprudence in those formative years for the subject of constitutional law.

Perhaps most striking, in this regard, is how the Italians were followed by the theorists of the nineteenth-century French school led by Duverger and others, and the Germans with doctrinal theorists, such as Gerber and Jellinek.

The concepts and theories of these precursors of constitutionalism today are analyzed by the author as a cumulative escalation, increasing over the years, and given the geopolitical circumstances of Europe in the eighteenth through twentieth centuries, until reaching the first decades of the past century.

Thus, Ray Guevara analyzes this latter period with certain details as to how the political and ideological shifts of preceding periods influenced Italian constitutionalism with the arrival of fascism and the introduction of the concepts of “the masses” and “the party” into the constitutional order.

Then, with the fall of the dictatorship and the trauma of Italy’s defeat at the end of World War II, the author analyzes the constitutional process of 1948, which represented a rare case where, breaking with the past, all ideological groups—from the extreme right to the extreme left—united to provide Italy with a consensual constitution.

Ray Guevara analyzes in detail that emblematic constitution which marked the new course for Western constitutionalism, which is still in force today in Italy, albeit with modifications.

The stage after the promulgation of the Italian constitution of 1948 is incisively analyzed by the author, citing influences in other texts, as in the case of the Dominican constitution of 1963, and mentioning the concepts of protection of the family, equality in marriage, and the rights to education and health, among other points that the Dominicans gleaned from the Italian constitution. Toward the end of his analysis of the Italian constitution of 1948, he informs us: Italy has been characterized as one of the most important and influential centers of theoretical production in Europe, and it has well-known philosophers, political scientists, and jurists who transcend the narrow delineations of Constitutional Law, mentioning the figures of Norberto Bobbio and Giovanni Sartori.

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Ray Guevara also comments on a conference presentation given in the Dominican Republic by the Italian professor Silvio Gambieri, who presented his modern constitutional theories within a contemporary context.

With regard to the present, Ray Guevara observes how the most modern doctrines on constitutionalism also originated in Italy, citing the works of Piero Calamanderi in which he incorporates the post-constitutional doctrine on concentrated control and diffuse control through constitutional courts, subjects that are germane to the Dominican context.

He cites the new neo-constitutional school, also Italian, with its most prominent mentors: Susanna Pozzolo, Paolo Biscaretti di Ruffia, and Gustavo Zagrebelsky, so that even today Italy continues to be a benchmark in constitutional matters, both in theory and in the provisions dictated by the Constitutional Court of that country.

Similarly, he cites the imprint of Italian doctrines and jurisprudence that have influenced international courts of human rights and those of the European Union, among others.

At the end of this masterful lecture, Ray Guevara reminded us of the need for the Constitutional Courts not only to mechanically apply the law in their decisions, but to provide guidance, through their jurisprudence, so that constitutional principles permeate the entire legal system without ignoring the preponderant role of the legislator.

Head table at the conference of the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Dr. Milton Ray Guevara: on the right, Dr. Julio Castaños, Rector of UNIBE; Dr. Dolores Sagrario Feliz, Director of the School of Law of UNIBE; on the left, H.E. the Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Canepari; and Dr. José Pérez Gómez, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIBE. © Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE)

CHIEF JUSTICE MILTON RAY GUEVARA ON ITALY’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO DOMINICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Zoagli. © Andrea Vierucci

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Summarizing this important presentation by the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic, we should underscore his great admiration for Italian constitutional doctrine, which was the original and the most important in the beginnings of Western constitutionalism; the significance of the Constitution of 1948; and the great influence they have had on modern constitutionalism, in addition to his praise for a number of Italian academics cited in his work, whose contributions to the subject have been of momentous importance.

It seems to us that this contribution should be more widely disseminated and, due to its importance, be analyzed in the law schools of our universities, especially in the matters of constitutional law and legal history.

It provides invaluable information and opinions that should be more widely known by Dominican professors, students, judges, and the shapers of legal doctrine.

Angiolino Vicini and Celeste Elena Vicini Ariza de Rodríguez, Santo Domingo. © Courtesy of Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini

• CHAPTER 43

Angiolino Vicini Trabucco (1880–1961) An Immigrant Who Never Forgot His Homeland (Testimonial)

By Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini Lawyer and Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy

our members of a family from Zoagli, Genoa, Italy, immigrated to the Dominican Republic at the end of the twentieth century. The trunk of that family tree was planted by Angelo María Vicini and Anna Cánepa, who had four children: 1. Giuseppe Vicini Cánepa, who married María Trabucco in Zoagli, Genoa; 2. María Vicini Cánepa, who married Andrea Porcella Giacomo in Italy; 3. Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa, born in Zoagli in 1847, married to Mercedes Laura Perdomo Santamaría; and 4. Andrés Vicini Cánepa, born in Italy in 1848, married to María de Jesús Castillo and later Brígida Josefa Frías. These four emigrants, who departed Italy in the nineteenth century, left not only numerous branches of productive descendants but a lasting legacy for all Dominicans and Italians.

Angiolino Vicini Trabucco was the son of Giuseppe Vicini Cánepa, who married María Trabucco in Zoagli, Italy. He was born on September 27, 1880, in the city of Zoagli, a town near Genoa, Italy. Angiolino immigrated to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on March 23, 1896, from Zoagli, Genoa. At age 16, he boarded the “Blanca Aspacia” schooner. Angelo Vicini was greeted at the banks of the Ozama River by his uncle Juan Bautista Vicini Cánepa, who affectionately called him Angiolino. He lived with his uncle during the first years following his arrival, during which time he learned about the business of importing Italian products.

The warehouse was located across from the Nazareno church, or Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor.

They later moved it to Calle del Comercio, currently known as Calle Isabel la Católica.

Angiolino worked in the accounting department of the Canevaro-Vicini company. In addition to his regular duties at the company, he operated two separate businesses. The first was located on Calle Plateros, currently Calle Arzobispo Meriño, and the other was situated on Calle Ozama. Both were dedicated to the exportation of coffee, cacao, and tobacco to Genoa, Italy.

Angiolino married Dilia Ariza Lapuente, the daughter of Miguel Ariza Janse and Isidora Lapuente. Together they had six children: José Delio (1910-2008), who married Purísima Concepción Baher Cabral (19062004); Celeste Elena (1912-2003), who married Carlos Federico Rodríguez Jimenes (1913-2006); Fiume (died in 1963), who married Raquel Altagracia Alonso (died in 2000); Italia Nettina (1923-2018), who married George Klus Moraline; Franz Augusto (1925-2014), who married Castalia Santamaría (died in 2010); and Clara Isidora Teresa (born in 1929), who married José Narciso Alberti Alfonseca (1920-2015).

He later focused on acquiring real estate, and ultimately purchased all of the northeast section of the city of Santo Domingo, as well as immense properties located in Bahía de Andrés, also known as Punta Caucedo.

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It is here that the Multimodal Caucedo Port is currently located, as well as the Caucedo Logistics Center, and also the natural gas plant known as AES Andrés, which was the first electrical power generator to operate with natural gas throughout the entire region of the Caribbean. Today, there are multiple Free Trade Zone companies in the area.

Angiolino also owned large expanses of land in the regions of Jarabacoa and Constanza. During the summer he lived in both areas, seeking cooler temperatures as well as the peace and quiet found in the breathtaking landscapes, the soothing chirping of birds, and abundant fruit and vegetables that are grown in these extraordinary regions.

Angiolino Vicini Trabucco died at the age of 80 on June 19, 1960, in the city of Santo Domingo in the presence of his loving wife Dilia, all of his children, and some of his grandchildren. He was an Italian who was very connected to, and supportive of, his homeland throughout his entire life. At the end of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and again upon the conclusion of World War II, he donated some of his very valuable personal property to the government of Italy as a means of economic support for the reconstruction of his beloved Italy.

Among the documents related to his extensive stay in the Dominican Republic is found a manuscript dated February 19, 1958, which his grandson Federico Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini treasures for its uniqueness as the first-person testimony of an immigrant. It reads as follows:

On February 1, 1950, Angiolino Vicini was awarded the Star of Italian Solidarity by the Italian Ambassador of Italy as a sign of gratitude for Vicini’s 1949 donation to Italy of the plots of land. © Courtesy of Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini

From Italy to the New World It was March 23, 1896. I sprang out of bed that day at 6:00 a.m., as everyone in my parents’ home was already awake. It was an unforgettable departure, and recalling it now, it is even more indelible without even having understood its profound meaning.

Departing is essentially dying.

While on the train with my cherished father, I left behind my house, my family members, and acquaintances for Genoa to embark on a small and elegant brigantine that awaited me, hoisting its anchor as it set off into the infinite Atlantic.

Understanding this final moment of my anguish and suffering, my father left me before the impressive “La Bianca Aspasia” schooner was towed out into the immense port of Genoa and into the open seas where its sails floated like gulls.

I understood that I was leaving Italy and that before me the New World awaited.

On September 25, 1949, he donated a portion of the land located in the city of Santo Domingo, with an area of 20,000 square meters, to the Italian government. The endowment document clearly stated the primary reason for the donation: to allow for the residence of the ambassador

ANGIOLINO VICINI TRABUCCO (1880–1961) AN IMMIGRANT WHO NEVER FORGOT HIS HOMELAND

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Recognition conferred on the attorney Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini, grandson of Angiolino Vicini. For his contribution to the Dominican Italian community, Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini was awarded the honor of Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy, the highest rank of the Order of Merit.

Santo Domingo, May 29, 2019. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

of Italy to be built on that land, as well as to provide the site for the Italian consular offices in the city of Santo Domingo. Vicini was decorated by the government of Italy with the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity on February 1, 1950.

On September 25, 1987, by means of a decree, the government of Italy bestowed the residence of the Italian embassy in the city of Santo Domingo with the name “Villa Angiolino Vicini” in recognition of his altruism and generosity toward his homeland. On June 1, 1988, in celebration of Republic Day, a bronze plaque was officially installed at the entrance of the Embassy, including the wording of the decree.

At that time, Mr. José Angiolino Vicini on behalf of other family members that accompanied him said a few words that he titled “Gratitude to Italy” and which, in part, state: “On behalf of the most honorable Ambassador Venturella, the government of Italy pays just tribute on this occasion to Mr. Angiolino On February 23, 1958, 62 years after the date of his departure from Genoa (March 23, 1896) for the New World, Angiolino Vicini recalled for posterity what this event had meant for him and his father and the anguish and sadness they experienced at the precise moment of their parting—when Angiolino Vicini boarded the brig “Bianca Aspasia.” The highlight of his memoir is surely when he writes: “Leaving is like dying.” © Courtesy of Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini

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Vicini, the progenitor of a distinguished and modest family that has established a robust Dominican legacy in the country of Juan Pablo Duarte.

This posthumous homage was intended to perpetuate the memory of a man for whom his homeland was always like an altar. Indeed, his beloved Italy was like the flame of a votive candle alive in his chest – an eternal flame always present. In some way, this filled the void, afforded him distant memories of the land where he was born, and compensated him for the painful absence of the loved ones he left behind during adolescence, when he crossed the Atlantic at the end of the last century aboard a ship bound for the promising land of the Dominican Republic.

Angiolino Vicini Trabucco was ultimately an emigrant who bore the imprint of his homeland deep within his blood and soul. He would never forget it, nor did our illustrious ancestor ever forget his dream of seeing his compatriots residing in the Dominican Republic united and gathered together at Casa de Italia, the site of this Italian embassy, to keep alive enduring bonds that make nationality possible.

The former residence of the Italian Ambassador in Santo Domingo, in the central district of Naco. © Giovanni Cavallaro

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The donation of 20,000 square meters by Mr. Angiolino Vicini more than 30 years ago to the government of Italy exemplifies the largesse and generosity of this Italian gentleman, who made it possible for Italy to own this magnificent residence today.

To the most honorable Ambassador Venturella, we thank you kindly, and we sincerely thank the government of Italy from the depths of our hearts for honoring the memory of our forefather by presenting this house with the name of Villa Angiolino Vicini. For our family, no greater honor can be granted.

This occasion is more than appropriate for expressing our hope, which is consonant with the donor’s desired ideals, that this house should continue to exist as a place of unity, harmony, and true friendship for all of those who, like those of us present today, feel eternally connected to Italy.”

The following individuals attended this event on behalf of the Vicini family: Mr. Franz Vicini Ariza, Mrs. Italia Vicini Ariza, Mrs. Clara Vicini Ariza de Alberti, Dr. Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini, Lic. Alejandro Vicini, Baher, Lic. Francesco Vicini Santamaría, and Mrs. Raquel Alonso Viuda Vicini.

We cannot conclude our tribute and memories of Mr. Angiolino Vicini Trabucco without first expressing our most effusive and sincere gratitude to His Excellency Andrea Canepari, the current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Italy in the Dominican Republic. We appreciate all of his commitment, effort, and work in Rome in encouraging the current government of Italy to approve the full reconstruction and remodeling of the residence assigned to the Ambassador, as well as the construction of a modern consular office within the same building in which the residence of the Ambassador is located, which will be equipped with the latest technology and modern equipment.

Lastly, it is important to note what was said on May 29, 2019, on the occasion of the celebration of Italian Republic Day, by His Excellency Ambassador Andrea Canepari to all the members of the Italian community present; the official dignitaries of the Dominican government; the members of the diplomatic corps; the Chief Justice of Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Milton Ray Guevara; the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Dominican Republic, Mr. Miguel Vargas Maldonado; the Chief of Staff for the Dominican Navy; Bishop Monsignor Castro, in representation of the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Santo Domingo; Monsignor Francisco Ozoria; and other guests—namely, that the new buildings would bear the name of Angiolino Vicini to honor the memory of a great and noble Italian citizen, who built indispensable bridges between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

The façade of the Casa de Italia on calle Hostos in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo, home of the former President of the Dominican Republic, Pedro Santana. © Giovanni Cavallaro

• CHAPTER 44

A Brief History of the Casa De Italia, Inc. in Santo Domingo

By Renzo Seravalle Engineer and President of Casa de Italia

and

Dr. Rolando Forestieri Professor of History of Political Doctrines at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD)

e are aware that since the 1930s, Italians residing in Santo Domingo have wanted a place where they could meet and that would specifically be called Casa De Italia. We also know that Amadeo Barletta made available a plot of land on what is now Avenida George Washington, near the corner of Avenida Pasteur, for the construction of the Casa de Italia. For reasons that we do not know, the targeted location was changed to a site elsewhere along Avenida George Washington, closer to Plaza Guibia.

The next and final decided-upon location was a large plot of land donated by Angiolino Vicini Trabucco, extending from what is currently Calle 27 de Febrero to Calle Pedro Henríquez Ureña. This plot of land, donated to the Italian government, was purposed for the building of the offices of the Legation, the Consulate of Italy, a school, and the headquarters of Casa de Italia.

A letter in our possession details an article that appeared in the Listín Diario newspaper dated January 27, 1938, stating: Construction of ‘Casa de Italia’ will begin soon. It will be a beautiful and modern building based on the plans that we have seen. They were drawn up by the engineer Alfredo Scaroina and are displayed in the window front of Pasquale Forestieri’s business located on Calle El Conde. The Legation and Italian Consulate will be located at this site, as well as a modern school. The Minister of Italy, Commander Mario Porta, is behind the initiative for this venture, and this project has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Italian community established in the country.

This first Casa de Italia failed, because World War II erupted shortly thereafter, resulting in the defeat of Italy and other Axis powers in May 1945. Afterward, in the 1980s, most of the donated land was exchanged for a residence on Calle Rodríguez Objío, near the corner of Calle Galván and close to the National Palace (which was built by the Italian engineer Guido D’Alessandro and where the offices of the Italian Embassy and the Consulate were located).

Later on, toward the end of the 1980s, a distinguished Dominican Italian revisited the idea of having Casa de Italia as a place for the now rather large Italian and Italian-Dominican communities. That individual was Professor Rolando Forestieri, a graduate of La Sapienza University in Rome with a doctorate in political science and specialization in history. In the mid-1970s, he began his career as a professor at three Dominican universities: Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo; Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña; and Universidad Católica Santo Domingo. He worked concurrently to promote Italian culture in the country through the Instituto Cultural Domínico Italiano, Inc., an institution that he founded and directed, beginning

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in 1979, and which remained very active throughout the following decade.

In his role as president of the Instituto Cultural Domínico Italiano, Inc., he sent a letter to the president of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Joaquín Balaguer, on December 2, 1987, asking for the donation of a site for Casa de Italia within the Ciudad Colonial sector of Santo Domingo. This request was sent to the president by the Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic, Dr. Antonio Venturella, on December 21, 1987, with his approval. Shortly thereafter, on February 9, 1988, by means of Official Letter No. 5533, Dr. Rafael Bello Andino, the Dominican secretary of state replied: The Honorable President Dr. Joaquín Balaguer has acknowledged your letter dated December 21, 1987, which accompanies the communication from the president of the Instituto Cultural Domínico Italiano, Inc., and has granted his approval for a building to be assigned to the Casa de Italia within the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo as part of the celebration of the Quincentennial of the Discovery and Evangelization of the Americas.

On November 14, 1988, at the site of the Embassy of Italy, the Casa de la Cultura Italiana was founded with the approval of Ambassador Antonio Venturella. The founding partners from the association were Rolando Forestieri, María Catalano Gonzaga de Thayer, Vincenzo Mastrolilli, Delgis Nardi de Rivera, Giovanni Vicini, Rosa María Vicioso de Mayol, and Rafael Villanueva.

On December 16, 1988, Dr. Rafael Bello Andino gave notice that the house selected for these purposes “is located at Calle Hostos 308 at the corner of Calle Luperón in the Colonial Zone. This house has historical significance, as it served as the residence of General Pedro Santana, the former President of the Dominican Republic.”

Afterward, the planned donation of the house was recast as usage rights, for thirty years, on the belief of the Office of Cultural Heritage, officials, and other technicians that this residence was too connected with the nation’s history, given that it had been the residence of the first constitutional president of the Dominican Republic, General Pedro Santana, and it therefore must not be donated.

In November of 1991, Ambassador Roberto Rossellini and architect Jorge Amaury Cestari Carbuccia were legally authorized to sign a usage contract for thirty years, in which it was specified that the building at Calle Hostos 308 would be conferred as soon as the Office of Cultural Heritage completed the restoration and it was in perfect working condition.

Children following the Italian tradition, celebrating the Befana at Casa de Italia. Date unknown. © Rolando Forestieri

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An event held by the Ladies of Casa de Italia, Date unknown. © Rolando Forestieri

Finally, after the restoration of the old building, Casa de Italia opened its doors on June 24, 1994. At that time, its charter was drafted and signed, and the articles of incorporation for the new association were drawn up.

Mastrolilli’s first words were, “Today the dream has become a reality for many generations of Italians, who, like myself, have come to live in this beautiful and welcoming country.”

At the first General Assembly of Casa de Italia, the first Board of Directors was appointed, which was composed of: Vincenzo Mastrolilli, Giuseppe Zanón, Renzo Seravalle, Dr. Luis Heredia Bonetti,

Chairman Deputy Chairman Treasurer Secretary

Dr. Rolando Forestieri, President of the Cultural Committee María Victoria de Mastrolilli, President of the Women’s Committee Renzo Seravalle, President of the Finance Committee

Opposite page: Casa Forestieri, on Calle el Conde, where the first model of Casa de Italia was exhibited. © Rolando Forestieri

Then, after two years of waiting, by means of Official Letter No. 7445 dated September 6, 1996, the Attorney General notified us that “pursuant to Decree No. 184-95 dated August 15, 1995, issued by the President of the Dominican Republic, incorporation has been granted to the Casa de Italia Association, sending a copy of this decree with the certification that it is a true copy signed by Dr. Néstor Pérez Heredia, the assistant attorney from the Office of the Attorney General, Head of the Legal Affairs.”

Among the numerous important activities that have taken place in the rooms of Casa de Italia, of note are shows and exhibitions by Italian artists. The following is a partial list: an exhibition of paintings by the artist Carlo Montarsolo titled The Sea and the Olive Trees of the Mediterranean; two exhibitions of paintings by Sardinian artist Tori Inzaina; exhibitions by Franco Ciarlo; an exhibition by Forestieri; and an exhibition by Alfio, with his exquisite horses. In addition, there was the exhibition by the neorealist painter María Franca

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Grisolia titled Suggestions: The Imagination of an Interpreter organized by Fortunato Castagna; an exhibition of lithographs by Italian masters from the 10th century; and that of Neidy de Seravalle titled Marian Icons, forged from metal, etc.

Likewise, over the years, exhibitions have been presented by prominent Dominican artists, including the exhibition of paintings by artist Guillo Pérez titled 50 Years of Art; exhibitions by the painters Ada Balcácer and Elsa Núñez; exhibitions by Cándido Bidó, Benjamín Paiewonsky, Guadalupe, and Valenzuela; and the exhibition titled Dopo Carnevale by Cristian Martínez. Moreover, a significant number of new artists, painters, and sculptors beginning their cultural pursuits have been introduced in the Casa de Italia, finding there both a home and an art gallery to host solo and group exhibitions alike.

Furthermore, many keynote presentations have been held within the confines of Casa de Italia, including those of Admiral De Windt Lavandier on “Italians in the Navy” and the architect César Iván Feris Iglesias on the subject of “Art During the Italian Renaissance.” Another prominent professional in the field of architecture, Eugenio Pérez Montas, gave a lecture titled “The Foundation of the City of Santo Domingo.”

A conference on issues surrounding the interesting and current topic of water was also held there by the Italian senator Pedrini, as well as “The Julius Caesar Conspiracy” presented by jurist Dr. Carlos Balcácer. Dr. Eduardo Mejía Jabid, the Consul General of Greece in the Dominican Republic, spoke on the topic of “The Contribution of Classic Greco-Roman Medicine.” The notable Italian senator Paolo Emilio Taviani discussed Christopher Columbus, the subject of his book that he also circulated during this event. Recently the architect Jesús D´Alessandro presented on “The Reconstruction of the National Palace.”

Finally, there have been conferences presented by Dr. Rolando Forestieri on various topics, among which were included the bicentennial of the celebrated Italian composer, Giuseppe Verdi; a lecture on the “Centenary of the Italian Victory in World War One (1918-2018)”; a conference on “Italian Academies”; a lecture on the “Significance of Republic Day in Italy”; and a lecture devoted to the multifaceted genius of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci. Another conference was planned in the rooms of Casa de Italia on this amazing individual to commemorate the 5th centenary of his death in 1519. Also considered was the exhibition of books related to the subject as well.

We must not fail to mention the very interesting exhibition titled 1992-2002: Ten Years of Anthropological and Archaeological Research in the Dominican Republic presented

by Italian scientists at Casa de Italia. Six pre-Columbian collections were exhibited with the collaboration of the National Museum of Natural History. Since 1998, this Italian mission has received support from La Sapienza University of Rome, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Italian Ministry of Education. It has also had the support of the Center for Research and Projects of National Interest to Italy and from the Costa Foundation of the Dominican Republic.

Other clear evidence of the relationship between Italy and the Dominican Republic were the two exhibitions on Italian Families in the Dominican Republic. These exhibitions

Ambassador Venturella introducing Professor Rolando Forestieri to Bello Andino, the Secretary of State.

From left to right: Giovanni Battista Vicini, Rosa María Vicioso de Mayol, Rolando Forestieri, Ambassador Venturella, Vincenzo Mastrolilli, Rafael Bello Andino, and Rosalba de Venturella.

November 1998. © Giovanni Cavallaro

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CASA DE ITALIA, INC. IN SANTO DOMINGO

The inauguration of Casa de Italia on June 24, 1994.

Among those present were Vincenzo Mastrolilli, Ambassador Tomaso de Vergottini, and Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez. © Giovanni Cavallaro

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contained photos, information, and various items belonging to different families from the Italian community.

Afterward, the Casa de Italia published a beautiful catalogue on these exhibitions.

Casa de Italia also opened its doors for the presentation of classics of Italian cinema, and it was also very actively involved in various international book fairs, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture at the Plaza de la Cultura in Santo Domingo.

With regard to fundraising activities for Casa de Italia, Italian food festivals and gala dinners were organized. These events were very popular among the members of the community and with the public in general.

Various restaurants from the capital participated in these events, as did the Punta Cana Beach Resort and Casa de Campo in La Romana. These activities were headed by the Women’s Committee. It is also important to mention the institution’s exciting Christmas activities, including the exhibition of crèches from different parts of the world (North, South and Central America, Europe, Africa and Asia), which were the property of Dominican collectors Neidy Pons and Estela de Mella. There were also activities for children including Christmas carols and concerts with traditional themes from the season.

It is noteworthy that as an institution, Casa de Italia has made its space available to various public and private institutions as well as foreign ones. Some of the most important institutions represented include Las Damas Diplomáticas, the European Community, the Italian Embassy, the Dominican-Italian Handicrafts Group, Listín Diario Awards, the National Council for the Blind, the Nosside Poetry Foundation, the Dominican Navy, the Colonial City Council, the Federation of Cinema Clubs, Lamiere Awards, Monumental Heritage, and the Foundation of Professionals for the Development of the Dominican Republic.

Finally, for more than 25 years, Casa de Italia has been an invaluable institution in terms of creating unity and a point of reference for the Italian and Italian-Dominican community within the country. It has been the “Monument of Italian Culture” wherein all of the significant events have been celebrated, including Italian Immigrant Day, as instituted by a Decree from the President of the Dominican Republic, as well as Italian Republic Day, which celebrates the formation of the Italian Republic.

No less important has been the Escuela de Italiano Italian language school, a very positive institution for our community and for Dominicans who want to learn the melodious language of Dante and Petrarch. The children of Italian Dominicans, the Dominican spouses of Italian citizens, students who go to study abroad in Italy, and those who are preparing to work in the field of tourism have all been our students. The complete curriculum is taught in five cycles, and our teachers are all Italian.

Before concluding, we must recall the closure of the Embassy of Italy in Santo Domingo, which took place in December of 2014. During the two and a half years that the Embassy was closed, Casa de Italia was the only Italian institution that remained active in the nation and which kept the Italian flag displayed continuously along its main façade.

Although we did not have any type of official authorization, we were available to assist anyone who contacted our institution for information or guidance. At the same time, the Board of Directors decided to devote all of its efforts to fight for the reopening of our Embassy. An ad hoc committee was created, and supported by partners, and we embarked on the task at hand.

On January 1, 2014, when we learned about the decision for closure, we sent the first letter of protest to the Italian government through the embassy. We wrote to all the officials from the Italian government without

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receiving any reply. Only President Giorgio Napolitano informed us that they would strengthen the network of Vice Consuls in the country. We also visited local newspapers, making public our efforts to reopen the Embassy of Italy. We published a half-page announcement in La Repubblica, one of the most widely circulated Italian daily newspapers within Italy. We visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome. It was finally decided to contact three attorneys in Italy, and we brought the case before the Administrative Court of Lazio, which ultimately ruled in our favor and annulled the decree for the closure of the Embassy in the Dominican Republic. Finally, on October 3, 2016, we were summoned to Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the Italian government in Rome. There, members of the board of directors of Casa de Italia—Renzo Seravalle, Ángelo Viro, Frank Rainieri, Felipe Vicini, and Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini—met with Luca Lotti, the Undersecretary to the Presidency and His Excellency Ambassador Varricchio, Diplomatic advisor for the Prime Minister. It was then that the reopening of the embassy was agreed upon. Thanks to the diligence of the two Italian officials who upheld their promise, we currently have an Italian Ambassador in the Dominican Republic. In January of 2017, Andrea Canepari was appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, representing the government of Italy and the interests of the Italian community.

It was with great satisfaction that the Italian community welcomed the arrival of Ambassador Canepari as a sign of Italy’s esteem for the Italian community in the Dominican Republic. The community, in particular, appreciated an ambassador with such energy and enthusiasm for renewing relations and for expressing concern for the Italian community in the Dominican Republic. It was very much appreciated by all the Italian citizens who, in the first sign of respect for them, and for the first time in history, were graced by the presence of the Italian ambassador at events held within the Italian community in all the Dominican Republic, by his attention to the community’s problems, and by his personal commitment to address those issues. I have accompanied the ambassador on these trips on numerous occasions, and I have been able to witness the commitment that he has shown at those times and to later see how those promises were fulfilled. In just a few short months, consular conditions vastly improved; for example, in the past Italian citizens had to wait months for a passport. Later, the reception and the structure of the embassy improved, creating safe and protected areas where transactions and affairs could be carried out. I saw firsthand and immediately how interest in Italy on the part of the Dominican Republic was piqued. For the first time, I saw prominent Dominican families including those with no Italian heritage supporting Italian initiatives, taking part in different Italian events, and promoting them. The press has written numerous articles about the embassy’s activities, highlighting the achievements that have been made.

All Italian citizens were invited to Casa de Italia by the ambassador on Italian national holidays in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and also on December 5 of each of those years to commemorate Italian Immigrant Day. These dates were celebrated not only with a reception, but also with a cultural event organized by the embassy to demonstrate the unity between the community, Italian culture, and the Dominican Republic.

I still recall the first reception hosted by the ambassador to celebrate his arrival on November 27, 2017, as well as my great excitement. I considered the presence of the vice president of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Margarita Cedeño, appearing on behalf of the president since he was out of the country, as well as various

Cultural event held at Casa de Italia. Date unknown. © Rolando Forestieri

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CASA DE ITALIA, INC. IN SANTO DOMINGO

Reception to honor the inauguration of the Diplomatic mission in Dominican Republic of Italian Ambassador Andrea Canepari and his wife Roberta in Santo Domingo, attended by the Acting President, Dr. Margarita Cedeño; Ambassador Angelita de Vargas, and Apostolic Nuncio Ghaleb Bader.

November 11, 2017. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

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members of the government and members of the chamber of deputies, all there to strengthen the bonds with Italy, to be a huge success.

I am convinced that the Dominican Republic and Italy have turned the page, as Minister for Foreign Affairs Vargas stated at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on September 19, 2020, on the occasion of the prayer service marking the inauguration of the annual celebrations of the Quincentennial of the arrival of the first resident bishop in Santo Domingo, Alessandro Geraldini, as part of the events organized by Ambassador Canepari. I felt pride hearing the words of Chancellor Vargas, who said that Italy and the Dominican Republic currently enjoy the best diplomatic relations in their history. It brings my Italian compatriots great satisfaction to see Italy represented as it should be and in keeping with the apposite importance, given its history that connects us.

In 2019, we celebrated the 25-year anniversary of the foundation of Casa de Italia, Inc. It is our obligation and duty to continue our programs and for our institution to continue being of service to the Italian and Italian-Dominican Community.

Immacolata Bonarelli and Annibale Bonarelli at Vesuvio restaurant, October 20, 1959. © Courtesy of the Bonarelli Family

• CHAPTER 45

The Bonarelli Family. The Flavors of Italy in the Dominican Republic

By Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben Director of the Department of Education, History, and professor at PUCMM

he story of Annibale Bonarelli Izzo (1922–2002), the son of Vincenzo Bonarelli, a native of Naples in the region of Campania, will remain forever inscribed in the ongoing efforts of his children, who, seeking a better future, set sail on an adventure to an unknown world. Annibale had already married Immacolata Pascale Landi (1924–2014), with whom he had four children born in Italy: Vincenzo (Enzo), Giuseppe (Peppino), María, and Gaetano. Rosario, the youngest, was born in Santo Domingo.

Despite being a successful waiter at the royal houses in Naples, in 1949 Annibale decided to work on a ship that made the New York–Italy circuit. On one of those voyages, he decided to stay. He told his wife that he would remain only for a while so that he could save some money and buy a house for the family. He remained in the United States for approximately five years.

While living the “American dream,” one day a friend, who traded textiles in the Dominican Republic, spoke enthusiastically about a country in the Caribbean that was in need of fine restaurants. In 1953, taking advantage of the fact that he had to regularize his immigration status in the United States, Annibale boarded a merchant marine vessel and set out for the Dominican Republic. After seeing this Caribbean paradise, he decided to stay. In 1954, he sent for his family, to bring them “to the most beautiful country in the world.”

His love of the sea kindled memories of his native Naples, and he decided to start his own business. He returned to New York to buy equipment: a gas oven to make pizza and bread, three electric stoves, and an ice cream maker. Then he rented a house from “Babito” Sturla. These purchases led to the birth of El Vesuvio1—a restaurant, pizzeria, and ice cream parlor inaugurated in January 1954 and located on Avenía George Washington No. 145. In the beginning, the restaurant had 18 tables, and customers waited their turn, sitting serenely on the benches along the avenue.

An important element was that the new restaurant offered products made by the family members themselves. These products became famous among, and were beloved by, the customers: the Italian prosciutto, the Italian salami, the mozzarella, the ricotta, and, above all, the fresh pastas, especially the Neapolitan lasagna.

He also specialized in meat, fish, and seafood dishes. His desserts became his hallmark, especially the house specialty: Italian cassata and zuppa inglese (a layered custard and sponge cake dish).

El Vesuvio was clearly a pioneer in terms of the capital city’s culinary selection of Italian food. The variety of pasta on the menu, as well as unique ways of preparing products known in the local market, opened new horizons for the palates of an important sector of Dominican society. One of his great contributions was the introduction of pizza, a popular Italian food, which, with the passage of time, has become a staple of Dominican cuisine.

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As a way to help the extended family, he decided to send for his brother Mario, who was a professional chef; he also invited his cousin Julio, a great ice cream maker, and his brother-in-law Vincenzo, a tireless worker who could be useful for the business. This approach, however, ultimately failed, because these family members expressed little interest in staying in the country. Instead, they settled in New York where they made their lives with their own lucrative gastronomic projects.

Success for Annibale came relatively quickly. The family business needed to expand. To build a new venue for the restaurant, he requested DOP 10,000.00 from the Banco Agrícola. It was also alleged that Joaquín Balaguer2 decided to help him, recognizing in this young businessman a zeal to succeed. Annibale’s wife, Immacolata, was so grateful to the official that, from then on, until his death, she sent him mozzarella, ricotta, zuppa inglese, and cassata every week.

Through this gesture, Immacolata demonstrated to her children how gratitude was a quality to cultivate. After all, the Bonarellis were eternally grateful to a country that had welcomed them with open arms.

The business was a family project, and everyone worked diligently. The head of the family, Annibale, was the chef. A lifetime working in the food business allowed him to put what he had learned into practice. Immacolata served as the cashier, and from there she directed everything. Their children say that she was the law, the baton, and the very backbone of the family.

Their success was considerable. At the time, the gastronomic scene in Santo Domingo was extremely limited. There was only a smattering of Chinese restaurants among the more popular Criollo restaurants. The appearance of El Vesuvio gave the upper and middle classes a new venue for fine food. Many claim that in the 1960s people would dress in their finest and go out to enjoy an evening at this new establishment.

The ambassador of the United States during this time, John Bartlow Martin, commented in his memoirs that El Vesuvio had become a barometer of the country’s economic and political situations. The Ambassador wrote that at the time of the assassination of the Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (the night of May 30, 1961), “even at El Vesuvio there was little movement.”

Over time, El Vesuvio became a veritable culinary school for the country. In the absence of trained staff, Don Annibale taught many young people how to serve customers, prepare drinks, and even cook. Many of those who passed through his kitchen would later become the chefs at other restaurants.

The success was so great that, in preparing for the Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World, Generalissimo Trujillo decided to offer visitors two important culinary selections: Italian food, with a Vesuvio branch in the area of the fair, and Spanish cuisine through the El Lina restaurant.

El Vesuvio soon became the standard-bearer for other restaurants. The eldest son of the family, Enzo, began working there even when he was quite young, but, more importantly, he accompanied his parents in the strengthening and growth of the new company. The entrepreneurial vision of the family patriarch sparked a desire in one of his sons to set out on his own solo journey.

In 1971, Giuseppe (Peppino) was the first of the sons to set up a separate enterprise; after purchasing a parcel of property, he built a new culinary establishment that he called El Vesuvito. In its early days, the new restaurant specialized in pizza. Then he expanded his menu, introducing other dishes. Although business was good, he wanted to explore other commercial opportunities. He decided to sell the restaurant to his brother Gaetano.

Opening of the new Restaurant Vesuvio, October 20, 1959.

From left to right: Queco Rainieri Honorary Consul of Italy in the Dominican Republic; Pietro Solari, Ambassador of Italy; Inmaculada Bonarelli; Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Monsignor Beras; and Annibale Bonarelli. © Courtesy of the Bonarelli Family

THE BONARELLI FAMILY

The venue of the new Vesuvio restaurant in Santo Domingo, 1959. © Courtesy of the Bonarelli Family

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Peppino went from the restaurant business to importing wines in 1978. This was a somewhat risky venture, especially considering that at that time most Dominicans consumed rum and beer. The few wines that were consumed were rosé, semi-sweet or of low quality.

Despite the cultural bias, the new import company, which they named El Catador, began to influence the tastes of Dominicans. It began by introducing Italian and then Chilean wines, later branching out to imported wines from all over the world. One of the strategies used in this new adventure, as a way to entice local palates, emphasized education—in other words, teaching the public how to drink wine. Today the company, after more than 40 years in business, is a leader in the country’s wine market.

Peppino had a wine shop on Plaza Naco, which was called La Bodega. One day Annibale came to visit him and suggested that his son also sell pizza, which might be more profitable. This is how Pizzarrelli came into being in the 1980s. Success came immediately. In the first week it opened, a long line formed to sample a slice of the new Italian pizza. The first Pizzarelli establishments were located on Plaza Naco, Arroyo Hondo, and along the Malecón. There are now 26 stores scattered throughout Greater Santo Domingo and in many inland cities.

El Vesuvio remained open for business until 2016, offering a superb, high-quality dining experience for more than 60 years. Its contributions to the gastronomy and palates of the Dominican Republic are indisputable.

Annibale’s hard work and creative vision earned him respect in Dominican society, in the Italian community, and among international tourists.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS RECEIVED BY ANNIBALE BONARELLI

1972

“Cavaliere dell’Ordine al merito della Repubblica italiana” (Knight in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic / Decree 108992 S. 1).

Awarded by the Italian government, President Giovanni Leone.

1983

Timón de Oro del Turismo

Dominican government, under the administration of Salvador Jorge Blanco.

1983

Golden Helm International Tourism Award

Awarded by the World Tourism Association.

1998

Distinguished Citizen

Awarded by the City Council for the National District, under the administration of Rafael Suberví Bonilla.

1998

Cavaliere Ufficiale – Official Knighthood (No. 27759).

Awarded by Italian government, President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.

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Annibale and Immacolata’s children continued along the path of entrepreneurship. Enzo, the eldest of the Bonarelli brothers, was the one who accompanied his father from a very young age and was key in the development of El Vesuvio.

Gaetano, in addition to having run the El Vesuvito restaurant for many years, gained prominence in real estate development and worked together with his family on a group of successful restaurants: Mitre, Bottega Fratelli, and Allegra. The two women of the Bonarelli-Pascale family have excelled in completely different areas of specialization. María, third eldest of the children, works making high-quality organic products at her company Corpo Natura.

Rosario, the youngest of the siblings, is involved in the art market with her husband, the renowned painter Fernando Varela.

Thus, in order to adequately write a history of the development of Dominican cuisine, innumerable pages could be devoted to the contributions of the Bonarelli-Pascale family. For more than six decades, this family has succeeded, through considerable efforts and tremendous creativity, to transform Dominican tastes. Annibale and his family were welcomed with open arms by a people eager for new culinary experiences.

Annibale Bonarelli, with his sons Vincenzo, Giuseppe, and Gaetano, prepares the first pizza for Pizzarelli in the Plaza Naco branch. Santo Domingo, 1982. © Courtesy of the Bonarelli Family

ENDNOTES Named after the iconic volcano (Mt. Vesuvius) outside Naples.

Former Dominican president who served several terms.

1 2

THE BONARELLI FAMILY

Santa Margherita Ligure. © Andrea Vierucci

Borgo San Dalmazzo. © Andrea Vierucci

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Then-congressman and current Minister of Industry, Trade and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ito Bisonó with the Ambassador of Italy, Andrea Canepari, and his wife, Roberta; Roberto Herrera; and Frank Rainieri, gathered in Santo Domingo Cathedral on September 19, 2019 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident Bishop of Santo Domingo, Alessandro Geraldini, at the Te Deum celebrated by the Archbishop of Santo Domingo Francisco Ozoria. © Courtesy of Listín Diario

• CHAPTER 46

Considerations on the Relationship between the Dominican Republic and Italy (Testimonial)

By Víctor Bisonó Minister of Industry, Commerce and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of the Dominican Republic

rom the moment I received an invitation from Ambassador Andrea Canepari to present a few ideas for this collection, we focused on highlighting the details of the commercial relationship between the Dominican Republic and Italy, emphasizing the success stories that have emanated from the positive and beneficial business climate and corporate security that prevail in our country.

During this process, it was very pleasant to recall all the points that link me on a personal basis with the Italian nation, from the time my parents chose Italy for their professional studies at the beginning of the 1960s: in the case of my mother, the soprano Ivonne Haza del Castillo, for her musical studies at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, and as for my father, Dr. Víctor G. Bisonó Pichardo, for his doctorate in architecture at the Università Degli Studi di Roma. Both, later, were decorated with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana), which they have always displayed with great pride, highlighting at every opportunity the cultural, culinary, and economic wealth of Italy. Subsequently, while serving as a legislator, I had the opportunity to personally share those feelings of pride and to be able to establish close ties with the Italian Congress, which we continue to maintain to this day.

Now, acting as Minister of Industry, Commerce and Micro, Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (MICM) by appointment of H.E. President Luis Abinader Corona, my authority includes the formulation and implementation of public policies that directly affect sectors linked to industry, exports, internal trade, free zones, special regimes, MSMEs, and foreign trade.

Within this framework, and to provide greater context, we should note that it is the responsibility of the MICM to ensure proper implementation of the Economic Association Agreement (EPA) signed in 2008 between our countries. Similarly, we must follow up on any issue arising from the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which has been in force since 2007. This agreement offers certainty and security for Italian entrepreneurs who choose the Dominican Republic as the destination for their investments.

In this regard, it is worth noting that since the Economic Association Agreement (EPA) took effect in 2008, trade between the Dominican Republic and Italy has doubled in value during the last 10 years in the case of imports from Italy, with Dominican exports to that market increasing by 30% in the same time span.

In 2019, Dominican exports to Italy included ferronickel, medical products and equipment, bananas, cacao, rum, cigars, and fertilizers, while imports from Italy for the same period were led by jewelry, plastic products, various types of machinery and parts, leather, tobacco, hair-care products, plumbing supplies, pasta, and wine. However, the 2019 figures reflect that the Dominican Republic ranks only 83rd as trading partner for the purchase of Italian goods and 112th as an exporter of goods to Italy. We can and must improve this situation.

Our country can serve as a base for the production of Italian products destined for the United States, Cen-

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tral America, the Caribbean, or European markets, using the network of trade agreements that our country has signed. Likewise, our logistics capabilities would enable us to serve as a base of operations for the distribution of products sold to the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean, as well as being an attractive destination for the manufacture of medical equipment and products, especially in Free Zones. In essence, we offer unique opportunities for Italian companies that wish to reorganize their global value chains, which usually show high interest in the establishment of manufacturing and service centers in areas with geographical proximity to large markets (“nearshoring”).

Likewise, we have much to learn from Italy and its experience of more than 50 years with industrial districts, after having focused on these districts as a strategy for industrial development, especially in the case of small and medium-sized companies, which constitute one of the strategic focal points of the MICM. In the services sector, Italy’s investments in cultural services, such as the production of cinematographic films, videos and television programs, sound recording, and music publishing, present opportunities to relocate to the Dominican Republic, where we already have an agreement with Italy regarding filmmaking.

The Dominican Republic has historically been a favorite tourist destination for Italian travelers, a preference that can be maintained and increased considering the excellent caliber of what we offer, our connectivity abroad with world-class airports and tourist ports, and the integration of Italian gastronomy and culture with our already established offerings. It is estimated that more than 150,000 Italians visit the Dominican Republic each year, a figure that has expanded given the cruise ship stops operated in the ports of Santo Domingo and La Romana by the Italian companies Costa Crociere, MSC, and Aida.

There are already various examples of successful Italian investments, such as Domicem (a subsidiary of Colacem, the third largest cement producer in Italy); ACEA (which offers water treatment services throughout the Dominican Republic); Ghella (which has built infrastructure works for the Dominican Republic and Haiti); Erbaviva (which markets organic herbal products); CAME (representative and distributor of Italian products, both in the country and in the region); and Selex (Finmeccanica’s operating branch, which has successfully been doing business for nearly 20 years in the Dominican market).

As can be seen, there are evidently various success stories involving Italian investments in the Dominican Republic, and these can certainly be replicated in various sectors. Our excellent geographical location and the preferential access we have to important markets in the region, added to the prevailing business climate and issues of safety and security, make us an ideal destination for Italian investment in the region.

Count on me as your friend, and the MICM as your strategic ally in the country, to accompany you in your investment activities in the Dominican Republic and ensure their success. I am certain that, together, we will see a rise in the importance of trade between our countries, and that we will make the Dominican Republic one of Italy’s major partners in the region.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND ITALY

Santa Margherita Ligure. © Andrea Vierucci

Borgo San Dalmazzo. © Andrea Vierucci

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The Dominican Minister of Foreign Affairs Roberto Álvarez together with the Ambassador of Italy Andrea Canepari and other Ambassadors in the Green Room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Santo Domingo, February 4, 2021.

• CHAPTER 47

Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic in the Context of COVID-19 1

By Roberto Álvarez Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic

ollowing is an excerpt of remarks delivered by the keynote speaker, His Excellency Roberto Álvarez at a conference organized by the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce on September 22, 2020.

It is an honor for me to be participating here, on the occasion of the launching of this important monthly cycle of conferences being held by the Italian Embassy and the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce and, even more so, to be able to share with you certain aspects of the Foreign and Commercial Policy of the Dominican Republic, especially at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has so gravely affected the health of our citizens and the stability of our economies. [...]

II. Dominican foreign policy priorities The current health and economic crisis implies a greater strategic importance regarding the foreign and commercial policy of the Dominican Republic. The foreign policy program of the new government had identified a series of priorities that, in this context, have now become vital necessities.

I will focus my attention on the objectives of our foreign policy in the Americas and Europe, since they are complementary to each other. It is essential that our country establish a good neighbor relationship with Haiti and revive our ties with the Caribbean countries integrated into CARICOM. The Caribbean is our natural geographic space, and in general the country has lived with its back turned toward it. The current pandemic and climate emergency force us to see that threats to the security and well-being of the country cannot be handled only from the vantage point of internal politics but require regional coordination. [...]

Relations with the European Union (EU) and its member States are also of strategic importance to our country, due to the size of that market and the free trade agreement of which we have not yet fully taken advantage.

III. Direct investment and international cooperation [...]

In terms of cooperation, the Dominican Republic has benefited principally from Italian high technology integrated into the agricultural and artisanal industries. The scholarships awarded and the professional and academic training of our young people have been of inestimable value.

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Similarly, the Italian private sector has been important through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In 2019, FDI by Italy totaled US$57 million, according to data from the Central Bank. Italy was ranked as the eighth highest investing country in terms of FDI destined for the Dominican Republic. During the last decade, investment by that country reached US$203 million. This amount was the fourth largest invested by European countries, after Spain, France, and the Netherlands.

Italian FDI in the Dominican Republic is favored by the Reciprocal Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (RIPPA), which has been in effect since 2007. This agreement includes the clauses of National Treatment and Most Favored Nation Treatment; therefore, investments from Italy are protected against discrimination based on their origin and against investments from other countries in our territory.

The agreement protects investments from direct and indirect expropriation made without just compensation for the investor. Likewise, RIPPA allows for, with some exceptions, the free repatriation of capital, profits, and revenue from investment.

Another advantage provided for under this agreement allows the investor to, in the case of non-observance of the substantial protections provided for in the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), bring the State before international arbitration tribunals to settle disputes. This particular approach is provided without the need to exhaust internal legal procedures. Therefore, it constitutes an additional guarantee for the Italian investor in our country. However, we are aware that this necessary mechanism should always be considered as a last recourse and used only in exceptional cases.

Genova. © Andrea Vierucci

FOREIGN AND COMMERCIAL POLICY OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19

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IV. Italy-Dominican Republic bilateral trade Trade relations between the Dominican Republic and Italy began to reflect a cycle of great dynamism beginning in 2016. That year, bilateral trade reached the sum of US$563 million, with US$57 million representing Dominican exports and US$506 million representing imports from Italy.

In the 2016-2018 triennium, trade between the two countries reached US$1.33 billion. In contrast, in the 2013-2015 period, the bilateral exchange totaled US$928 million. In 2019, trade reached approximately US$480 million, although following the same pattern, only US$66 million pertained to Dominican exports.

Dominican products with the highest sales to Italy2 include ferronickel (US$22 million), cacao (US$18 million), gold (US$11 million), and ultraviolet or infrared devices for medical use (US$10 million). From Italy, we purchase jewelry (US$73 million), motor oils (US$19 million), pharmaceuticals (US$13 million), and plastics and plastic manufactured products (US$11 million).

Regarding products with great export potential to the Italian market, we find our country as the world leader in cacao (60% of global exports in this category). Another is gold, as Italy has large gold reserves (third largest worldwide), while the demand for it is expected to increase. Of the ultraviolet or infrared devices for medical use that Italy buys from the rest of the world, 85% come from the Dominican Republic. In addition, our opportunities are great in the rum market, where Italy has been increasing its global imports every year— from US$60 million in 2015 to US$306 million in 2019.

V. Tourism Approximately 93,000 tourists visited the Dominican Republic from Italy last year, the sixth highest number from European countries, after France, Russia, Germany, Spain, and England. In 2018, 83,000 Italians visited our shores. This year, despite the impact of the pandemic, 25,000 Italians have visited us to date. Despite this reality, the recovery of the sector is expected in the coming months of the high season. A hopeful sign can be seen in the visits by more than 800 persons from Italy in July and August, after travel had stopped between April and June of this year. With effective promotion and collaboration between different sectors, we can launch the recovery of tourism. It is important to note the announcement made by President Abinader to reopen the country’s [international] tourism sector beginning October 1, 2020.

Despite all of these achievements, we are not completely satisfied with the current state of affairs. As I have expressed to Ambassador Canepari on several occasions, if we were to win the elections, we would propose to continue and strengthen relations between our country and Italy. Through this virtual appearance, I wish to take the opportunity to reiterate this commitment before such an important audience. [...]

Following pages: Agricultural landanscape of the Dominican Republic at sunrise.

“Existance of God”. © Photograph by Giovanni Savino, donated by the author

ENDNOTES 1 Minister Roberto Álvarez thanks Anselmo Muñiz, Strategic Studies and Analysis Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ariel Gautreaux, Commercial Affairs Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the collaboration in the preparation of this work.

2 Source: Trademap (2018).

FINAL SECTIONS

The Authors

• Gabriella Airaldi

Airaldi was born in Genoa in 1942. She has been an adjunct professor since 1970, the same year she started teaching at the University of Genoa. She was a full professor from 1976 to 2010. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the New Colombian Collection and of the National Committee for Celebrations in Honor of Christopher Columbus, Vice President of the Italian Historian Society, and President of the International “Finale Ligure Storia” award. She is currently a librarian for the Academy of Science and Letters for the Liguria region. A member of Scientific Academies and Societies, she is the author of more than 400 publications. Her most recent books include: Dall’Eurasia al Nuovo Mondo. Una storia italiana (Genoa, 2007); Storia della Liguria, I-V (Milan, 2008-2012); Colombo da Genova al Nuovo Mondo (Rome, 2012); Breve Storia di Genova (Pisa, 2012); Nuevas Rutas hacia Oriente – General Text, History, National Geographic, 20 (Barcelona 2013, Italian version 2014); (with F. Manzitti), Il duca della finanza. I duchi di Galliera tra mecenatismo e solidarietá (Milan, 2013); Cristoforo Colombo. Un uomo tra due mondi (Naples, 2014); Andrea Doria (Rome, 2015); La congiura dei Fieschi. Capodanno di sangue (Rome, 2017); Inca Garcilaso. Con la espada y con la pluma. Una biografia (Barcelona, 2018); L’Italia chiamó. Goffredo Mameli poeta e guerriero (Rome 2019); and Il ponte di Istanbul. Un progetto incompiuto di Leonardo da Vinci (Bologna, 2019). In 2004 she was awarded the Anthia Award, and in 2008 the Polis Award.

• Roberto Álvarez

Roberto Álvarez has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Dominican Republic since August 16, 2020.

From 1970 to 1978 he was an attorney at the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), first as Deputy Director of Protocol, then in the department of legal affairs and later in the secretariat of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). As the Commission’s lead specialist, he prepared draft reports on human rights in Chile (1976), Paraguay (1977), El Salvador (1978), and Nicaragua (1978), and organized the IACHR’s onsite visits to Panama (1977), El Salvador (1978), and Nicaragua (1978). He served as an official delegate of Amnesty International on missions to Nicaragua (1980-81) and Sri Lanka (1981), and has been a guest professor and speaker on topics related to human rights, public international law, and U.S. foreign policy at various universities and academic centers. From June 2005 to September 2008, Álvarez served as the Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the Organization of American States with the rank of Ambassador. At the OAS, he held the Presidency of the Permanent Council on behalf of the Dominican Republic from July to September 2005. In addition, he was elected Chair of the Subcommittee on Partnership for Development Policies of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI), 2006-2007, and of the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of

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the Permanent Council (CAJP), 2007-2008. From December 2008 until August 2010, he was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs with the rank of honorary ambassador.

Since 2012, he has been a member of the Advisory Council of the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He served as the director of international policy for the presidential candidate of the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM), Luis Abinader, during the May 2016 and May 2020 presidential campaigns. He is the author of several books, essays, and articles on human rights and international affairs. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations (1982) from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C. He obtained a LL.M. (1968) from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) and a Master’s degree in Comparative Law (1976) from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

• Juan Daniel Balcácer

Balcácer has been a professor of Critical Dominican History at Universidad Católica Santo Domingo and Universidad APEC. He has taught classes on the History of Dominican Culture. He has led many conferences on historical topics at both Dominican and foreign universities. He has also been a contributing editor for major Dominican newspapers and magazines. He is the author of several books, including: Juan Pablo Duarte, el Padre de la Patria. Biografía para niños y jóvenes, 1978; Pedro Santana: historia política de un déspota, 1978; La independencia dominicana, 1992 (in collaboration with Manuel García Arévalo); Papeles y escritos de Francisco J. Peynado (1867-1933). Prócer de la Tercera República, 1994; Pensamiento y acción de los Padres de la Patria, 1995; Vicisitudes de Juan Pablo Duarte, 1998; and Trujillo. El tiranicidio de 1961, 2007. He is also the author of the essays Américo Lugo: el patriota olvidado, 1984; and Algunas reflexiones sobre la democracia dominicana, 1993. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic, a member of Instituto Duartiano, and a correspondent member of the Dominican Institute of Genealogy. He was the President of the Comisión Permanente de Efemérides Patrias (Standing Committee on National Celebrations). Since 1998 he has been a full member of the Dominican Academy of History and served as its Treasurer (2001-2004) and Secretary (2004-2007), as well as Vice President of its Board of Directors (2010-2013).

• Víctor (Ito) Bisonó Haza Bisonó Haza is the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Bisonó Haza, a prominent political figure in the Dominican Republic, was elected four times as Deputy for the National District between the years 2002 – 2020. During those periods, he also served as Chairman of the Commission on the Economy, Planning and Development, integrating the branches of Industry and Commerce together with that of Finance. Between 2003 and 2011, he was nominated twice as member of the National Council of the Magistracy, receiving the unanimous support of his colleagues in the Chamber.

He holds an outstanding record of achievements and is particularly notable with respect to current legislation.

Given his career achievements, he has received recognitions from the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD) and the American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic (AMCHAMDR), among other distinctions.

Since 2007, he has presided over the Center for Analysis for Public Policies (CAPP), a think tank focused on proposing reforms for the economy, defense, and politics. At the international level, he also chairs the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), a network that brings together legislators from around the world who are committed to the values ​​of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. He is the author of four books: Las Bases de la Nación, Visión de Nación, Reflexiones para una Transformación en la República Dominicana, and Mis Escritos (the last of which was published in 2020).

• Emilio José Brea

Brea was born on August 20, 1950, in San Francisco de Macorís, Duarte Province, Dominican Republic.

THE AUTHORS

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He was admitted to Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU) in 1967, and he transferred to the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) in 1969 to complete his architecture degree in 1980.

His graduate thesis was titled Santo Domingo. La Conservación de su Centro Histórico. He has been a professor at multiple universities, including: Universidad Central del Este (UCE); Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM); Altos de Chavón; Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE); Universidad Católica de Santo Domingo (UCSD); Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD); University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Rio Piedras Campus; and Universidad Católica Nordestana (UCNE). He has published works in Dominican newspapers including Listín Diario, El Nacional, Hoy, El Nuevo Diario, El Siglo, and Clave Digital. He has also been featured in magazines such as Ahora!, Arquitexto, Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana, El Leoncito and AD+.

Together with Víctor Duran he published Arquitectura Popular Dominicana and is the author of El Último Monumento, a critical study on the Columbus Lighthouse. He is a Founding Member of Sociedad de Arquitectos de la República Dominicana; a consultant at the United Nations Development Program: Plan Resure; a member of the National Fire Protection Association; and Vice President of the National Council on Urban Affairs. He was honored by the Caribbean Federation of Architects in 2002 and by Colegio Dominicano de Ingenieros, Arquitectos y Agrimensores (CODIA) in 2003. Together with Omar Rancier, he received the Henry Klumb Award from the Architects and Landscape Architects Association of Puerto Rico.

• Andrea Canepari

Andrea Canepari has been the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with Letter of Credence for Italy in the Dominican Republic since 2017 when he reopened the Embassy of Italy, inaugurating a new Diplomatic Chancery and a new Residence and resuming political, cultural, and economic relations. In 2018, he promoted a cultural year program with more than 120 events in conjunction with institutions, companies, universities, and local cultural centers to celebrate 120 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic.

In 2019, he spearheaded another cultural year program to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident bishop in Santo Domingo, the Italian Alessandro Geraldini. The celebrations of the two cultural years aimed to highlight the significant common history that Italy and the Dominican Republic share and to create new opportunities for future collaboration. Canepari is the Honorary President of the revamped Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, which now includes several prominent entrepreneurs from the Dominican Republic on its board of directors.

From 2013 to 2017, he was the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with consular jurisdiction for the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey (southern counties), North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. He has received numerous awards and more than 200 mentions from the press, radio, and television. In 2016 he received the 2016 “Global Philadelphia Award” biennial award from Temple University, awarded to those who stand out for their enhancement of international relations for the city of Philadelphia. He has been a part of numerous committees and commissions with the objective of consolidating the international status of the Philadelphia region through increasingly deeper cooperation between Italy and Europe, among which include: the Papal Event Committee (on the occasion of the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia in September of 2015); the Presidential Advisory Board of Jefferson University, facilitating the creation of the first medical degree recognized in both Italy and the United States; the Heart Ball Executive Leadership; the Board of Directors of Mid-Atlantic Division of the American Liver Foundation; Member of the Studio Incamminati, School of Contemporary Realist Art Board; Honorary Founding Member of “USA250,” the committee in charge of organizing the celebrations in Philadelphia for America’s 250th Anniversary in 2026; External Advisory Board Member for the Professional Science Master Degree Program in Bioinnovation, Department of Biology, Biotechnology Center College of Science and Technology, Temple University, Philadelphia; and the International Advisory Board of Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS of Pavia, Italy. He was Deputy for the North American Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2013 and the Dip-

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lomatic Adviser of the Under Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in 2010. From 2006 to 2010, he was the First Secretary of Political Affairs and Relations with the United States Congress at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C. From 2002 to 2006, he was the Chief of the Economic and Commercial Office at the Embassy of Italy in Ankara. His international decorations include: Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic; Knight of Magisterial Grace; Order of Malta (Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and Malta – SMOM); and the EUFOR Libya CSDP Service Medal for Planning and Support, awarded by the European Union.

He is co-editor of the book The Italian Legacy in Washington D.C.: Architecture, Design, Art, and Culture, published

by Skira in 2008. He is also co-editor of the book The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas, Temple University Press, 2021, and editor of the volume El legado italiano en República Dominicana: Historia, Architectura, Economía y Sociedad, Italian and Spanish editions, Umberto Allemandi, 2021, and North American edition, Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2021.

• Roberto Cassá

Cassá was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1948. He holds a bachelor’s degree in History from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a doctorate in History from the University of Seville. He is a professor at the Faculty of History at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, where he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus. He has been a professor at Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo and other higher education centers. He is a fellow at the Dominican Academy of History and the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic. He currently serves as the director of the Dominican National Archives and a researcher at the School of Humanities at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. His published books include: Historia social y económica de la república dominicana, 2 volumes, Santo Domingo, 1976 and 1978; Capitalismo y dictadura, Santo Domingo, 1982, Rebelión de los Capitanes. Viva el rey y muera el mal gobierno, Santo Domingo, 2012; and Antes y después del 27 de Febrero, Santo Domingo, 2016.

• Jesús D’Alessandro

MEXT Scholar, Ph.D. D’Alessandro is an architect, planner, and university professor. He is currently the head of the Office of Strategic Planning for the City of Santo Domingo and the Director of the School of Architecture of Universidad Iberoamericana, positions he has held since 2016 and 2018, respectively. In addition, he served as the Director of Transit and Urban Mobility for the City of Santo Domingo. In 2019, he received an award from the National Academy of Architecture of Mexico for his professional and academic work. In 2018, he was selected

by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the World Health Organization as the regional leader for the World Urban Forum 9 in Kuala Lumpur. D’Alessandro was born in Santo Domingo in 1978. In 2000, as an architecture student, he graduated summa cum laude from Universidad Iberoamericana in Santo Domingo, and was awarded the MEXT scholarship from Japan. From 2001 to 2005, he lived in Japan as a graduate student and received a master’s degree in Architecture and Planning from Mie University. In 2020, he completed his doctoral studies at Western Michigan University. He has published scientific articles on logic and architecture in journals of the Architectural Institute of Japan, and on collective memory in journals of Western Michigan University. His work on sustainable architecture, titled 150,000 PET Bottles, A Book on PET Bottles in Architecture, has been reviewed in the English magazine World Architecture News and in the publication of the Czech Technical University.

• Edoardo D’Angelo

D’Angelo is a full professor of Medieval Latin Philology at the University of Naples. He has written more than twenty monographs and approximately 120 scientific magazine articles. He has recently published essays on Antonio Geraldini, an Italian intellectual in the Court of Aragón, while most of his work has centered on

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Alejandro Geraldini, the first resident bishop of Santo Domingo (Itinerarium ad regines sub Equinoctiali plaga constitutas, Genoa 2017; Letters and Prayers, Rome 2018).

• Blanca Delgado Malagón

Delgado Malagón was born in La Vega, Dominican Republic, in 1946. She studied at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, and Universidad Civil de Salamanca (Spain).

For more than 30 years, she worked on a series of editorial projects on national issues along with Arístides Incháustegui. From 1993-1996, they were responsible for the Collection for the Sesquicentennial of National Independence, which published and reprinted approximately 40 volumes of Dominican works, including works by prominent historian Vetilio Alfau Durán en Clío, three volumes (1994), in Listín Diario, two volumes (1995) and in Anales (1997); the edition of the books Abigail Mejía: Obras escogidas, two volumes (1995); Epistolario de la familia Henríquez Ureña, two volumes (1996); and Lectures from International Week in honor of Pedro Henríquez Ureña on the fiftieth anniversary of his death, 1946-1996 (1996), among others. In 1997, they published the complete collection of Dominican Notebooks on Culture in eight volumes, as a Special Publication by the Reservas Bank of the Dominican Republic. In addition, they published the posthumous edition of La naturaleza dominicana (2006) in six volumes, which include all of the articles published in El Caribe by Félix Servio Ducoudray during the years 1978-1989. In 2014, she created the catalogue for the Biblioteca Arístides Incháustegui (BAI) library at the Dominican National Archives, composed of 592 pages, as the 207th Volume for that institution.

• Edwin Espinal Hernández

A practicing attorney and notary public, Espinal Hernández holds a law degree from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, as well as a master’s degree in Civil Procedure, a doctorate in Labor Law and Social Security, and a degree in University Instruction, awarded from the same university. He completed a graduate program in Copyright and Related Rights Legislation at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina and a degree program in Copyright and Related Rights Legislation at Universidad EAFIT in Medellin, Colombia. From 2002-2004, he held the position of Director of the National Copyright Office (ONDA). He is a professor of Intellectual Property at the Dominican Academy of History. He is the author of the following books on history and genealogy: Nosotros, la familia Pichardo Román, estudio genealógico (1990); Construyendo el progreso de Santiago Historia de la Asociación Cibao de Ahorros y Préstamos (1998); Santiago, la provincia más provincia: a 155 años de su creación (2000); Asociación para el Desarrollo, Inc. - 40 años, una historia (2001); De mi quehacer genealógico (2003); Historia social de Santiago de los Caballeros 1863-1900 (2005); Manuel de Jesús Tavares Portes en el centenario de su fallecimiento, 1906-2006 (which was awarded the Eduardo León Jimenes National Book Fair Prize in 2006); José Batlle Filbá: del Maresme catalán al Cibao dominicano (2007); and El Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración: historia y arquitectura (2008).

• Diego Alejandro Fernández Mena

Fernández Mena was born in San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic, in March 1976. From an early age he stood out academically and became part of a select group of secondary students honored as Young National Talent by the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo, as part of the nationwide program for the recognition and identification of outstanding students (PIES). He graduated from the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo as an electrical engineer; in addition, he received a dual MBA degree from the BARNA School of Business and the University of Barcelona. Diego Fernández lives with his family in La Romana, where he is passionate about the production of plants and the development of landscaping to create a greener world. In addition, during his free time he is also an editor of specialized media, with writings on social reality for digital media and on his love for poetry. He is known for his pro bono work and contributions to the welfare of the Italian community in the Dominican Republic carried out through the Committee for

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the Preservation of the Italian Embassy in Santo Domingo, and Casa de Italia, Inc., as well as his interest in enhancing commercial exchange between both countries as a member of the current the Board of Directors of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce.

• Virginia Flores Sasso

Flores Sasso was born in Santo Domingo. She received a degree in Architecture and graduated cum laude from Universidad Iberoamérica (UNIBE). She holds a doctorate in Architecture from Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia, Mexico and a master’s degree in Preservation of Monuments and Cultural Property from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU). She works as a researcher, teacher, and essayist. She is the Head Researcher (highest rank) at Carrera Nacional de Investigación funded by grants from the National Council of Higher Education, Science and Technology (CONESCYT) and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCyT). She conducts research on topics related to the history of construction, the history of the Caribbean, material science, preservation of patrimony, archeometry, sustainability, and energy efficiency. She has authored books and articles published in scientific journals, conference proceedings, and local newspapers, among other contributions. She has also presented dozens of communications, lectures, and conferences nationally and internationally. She is a reviewer for multiple indexed scientific journals at Scopus and WOS. She has been an adviser for doctoral dissertations and master’s and bachelor’s theses, as well as a dissertation evaluator. She is a member of Sociedad Española de Historia de la Construcción, The Construction History Society of United Kingdom, The Association for Preservation Technology International, International Scientific Committee for Vernacular Architecture, and a full member of the Gonzalo de Cárdenas Vernacular Architecture School, International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and (ICOM), as well as an associate at the Dominican Academy of History.

• Rolando Forestieri Sanabia

Forestieri Sanabia was born in Santo Domingo to an Italian father and Dominican mother. In 1973 he graduated with a doctorate in Political Science with a specialization in History from the University of Rome. He has been an active promoter of Greek and Italian culture in the Dominican Republic; in 1979, he founded Instituto Cultural Domínico Italiano, Inc. and, in 1990, Sociedad Dominicana de Estudios Helénicos, Inc. He established the Museum of Greece at the latter society, where he is both the director and owner. In 1989, along with seven other people he founded Casa de Italia, Inc., and since that time he has been the President of its Cultural Committee. As part of his cultural dissemination work, he has presented at various exhibitions and conferences and written a dozen publications on the aforementioned topics and on subjects related to political science.

In addition, along with other political scientist colleagues, he founded Asociación de Politólogos Dominicanos Inc. and Academia Dominicana de Ciencias Políticas, Inc., where he chaired the respective boards of directors between 1982-1984 and 2010-2016. He is a member of the Doctoral Council of the Dominican Republic and an associate at the Dominican Academy of History. He has received many awards, including decorations from the Presidency of Italy and the distinction of “Emeritus Professor” awarded by the University Council of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in 2010.

• Manuel Salvador Gautier Gautier was born in Santo Domingo on August 1, 1930. He studied architecture and graduated as an architectural engineer from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in 1955. He received his doctorate in architecture from the University of Rome, Italy, in 1960. He has written articles about architectural topics in Boletín del Museo de las Casas Reales, Revista CODIA, Revista GNA, ARQUITEXTO, and the newspaper La Noticia.

In 1993, he published the tetralogy Tiempo para heroes on the expedition of Constanza, Maimón, and Estero Hondo in 1959. He won the Annual Manuel de Jesús Galván Novel Award that year. In 1995, he published Toda la vida, which also won this award. In February 1999, he published Serenata. In January 2005, he present-

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ed seven stories in Historias para un buen día. In August 2005, his story “Urías” won second place in the Città de Viareggio international story and poetry contest in Italy, promoted by the Il Molo publishing house. His submission was translated into Italian. In October 2006, Ediciones Cedibil published his novel El asesino de las lluvias, which was translated into Italian by Maria Antonietta Ferro and published in 2007 by Giovane Holden Editori in Lucca, Italy. In 2009, Editorial Santuario published the novel Un árbol para esconder mariposas. In 2010, the same publishing house published the book of essays Gautier visto por Gautier and the novels Dimensionando a dios and La fascinación de la rosa. In December 2007, he was nominated as a Correspondent Member of Academia Dominicana de la Lengua, and a Correspondent of Real Academia Española de la Lengua. He presented a speech titled “La narrativa dominicana y las expresiones de la lengua (Dominican Narrative and Language Expressions)” upon his induction into the academy in January 2009. In 2018, he was awarded the Dominican National Literature Prize.

• Raymundo González

González was born in Santo Domingo in 1961. He received a degree in Economics at Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo in 1990, and an advanced studies diploma in Humanities through the Department of History of the Americas at the School of History and Geography of the University of Seville in 2003. He was the coordinator of the Social Sciences department at the Curriculum Administration Division of the Ministry of Education. He is a full member of the Dominican Academy of History and of the National Dominican Section of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History; a history adviser for the Dominican National Archives; and a professor at Instituto Superior de Formación Docente Salomé Ureña, at Instituto Filosófico Pedro Francisco Bonó, and at Centro de Estudios Institucionales de Teología. He has published: Bonó, un intelectual de los pobres, Santo Domingo, 1994; De esclavos a campesinos. Vida rural en Santo Domingo colonial, Santo Domingo, 2011; in collaboration with Roberto Cassá, Pedro San Miguel, and Michiel Baud, Política, ideología y pensamiento social en la república dominicana. Siglos xix y xx, Madrid, 1999.

• Víctor Manuel Grimaldi Céspedes

Grimaldi Céspedes’ paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Grimaldi Caroprese, arrived in the Dominican Republic after having fought in World War One (1914-1918). He was a decorated soldier who voluntarily fought in defense of Italy. He was born in Scalea, Consenza, on March 11, 1891. Víctor Manuel Grimaldi Céspedes was born in Santo Domingo on December 22, 1949. He has published a novel about Italian immigrants in the Caribbean, as well as books such as Golpe y Revolución, republished by Comisión Permanente de Efemérides Patrias (Standing Committee on National Celebrations). He served as the Controller General of the Dominican Republic and as an ambassador to the Holy See.

• Antonio J. Guerra Sánchez

Guerra Sánchez graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Civil Engineering from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (1968-1973). He received his master’s degree in Material and Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois (1973-1974), where he also completed his doctorate in Material and Structural Engineering (1974-1976). He has worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Materials Engineering and a part-time professor at the School of Engineering and Technology at both UNPHU and INTEC. He was the director of the engineering laboratory and a member of the academic committee at UNPHU. He has done research, written publications, and supervised graduate theses (over 150) related to concrete, structures, and materials. He is also a private contractor working on the construction of villas, hotels, supermarkets, movie theaters, schools, and hospitals. He has been a researcher at the Dominican National Archives (AGN) and has presented at conferences on genealogy and the history of Dominican Independence (the Trinitarios) at the Dominican National Archives, the Dominican Academy of History, Instituto Duartiano, the Senate of the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among other distinctions. He

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has written about genealogy in Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación, the review for the Dominican Academy of History, the press, and national and international journals. He is the president of the Board of Trustees for the Dominican National Archives.

• Myrna Guerrero Villalona

Guerrero Villalona was born in Santo Domingo in 1951. She is a historian, art critic, visual artist, consultant, cultural promoter, professor, and curator. She holds degrees from the School of Art at Universidad Acción Pro-Educación y Cultura; the University of Provence in Aix-en-Provence, France; Fundación Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Centro Latinoamericano y del Caribe para el Desarrollo Cultural in Caracas, Venezuela. Since 2012 she has been the director and curator at the Museo Bellapart. From 1999-2004 she was part of the team that designed and implemented the project for the Eduardo León Jimenes Cultural Center. She has been a professor of Art History at Instituto Superior Pedro Francisco Bonó since 2010, and she has taught at Pontificia Universidad Madre y Maestra for 15 years. She has also held multiple administrative positions at this institution. She is an active member of the Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Arte (AICA) and its national chapter (ADCA). She has published books including El Palacio de Bellas Artes 1956-2008; Aquiles Azar, pasión y fidelidad a la expresión en el dibujo; and Espacios de luz de Amaya Salazar. She is the coauthor of the publications Historia de la Bienal/La Bienal en la historia (1942-2015); Arte contemporáneo del Caribe. Mitos, creencias, religiones e imaginarios; Basílica Catedral de Santo Domingo; Trascendencia y esplendor. Colección permanente de arte de la Cámara de Diputados de la República Dominicana; and Arte Dominicano Joven: Márgenes, género, interacciones y nuevos territorios, among other works.

• Michael R. Hall

Michael R. Hall is Professor of Latin American History and U.S. Foreign Relations at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia. He earned a BA in History from Gettysburg College in 1983, an MA in International Studies from Ohio University in 1989, and a PhD in History from Ohio University in 1996. Prior to that, he served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1984 to 1987. He was a visiting professor at the Instituto Technológico de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 2001. Hall participated in a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Development Seminar in Brazil in 2002 and has been the director of more than a dozen study abroad programs in Latin America. He is a past president of the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS) and currently serves on that organization’s Executive Council. In addition, he is the associate editor in charge of book reviews for the association’s Journal of Global South Studies (JGSS). He served on the Editorial Advisory Board of ABC-CLIO’s multivolume Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (2009). Hall is the author of Sugar and Power in the Dominican Republic: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Trujillos (2000) and Historical Dictionary of Haiti (2012).

• Michael Kryzanek

Michael Kryzanek is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and currently Special Assistant to the President of Bridgewater State University for Global Engagement and University Priorities. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. From 2016-2019 Dr. Kryzanek was the Academic Director in the Public Management Institute for the U.S. State Department’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that brought 25 Fellows to the campus as Mandela Fellows. Dr. Kryzanek is formerly the Executive Director of the Minnock Center for International Engagement at Bridgewater State, where he led the university’s programs to expand global ties and international understanding. Dr. Kryzanek is currently involved in filming a series of presentations on the 2020 national elections in the United States. He is the author of eight books on U.S. foreign policy, American government, and comparative politics, including two books on the Dominican Republic. His latest book, written with his daughter Dr. Ann Karreth, is 25 Issues That Shape American Politics: Debates, Differences and Divisions.

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• Antonio Lluberes

Lluberes is a priest of the Society of Jesus, whose members are known as the Jesuits. He completed undergraduate studies in Philosophy at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; a degree in Theology at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; and a master’s degree in History at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He was a professor at Universidad Intec, Seminario Santo Tomas de Aquino, and Instituto Filosófico Bonó. He served as the Director of Instituto Filosófico Bonó, the journal Estudios Sociales, Radio Santa María, and Radio Fe y Alegría. He completed studies on the social history of tobacco and sugar, migration and economics in the Caribbean; the Revolution of 1857; the liberal constitutions of 1900 and 1916; and the history of the Church in the Spanish Caribbean. He is a correspondent member of the Dominican Academy of History.

• Félix Manuel Lora

Lora is a journalist, film critic, and researcher. He has worked in film journalism for different communication media. He directed the documentary Un rollo en la arena (2005), which brings together the most important considerations on film in the Dominican Republic. He has written two books on Dominican film: Encuadre de una identidad audiovisual (2007), which analyzes the evolution of the audiovisual media in the country in all of its forms, and Cine Dominicano en la Mira: Catálogo 1963-2014, algunos comentarios al margen (2015), a book which evaluates Dominican film production. He has given talks on Dominican film in his homeland and abroad, and he has also served as a member of the evaluating commitees at international film festivals such as Latitud Cero Ecuador (2013) and Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI) (2014). He is a professor of Audiovisual Communication and Cinematographic Arts at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra and Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo. He is a film critic for the TV program El Despertador, the digital portal acento.com.do, and for his own Dominican film portal cinemadominicano.com. He chairs the Asociación Dominicana de Prensa y Crítica Cinematográfica (Adopresci).

• Danilo Manera

Born in Alba in 1957, Danilo Manera is an Italian author, translator, and critic. He is a professor of Spanish literature at the University of Milan, where he is also the Director of the “Marcio Veloz Maggiolo” Department of Dominican Studies. He is the author of dozens of articles and essays, and he has prepared Italian editions by many Spanish and Latin-American authors, as well as anthologies on Dominican, Cuban, Canarian, Basque, Galician, Colombian, Chilean, Haitian, and Equatorial Guinean stories and poems. He is the coordinator of the manual Letteratura spagnola contemporanea (Milan, Pearson, 2020), director of the Rotte a ponente Hispanic narrative collection from the Robin publishing house of Rome, and director of the digital magazine for Iberian studies Tintas. His most recent novel is called Lamalasantísima (Rome, Elliot, 2019).

• Rosa Manfredonia

Manfredonia was born in Gragnano, Naples, in 1978. She is currently a professor of Literature at the state secondary school, and she primarily works in Medieval Latin Hagiography. She is the author of volumes and essays in multiple international scientific journals, including: Dossier hagiográfico del siglo XV sobre S. Giacomo della Marca, 2007; La Passione di Felice martire, vescovo di Nola (BHL 2869), edited by R. Manfredonia-E. D’Angelo, Florence 2013; Hagiografía Latina del Sur Continental y Sicilia (1266-1442), in Hagiografías VI, edited by G. Philippart and M. Goullet, Turnhout 2014; L’auctoritas del viaggiatore. La praefatio del Itinerario de Alessandro Geraldini, in Auctor et Auctoritas in Latinis Medii Aevi Litteris, Florence 2014; De Umbría al Mediterráneo y al Atlántico. Alessandro Geraldini, Itinerarium ad regiones subequinoctiali plaga constitutas, edited by E. D’Angelo (Italian translation and notes) and R. Manfredonia (text and critical apparatus), Genoa 2017; and I miracoli di Ludovico d’Angiò: una ricognizione critica, in Da Ludovico d’Angiò a San Ludovico di Tolosa. Los textos y las imágenes, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studio (Napoli-S. Maria Capua Vetere, November 3-5, 2016) for the VII centenary of

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canonization (1317-2017). She has been collaborating with the International Society for the Study of Medieval Latin Culture (SISMEL) and writing about the Latin Middle Ages since 2004; she has been a member of Centro Studi Santa Rosa da Viterbo since 2019.

• Celso Marranzini Pérez

Marranzini Pérez has a degree in Economics, with a specialization in Cost Control and concentration in Plastic Materials Processing. In the private sector, he has served as the president of several local companies, including: Multiquímica Dominicana, SA; Global Pack, SRL; TMQ Dominicana, SA; Penny’s; RSL; and Inverlogic, SRL. He has worked as a business representative in the country for the stores Baker’s, Naturalizer, Kenneth Cole, EPK, Gef and Punto Blanco. He was president of MPB Multivalores Puesto de Bolsa S.A. In the Latin America region, he served as president of the companies Multiquímica Centroamericana in Guatemala and Farmoquímica in Costa Rica.

He is the first deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Asociación Dominicana de Rehabilitación, a non-profit and pioneer in the Dominican Republic for the comprehensive rehabilitation of individuals with congenital or acquired physical and intellectual disabilities, with 33 care facilities located throughout the country.

He also heads the board for the Development of Major Donors of Habitat LAC; he is a member of the board of directors of Habitat International and of the Habit Circle of Leaders in the Dominican Republic. He is a housing advocate in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He is currently the President of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the board of directors of Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM); a board member of Fundación Sur Futuro; a board member of Fundación Institucionalidad y Justicia (FINJUS); a board member on the Crime Prevention council; and a member of the board of directors of the Dominican Association of Free Zones (ADOZONA).

Previously, he served as president of the following associations: Acción para la Educación Básica (EDUCA); the National Paint Asociación; the National Council of the Private Enterprise (CONEP); Asociación Nacional de Industrias de la República Dominicana (AIRD); and Asociación Industrias de Haina (AIEHAINA). He is also a former member of the National Ethics Commission.

Marranzini Pérez is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the National Competitiveness Council of the Dominican government. In other government positions, he served as the Secretary of State and Executive Vice President of the Dominican Corporation of State Electrical Companies (CDEEE) from 2009 to 2012; President of the board of Edesur, Edenorte and Edeeste during the period 2010 to 2012; and President of the board of directors of the Dominican Electricity Corporation from 1996 to 1998.

During the course of his career, Marranzini Pérez has received the following honors: the Industrialist of the Year award as part of the 2004 Industrial Excellency Awards; “Industrial Exporter Award, 2011” from ADOEXPO; Honorary Rotarian; and the Paul Harris Fellow award.

• Arturo Martínez Moya

Martínez Moya was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 1949. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, a master’s in Economics and a master’s in Political Economics (MAPE) from Boston University, and a doctorate in History from the University of Seville in Spain. He is a national correspondent member of the Dominican Academy of History. He was granted the José Gabriel García History Award in 2011. He is a professor of Dominican Economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, and at the Center for Caribbean Studies of this same university as part of the master’s and doctorate programs. He teaches Economics of the Caribbean I and II, and Comparative Economics of Plantation in the Hispanic, French, English and Dutch Caribbean I and II. He is the author of the books Inflación y estancamiento, 1989; La caña da para todo: Estudio histórico cuantitativo del desarrollo azucarero dominicano (1500-1930), 2011; and Crecimiento Económico Dominicano (1844-1950), 2014. He has also written

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essays on history published in the Clío journal of the Dominican Academy of History and articles and essays on macroeconomics in national and international magazines. He is a weekly columnist in the daily newspaper Hoy, where he has published hundreds of articles on economics and history. He has held technical positions at the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic and in the public sector—as Minister of State without Portfolio, Minister of Industry and Commerce, President of the Dominican Oil Refinery, and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank.

• Jeannette Miller

Miller is a poet, storyteller, essayist, and art historian. She was born on August 2, 1944, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She received a degree in Literature at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo where she taught courses. She has also taught at Universidad Central del Este, at the National School of Fine Arts, at Seminario Arquidiocesano Santo Tomás de Aquino seminary, and at Instituto Bonó (Society of Jesus).

She studied Spanish Language and Literature in Madrid at Instituto de Cultura Hispánica and at Complutense University, where she took classes with Gonzalo Torrente Ballester and Carlos Bousoño. She also attended Instituto León XIII and studied Museology and Art with Professor Donald B. Goddall under the patronage of the Southern Consortium for International Education. She is a salient figure from the so-called Generación del 60 poetry movement, and was part of the Art and Liberation Movement (1962). In 2000, she was the Director of the ESPACIOS Cultural Supplement of the El Caribe newspaper, and she is a member of the Dominican Academy of History. She has published more than 50 works, and she has served as a juror at national and international literature and visual arts competitions. She has received multiple awards, including the United Nations National Theater Research and Women’s Legal Committee Award (1975); the Eduardo León Jimenes National Book Fair Prize for her book Importancia del contexto histórico en el desarrollo del arte dominicano (2007); the José Ramón López Story Award National (2010); and the National Literature Award, sponsored by Fundación Corripio and the Ministry of Culture (2011). Her work has been translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and German.

• Gustavo Luis Moré

Moré was born in Santo Domingo in 1956. He is of Italian-Dominican descent. He studied architecture at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña (UNPHU) in Santo Domingo, and graduated in 1979. He completed a specialization course in Monument Restoration in Florence, Italy, in 1980. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florida in the United States, and a CIES Scholar at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and at the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico. He has won numerous architectural and urban design contests and has worked on significant public and private sector projects. He has served as editor of Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana magazine since 1996, and is the author of multiple prize-winning books on the architecture of the Greater Caribbean and the Dominican Republic. He is a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the founder of DoCoMoMo Dominicano, and has taught at Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), University of Miami, and Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña (UNPHU), where he was the director of the Architecture and Urban Planning department.

• Alba Mizoocky Mota López

Mizoocky Mota López received a degree in Architecture from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU) and a master’s in Landscape Architecture and Sustainability from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV). She is a member of the global network of IUAV Academics Abroad and a speaker and researcher on topics related to sustainable urban planning, urban resilience, landscape architecture, territorial planning and citizen participation. She has been a professor of design, urban planning, architecture, and sustainability and a thesis adviser at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU). She

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has taught as a professor at UNIBE and UCE, and served as the general coordinator of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU). She has held public administration positions such as Territorial Analyst II at the General Directorate for Land Use and Development at the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development. She is a local consultant for the Plazas de Bolsillo project in Ciudad Juan Bosch and Barrio Nuevo Renacer in Santo Domingo Este for the Inter-American Development Bank, the Ministry of the Presidency, the Ayuntamiento Municipal de Santo Domingo Este, and Ciudad de Bolsillo. She is a fellow from the CELFI graduate program of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Productive Innovation of the Argentine Government.

• Frank Moya Pons

Moya Pons received his doctorate in Latin American History and Economic Development at Columbia University in New York. He was President of the Dominican Academy of History from 2010 to 2013. He has taught as a professor of Latin American History at Columbia University; History of the Caribbean at the University of Florida; Dominican History at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; and served as Director of Research at the Institute of Dominican Studies at The City College of New York (CUNY). His published books include: La Española en el siglo xvi, 1971; La dominación haitiana, 1972; Historia colonial de Santo Domingo, 1973; Manual de historia dominicana, 1977; El pasado dominicano, 1986; Pioneros de la banca dominicana, 1989; Políticas de industrialización y sustitución de importaciones en la República Dominicana, 1992; Mapa en relieve de cobertura y uso del suelo de la República Dominicana, 2001; Breve historia contemporánea de la República Dominicana, 2001; Doctrina y políticas de medio ambiente y recursos naturales, 2004; Atlas de los recursos naturales de la República Dominicana, 2004; La otra historia dominicana, 2008; Historia del Caribe, 2008; Historia de la República Dominicana, 2010; El Oro en la historia Dominicana (2016); Otras miradas a la historia dominicana (2017); Rica. 50 años de historia (2018); Infraestructuras (2019); and Geografía histórica dominicana (2019).

• Francisco Ozoria Acosta

In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Ozoria Acosta as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Santo Domingo.

He studied philosophy at Pontificia Universidad Madre y Maestra in Santiago de los Caballeros. He completed his theology studies at Pontificio Seminario Mayor Santo Tomás de Aquino seminary in Santo Domingo.

He was ordained a priest on September 2, 1978, and was assigned to work in the Vocations Ministry of San Francisco de Macorís; he served as Director of the Diocesan Work of Priestly Vocations, and Vice-rector and Trainer of the Minor Seminary Holy Cure of Ars, La Vega (1978-1981). He was appointed as priest for the María Madre de la Iglesia parish, in San Francisco de Macorís (1981-1988), and Vicar of Pastoral. He was also pastor of San José la Bomba de Cenoví, San Juan Bautista de Pimentel, and Santa Ana Cathedral.

In 1988, Msgr. Ozoria Acosta was sent to Rome to complete a specialization in Pastoral Theology at Pontifical Lateran University. Upon his return from Rome (1990) he worked at the Pontificio Seminario Mayor Santo Tomás de Aquino seminary as a trainer and professor of Pastoral Theology. Since 1992, he has served as the priest for the parishes of Santísima Trinidad (Nagua), San Francisco de Asís in El Factor (Nagua), and Santiago Apóstol de Arroyo al Medio.

On February 1, 1997, upon the creation of the Diocese of San Pedro de Macorís, he was appointed as its first bishop by Pope John Paul II. He received his Episcopal ordination on March 15 of that same year, and during the celebration of his appointment he took canonical possession of his diocese.

• Alejandro Paulino Ramos

Ramos was born in San Francisco de Macorís on May 15, 1951. He holds a bachelor’s degree in History from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, where he also received a master’s degree. He is a specialist in librarianship, and for 30 years he ran the Dominican Section of the Central Library of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. He is a correspondent member of the Dominican Academy of History. He was

THE AUTHORS

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the Assistant Director of the Dominican National Archives (2011-2017). He also has a specialization in History of the Caribbean from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Flacso). His published books include: Las ideas marxistas en la República Dominicana (1985); Vida y obra de Ercilia Pepín (1987); Historia de la primera biblioteca universitaria de Santo Domingo (1997); Diccionario del folklore y la cultura dominicana (2006); Censos municipales del siglo XIX y otras estadísticas de población (2008); El Paladión: de la ocupación militar norteamericana a la dictadura de Trujillo (2010); Mauricio Báez (2012); Bachata y son en la historia musical dominicana (2017); Los intelectuales y la intervención militar norteamericana, 1916-1924 (2017); and La Comisión Nacionalista y la ocupación americana de 1916 (2017).

• Sandro Parrinello

Parrinello is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the University of Pavia. He completed a doctorate degree in Representation and Relief Sciences Research and holds a doctorate degree in European Research. He has been a visiting professor since 2012 at Perm National Research Polytechnic University (Russia), and in 2015 he received an honorary degree from the State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture of Odessa (Ukraine). Since 2005 he has been a member of the UNESCO Forum with the rank of expert; in 2011 he was appointed as an expert and voting member as the contact person for Italy on the ICOFORT International Scientific Committee (ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Fortifications and Military Heritage). In 2016 he was a Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic University of Krakow (Poland), and in 2017 he received his National Scientific Degree as a Full Professor. He is the Director of the DADA Lab laboratory and the head of the collective “Landscape Survey & Design” laboratory at the University of Pavia. He is responsible for numerous national and international research projects; he is a member of the editorial boards of international scientific journals and series and has organized multiple international conferences on the documentation of patrimony.

• Esteban Prieto Vicioso

Prieto Vicioso holds a PhD in Architecture. He is an architect, researcher, and university professor, specializing in Architectonic Conservation at the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome. He received a master’s degree in Monuments Conservation from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU) and a PhD in Architecture in Mexico. He was the Director of the Office of Cultural Patrimony from 1986 to 1996. He is currently the Coordinator and Rector of Centro de Altos Estudios Humanísticos y del Idioma Español, the Director of the Office of Works and Museums for the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, and a researcher for Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU). He is a founding member and honorable member of the Dominican Committee of ICOMOS, where he was the president from 1986 to 1996 and the global vice president from 1993 to 1999. He has restored multiple buildings in the Colonial City sector of Santo Domingo and has been an adviser for the Organization of American States (OAS), the World Heritage Center of UNESCO, ICOMOS, and the Getty Foundation, among other organizations. He has published works on topics related to: Indigenous architecture in Hispaniola, vernacular and popular architecture, historical fortifications, the history of construction, and the restoration of the Basilica Cathedral of Santo Domingo, among other subjects. He is a member of the National Association of Researchers in Science, Technology and Innovation and a correspondent member of the Dominican Academy of History.

• Milton Ray Guevara

Ray Guevara was born in Samaná Province. He holds a doctorate in Public Law, magna cum laude from the University of Nice, France; a degree in Law, summa cum laude, from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM); an advanced studies degree in Comparative Law, cum laude, from the International School of Comparative Law in Strasbourg, France; an advanced studies degree in Social Law from Paris-Sorbonne University, France; a degree in Comparative Labor Law, magna cum laude, from the International School of

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Trieste, Italy; a degree in Comparative Banking Law from the School of Banking Law in Barcelona, Spain; Certificates of International Studies with cum laude honors from the Institute of the Law of Peace and Development in Nice, France; and a degree from the Program on Public International Law from the Academy of International Law, The Hague, Netherlands. He is currently the Presiding Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic, appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary on December 21, 2011. His published works include: Doctrina Jurídica Dominicana: un aporte personal, Opinión Constitucional, Ambiente Conceptual por una Legislación de Grupos Financieros Bancarios, Por un Samaná Mejor para un País Mejor.

• Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi

Rodríguez Demorizi was born in Sánchez on April 14, 1906. He was an attorney and the president at various organizations, including: the Dominican Academy of History (where he held this position from 1955 until the day he died), the Ayuntamiento del Distrito Nacional, and the Dominican Society of Geography, of which he was the founder. He held various positions starting in the 1940s, including Minister Plenipotentiary in Colombia and in Italy; the Ambassador to Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Spain; three-time Director of the Dominican National Archives; State Secretary for the Interior; Rector of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo; and the State Secretary of Education and Fine Arts. He created the Fundación Rodríguez Demorizi foundation, and he was a member of various Spanish and Latin American institutions. He was awarded multiple prizes in many contests, including the National Literature competition, the Miguel de Cervantes competition, and the Award from the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic for some of his works. Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi published more than 100 works, including: Poesía Popular Dominicana; Juan Isidro Pérez, el ilustre loco; El cantor del Niágara en Santo Domingo; Luperón y Hostos; Camino de Hostos; Del Romancero Dominicano; La imprenta y los primeros periódicos de Santo Domingo; La tertulia de los Solterones; Samaná: pasado y porvenir; La Marina de Guerra Dominicana; Música y Baile en Santo Domingo; Dominicanidad de Pedro Henríquez Ureña; Seudónimos Dominicanos; La Constitución de San Cristóbal; Cesión de Santo Domingo a Francia; Lengua y Folklore en Santo Domingo; and Riqueza mineral y agrícola de Santo Domingo.

• Federico Guillermo Rodríguez Vicini

Rodríguez Vicini is a Dominican-Italian citizen residing in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

He underwent his primary and high school studies from 1952 to 1963 at Colegio De La Salle; attended Saint Michaels College in Burlington, Vermont, U.S. from 1963 to 1965; and received his doctorate in Law in 1970 from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, which he attended from 1965 to 1970. He speaks Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He is a member of multiple business institutions. From 1998-2000 he was the vice president of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, while from 1994-1996 he was a founding member, active member, and a member of the board of directors. In October 1993, he was a lecturer at the Milan Chamber of Commerce, and in November 1997, he was a delegate for the Worldwide Convention of Italian Chambers of Commerce (Assocamerestero) in Bari, Italy. He served as the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce delegate to the 69th Feria Campionaria de Modena; a delegate at the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce convention in Parma, Italy, in 2004; and a host of the Italian Parliamentary delegation that visited the Dominican Republic presided by the Deputy Secretary of State for Public Service, Senator Learco Saporito. He has been decorated by the Republic of Italy with the following awards: (1) The Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, with the rank of Commander, Rome, Italy, June 2, 1999, granted by the President of the Italian Republic, His Excellency Carlo Azeglio Ciampi; (2) The Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, with the rank of Commander, Rome, Italy April 22, 2008, granted by the President of the Italian Republic, His Excellency Giorgio Napolitano; and (3) The Order of the Star of Italy, with the rank of Grand Officer, Rome, Italy, May 30, 2019, granted by the current President of the Italian Republic, His Excellency Sergio Mattarella.

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• José Luis Sáez Ramo

Father Sáez Ramo, Society of Jesus, was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1937. He has been a Dominican citizen by naturalization since 1966. He completed his university studies in Santo Domingo (two years of Economics and Finance) and at Fordham University (New York City), where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1965. Afterward, at Woodstock College (Woodstock, Maryland) he obtained in 1970 and 1972 respectively a bachelor’s degree in Divinity and a master’s degree in Sacred Theology. He collaborated on the writing and publishing of the Diccionario Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús, a collective work published in Rome (2003). Since 1979, he has been a professor of Iconography at the Department of Social Communication of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. Since 1999 he has been a full member of the Dominican Academy of History, and he currently serves as the secretary on its board of directors. Since his appointment in January 2003, he has also been the Managing Director of the Historical Archives of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo. He has published seven works in the field of Social Communication, 16 titles on the History of the Dominican Church, and more than 60 historical essays in books and specialized national and international journals, including: Los jesuitas en la república dominicana, two volumes, 1988-1990; La iglesia y el negro esclavo en Santo Domingo, 1994; Cinco siglos de la iglesia en Santo domingo. Panorama general, 1995; Documentos de la provincia eclesiástica de Santo Domingo.

1504-1994, 1998; La formación sacerdotal en Santo Domingo, desde el Concilio de Trento a la fundación de la República, 1999; and La expulsión de los jesuitas de Santo Domingo. 1766-1767, 2006.

• Mu-Kien Adriana Sang Ben

Sang Ben was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, in 1958. She received a bachelor’s degree in Education at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in 1978. She completed her graduate studies on Adult Education at Centro de Cooperación Regional para la Educación de los Adultos en América Latina y el Caribe (CREFAL) in Mexico in 1978. She received a doctorate in History from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, France, in 1985. For several years she has worked in both teaching and administrative positions, including: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, where she was the Executive Director of the Office of Development; Communications and Information Officer for the United Nations Program in the Dominican Republic; and at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santo Domingo campus, where she was the Executive Director of the Project for the Support of Democratic Initiatives sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development. She currently serves as the Director of the Department of Education, and is a coordinator in the History department and a professor of History at PUCMM. She is also a full member of the Dominican Academy of History and served as the President of its board of directors from 2016-2019. She has published the following works: Ulises Heureaux. Biografía de un dictador, Santo Domingo, 1987; Buenaventura Báez, el caudillo del sur, 1844-1879, Santo Domingo, 1991; Una utopía inconclusa. Espaillat y el liberalismo dominicano del siglo xix, Santo Domingo, 1997; Historia dominicana ayer y hoy, Santo Domingo, 1999; La política exterior dominicana, 1844-1961, Santo Domingo, 2000, with the collaboration of Walter Cordero and Neicy Zeller; and La política exterior dominicana, 1961-1974, Santo Domingo, 2002.

• Renzo Seravalle

Seravalle was born in Santa Fiora, Italy, and resides in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is a civil engineer and studied at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy. He is a Knight and Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. He is currently the Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President of the Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce; the President of the Lion’s Club San Gerónimo; President of the Artisanal Committee and President of the board of directors for Fundación Dominicana de Desarrollo (FDD); the President of the Archdiocesan Council and National President of the Christian Family Movement (CFM); President of the Union of Apostolic Movements of Santo Domingo (UNAMA); President of the board of directors for Instituto de la Familia (IDEFA); President of the board of directors of Centro de Educación a Distancia (CENAPEC); member of the board of directors of Centro Pro Educación y Cultura, APEC; member of Asociación La Hora

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De Dios; member and collaborator for the Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) Home School Association; member of the Italian Center; member of the Italian Academy of Cuisine; member of the Santo Domingo Country Club, Club Deportivo Naco, Club Náutico de Santo Domingo and the Santo Domingo Tennis Club; member of Comitato Italiani all´Estero, (Il Com.it.es); and President of the board of directors of Casa de Italia.

He is a Commander for the Order of the Star of Italy.

• Giancarlo Summa

An Italian journalist and political scientist, Summa has worked professionally in Latin America for more than three decades. He is the author of essays and articles on politics and communications published in several countries. He completed a master’s degree in Latin American Studies at University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, and he is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Since 2016 he has been the Director of the United Nations Information Center for Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, headquartered in Mexico City. He has been compiling documents and information for many years on the history of Ilio Capozzi.

• Bernardo Vega

Vega is the author of 34 books on Dominican history, six of which have won national awards. An additional two have been published in Europe. As an archeologist, he was the director of the Museum of Dominican Man, and he is the author of seven books on archeology. He graduated as an economist from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and he worked at the Dominican Central Bank for a period of 14 years as an economic adviser to its Governor, a senior member of the Monetary Board, and ultimately as its Governor. He has represented the country at multiple international economic conferences. He was the President of the Dominican Academy of History and the Dominican Society of Bibliophiles, as well as senior executive for the Dominican Cultural Fundación, a publishing house with more than 40 years of history publishing the works of Dominican and foreign authors. He was a professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. He was the Ambassador to the White House and the director of the newspaper El Caribe; he also presided over the INTEC board of regents. In 2016, he went to Columbia University as a visiting professor.

• Wenceslao Vega Boyrie

Vega Boyrie is a retired lawyer and notary. He is an academic at the Dominican Academy of History, and he served as a Member of its Board of Directors during the 2001-2004 period. He is a former Law History Professor at the Catholic University of Santo Domingo (UCSD) and winner of the 1979 Siboney Award for his essay titled “History of the Dominican Colonial Law” and the 1986 National History award for “History of the Dominican Judicial Power.”

• Julia A. Vicioso

Vicioso is a historian and Dominican diplomat at the United Nations agencies in Rome. She graduated from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo with a degree in Architecture in 1983, with her first thesis on the History of Architecture from this university. She received a master’s degree and a doctorate in History and Monument Conservation at Sapienza University of Rome. She has worked in diplomacy, paleography and archival studies at the Vatican, and in conservation at Istituto Centrale per il Restauro in Rome. She has been a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation - Latin America and Caribbean Fellow, and a recipient of the Samuel H. Kress Post-Graduate Research Fellowship, among other distinctions. She is a historian for the San Giovanni dei Fiorentini basilica church in Rome, and a member of the Medici Archive Project Council in Florence and of The International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome.

Index of names

Abad, José Ramón 404-405, 426 n Abinader Corona, Luis 11, 22, 28, 36, 175, 205-206, 487, 493, 498 Abramo, Giovanni 66 Abreu, Antonio Garrido 58 Abreu, Avelino 295 Abreu Herrera, Jerónimo Tomás 354 Abreu Licairac, Rafael 329 Abreu Penzo, María Mercedes 84 Acelli, Pedro A. 77 Acevedo, Agustín 96 n Acevedo, Octavio 405 Acevedo Rodríguez, María Casimira 63 Acosta, Federico 69 n Acosta, Juan Alejandro 45 Adames Rodríguez, Roque 354 Adani, Mariella 370 Adenauer, Konrad 230 Adróver de Cibrán, Belkiss 342, 344 Agostini, Cesare 75 Agostini, Quilico 75 Ailly, Pierre de 103 Airaldi, Gabriella 11, 29, 199 n Aizpún, Inés 457 Alario Sarubbi, Rosina 64 Alberti, Leon Battista 253-254 Alberti, Luis 359 Alberti Alfonseca, José Narciso 467 Albini, Franco 291 Albrecht, Benno 303 Alcántara, Virgilio 457 Alcocer, Gerónimo de 256 Aleotti, Attilio 331 Alejandro VI, Pope (Rodrigo de Borja) 121 Alfani Tellini, Ines 373 Alfano, Angelino 176, 204 Alfau Bustamante, Antonio 54 Alfau (Alfau Bustamante), Felipe 54, 68 n

Alfau Durán, Vetilio 98 n, 501 Alfau Sánchez, María de Belén 54, 317, 455 Alfieri, Francesco 397 Alfieri, Vittorio 153 n Alfonseca, Juan Bautista 360, 376 Alfonso de Santo Domingo 122 Alighieri, Dante 325 Alix, Juan Antonio (Juaneto Antonieto Alixete) 75, 98 n Allemandi, Umberto 19, 36, 191 Alonso Vicini, Raquel Altagracia 467, 471 Alterio, Cosimo 60 Alterio Cerosueli/Gerasuoli, Nicolás 60, 70 n, 388 Alterio Gesualdi, Vincenzina Maria Luisa 63 Alterio Guerrero, family 60 Altieri, Giuseppe 71 n Álvarez, Ángel 34 Álvarez, David 185 Álvarez, Heriberto 201 Álvarez, Roberto 28, 33-34, 36, 175, 191, 197 n, 198 n, 199 n, 205-206, 207 n, 491, 497 Álvarez, Soledad 198 n Álvarez Arias, María Eneria 64 Ávila, Juan de 254 Alvino, Ulises 71 n Ambrosio, Elena 373 Amco, Colombina 98 n Amechazurra, Juan 384 Amiama Tió, Fernando 168 Amparo Inoa, María del 93 n Anacaona, indigenous chief 321 Andreotti, Giulio 230 Andreu, Bruno 96 n Andreu, Celia 96 n Andreu de Castro, Rita Adelaida 85, 96 n Andújar Bove, family 59 Angelelli, Carlo 369 Ángeles (Ángeles Fernández), Benito/Ramón Benito 29, 190 Angelini, Alessandra 129

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Anjou, House of 105 Antigua, Cynthia 24 Antonelli, Battista 44, 242-244, 248 Antonelli, family 31, 239, 240-241 Antonio de los Ángeles Custodios 321 Anzelotti, family 84 Anzelotti, Vito 96 n, 97 n Anzelotti Contín, América 97 n Anzelotti Contín, José Reinaldo 97 n Anzelotti Contín, María Ana Italia 97 n Anzelotti Contín, Patria 97 n Anzelotti Contín, Roma Altagracia 97 n Anzelotti Contín, Víctor Vicente 97 n Anzelotti Cosentino, family 84, 388 Anzelotti Cosentino, Pascual 97 n Anzelotti Cosentino, Vicente 82, 88-89, 97 n Anzelotti González, Marlon 99 n Aprili, family 254 Aquino, Guarionex 368 Aquino Valdez, María Antonia 61 Aragón y de Jonqueras, Juan de 254 Second Count of Ribagorza Arata, José Francisco 198 n Arcangeletti, Elida 221 Archetti, Stefano 66 Archetti Bonardi, Giovanni 66 Archigram, architectural studio 291 Arias Álvarez, Desiderio 64 Arbino, Daniel 321 Aristi, Trinidad 95 n Aristi/Aristy Guerrero, María de Regla 338 n, 453 Aristy Méndez, Ofelia 61 Ariza, Miriam 361 Ariza Janse, Miguel 467 Ariza Lapuente, Dilia 57, 467 Arjona López, Gregorio 52 Arjona Ramos, Ignacia 52, 461 n Arjona Ramos, Ramona 52 Armintano, Teresa 97 n Arnaldi, Germano 362, 372 Arnao, Margherita 60 Arrighini, Enrico 263, 347 Arrighini, Luca 347 Arrighini, Nicola 331, 337, 341, 346-351, 356 Arrocha, Osvaldo 408 Artale Gnolfo, Giovanni 83 Arzeno, family 332, 338 n Arzeno, Sebastián 79, 338 n Arzeno Tavárez, Rafael 332 Atiles, Julián 456 Aubert, Francisco 68 n Augusto, Franz 467 Auñon, Tomás 270 Avram, Chris 377 Aybar, Arcadio 359 Aymonino, Carlo 297-298 Azar, Olga 368

Azar Billini, Aquíles 333 Bacchiani, Francisco 75, 97 n Bacci, Domizia 186 Bader, Ghaleb 153, 174, 183, 479 Badoglio, Pietro 225 n Báez, Buenaventura 160, 165, 341, 382, 454 Báez, Carlos 427 n Báez, Héctor 337 Báez Figueroa, Ramón 457 Báez López-Peña, José Ramón (Moncito) 269-270, 297 Báez Risk, Gabriel 297 Báez-Romano, family 58 Báez Trifilio, family 61 Baher Cabral, Purísima Concepción 467 Bahuaud, François 366, 368 Balaguer, Joaquín 95 n, 168, 346, 349-350, 352, 355, 434-435, 438, 444, 474, 482 Balbuena, Rosa Delia 89 Balcácer, Ada 476 Balcácer, Carlos 476 Balcácer, Juan Daniel 30, 498 Balcácer, Marian 336 Baldisseri, Angelo Pietro 59 Baldisseri Magnani, Agostino 59 Baldoni, Maria 67 Balmaseda, Juan de 254 Balzarotti, Enrico 408, 412 Bancalari, family 81 Bancalari, Bartolomé 82 Bancalari, Giovanni/Juan 57, 69 n Bancalari Bruno, Bartolo 57, 69 n Bancalari Gisbert, Juan 57 Baquero Ricart, Manuel 294-295 Barbarich, Alberto 170 Bardi, Francisco de 41 Bardi Visconti, Palmira 62 Barkhausen, Hermann 214 Barletta, family 401 Barletta, Filomena 61, 70 n Barletta, Giuseppe 61, 70 n Barletta, Miguel 12, 30, 188, 198 n, 207 n, 397 Barletta (Barletta Barletta), Amedeo/Amadeo 11, 30, 61-62, 71 n, 77, 173, 213-215, 267, 389-390, 473 Barletta Barletta, Antonio 61-62 Barletta Barletta, Raffaele 61, 70 n Barletta Barletta, Vincenzo 61, 71 n Barletta de Añasco, family 71 n Barletta Rainieri, family 433 Barón Del Giudijo de Marchena, Pedro 64 Barragán, Luis 291 Barrella, Miguel (Michele) 86, 98 n Barrella, Nicolás 86, 98 n Barrera Steinkopf, Adelina Mercedes 219 n Barroso, Javier 236 Barruos Álvarez, Josefa (Niní) 64 Barruos Álvarez, Vicenta Teresa 64

Barthe, Alessandro Eugenio 405, 412 Bartlow Martin, John 482 Basanelli, Maria Antonia 93 n Bass, Alexander 385 Bass, William 385 Basso, Antonio 106 Bastiani, Anna 66 Bastidas, Rodrigo de 252, 254 Bautista, Sonia 302 Beato, Ana Beatriz 371 Bechi, Gino 373 Beauregard Troncoso, María Dolores 59 Bejarán, Miguel 180 Bellini, Giovanni (Juan) Antonio 155 Bello Andino, Rafael 474 Belardinelli, Danilo 365-366, 372 Benardi, Luigi 301 Benedetti, Sandro 300 Benedetto, Maria 54 Benedictus XV, Pope (Giacomo Paolo G. B. della Chiesa) 262 Benevolo, Leonardo 298 Benlliure, Mariano 344 Bentz Castán, Zaida Carolina 81 Benzoni, Girolamo 44 Berardi, Giannotto/Juanoto 41-42 Beras (Beras Rojas), Octavio Antonio 140, 141 n, 354 Berger, Helmut 376 Bermúdez, Guido 291 Bertalleri, Guillermo 10 Bertini, Francesca 376 Betances, Emelio 137 Bettini, Emanuele 331 Biaggiotti, Antonio 96 n Biaggiotti, Rafael 85, 96 n Biaggiotti Andreu, Ana Celia 96 n Biaggiotti Andreu, María Altagracia 96 n Bichini, Juan Bautista 48 Bidó, Cándido 476 Billini, family 49, 51, 155, 228, 331-333, 338 n, 388, 401, 453, 455, 458 Billini, Adriana 331 Billini, Epifanio 331 Billini (Billini Hernández), Francisco Anatolio/Francisco Xavier 49, 51, 69 n, 132, 261-262, 331, 338 n, 344, 453-454 Billini, Giuseppe Antonio 51 Billini Aristi/Arysti, Francisco Gregorio (Goyito) 30, 49, 51, 155-161, 329, 331, 338 n, 339 n, 453 Billini Aristi/Arysti, Hipólito 453 Billini Bernal, Margarita 455 Billini Cruz, Dolores 454 Billini de Fiallo, Margarita 332 Billini Hernández, Agustín 455 Billini Hernández, Epifanio 331, 338 n, 453 Billini Hernández, Hipólito 51, 338 n, 453

INDEX OF NAMES

Billini Hernández, Miguel 49, 338 n, 453 Billini Mota, José Altagracia 51, 453-454 Billini Ruse, Giovanni Antonio/Juan Antonio 49, 51, 261, 329, 338 n, 453 Binci, Mario 370 Biondi, Filippo Ettore/Felipe Héctor 76, 94 n Biscaretti di Ruffia, Paolo 464 Bisonó, Juan Antonio 12, 188, 397 Bisonó, Rafael 300 Bisonó Haza, Víctor (Ito) 28, 34, 487, 498 Bisonó Pichardo, Víctor G. 294, 487 Bit, Domenica 52 Bitines/Bitini see Vittini Blanchard, Flora/Florina/Florentina 52, 75, 338 n Blanco, Andrés 160 Blanco, Hugo 377 Blanco, Salvador Jorge 168, 437, 483 Blandino Cabral, Águeda Mercedes 60 Blandino Pimentel, Micaela 61 Bloise, Maria Teresa 64 Bloise, family 77, 84 Bloise, Angelo/Ángel 80, 85, 95 n, 96 n Bloise Filomena 77 Bloise, Francisco (Pancho) 75, 77, 82, 94 n, 96 n, 338 Bloise, Juan Bautista 77 Bloise Depuglia, family 84 Bloise Depuglia, María Annunziata 80, 85, 96 n Bloise (Bloise Depuglia), Giuseppe Domenico/José Domingo 85 Bloise Guzmán, Amada Concepción 77 Bloise Guzmán, Annia Francisca 77 Bloise Guzmán, Dolores Ludovina 77 Bloise Guzmán, Francisco 77 Bloise Guzmán, Giovanni 77 Bloise Guzmán, Humberto Dante 77 Bloise Guzmán, Juan Bautista 77 Bloise Guzmán, Juan Ramón 77 Bloise Guzmán, María Filomena 77 Bloise Guzmán, Verónica Felícita 77 Bloise Guzmán, Victorio Tomás 77 Bloise Guzmán, Yolanda Mercedes 77 Bloise Minervino, Francesco/Francisco 388 Bloise Pugliese, family 84 Bluhdorn, Charles 305 Bobadilla, Francisco de 105-106 Bobbio, Norberto 463 Bobea Billini, Mario 454 Bobea Montes de Oca, Pedro Antonio 454 Boccaccini, Pietro 370 Bocelli, Andrea 307 Bodo, Antonio 430 Bolonotto Lanteri, Constantino 63, 388 Bolonotto Lanteri, Pietro Constantino 63 Bolonotto Vallauri, Casimiro Felice 63 Bona, family 51-52

Bona, Joseph Antoine 52 Bona, Lorenzo 51 Bona Hernández, María Altagracia 57 Bona Pérez, Águeda 51 Bona Pérez, Altagracia 51 Bona Pérez, Antonio 51 Bona Pérez, Balbina 51 Bona Pérez, Concepción 51, 70 n Bona Pérez, Francisco 51 Bona Pérez, Manuel 51 Bona Pérez, Merced 51 Bona Pérez, Rafaela 51 Bona Pérez, Vicente Ignacio 51 Bonaparte, Napoleón 49, 228 Bonaparte, Paolina 228 Bonardi, Teresa 66 Bonarelli, family 12, 34, 401, 482 Bonarelli, Giulio 482 Bonarelli, Immacolata 65, 484 Bonarelli, Mario 482 Bonarelli, Vincenzo 65, 481 Bonarelli (Bonarelli Izzo), Annibale 65, 481, 483-484 Bonarelli Pascale, family 484 Bonarelli Pascale, Gaetano 481 Bonarelli Pascale, Giuseppe (Peppino) 481 Bonarelli Pascale, Maria 481 Bonarelli Pascale, Rosario 481 Bonarelli Pascale, Vincenzo (Enzo) 484 Bonarelli (Bonarelli Schiffino), Giuseppe 12, 187, 198 n, 397 Bonelli, family 388 Bonelli, Pedro 338 n Bonelli, Roberto 296 Bonelly, Johnny 333 Bonelli Coutin, Anne Nelly 338 n Bonelli Coutin, Francisco Ulises 79, 338 n Bonelli Coutin, José Arístides 338 n Bonetti, family 228, 388, 401, 458 Bonetti, Enrique 68 n Bonetti, Evangelina 54 Bonetti, Giovanni 68 n Bonetti, Giuseppe 53 Bonetti, Mario 458, 461 n Bonetti Burgos, family 53 Bonetti Burgos, Ernesto 458 Bonetti Burgos, Rodolfo 458 Bonetti de Espinal, Filomena 69 n Bonetti Ernest, family 53 Bonetti Ernest, Clara 54, 68 n Bonetti Ernest, José María (Chiro) 53, 458 Bonetti Garoz/Garó, José María 68 n Bonetti Garoz/Garó, José Ramón 53, 68 n, 458 Bonetti Garoz/Garó, María del Carmen 54, 68 n Bonetti Judijo/Judice, Giovanni Nepomuceno 53, 458

Bonilla, Alejandro 68 n, 69 n, 330, 336, 342 Bonin, Rosina 67 Bonnelly/Bonelli, family 79, 338 n Bonnelly, Aída 361 Bonnelly, Johnny 333 Bonnelly García, Rafael 269, 280 n Bonó, Pedro Francisco 23, 156, 161, 382, 461 n, 503-504 Borelli, Lyda 376 Bornia, Pablo 359 Borrione, Giuseppe 430 Boscarelli, Raffaele 170 Bosch, Juan 223, 229-230, 459 Bossetano, Pace 117 Bottura, Massimo 179 Bove/Boves, family 59 Bove, Domenico 59 Bove Farrana, Vincenzo 59 Bove Navarro, family 59 Bove Rivas, María Josefa 59 Brache, A. de Js. 412 Brache, Elías 99 n, 209, 294 Brache, Pedro 181 Brache, Rafael 214-215 Brache Batista, Anselmo 294 Braganzas, family 103 Bramante, Donato 260, 283-284 Braun, J. 412 Brazzi, Rossano 377 Brea, Emilio José 31, 498 Bregaro, Anna 93 n Brenes, José de Jesús 69 n Brens, Gladis 371 Brero, Cesare 370 Breitner, Ludwig 370 Bretón Martínez, Freddy Antonio de Jesús 184 Breuer, Marcel 293 Brisindi, Giovanni 65 Brisindi Miranda, Angelina 65 Brisindi Miranda, Antonino 65 Brisindi Miranda, Venerina 63, 65 Broglia, María 66 Brunelleschi, Filippo 253 Bruni, Nina 319 Bruno, Giuseppina 66 Bruno, Luigi 78 Bruno, Maria 56 Bruschi, Arnaldo 300 Bueno, Apolinar 359 Bueza, Aris 67 Burgos, Faustino 176 Burgos, Paula 55 Burgos Brito, María Dolores 57 Burt Caminero, Mercedes M. 61 Bustamante, Bienvenido 368 Butin, Felice/Féliz 75, 92 n Butin, Paolo/Pablo 75

515

516

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Buzzoni, Nicola Francesco/ Nicolás Francisco 75, 93 n Byrne, Gabriel 377 Caamaño Deñó, Francisco Alberto 83, 223225, 459 Caballero, J. 412 Cabral, José María 149 Cabral, Manuel José 438 Cabral, Peggy see Cabral de Peña Gómez, Alba María Cabral, Tobías 77 Cabral Aybar y Cabral, family 60 Cabral Casado, Catalina 60 Cabral de Peña Gómez, Alba María (Peggy) 24, 31, 176, 181, 183, 189-190, 199 n, 205, 231 Cabral, José María 149 Cabral Luna, family 60 Cabrera, Elena 330, 336 Caccavelli, Antonio 82 Caccavelli, family 81 Caccavelli, Francisco María 82 Caccavelli, Marcos Aurelio 82 Caccavelli, Noël 82 Caccavelli Clark, María Leticia 82 Cáceres, Ramón 405-406, 408 Cadoux, Auguste 133 Caffarel José María 376 Caffaro, Alfonso 65 Caffaro, Marietta 65, 71 n Cáffaro Durán, Erasmo Alfonso (Niní) 65 Cáffaro Samuel, Alfonso Nicolás 65 Caggiano, Roberto 366-368, 372 Cagna Cabiati, Enrico 369, 372 Caiazzo, Massimo 185 Calá, Jerry 377 Calabrese, Franco 373 Calamandrei, Pietro 464 Calcagno, Francesco 56 Calderón, Telésforo 294, 365 Callas, Maria 326 Callau, Sergio 321 Calventi, Rafael 292-293, 297 Cámara Bandini, Carlo Arístides 76 Camarena Sarubi, family 62 Camargo, Ángela 264 Cambiaso, family/hermanos 45-46, 55, 146-147, 228, 401 Cambiaso, Giacomo 55, 147 Cambiaso, Giovanni Battista see Cambiaso Chiossone, Giovanni Battista Cambiaso, Rodolfo see Cambiaso Sosa, Alberto Rodolfo Cambiaso, Luis see Cambiaso Chiossone, Luigi Francesco Cambiaso, Salvatore 55 Cambiaso Chiossone, Catalina 55

Cambiaso Chiossone/Chiozzone, Giovanni Battista/Juan Bautista 17, 20, 22, 28-29, 34, 36, 45-46, 55-56, 69 n, 145-152, 153 n Cambiaso Chiossone, Giuditta 55 Cambiaso Chiossone/Chiozzone, Luigi Francesco/Luis Francisco 45-46, 55-56, 69 n, 146, 165 Cambiaso Latour, Maria Luisa Adelina 56 Cambiaso de Pittaluga, Elisa 69 n Cambiaso Robert, Elisa 56, 459 Cambiaso Sosa, Alberto Rodolfo 147, 153 n Cambiaso Sosa, Benita (Benedicta) 147 Cambiaso Sosa, Luisa 147 Cambiaso Sosa, Rita 147 Cambiaso Sosa, Rosa 147 Cambiaso Sosa, Santiago 147 Caminero Báez, María Julia 59 Campagna, family 84, 87, 388 Campagna, Amedeo/Amadeo 84, 292 Campagna/Campaña, Annibale 97 n Campagna, Dino 263 Campagna, Elena Annunziata 84 Campagna, Garibaldi 85 Campagna, Silverio 388 Campagna Divanna, family 84 Campagna García, Aníbal 83 Campagna Pezzotti, family 84 Campagna (Campagna Pezzotti), Achille/ Aquiles 87, 99 n Campagna (Campagna Pezzotti), Alberto 83, 87, 99 n Campagna (Campagna Pezzotti), Luigi/Luis 87, 99 n Campagna Schiffino, family 84 Campagna Schiffino, Arístides Amadeo 84 Campbell, Stafford F. 224 Campillo, family 52, 228, 388 Campillo, Domenico 52 Campillo, Manuel 69 n Campillo Arjona, María Gregoria 52 Campillo Bit, Giuseppe 52, 65 n Campillo Linares, Juliana Herminia 55 Campillo Pérez, Julio Genaro 52 Cámpora de Piña, Monina 364 Campos, César A. 412, 427 n Canal, Pedro María 99 n Canavesio, Stefano Alberto 171 Canepa/Cánepa, Anna 57, 467 Canepari, Andrea 11-13, 19, 21, 23-24, 169-171, 191, 204-206, 207 n, 230-231, 397-398, 401, 471, 478-479, 487, 493, 499 Canepari, Bianca 32 Canepari, Matteo 32 Canepari, Roberta 32, 129, 148, 162, 176, 182, 184, 396, 401, 437, 479, 486 Canevaro, Antonio 45-47 Canevaro, Nicola/Nicolás 45-48, 57 Canónico/Canonigo, Giovanni/Juan 78

Cantisano, family 84 Cantisano, Gennaro/Genaro 83, 88 Cantisano (Cantisano Arias), Rafael 83, 90, 92 n, 95 n Cantisano Flores, Carlos Emmanuel 92 n Cantisano Flores, Carmen Italia 92 n Cantisano Flores, Elena 92 n Cantisano Flores, Enrique Victoriano 92 n Cantisano Flores, Francisco Antonio 92 n Cantisano Flores, Humberto 92 n Cantisano Flores, José Ismael 92 n Cantisano Flores, Leandro Manuel 92 n Cantisano Flores, Luis Javier 92 n Cantisano Flores, Nicolás 92 n Cantisano Flores, Rosa Beatriz 92 n Canto Del Giudijo, Víctor Antonio 64 Canudo, Ricciotto 375 Capano, Antonio 70 n Capano, Rocco 60, 69 n, 70 n Capano Mosca, Antonio 60 Capano Mosca, Raffaella 60 Capano Mosca, Rocco (Roquito) 60 Capano Ogando, family 60 Capano Santoni, family 60 Capobianco, family 78, 80, 84 Capobianco, Alejandro 78 Capobianco Caputo, family 388 Capobianco Divanna, Silverio 78 Capozzi, Alessandro 221, 225 Capozzi, Annaluisa 221 Capozzi, Ilio 11, 24, 221-225, 512 Capponi, Gisella 300 Capriles, Severa 56 Caprini, Priamo 430 Caputo, family 77, 84 Caputo, Alejandro 86 Caputo, J. Garibaldi 98 n Caputo, Luigi 236 Caputo, Margherita 236 Carbonara, Giovanni 300 Carbonell y Huguet, Pedro (Pere) 118, 344 Carbucci, Domenica 59 Carbuccia Pereyra, Georgina Elsa 66 Cardella, Sebastiano (Nello) 67 Cardini, Domenico 297 Cardona, Rafael 75, 93 n Caro, Rosalia 181 Caro Álvarez, J. A. 269 Caro Ginebra, Danilo 305 Caro Ginebra, José Antonio (Tony) 305 Carrara, Stefano 170 Carreño, Manuela 52 Carrillo, Julián 363 Carta, Mario 366, 368-369, 372-373 Cartagena, Alejandro 24 Casal Chapí, Enrique 361, 363 Casanova, José 88 Cascella, Antonio 67

INDEX OF NAMES

Cascella Baldoni, Ciro 67 Casella, Alfredo 369 Caserini, Mario 376 Caslini, Mauro 391-392 Casoni, Roberto 199 n Cassá, Roberto 30, 33, 500, 503 Castagna, Fortunato 476 Castaños, Julio 464 Castellón family 44 Castellanos, Cirilo 294 Castellanos de Peña, Felicia 97 n Castellanos, Glauco 293, 298 Castellanos, Juan 97 n Castillo de Aza, Zenon 141 n Castillo, Delia 62 Castillo, Diógenes 377 Castillo, María de Jesús 467 Castillo, José del 74 Castillo Valle, Carlos Ernesto del 300 Castorina, Vito 371-372 Castro, Aníbal de 457 Castro, Apolinar de 68 n Castro, Carmen Amelia 298 Castro, Fidel 140, 215, 224 Castro, Jacinto de 69 n Castro, Rita de 96 n Castro, Virginia 96 n Castro Marte, Jesús 29, 181, 190, 471 Catalano Gonzaga de Thayer, María 474 Catanzariti, Rosa 60 Catherine of Aragon/Infanta of Spain/Queen of England 117, 119, 251, 260 Catrain, Maricusa 430 Cattaneo, Franco 106 Cavagliano, Giuseppe 66 Cavagliano Broglia, Mario 66, 218-219, 295 Cavagliano de Peña, Liliana 219 Cavagliano Strozzi, Gianni 295 Cavaliere, Maria Teresa 295 Cavallari, Antonella 36 Cavallaro, Giovanni 28 Cavallo, Giuseppe 60 Cavallo Arnao, Paolino 60 Cavallo de Balario, Zenaide 71 n Cavalotto, Sebastiano 66, 71 n Cavoli Balbuena, Jorge Hugo 89, 99 n Cavoli Marchetti, Giuseppe 89 Cazulla, Maria Francesca 99 n Ceccarelli, Mario 370, 372 Cecchini, Adriano 430 Cedeño, Manuel Aquiles 437 Cedeño de Fernández, Margarita 176, 178, 478 Celia, Ana 96 n Centuriona/Centurión, Casa 43 Centurione/Centurión, Gaspar 43 Centurione/Centurión, Jácome 43 Centurione/Centurión, Melchor 43

Centurione/Centurión, Esteban 43 Centurione Scotto, Luigi 107 Cernicchiaro, Antonio 95 n Cerón, José Dolores 371 Cerosueli, Emanuela 60 Cerosueli, Nicola Alterio 60, 70 n Cervantes, Fanny de 412 Cervantes, Miguel de 327, 510 Cervette, Carmine 68 n Ceschi, Carlo 296 Cestari/Cestaro, Sebastián 75, 85, 93 n Cestari, Raffaele 66 Cestari Carbuccia, Jorge Amaury de Jesús 66, 474 Cestari Romano, Antonio 66 Cestero, Tulio M. 329 Cetina, Claudio 301 Chardón, Carlos Eugenio 418, 424, 427 Charles I (Habsburg) of Spain/Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor 43-44, 104, 110, 113, 115 n, 120, 122, 124, 252 Chateaubriand, René de 160 Checo, Yudelka 301 Chez Checo, José 35-36, 175 Chicco, Enrico 170 Chiossone, Anna 53 Chiossone, Girolama 56 Chiossone/Chiozzone, Rosa 55 Ciano, Gian Galeazzo 214 Ciarlo, Franco 475 Cibo, family 102 Ciccone, Salvatore 59 Ciccone Comas, family 60 Ciccone Recio, family 60 Ciccone Vitiello, Nicola Maria 59 Cicognari, Margherita 369 Ciferri, Raffaele A. 33, 77, 403, 406-409, 412-426, 427 n Ciliberti, Luis 98 n, 388 Cino, family 84, 87, 97 n Cino, Ángel 87 Cino, Francisco 87 Cino, Luis 97 n Cino, Maria Francesca 76 Cino, Mario 97 n, 388 Cino Senise, María 78 Ciriaco, family 80 Cirillo Sirri, Teresa 125 Cisneros, Francisco Jiménez de 109, 115 n, 121-122, 251 Civirani, Osvaldo 376 Cocchia, Rocco 29, 131-132, 135 n, 261-262 Coen, María Norberta 70 n Coen Mansuit, Gregoria Manuela (Evelina) 58, 338 n Cohén, Enrique 68 n Cohén de Marchena, Tomasa Leonor 57, 68 n Collaço, Blasco Francisco 354-355

517

Collado, José Eugenio 98 n Collado, Pascuala/Pascualita 98 n Collot de Bruli, María Teresa 53 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Bartolomeo 102 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Bianchinetta 102 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Christopher/ Cristoforo/Cristóbal 11, 20, 23-24, 27, 29, 37 n, 41-42, 51, 93 n, 101-107, 111, 118, 122, 124, 132, 138-139, 143, 146, 168, 178, 201, 228, 235, 261, 263, 276, 321, 388, 429, 476, 497 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Diego 30, 42, 102-103, 105-106, 112-114, 115 n, 121, 235, 252 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Domenico 102 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Giacomo 102, 106 Columbus/Colombo/Colón, Giovanni Pellegrino 102 Colón, Marcelino 96 n Colson, Jaime 81 Columna, Lilliam 368 Compartico, Teresa 60 Conde Pausas, Alfredo José Luis 459 Conde Sturla, Alfredo 459 Conde Sturla, Amadeo 78 Conde Sturla, Pedro 459 Concha López, Juan Tomás Eleuterio de la 219 n Connors, Ronald Gerard 354 Consiglio, Mario 301 Constantino, Giovanni 366 Conte, Constantino 97 n Conte, Luigi 97 n Conte, family 80 Contestabile, Emma 373 Conti, M. 413 Contín, Candelaria (Cayaya) 97 n Contín Aybar, Pedro René 371 Copello de Soto, Argentina Anselma 86 Copello Ducassou, Anselmo 80, 82, 88, 95 n, 359, 389 Copello Ducassou, José 359 Coppa, Roberto 305, 308 Coppola Francis Ford 308 Cordero, Walter 406, 426 n Córdoba, Juan de 112 Corelli, Franco 325 Correa, Orquídea 446 n Corripio, José Luis (Pepín) 12, 179, 198 n Corripio de Pellerano, Sara 457 Corsani, Gabriele 298 Corso, family 56 Corso, Giovanni 56 Corso, Simone 56 Corso Sosa, Manuel María 56 Cortellini, Ferdinando 365

518

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Cortés, Hernán 123 Cosentino, family 388 Cosentino, María Angela 97 n Costa, Maddalena 54 Costa, Maria Teresa 54, 455 Cotes, Juan 55, 148 Cott, Erwin 294 Cottafavi, Antonio 170 Coutin, Marie Lúcete 338 n Cozza, Carlos 388 Cozza, Carlo Felipe (Félix) 86, 96 n Cozza, family 84 Crawley, Josiah T. 407 Cristofori, Vincenzo 63 Cristofori Blois, Edoardo Pio 63 Crovetto, Pierluigi 199 n Cruz, Ignacio de la 75 Cruz, Narcisa 454 Cruz, Manuela de la 75 Cucurullo, Aurelio 82 Cucurullo, family 84 Cucurullo, Dante 364 Cucurullo, Salvatore/Salvador 82, 85, 88, 185 Cucurullo Pérez, Dante Salvador 364 Cucurullo Senise, family 84, 388 Cunha, Thiago da 34 Cuneo, Colombina 54 Curiel, Manuel María 93 n Curiel, Tony 371 Curiel Inoa, Abelina 93 n Dabormida, Giuseppe 164 Da Cuneo, Michele 29 D’Alessandro, Jesús 31, 476, 500 D’Alessandro Lombardi, Armando 65, 390 D’Alessandro (D’Alessandro Lombardi), Guido 31, 65, 77, 230, 267-270, 274-275, 279, 280 n, 283-284, 292, 390, 473 D’Alessandro Lucarelli, Luigi 65 D’Alessandro Tavárez, Alessandro Leonardo 285 D’Alessandro Tavárez, Armando José 65 D’Alessandro Tavárez, Guido Emilio (Yuyo) 65, 218-219 Dalmau, Joaquín 87, 96 n D’Amato, Joe 377 Damilano, Maria 64 Damirón, Leopoldo 69 n D’Amore, Concetta 61, 398 D’Aste, Lorenzo 77 Daneri, Giovanni 60 Daneri Calderón, family 60 Daneri Matos, family 60 Daneri Regonne, Angelo 60 D’Angelo, Edoardo 29, 500 Danielli, Catterina 55 Da Porto, Gerolamo 106 De Angelis, Galletano 98 n De Angelis (De Angelis de Senada), Italo 98 n

De Angelis d’Ossat, Guglielmo 296 De Chiara, Luigi 30 De Chirico, Giorgio 81 De Donato, Louis 330, 336 De Gaulle, Charles 230 De la Cruz Baldera, Alfredo 181, 185 De La Renta, Oscar 438 De la Rocha, Aurra (Aurora) 303 De La Rocha Ricart, Julio 71 n De Laurentiis, Dino (Agostino) 305 De La Vega Trifilio, family 61 Delfino Novati, Alfredo 67 Del Fiore, Alfredo 294 Delgadillo, Luis Abraham 362 Delgado, Joaquín 384 Delgado Brea, Rosa Consuelo 57 Delgado Malagón, Blanca 32, 501 Delgado (Delgado Malagón), Pedro 69 n, 320 Del Giudice, Italo 64 Del Giudijo, Ángela 60 Del Giudijo Pagano, Rocco Manlio Attilio Gustavo 64 De Lillo Alterio, family 60 Della Porta, Guglielmo 261 Della Rovere, family 102 Della Rovere, Giuliano see Julio II Del Mar Moré, María 303 Del Monaco, Mario 325 Delmonte, Floralba 361 Delmonte, Manuel 69 n Delmonte y Pichardo, Josefa 269 De los Santos, Maximina 61 De los Santos Noboa, Gladys 217, 219 n De los Santos Orozco, Juan Justo (Chuchú) 219 n Del Río, Baltasar 254 Del Río, Diego 109, 121, 251, 254-256, 260 Del Toro Andújar, Juan Bautista 268, 280 n Demaio, Miguel 70 n Demallistre, Carlo 58 Demallistre Hinojosa, Juan Francisco 58 De Martini, Mara 365 De Mori, Enrico 373 Demorizi/Demorizzi, family 81, 388 Demorizi, Giuseppe/José 82 Demorizi Deloup, Evaristo Nicolás 82 De Paula Silvestre, Juana 93 n De Puglia, family 388 Depuglia, Ángela/Angiolina 85 Derby, Robin (Lauren) 34 De Santángel, Luis 118 Deschamps, Enrique 99 n De Sica, Vittorio 325 Despradel, Fidelio 167 Despradel Batista, Guido 404 Dessì, Mariano 365 De Vergottini, Tomaso 171 Dias, Bartolomeu 103

Díaz, Antonio 160 Díaz, Graciela 57 Díaz, Juan 427 n Díaz, Polibio 198 n, 331, 337 Díaz, Ramón Jr 361-362 Díaz, Santiago 96 n Díaz Capobianco, Gloria María 60 Díaz Félix, María Josefa 58, 338 n Díaz Jáquez, Leonardo 461 n Díaz Niese, Rafael 329, 361 Díaz Peralta, Ramón 372 Díaz Siant, Estanislao 96 n Díaz Vargas, Josefa 52 Di Carlo, Pasquale 63 Di Carlo Acevedo, José Antonio 63 Di Carlo Alterio, family 60 Di Carlo Di Carlo, Silverio 63, 71 n Di Carlo Di Carlo, Vincenzo 63, 71 n Di Carlo Gómez, family 63 Di Carlo Palacio, family 63 Di Carlo Schiffino, Giuseppe Antonio 63 Di Carlo Schiffino, Silverio 65 Di Franco Russo, Biagio/Blas 95 n, 96 n, 80 Dihmes, Napoleón 368 Di Maggio, Joe (Giuseppe Paolo) 61 Dimaggio/Di Maggio Carrafiello, Michele 61 Dimaggio Matos, family 61 Dimaggio Salcié, family 61 Di Maio, Luigi 36 Di Milia, Bernardino 132 Di Paola Cassetta, Francesco 133 Di Pietro, Giovanni 331 Dipino, family 80 Dipuglia, Maria Angela 96 n Di Santo, Donato 176 Disla, Edelmira 94 n Di Stefano, Giuseppe 325 Divanna/Di Vanna, family 78, 80, 84, 388 Divanna, Elsa 332 Divanna, Giuseppe Antonio/José Antonio 88, 97 n Divanna, María de 97 n Divanna, Silverio 78, 97 n Divanna Majolino, Angiolina 78 Divanna Majolino, Giuseppe/José 97 n, 338 n Divanna Sánchez, Jesús Silverio 97 n Dobal, Pedro Pablo 94 n Dobici, Cesare 368 Dodero, Jacobo 55 Dodero Villabona, Angelo Nicola 55 Domígnez, Juan Inocencio 96 n Domínguez, Angela 80 Domínguez, Franklin 369 Domínguez, Mauricia 300 Donatello 350 Donhert, Ramón 96 n Donizetti, Gaetano 326, 370-371 D’Piano Orpaja, Teresa Petranilla 61

INDEX OF NAMES

Droghetti, Bruno 298 Duarte, J. P., agronomist 412, 427 n Duarte y Díez, Juan Pablo 29, 53, 55, 143, 145-146, 153 n, 331, 337, 341-342, 344-345, 350-351, 356 n, 382, 470 Duarte, Filomena 68 n Duarte, Francisca 68 n Duarte, Manuela 68 n Duarte, Rosa 68 n Duarte, Vicente Celestino 68 n Duarte Rodríguez, Juan José 55 Dufeau, Pierre 293 Duhaut, Georges-Ephrem 135 Dumont, Monique Marie Madeleine 63 Dunoyer de Segonzac, André-Jacques 280 n, 352 Dupré, Pierre 280 n Durán, Angela 94 n Durán, Víctor 499 Durán Barrera, Manuel Antonio 217, 219 n Durán de la Concha, Luis Federico 219 n Durán Ponce de León, Lourdes Violeta 65 Durero, Alberto (Albrecht Dürer) 254 Duverger, Maurice 463 Echavarría, Pepé 359 Eco, Umberto 301 Eisenberg, Abel 367 Ekman, Erik Leonard 77, 409, 412, 424 Elías, Bruno 430 Elizabeth of Castile 127 Elizade, Antonio 433 Ely, Henry 373 Ellis Cambiaso, family 147 Emmi, Maria 67 Enríquez de Arana, Beatriz 104 Enríquez de Ribera, Fadrique 106 Enriquillo, Taíno chieftain 149, 124 Erickson, Thomas 412 Ernest Copens Bonetti, Julia 55, 68 n, 458 Espaillat, Mario E. 412 Espaillot, Rafael Armando 407-409, 423 Espaillat Sucesores, Rafael Augusto 98 n Espaillat, Ulises see Espaillat Quiñoes, Ulises Francisco Espaillat Espaillat, Sofía 83, 93 n, 376 Espaillat Quiñoes, Ulises Francisco 85, 93 n, 158, 376, 382 Espaillat Rodríguez, Eloísa 93 n, 370 Espinal Hernández, Edwin Rafael 11, 29, 49, 461 n Espinal, Jocelyn 24 Espino, Ramiro 202 Esquivel, Juan de 353 Est, Grey 24 Estefan, Gloria 307 Estévez, Emelinda 61 Estrella Mueses, Carmen Elly 219 n Estrella Mueses, Pedro Luis Salvador 219 n

Estrella Sadahlá, Luis Salvador 219 n Estrella Ureña, Rafael 71 n, 268, 345 Eyck, Aldo van 291 Fabian, Lorenzo 303 Fabiani, Juan (Giovanni) 75 Fabrasile, Antonio 78 Fago, Serafina 59 Faini, Maria Luisa 366, 369-370 Fajardo, Eduardo 377 Falco, Chiara 133 Fancelli, Domenico 254 Faneyte, Jesús 368 Fantino, Francesco 133 Fantino Falco, Giovanni Francesco 29, 73, 75-76, 133-135 Farragazo, Jack 336 Farina, Antonio 97 n Farina, Cimmi 97 n Farine, José (Giuseppe) 75, 93 n Farnese, Alessandro 261 Farrana, Maria Giuseppa 59 Fasana, Arcangela 59, 95 n Félix, Vitalia 361 Fellenberg, Philipp Emanuel von 405 Fellini, Federico 305 Fendler, Edvard 361 Feris Iglesias, César Iván 295, 476 Fernández, Claudia 219 Fernández, Diego 31, 188, 397, 501 Fernández, Diego, Dominican friar 119 Fernández, Leonel 168, 230, 313 Fernández de Castro, Apolinar 297 Fernández Domínguez, Rafael Tomás 224 Fernández Soñé, Caridad (Lalá) 63 Ferdinand II of Aragon, King of Spain/ Ferdinand the Catholic 103, 106, 109-110, 117-120, 122-123, 127, 201, 251, 283 Ferdinand I/Ferrante of Aragón/King of Naples 117 Ferraro Svelti, family 63 Ferreri, Carmela 93 n Ferretti, Mario 372 Ferroni, Enrico/Enrique 98 n Ferrua, Giovanni Battista 64, 461 n Ferrua Damilano, Antonio 64 Ferrua Damilano, Gerolamo 64 Ferrua Damilano, Giovanni Battista (Nino) 64 Ferrua Lluberes, Giovanni 461 n Fersola/Ferzola, family 388 Fersola/Ferzola, Salvatore 86, 98 n, 388 Fiallo, Antinoe 455 Fiallo Billini, José Antinoe 455, 461 n Fiallo Cabral, Juan Ramón 330, 336 Fieschi, Bartolomeo 105-107 Fieschi, family 102, 105 Fieschi, Gianluigi 105-106 Fietta, Giuseppe 138 Figari, Emanuele 93 n

519

Figgliuzi, Bruno 388 Figueroa, Rodrigo de 43, 110, 112-115, 122-124, 251-252 Figueroa, Salvador 188, 397 Figueroa, Luigi de 122 Finazzer Flory, Massimiliano 186 Fini, Gianfranco, architect 31, 311-313 Fini, Nicola 312-313 Finizola, family 78, 84 Finizola, Lazzaro/Lázaro 78, 99 n Finizola, Nicola Vincenzo/Nicolás Vicente 99 n Finizola Cazulla, Francesco Antonio/ Francisco Antonio 99 n Fiorentino, Jacopo (Jacobo Florentino/Torni) 254 Fittipaldi Perce, Michele 59 Fittipaldi Viler, family 59 Flores, Antonio 135 Flores Santana, Juan Antonio 354 Flores Sasso, Virginia 31, 35, 263 Folch de Cardona, Juan Raimundo III 117 Fontana, José 164 Fontanarossa, Susanna 102 Forestieri, Biagio see Logaldo Forestieri, Biagio Forestieri, family 64, 77 Forestieri, Felice/Félix 64, 77, 97 n, 99 n Forestieri, Giuseppe 77 Forestieri, Pietro 77 Forestieri, Vincenzo 77 Forestieri Alario, Domenico 64 Forestieri Alario, Francesco 64 Forestieri Alario, Pasquale 64, 473 Forestieri Sanabia, Rolando 12, 33, 176, 473-476, 502 Forlani, Paolo 118, 121 Forment, Damián 254 Forne, Valián de 43 Forni, Giorgio 176 Fortunati, Amedeo 365 Foster, Norman 291 Fouilhoux, Jacques-André 268 Franceschini, Dario 36 Franceschini de Rainieri/Franceschini Galletti, Bianca 79, 433 Francis, Pope (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) 230-231, 508 Franco, Leopoldo 295 Franco, Tulio 294 Franco Montelli, Mariangela 366 Franco Trujillo, Moisés 366 Frati, Carlo 424 Frederick William II, King of Prussia 325 Freni, Mirella 325 Frías, Brígida Josefa 467 Friedman, Emil 363 Frirna, María 75

520

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Frisiani, Giuseppe/José 97 n Frugone, Teresa 93 n Frugoni, Orazio 361, 373 Fuenmayor, Alonso de 252, 261, 263 Fuentes Pérez-Guillama, Victoria 53 Fuertes y Lorens, Miguel 412 Fulci, Lucio 377 Fusilli, Luigi 366 Gabrici, Tristano 170 Gabriel, Ana 307 Gallart y Canti, Martín 80 Gallesi, Sidney 366 Galleti, Maria 81 Galván, Manuel de Jesús 151, 360, 454, 502 Gamba, Pierino 370-371 Gamberini, Italo 298 Gambieri, Silvio 464 Garbin, Emanuele 303 García, Bruno 359 García, Eduardo 262 García, Elisa 63 García, José Gabriel 145-148, 152, 153 n, 454, 506 García, Juan Francisco 359, 372 García, Lautico 459 García, Marlene 303 García, Moisés 70 n García, Oscar 359 García Arévalo, Manuel 498 García Bonnelly, Juan Ulises 280 n García de Padilla, Francisco 109-110, 120, 127, 251, 259 García de Soñé, Virita 76 García Espinosa, Julio 376 García Godoy, Fresolina 263 García Godoy Ceara, Enrique 76 García Lluberes, Alcides 269 García Márquez, Gabriel 376 García Vera, Romualdo 270, 280 n Garibaldi, Giuseppe 81, 215 Garlotte, Santo/Santiago Santos 86 Garó/Garoz Cruz, María de las Angustias 53, 458 Garrido, Juan 95 n Garrido (Garrido Abreu), Antonio 58, 70 n Garrido Aristi, María Salomé 59, 95 n Gatti, Mario 80 Gautier, Manuel Salvador 31, 198 n, 292-294, 297, 502 Gautier Castillón, Manuel María 165, 198 n Gautreau Santín, Clotilde 59 Gautreaux, Ariel 493 Gazón Bona, Henry Jean Edward 52, 269, 274, 280 n Gazzola, Piero 296 Generazzo, family 84 Gennaro Miranda, Sebastiana 65 Geraldes Siragusa, Fernando 362

Geraldes Siragusa, María de Fátima 251, 255, 361, 373 Geraldini, Alessandro 11, 17, 20-21, 29, 31, 35, 43, 93 n, 109-115, 117-125, 127-129, 176, 181-182, 184-186, 199 n, 204-206, 228, 230, 251-252, 254-256, 259-261, 264, 311, 388, 479, 499, 501 Geraldini, Andrea 121 Geraldini, Angelo 117 Geraldini, Antonio 117, 500 Geraldini, Costantino 115 n, 121 Geraldini, Elisabetta 115 n Geraldini, Graziosa 117-118 Geraldini, Isabella 121 Geraldini, Onofre/Onofrio (Nufrio) 109-110, 121, 251, 255 Geraldini, Scipione 121 Geraldini, Tullia 109 Gerber, Karl Friedrich von 463 Germán, Alejandrina 180-181 Germarelli, Carmen 60 Gervasi Fiscina, Lazzaro 65 Gesualdo Milod, Gaetana Maria 60 Ghiberti, Lorenzo 352 Gil, Juan 430 Giannone, Maria Stella 63 Giffone, Francesca 97 n Giffone, Vito Antonio 97 n, 98 n Gimbernard, Jacinto 362, 366, 371 Gimbernard, Rafael Félix 365 Ginebra Giudicelli, Freddy 335 Ginebra-Rainieri, family 433 Gioacchino da Fiore 105 Girardi Cacciapuoti, Laura 366, 369 Giro, Mario 169 Gisbert González, Ana 56 Gismondi, Tommaso 331, 341, 352-353, 355-356 Giudicelli, family 332, 335 Giudicelli, Paul 332, 335 Giustiniani, family 44 Gobbi, Tito 325 Godeluppi, Ricardo 96 n Gómez Cuesta, Olga 68 n Gómez Perera, Luis Martín 198 n González, Andrés 412, 427 n González, Bernardo de Jesús 68 n González, Fernando 299 González, Raymundo 33, 198 n, 503 González, Ruddy 457 González de Mendoza, Pedro 254 González de Peynado, Consuelo 406, 427 n González Díaz, Cándido Angel 96 n González Fragoso, Romualdo 403, 412-413, 419, 424 González Hernández, Julio Amable 331, 338 n, 339 n, 455 González Nicolas, Fernando 203

González Pardi, Rhina Mercedes Aurora 96 n González Pardi,Víctor Ramón 96 n González Pardi, Hugo Francisco 96 n González Sánchez, Guillermo 268-269, 275 Gorga, Virgilio 170 Gorelik, Luis 364 Gorricio, Gaspare 105 Gouvenot, Laurent de 43 Gravina, Francesco 186 Graziosi, Giuseppe 344 Grecco, Francesco 78, 375 Gregotti, Vittorio 296, 299 Grifón de Amelia (Grifone d’Amelia) 117 Grimaldi, family 44 Grimaldi, Giuseppe 76 Grimaldi Caroprese, Giuseppe 64, 227, 461 n Grimaldi Céspedes, family 64 Grimaldi (Grimaldi Céspedes), Víctor Manuel 30, 76, 153 n, 227, 461 n, 503 Grimaldi Núñez, family 64 Grimaldi Silié, family 64 Grinilli, Prillo 330, 336 Grisolia, Carlo/Carlos 86-88, 97 n Grisolia/Grisolía, family 84 Grisolia, Giovanna/Juan 80 Grisolia, Maria Franca 475-476 Grisolía, Vincenzo/Vicente 82, 85, 96 n, 388 Grisolia Divanna, family 388 Grisolia Divanna, Carlos 388 Grisolia Di Vanna, Maria Rosa 82, 338 n Grisolía Poloney, Carlos Juan (Grisco) 81 Grisolía Poloney, Vicente, pianista 81, 362-363, 366, 372 Grosso, Angelo 65 Guacanagarix, Taíno chieftain 321 Guadalupe, Antonio 330, 336, 476 Guaschino, Baldassarre 292 Guaschino Barbaglia, Ercole Giovanni 64 Guaschino Barbaglia, Luigi Baldassarre 64 Guaschino de Moré, Mariuccia 299 Guazzoni, Enrico 376 Guerra, Juan Luis 307 Guerra Campos, José 347 Guerra Sánchez, Antonio J. 11, 28, 30, 503 Guerrero y Ramirez, M. 68 n Guerrero, Lil 300 Guerrero, Silveria M. 68 n Guerrero Sánchez, José Guillermo 461 n Guerrero Villalona, Myrna 32, 504 Guicciardi, Enrico 171 Guilbert, Ernest 344 Guillermo, Cesáreo 156 Gurrieri, Francesco 297-298 Guerriero, Alessandro 301 Gutenberg, Johannes 253 Gutiérrez family 219 Gutiérrez, Ramón 281 n Gutiérrez, Víctor 427 n

INDEX OF NAMES

Gutiérrez Alea, Tomás 376 Gutiérrez de Aguilón, Alonso 112 Gutiérrez Félix, Euclides 180 Gutiérrez Maesso, José 376 Guesca, Manuel 70 n Guzmán, Adriana 99 n Guzmán, Alejandrina del Carmen 77 Guzmán, Antonio 84 Guzmán, Max 359 Guzmán, Ramón 77 Guzmán Fernández, Silvestre Antonio 219 Haché, Pedro 301 Hailevi Haviri, Josef Ben 322 Hall, Michael R. 36 Hane, Patricia 303 Hargous, Maurice 375 Harmon, Arthur L. 268 Harper, William 434 Harper Rainieri, family 433 Harper Rainieri, Billy 434 Harper Rainieri, Franky 434 Harrison, Wallace 268 Haza del Castillo, Ivonne 368, 373, 487 Henríquez y Carvajal, Federico 151, 342, 345, 424 Henríquez y Carvajal, Francisco 454 Henríquez Svelti, family 63 Henry VII, King of England 119 Henry VIII, King of England 268 Heredia, Carmen 36 Heredia, Joaquín 384 Heredia, Josefita 362 Heredia, Manuel de 68 n Heredia Bonetti, Luis 475 Hernández, Ana Rosa 303 Hernández, Ángela 198 n, 331 Hernández, Antonio 70 n Hernández, Diego 68 n Hernández, Ercilia Engracia 97 n Hernández, Felipe 97 n Hernández, Julio Alberto 331, 359, 363 Hernández, María de los Dolores, 68 n Hernández, Rafael Tomás 303 Hernández de Lasala, Silvia 280 n Hernández y González (Hernández-Cuello González), Ana Joaquina 49, 51, 68 n, 338 n, 453 Hernández-Cuello Fernández, Martín 68 n Hernández-Hernández, María 61 Hernández Ortega, Gilberto 333, 336 Herrera, Adelaida 64 Herrera, César 348 Herrera, Rafael 66, 457 Herrera, Ozema 84 Herrera, Roberto 188, 397 Herrera Báez, Porfirio 168 Herrera de Huelva, Juan de 112

Heureaux, Ulises 82, 155-158, 165, 167, 341, 389, 454, 456 Hidalgo, Reynaldo 371 Hinojosa Siancas, María de la Encarnación 58 Hiraldo, Annabel 302 Hitler, Adolfo 214, 228 Hoepelman, Virgilio 94 n Hoetnik, Harry 23 Hofmeister, Henry 266 Hostos, Eugenio María de 82, 330, 336, 360, 385, 404-405, 456 Hoyos, Faustino de 52 Hull, Cordell 214 Huss, Ian 125 Ieoh Ming Pei 294 Ieromazzo, Ettore 66 Ieromazzo Iracci, Nino 66 Iglesias, Julio 438 Imbert, family 217, 388 Imbert, Manuel 434 Imbert, Oscar 218, 438 Imbert, Secundo 156 Imbert Barrera, Aída 219 n Imbert Barrera, Antonio Cosme 66, 217-219, 434 Imbert Peralta, Enrique Manuel 217 Imbert Rainieri, family 217, 433 Imbert Tessón, Leslie 218, 434 Incháustegui, Arístides 364, 501 Ingino Vitale, Carmina 61 Innocent VIII, Pope (Giovanni Battista Cybo) 117 Innocenti, Giuseppina 67 Inzaina, Tori 475 Iracci, Cleofe 66 Irizarri, María Victoria 66 Isabella I, Queen of Castile (Isabel de Trastámara) 41, 102, 106, 117-120, 201, 251, 260, 283 Jacobo Fayad, Hilda 67 Janáček, Leos 370, 372 Jellinek, Georg 463 Jenks, Charles 296 Jerez, Federico 430 Jimenes, Juan Isidro 96 n, 458 Jimenes, Manuel 68 n, 149 Jiménez, Agustín 330 Jiménez, Guillermo 362 Jiménez, Lino 69 n Jiménez, Lorena 303 Jiménez, Manuela 361 Joanna, Queen of Castile 252 John, Elton 307 John II, King of Portugal 103, 117 John XXIII, Pope (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) 140, 354 John Paul II, Pope (Karol Wojtyla) 230, 306, 347, 353-355, 508

Johnson, Lyndon B. 223 Jordan, Norma 377 Jorge, Abraham 66 n Jorge, Marcos 180 Jorge-Risk Assis, Amelia 61, 398 Juan Moreto, Joly de 254 Juan Moreto, Juan de 254 Judijo, Angela 53 Juliana, Amalia 59 Julio II, Pope (Giuliano della Rovere) 106, 109, 121, 259 Juni, Juan de 254 Justinián see Giustiniani, family Kahn, Louis 291 Kanner-Rosenthal, Hedwig 362 Keller, Christopher 107 Keller Mena, family 57 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald 230, 347 Kenzo Tange 279 Kheel, Theodore W. (Ted) 390, 437 Khoury, Bichara 297 Kleinberg, Willy 362 Klus Moraline, George 467 Kryzanek, Michael 36, 176, 504 Kuret de Rainieri, Haydée 27, 438 Lagana, Michele 430 Lagreca, Maria Rosa 97 n Lama de Barletta, Francina 387 Lamarche, José 69 n Lamarche Pérez-Guerra, Josefa 55 Lamb, William Frederick 268 Lambertus-Romano, family 58 Landais, Jeanne Marion 188, 397 Landestoy, Agustina 54 Landolfi, Carmelo/Carmen 59 Landolfi Juliana, Ciriaco 59, 376 Landolfi Rodríguez, Ciriaco 59 Landowski, Paul 344 Languasco, Agostino/Agustín 79 Languasco Subalier/Chevalier, Teófilo 79 Lanteri Pastorelli, Maria Gioconda 63 Lantigua, José Rafael 198 n, 321 Lapeiretta, Ninón 363 Lapuente, Isidora 467 Larrauri, José 427 n Larrazábal Blanco, Carlos 53, 454, 461 n La Rosa, Adriano 369 Las Casas, Bartolomé de 321 Latour Crane, Bertina 55-56 Latour Hainsen, George 299 Lattuada, Alberto 377 Lavandier, X. 56 Lea Gleave, Joseph 138, 268, 280 n Leão, Carlos 269 Lebrón de Quiñones, Cristóbal 112-114 Lebrón, Nano 307 Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret) 269, 291

521

522

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Leclerc, Emmanuel 228, 338 n Lenzi, Umberto 377 Leogaldo, family 84 Leogaldo, Angelo/Ángel 388 Leogaldo, Biagio/Blas 388 Leo X, Pope (Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici) 109, 114, 120, 122, 124-125, 127-128, 251, 259 León, family 179 León, Atilio 297-298 León, D. 68 n León, Juan de 112 León, Laura 303 León, Lidia 187, 189, 197 n, 198 n León, María Amalia 12, 198 n Leonardo da Vinci 76, 81, 185-186, 476 Leone, family 84 Leone, Giovanni 65, 483 Leone, Vincenzo/Vicente 97 n Leone (Leone Lagreca), Nicola/Nicolás 94 n, 97 n, 388 Leonetti, family 84 Leonetti, Alessandro/Alejandro 76 Leonetti, Eugenio 98 n Leonetti, Giuseppe/José 98 n Leonetti, Luigi/Luis 98 n Leoni, Guido 377 Lepore Rodia, Immacolata 61, 79 Leyba, Rafael 69 n Liguori, Saint Alphonsus (Alfonso Maria de’ Ligorio) 135 Limongi, Gaetana 88 Lisi, Virna 377 Liszt, Franz 362, 370 Llenas, Alejandro 59 Lluberes, S.J., Antonio 33, 461 n, 505 Lluberes, Félix María 271 Lluberes, Vitalia 64 Lluberes Abreu, Mario 273 Lo Faro, Giuseppe 171 Logaldo, Angelo/Ángel 98 n Logaldo, Biagio/Blas 98 n Logaldo Forestieri Minervino, Blas 98 n Logroño, Arturo 214-215 Lombardi, Emilia 267 Lombardi, Giselda (Leda Gys) 376 Longo, family 84, 388 Longo Campagna, family 84 Longo Campagna, Ricardo Eduardo 76 Longo Minervino, Lina Magdalena 76 López, José Ramón 405 López, Ramón 68 n López de Gómara, Francisco 251 López Fernández, Lucia Margarita 85 López Penha, Henry 427 n López Rodríguez, Nicolás de Jesús 29, 73, 263, 354-355, 477 Lora, Félix Manuel 32, 505

Lora, Honorio 320-321 Lora, Milán 294 Lorenzo de Rabata (Lorenzo da Rabatta) 41 Lorenzo el Magnífico (Lorenzo de’ Medici) 41 Lotti, Luca 169, 478 Lovasto, Vincenzo 223, 225 n Lovatón Pittaluga, family 56 Loynaz, Carlos 384 Lucchesini, Nico 186 Luciani, Antonio 134 Luis Sosa, Mercedes 56 Lumière, brothers 78, 375, 388 Luna, Ramón de 84 Luperón, Gregorio 32, 81, 155-157, 159, 341, 348-350, 356 Macario, Nicola 170, 213-214 Macchia, Angelo 171 Machado, Luis Manuel 433 MacMurray, William 268 Maeseneer, Rita de 321 Maggiolo, family 27 Maggiolo, Gerolamo 54 Maggiolo, Giovanni Battista see Maggiolo Maggiolo, Juan Bautista Maggiolo, Maddalena 54 Maggiolo, Vesconte 322 Maggiolo de Castro, family 54 Maggiolo Gimeli, family 54 Maggiolo Landestoy, Eudocia 54 Maggiolo Maggiolo, Giovanni Battista 27-28, 45-46, 54, 146, 153 n, 317-318 Maggiolo Maggiolo, Giuseppe Bartolo 54 Maggiolo Núñez, family 54 Maggiolo Núñez, Mercedes Rosa 68 n, 318, 336, 460 Maggiolo Pellerano, Bartolomeo 54, 317-318, 335, 460 Maggiolo Pellerano, Maddalena 54 Maggiolo Pimentel, family 54 Maggiolo Ravelo, Manuel Américo 318, 460 Maggiolo Ravelo, family 54 Magnani, Carlo 303 Magnani, Caterina 59 Maiolino, Próspero Amado 98 n Majolino, María Giuseppa 97 n Malaussena, Antonio 280 n Malaussena, Luis 280 n Maltes Rainieri, family 433 Malvarosa, Vincenzo/Vicente 78 Mamá Tingó 336 Manfredonia, Rosa 29, 505 Mangano, Silvana 305 Manera, Danilo 31, 35, 330, 505 Mañón de Viro, Rosario 399 Mañón Mena, Rosario 67 Manso, Alfonso 115 n Manuel, Elvira 119 Mantica, Clara 301

Manzanedo, Bernardino de 122 Manzano, Álvaro 364 Marchena, Enrique de 168 Marchena, Eugenio de 66 n Marchena Cohén, Emilia de 69 n Marchena López, Celia de 64 Marconi, Guglielmo 228 Margarita, Angelica 62 Margaret of Parma/Margaret of Habsburg 117, 120, 127 Maria of Aragon/Infanta of Spain/queen consort of Portugal 117, 251, 260 Maria of Toledo, viceroy of Spain 42, 105 Marinelli, Giovanni 67 Marino, family 84 Marino, Pasquale/Pascual 86, 388 Mariscote, Juan Antonio 68 n Mármol, José 198 n Marra Marranzini, Fioravante 61 Marra Marranzini, Samuele 61 Marranzini, family 61, 398, 401 Marranzini, Antonio 70 n Marranzini, Celso Juan 181 Marranzini, José Horacio 294 Marranzini, Liberato 61, 398 Marranzini, Maria Giuseppa 61 Marranzini D’Amore, Costantino/ Constantino 61, 398 Marranzini D’Amore, Mariuccia/Mariucha 398 Marranzini D’Amore, Pasquale/Pascual 61, 398 Marranzini Di Piano, Carlos 388 Marranzini Di Piano, Dolores 217 Marranzini Di Piano, Orazio/Horacio 61 Marranzini Ingino, Antonio Gaetano 61 Marranzini Ingino/Inginio, Orazio Michello (Gracielo) 61, 79 Marranzini Jorge, Constantino 398 Marranzini Jorge, José del Carmen 398 Marranzini Lepore, Venecia Margarita 218, 435 Marranzini Pérez, family 207 n, 398 Marranzini Pérez, Alfredo 299, 398 Marranzini Pérez, Andrés 398 Marranzini Pérez, Celso 12, 28, 33, 188, 198 n, 207 n, 397-398, 506 Marranzini Pérez, Constantino 398 Marsano, Rosa 56 Martina Ferrero, Luigi 67 Martinelli, Amalia 64 Martínez, Adoris 297 Martínez, Cristian (Crismar) see Martínez Villanueva, Cristian Martínez, María 86 Martínez, Rolando 412 Martínez, Rufino 146, 157 Martínez Alba, Rafael 76

INDEX OF NAMES

Martínez de Sosua, Lidia María 90 Martínez Félix, Fiordalisa 65 Martínez Moya, Arturo 33, 199 n, 506 Martínez Noboa, Mercedes 60 Martínez Román, Héctor Juan 153, 183 Martínez Suárez, Alex 186 Martínez Villanueva, Cristian 32, 294-295, 336-337, 350-351, 356 n, 476 Martino, Sergio 377 Martir de Anglería, Pedro (Pietro Martire d’Anghieria) 42 Marx de Abraham, Paula 362 Massa, Marco 298 Mastrodicasa, Sisto 298 Mastrolilli, María Victoria de 476 Mastrolilli, Michele 66 Mastrolilli Bastiani, Vincenzo 66, 474-475 Masturzi, Angelo 63 Masturzi Rutelli, Antonio 63 Masturzi Rutelli, Michele 63 Masturzi Svelti, family 63 Masucci, Maria Carminella 61 Mateo, Tulio 303 Matilla, Alfredo 361 Matos Piña, Elena 61 Mattarella, Sergio 181,183, 204, 230, 510 Mayer Rodríguez, Isabel 65 Maximilian I of Germany, Emperor/ Habsburg 117, 127 Mazara, family 52 Mazara, Giovanni Antonio 52, 461 n Mazara, José 68 n Mazara Arjona, Domingo 52, 68 n Mazara Arjona, Juan Patricio 52 Mazara Arjona, Ramón Remigio 52, 68 n Mazek, E. 361 Mazzini, Giuseppe/José 29, 143, 146, 153 n Mazzone Clerico, Lorenza 67 McGann, James 180 Mecariello, Pascal 334 Meani, Alessandro 430 Medici, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ 41 Medici, Paolo 261-262 Medina, Danilo 24, 169-170, 176, 178, 181, 183-185, 199 n, 203-205, 230-231 Medina, Orisell 302 Medjimorec, Heinz 361 Meier, Richard 294 Mejía, Carolina 36 Mejía, Félix Evaristo 82, 95 n Mejía, Hipólito 168, 313 Mejía, José 299 Mejía de Selman, Gloria 181-182 Mejía Jabid, Eduardo 476 Mejía Pittaluga, family 56 Medjimorec, H. 361 Melfi, Leonardo 75, 93 n, 94 n Melissen, Jan 198 n

Mella, Estela de 477 Mella, Pablo 300 Mella (Mella Castillo), Ramón Matías 69 n, 76, 331, 337, 341, 344, 350-351, 356 Mella de la Peña, Enriqueta 56 Mena, Cornelia 95 n Mena, Luis A. de 132 Mena, Miguel Antonio 95 n Mena, Elila 362, 371 Mena Lajara, Pedro 294, 298 Mena Steinkopf, Cornelia 95 n Mena Vicini, family 57 Menard, Alicia 362 Menard, sisters 332 Mendelsohn, Erich 268 Méndez, Diego 106 Mendini, Alessandro 301 Menichelli, Giuseppa Iolanda (Pina) 376 Menicucci (Menicucci Chiardini), Oreste 82-85, 338 n, 388 Menicucci Mella, María Victoria 83 Menicucci (Menicucci Morel), Orlando 83, 334 Mercedes Cepeda, Víctor 33 Meriño Ramírez, Fernando Arturo de 68 n, 155-156, 160, 262, 453 Merlano, Benedetto 93 n Merlano Bregaro, Vittorio/Víctor 75, 84, 93 n Merlo, Ricardo Antonio 176 Messacasó, Claudio 71 n Messina, Angelo 82 Messina, family 82 Messina Galleti, Ana 82 Messina Galleti, Pedro 82 Messina Pimentel, Angel María 82 Mezzagora, Antonella 300 Michelangelo (Buonarroti) 81, 259, 261, 284 Miguel de Cúneo (Michele da Cuneo) 29, 42 Micheli, family 80 Michelucci, Giovanni 291 Mieses Grimaldi, family 64 Mieses, Nidia 366 Mieses Vicioso, Celeste Aida 62 Miguel, Manolita 299 Milanesse, Giovanni 59 Milanesse Robotti, Giuseppe Nicola 59 Milanesse Bove, family 59 Miller, Freddy 371 Miller, Jeannette 32, 507 Minervino, family 78 Minervino, América Mercedes 98 n Minervino, Francesco/Francisco 98 n Minervino, Vincenza Antonia 76 Minervino Cavaliere/Cavalieri, Maria 76 Mir, Pedro 19 Mirabal sisters 24 Miraglia Zaccara, Maria Generosa 65 Miranda, Angela 65

523

Mistruzzi, Aurelio 341, 345-346, 356 Moconesi di Fontanabuona, Giovanni 102 Molina, Julia 346 Molina Morillo, Rafael 445, 461 n Molinari, Bernardino 366 Molinari, Luca 291 Moltoni, Edgardo 412, 427 n Monaco La Valletta, Raffaele 131 Mondello, Giacomo 170 Monge Dimaggio, family 61 Montanaro, Fulvio 365-366 Montarsolo, Carlo 475 Montelli, Enrico 365 Montelli, Francesco 365-366, 368, 372 Montelli, Maria Pia 366 Montero, Juana Inés 58, 70 n Montesano Caputo, Biagio 76 Montes Arache, Manuel Ramón 222-224 Montes de Oca, Porfirio 77 Montes de Oca, Rosa 61 Montes de Oca, Teresa/Teresita 370, 372 Montilla de Medina, Cándida 181, 183, 204-205, 230 Montolío, Mariano 69 n Morales, Angel 206, 215 Morales, Héctor Ramón 293 Morales, Juan 68 n Morales Languasco, Carlos 79 Morales Troncoso, Carlos 355 Moravia, Alberto 325 Morcini, Maria Elena 97 n Moré (Moré Guaschino), Gustavo Luis 31, 299, 303, 507 Moreira, Jorge Machado 269 Morel, Juan B. 165 Morel, María del Carmen 93 n Morel, Merchora 75 Morel, Yoryi 336 Morelli, Guglielmo 365 Moresco, Carlos 372 Moreta, Richard 301 Mori, Mauro 185 Morillo, Euclides 224 Mosca, Olimpia 63 Mosca, Rosina 60 Moscoso, Juan Elías 167 Moscoso, Rafael 412 Mota, Mr. 98 n Mota Arvelo, Juana 51, 338 n, 453 Mota López, Alba Mizoocky 31, 303, 507 Moya, Carlos de 76 Moya, Casimiro Nemesio de 271 Moya, Jesús María de Jesús 354 Moya, Manuel A. 427 n Moya Alonso, Manuel de 430-431 Moya Pons, Frank 11, 23, 28, 35, 138, 198 n, 508 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 326

524

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Mueses Pereyra, Urania 219 n Muñoz, Manuel 69 n Muratori, Silverio 326 Mussolini, Benito 70 n, 213-215, 221-222, 228 Nacidit Perdomo, Ylonka 24, 342 Nadal, Rosia Maria 198 n Napolitano, Giorgio 231, 478, 510 Nardi, family 80, 85 Nardi, Hugo 85, 96 n Nardi de Rivera, Delgis 474 Nechodoma, Antonín 262, 280 n Negrete Gutíerrez, María del Socorro 57 Negrette family 78 Negro, family 102 Negro, Paolo di 107 Negroni, Baldassarre 376 Nervi, Pier Luigi 293, 291, 294 Nicodemo, family 80 Nicolás Galván, Ana Luisa 66 Niemeyer, Oscar 269-270, 291 Nieto y Valcárcel, Juan 429 Nivar León, Amada Genoveva 459 Noboa Batista, Clara Luz 219 n Noboa Batista, Dolores Eduviges 219 n Noboa Capano, family 60 Nouel, Adolfo 71 n, 138, 209 Nouel, Carlos 69 n Nouel y Bobadilla, Alejandro 262, 353 Nova, Luis 334 Nova, Ninouska 300 Núñez, Elsa 476 Núñez, Manuela 52 Núñez, María/Mariana de la Paz 52, 76 Núñez Cabral, María Rafael Hipólita 460 Occhiomagico (Giancarlo Maiocchi) 301 Octaviani, Benito 97 n Oderico, Nicolò 106 O’Diot, F. 412 Oguís Estrella, José 97 n Olalla de la Torre, María 68 n Oliva, family 80 Oliva, Angelo/Ángel 98 n Oliva, Sabatino 388 Oliva (Oliva Currari), Giuseppe/José 388 Olivieri, Arturo 171 Olivieri, Chichí 78 Olivieri, Tommaso/Tomás 78 Orazi, Ennio 365 Orbe Bocanegra, Raimundo del 52 Ordóñez, Bartolomé 254 Origlia, Giovanni 57 Origlia, Marcellino 57 Origone, Sandra 199 n Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele 111, 463 Ortori, Ottavio 57 Ortori, Aurelio Ottavio Napoleone 57, 70 n Osterman Lamarche, Ildefonso 69 n Ovando, Nicolás de 105, 243

Oxilia, Nino 376 Ozán, Candelaria 161 Ozoria Acosta, Francisco 11, 28-29, 31, 114, 127, 183, 205, 471, 508 Pacheco, César 359 Pacheco, Rafael 430 Pagani, Antonio 85 Paiewonsky e Guadalupe, Benjamín 476 Palacios M. 412 Palamara, family 77 Palamara, Bruno 63 Palamara Margarita, Battesimo Bruno 63 Palese, Agostino 176 Palladio, Andrea 254, 284 Palomo, Antonio 95 n Pané, Ramón 321 Paniagua, Jesús 114 Pannocchia, Luigi 64 Pannocchia Martinelli, Orlando 64, 77 Paonesa, Luigi 86 Paonessa Cavalcanti, Luigi Francesco/Luis Francisco 75 Pappaterra, Biagio/Blas 80 Pappaterra Scaldaferri, Francesco/Francisco 80 Pappaterra Scaldaferri, Fortunato 80, 85, 96 n Pappaterra Scaldaferri, Giuseppe Antonio/ José Antonio 80 Pardi, Ugo/Hugo 84-85 Pardi Valdez, Selene del Carmen (Carmela) 96 n Parenti, Neri 377 Pariso Fortuna, Anna 67 Parocchi, Lucido 133 Parrinello, Sandro 31 Pasamonte, Miguel de 122 Pascale Landi, Immacolata 65, 481 Pasolini, Pier Paolo 325 Pastoriza, Andrés 214 Pastoriza, Tomás 94 n Patroni Griffi, Giuseppe 325 Paul III, Pope (Alessandro Farnese) 261 Paul VI, Pope (Giovanni Battista Montini) 230, 347, 352 Paulino, Jr., Aliro 377 Paulino Ramos, Alejandro 30, 508 Pavese, Cesare 325 Pedrini, Egidio 476 Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil/Pedro IV of Portugal (Braganza) 344 Peignand Ramírez, Joaquín Augusto 35 Pellerano, family 54, 399, 401, 455, 457-458, 460 Pellerano, Angelo 75, 94 n Pellerano, Carlo Lorenzo/Carlos Lorenzo 84, 96 n, 98 n Pellerano, Francesco/Francisco 96 n Pellerano, Gerolamo/Gerónimo 54, 98 n, 371

Pellerano, Manuel A. see Pellerano García, Manuel Arturo Pellerano Alfau, Arturo Joaquin 54, 317, 388, 455-457 Pellerano Bertollo, Benedetto 54 Pellerano Costa, Juan Bautista/Giovanni Battista (Gio Batta) 45-46, 54, 68 n, 317, 455, 460 Pellerano Costa, Rosa 54, 317 Pellerano Costa, Vincenzo Benedetto (Benito) 54, 69 n, 317 Pellerano de Castro, Arturo Bautista 54 Pellerano García, Manuel Arturo 12, 188, 198 n, 397, 399, 455, 458 Pellerano Nadal, Eduardo José 457 Pellerano López Peña, Moisés 457 Pellerano López Peña, Nelly 457 Pellerano Peña, Manuel Arturo 399, 457-458 Pellerano Romano, family 58 Pellerano Romano, Máximo Antonio 399, 457 Pellerano Romano, Rogelio 457 Pellerano Sardá, Arturo Antonio Laureano 456 Pellerano Sardá, Rogelio Arturo 457 Pellice, Gaetano 78 Peña, Andrea de 68 n Peña, Ángela 219 n Peña, María de 97 n Peña, Raquel 200, 203 Peña Acosta, Miguel 175 Peña Gómez, José Francisco 199 n, 219 Pennarola, Vittorio 171 Pepén Solimán, Juan Félix 141 n, 354 Pepín, Seguros 295 Perazzo, Vincenzo/Vicente 97 n Perdomo, E. 68 n Perdomo, Felipe 68 n Perdomo, José Mateo 68 n, 69 n Perdomo, Josefa 69 n Perdomo de Soto, Isabel 57 Perdomo, Rafael 412, 427 n Perdomo Santamaría, Mercedes Laura 57, 467 Perea Labia, Gianna 373 Pereira, Amelia 54 Perellada, Getrudis (Tula) 87, 99 n Perellada, Miguel B. 87 Perelló, Julia 98 n Perestrelo, Bartolomeo 102 Perestrelo, Felipa 102 Pereyra, Antonio 359 Pereyra, Juan Francisco 360 Pérez, Agustina 75 Pérez, Ana Dilia 97 n Pérez, Benito Alejandro 68 n Pérez, Catana 373 Pérez, Isidoro 69 n, 70 n Pérez, Gladys 373 Pérez, Guillo 476

INDEX OF NAMES

Pérez, José Joaquín 160 Pérez, José María 51, 68 n, 70 n Pérez, Juan Isidro 55, 145, 243 Pérez Abreu, Carluis 337 Pérez Álvarez, María Balbina 338 n Pérez Álvarez, Matilde 338 n Pérez Díaz Morales, María de la Merced 51 Pérez Gómez, José 464 Pérez Heredia, Néstor 475 Pérez Montás, Eugenio 281 n, 476 Pérez López, Celso 398 Pérez Pintado, María Altagracia 398 Pérez Sánchez, Eliseo 133 Perón, Juan Domingo 221 Perrone, family 84 Perrone, Luis 98 n Perrone, Nicolás 388 Perrone Capano, Carlo 168 Perrone Leone, Nicola Francesco Giuseppe 81 Perrone Polanco, Mateo Ramón 95 n Perroni, Luigi 98 n Perrotta, Antonio 65 Perrotta Benedetto, Giuseppe 65 Perrotta Miraglia, Juan Antonio 65 Pessagno, family 102 Pestalozzi, Johann Heinrich 405 Petilli, Luis 69 n Petito, family 84 Petito, Pasquale 98 n Petrarca, Francesco 477 Petrassi, Goffredo 368 Pezzotti, Evaristo see Pezzotti Salterucci, Dante Evaristo 76-77 Pezzotti, family 77, 84, 388 Pezzotti, Francesco/Francisco 97 n, 98 n Pezzotti, Giuseppe Antonio 61 Pezzotti, Mario 83 Pezzotti Bloise, family 84 Pezzotti Hernández, Filomena Teresa 83 Pezzotti Schiffino, Attilio 61 Pezzotti Schiffino, Gennaro 61, 83 Pezzotti Schiffino, Umberto 61 Pezzotti Tejeda, Blas 76 Piano, Renzo 291 Piantini, family 52, 338 n Piantini, Adolfo 333 Piantini, Carlos see Piantini Espinal, Carlos Alberto Piantini, Giuseppe (José) Eugenio 52, 333, 338 n, 362 Piantini Blanchard, Zeferino/Zefirino 52 Piantini Blanchard, Delfino/Delfín 52 Piantini Blanchard, Secondino/Secundino 52 Piantini Blanchard, Valentín 52, 76 Piantini Espinal, Carlos Alberto 362-364 Pichardo, Angélica 97 n Pichardo, Bernardo 69 n

Pierini, Giovanni 264 Piermarini, Giuseppe 421 Pierri, Giovanna 93 n Pierri, Pietro 93 n Pieri/Pierri, Silvestro/Silvestre 75, 93 n Pignataro, Antonia 388 Pigni, Giuseppe 52 Pilati, Mario 368 Pilonero Milazzo, Rosario 76 Pimentel Bove, family 59 Piña Barinas, César 294 Pinelli, Francesco 104 Piñeyro, Carlos M. 68 n Pius IX, Pope (Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti) 131 Pius X, Pope (Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto) 141 n Pius XI, Pope (Achille Ratti) 135, 346 Pius XII, Pope (Eugenio M. Pacelli) 132, 263, 346, 370 Pio of Pietralcina, Saint (Padre Pio) 347 Pión, Samuel 306 Piola, Giacomo 93 n Piola (Piola Frugone), Stefano/Esteban 75, 84, 93 n Piola (Piola Valverde), Emanuele/Manuel 93 n Piola (Piola Valverde), Esteban 93 n Pittaluga, Colombina 59 Pittaluga, Giovanni 56 Pittalunga, Stefano 199 n Pittaluga Cambiaso, Giovanni Battista Francesco/Juan Bautista 459 Pittaluga Marsano, Salvatore Pasquale 56, 69 n, 459 Pittaluga Nivar, family 56, 459 Pittaluga Nivar, Salvador Alfredo 69 n, 459 Pittini Piussi, Ricardo/Riccardo Paolo 29, 36, 132, 137, 263 Plato 255 Pliny the Elder 103 Podestà, Adelina 56 Podestà, Carlo 56 Podestà Podestà, Giovanni Battista 56 Podestà Sturla, Carlos 56 Polanco, Bernabé 149 Polanco, Jenny 181 n Polanco, Manuel 294 Polanco, María Dolores 81 Polanco Brito, Hugo Eduardo 352, 354-355 Pollesa, Nicola/Nicolás 97 n Polo, Marco 103 Ponce, Manuel M. 363 Ponce de León, Juan 353 Pons Cabral, Neydi Altagracia 67 Porcella, family 28, 49, 57 Porcella, Angelo 49 Porcella Cohén, Margarita 59

525

Porcella (Porcella Giacomo), Andrea/Andrés 57, 467 Porcella León, Enrique 28 Porcella Vicini, Angelo 49, 57 Porcella Vicini, family 49 Porta, Mario 170 Portoghesi, Paolo 297 Pou, Fernando 68 n Pozo, Esteban 52 Pozzoli, Susanna 464 Prado, Pedro de 68 n Prandi, family 53 Prandi, Carlo 53 Prandi Santerro, Aurora 53 Prandi Santerro, Giuseppe 53 Prestinary, Carmen 180 Prieto Vicioso, Esteban 31, 263-264, 296, 509 Prota, Demetrio 63 Prota (Prota Vita), Pasquale/Pascual 63, 71 n, 388 Prota Vita, Yolanda Margarita 63 Puccini, Giacomo 326, 366 Pugliese, family 84, 97 n, 388 Pugliese (Pugliese Curzio), Nicola/Nicolás 86, 97 n Pugliese (Pugliese Giffone/Giffoni), Giuseppe/José 78, 86, 97 n Pugliese Giffone/Giffoni, María 99 n Pugliese Giffone/Giffoni, María Brigida 99 n Pugliese Giffone/Giffoni, Maria Francesca/ María Francisca 99 n Pugliese Giffone/Giffoni, Vincenzo/Vicente 84, 86, 88, 97 n Pugliese Martínez, María Raquel 95 n Pugliese Zouain, Nicola Giuseppe/Nicolás (Nicolino) 74, 84, 92 n, 93 n Puebla, Rodrigo de 119 Pujol Clanxet, María Teresa 53 Pujol, Inocencia 56, 69 n Quaroni, Enrico 292 Querol y Subirats, Agustín 344 Quiñones, L. 412 Rabata, Lorenzo de 41 Rainieri, family 217, 401 Rainieri, Mafalda 434 Rainieri (Rainieri Carrara), Isidoro 62, 79, 433 Rainieri Franceschini, María Altagracia (Mayú) 62 Ranieri Franceschini, Francesco/Francisco (Queco) 173, 217-219, 433-434 Rainieri (Ranieri Franceschini) Celia 217, 434 Rainieri-Marranzini, family 434 Rainieri Marranzini, Fernando 433-434 Rainieri (Rainieri Marranzini), Frank 27, 30, 33, 79, 188-189, 198 n, 207 n, 391, 397, 433-435, 437-438, 448 n, 478 Rainieri (Rainieri Marranzini), Haydée see Kuret de Rainieri, Haydée

526

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Rainieri Marranzini, Luis 433 Ramírez, Gregorio 52 Ramírez, Victoriano 68 n Ramírez Aquino, Carolina Celia 59 Ramírez de Fuenleal, Sebastián 123 Ramírez Dimaggio, family 61 Ramírez Vázquez, Pedro 291 Ramos, José 303 Ramos Hernández, Anita 303 Ramos, Dolores 52 Rangaano, African priest 121 Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) 259 Ravelli, Salvatore 344 Ravelo, Carmen 460 Ravelo, José de Jesús 360-361 Ravelo, Juan Nepomuceno 53-54, 68 n Ray Guevara, Milton 12, 28, 33, 180, 463-465 Raybaudi Massiglia, Annibale 170 Razeto, Enea 408, 412 Read, Carlos Alberto 84 Read, Horacio A. 412 Read, Pedro Pablo 84 Read y Ozema Herrera, Carlos Alberto 84 Read Vittini, Mario Antonio 53 Recio, Armando 371 Redaelli, Piero 414 Reed, Oliver 377, 387 Regonne, Rosa 60 Reid, Clara 28 Reid Cabral, Donald 223 Reilly, Thomas Francis 354 Reinhard, Andrew 268 Renzi, Matteo 231 Renzulli, Carlo 365 Rey, Próspero 342 Reyes, María Engracia 97 n Reyes Gil, María de la Cruz 97 n Ribagorza, Juan II de 254 Ribera, Francisco 121 Riberol, Francesco de 106 Ricart, Alejandro T. 62 Ricart, Antonio 69 n Ricart, Eduardo 71 n Ricart, Jaime E. 168 Ricart (Ricart Castillo), Nelia 62, 215 Ricart Vidal, Carlos Alberto 457 Ricci, Tonino 377 Richetti, Asunción 459 Richetti, J. B. 77 Richetti, family 78 Ridolfo, Francisco 41 Riello, Antonio 301 Riggio, family 84 Riggio Schiffino, family 84 Rimoli, Francesco 65 Rimoli, Giuseppe 65, 280 n Rimoli Caffaro, Cesare Augusto 65 Rimoli Caffaro, Umberto 65

Ripley, Geo 337 Rivas Santamaría, María Encarnación (Mariquita) 59 Rivas Santos, Fabio Mamerto 354 Rivera, Hugo 174, 396, 401 Rivera, Luis 361-362 Rivera, Rosanna 181, 183, 457 Rivera, Teresa de 58 Rivera de Soto, Micaela Antonia 52 Rizek, family 179 Rizek, Héctor José 198 n Rizek, Samir 198 n Robbia (Della Robbia), workshop 251 Robert, Robertina 55 Roboti, Camila 59 Roca Suero, Josefa Isabel 60 Rochet, Louis 344 Rodolfi, Eleuterio 376 Rodríguez, Bienvenida 66 Rodríguez, Cayetano Armando 210 Rodríguez, Fredesvinda 97 n Rodríguez, José Antonio 350 Rodríguez, Manuel Z. 99 n Rodríguez, María del Carmen 79, 338 n Rodríguez, Miley 371 Rodríguez, Néstor 321 Rodríguez de Fonseca, Juan 252, 254 Rodríguez Caamaño, Zora Argentina 67 Rodríguez Carpio, Benjamin 141 n Rodríguez Demorizi, Emilio 11, 29, 82, 146, 153 n, 346, 458, 510 Rodríguez Grullón, Julia 138, 141 n Rodríguez Henríquez, Rafael 321 Rodríguez Jimenes, Carlos Federico 467 Rodríguez Núñez, María Mercedes 338 n Rodríguez Pellerano, Rosa Natalia 299 Rodríguez Ranger, Paula Antonia 61 Rodríguez Santos, Genara 60 Rodríguez Vicini, Guillermo 33, 188, 198 n, 471, 478 Rodríguez Vicini, Federico Guillermo 468, 510 Rodríguez Urdaneta, Abelardo 330, 332, 342, 344-345, 350 Rogers, Ernesto Nathan 291 Rohe, Mies van der 291 Rojas, Fabio A. 412 Rojas, Pedro A. 412 Roldán, Francisco 321 Román, Joel Carlo 95 n Román, Juan Miguel 224 Romañach, Mario 291 Romano, Giacomo 58 Romano, Rosa 66 Romano, Santi 463 Romano de Azua, family 58 Romano de Rivera, Antonio 58, 338 n Romano Martínez, César Augusto 70 n

Romano Noble, family 58 Romano Pou, family 58 Romano Pou, Josefina 334 Rome, Sydne 376 Romei, Luigi 132 Romeu, Fernando 344 Romio, Egidio 377 Ronzino, Dante 61 Ronzino, Giuseppe Antonio 61 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano 139, 214 Ros, Carlos 188, 397 Rosis, C. 412 Rosó, Ignacio 97 n Rossellini, Roberto 171, 325, 474 Rossi, family 60 Rossi, Aldo 296 Rossi, Francesco/Francisco 93 n Rossi, Giovanni/Juan 75, 77 Rossi, Giuseppe/José 86 Rossi, Stefano 60 Rossi, Vittorio Maria/Víctor María 76 Rossi Lunghi, Gastone 170 Rossini, Gioachino 326 Rotellini, José Ramón 333 Rotellini, Pietro/Pedro 58, 68 n Rotellini Fago, Luigi/Luis 58, 338 n Ruata Sassoli, Ada 370 Rubinstein, Anton 370 Rubirosa Azira, Porfirio 77 Rudolph, Paul 291 Rueda, Manuel 361, 363-364, 367, 372 Rufaldi, Jéronimo 41 Ruggeri, Cinzia 301 Ruiz, Francisco 254 Ruiz, José 68 n Ruiz Castillo, Humberto 274 Ruse, Ana Dominga/Giovanna Domenica 51 Russo, Blas 97 n, 388 Russo, family 80, 84, 388 Russo, Giuseppe, entomologist 412-413 Russo, Saverio 76 Russo Cino, Alessandro/Alejandro 76, 388 Russo Cino, Angelo/Ángel 76 Russo Cino, Antonio 76 Russo Cino, Attilio/Atilio 76 Russo (Russo Cino), Domenico/Domingo 76, 99, 388 Russo Cino, Giovanna (Juanita) 76 Russo (Russo Cino), Giuseppe/José 76, 97 n, 388 Russo Depuglia/Russo Dipuglia/Russo Di Puglia, family 84 Russo Di Puglia, Anna 77 Russo Dipuglia, Domingo Francisco 77, 81, 87, 99 n Russo Di Puglia/Dipuglia, Giuseppa/Josefa 77, 80 Russo (Russo Dipuglia), Pedro 77, 86-87, 98 n, 99 n

INDEX OF NAMES

Russo Perellada, María Teresa 99 n Russo Perellada, Miguel Angel 99 n Russo Perellada, Pietro Carmelo 99 n Russo Perellada, Víctor Manuel 99 n Rusterucci, Angelo 82 Rutelli, Maria 63 Saarinen, Eero 291 Sabaté Llobera, Núria 321 Sabatino, family 84 Sabatino, Giuseppe/José 97 n Sabatino Oliva, family 388 Sabbatucci, Luca 36, 176 Sacchi, Giovanni 301 Saco, family 80 Sáez, José Luis S.J. 29, 141 n, 259, 375, 511 Sagredo, Diego de 253, 256 Saint Martin, Giuseppe 170 Saladín Vargas, Carlos Eugenio 63 Salazar, Joaquín 292 Salcedo, Poncio 336 Salmona, Rogelio 291 Salvucci/Salvuccio, Felice/Félix 60, 70 n Salvucci del Giudijo, Cristoforo 60 Salvucci del Giudijo, Donato 60 Salvucci del Giudijo, Francesco 60 Samproni, Silvana 366 Samuel, Rufina 65 Sanabia, Manuel María 210 Sanabia Villaverde, Fedora Altagracia 64 Sánchez, Eladio 405 Sánchez, Francisco 97 n Sánchez, Francisco del Rosario 54, 68 n, 331, 337, 341, 344, 350, 356, 360 Sánchez, Gabriel 104 Sánchez, Juan 359 Sánchez, Marianela 373 Sánchez, Morito 359 Sánchez, Sofía 98 n Sánchez Cestero, Rafael 372 Sánchez Peña, Juan Francisco (Papi) 54 Sánchez Ramírez, Juan 269 Sánchez (Sánchez Rodríguez), María 97 n, 338 n Sampaolesi, Piero 298 Sandoli, Eliseo 54, 69 n Sang Ben, Mu-Kien Adriana 11, 30, 33, 173, 175, 448 n, 511 Sangiovanni, Carlos 334 Sangiovanni, family 80-81, 338 n Sangiovanni, Giovanni/Juan 80 Sangiovanni (Sangiovanni Cino), Domenico/ Domingo 82, 338 n Sangiovanni y Fortunato, Maddalena/ Magdalena 80 Sangiovanni Forestieri, Giovanni 338 n Sangiovanni Grisolia, Bonifacio 82, 338 n Sangiovanni Grisolia, Paolo/Paulino 82, 338 n

Sangiovanni Grisolia, Vincenzo/Vicente 82, 338 n Sangiovanni Russo, Ersilio Ernesto 338 n Sangiovanni Russo, Immacolata/Inmacolata 81, 338 n Sangiovanni Russo, Luigi 338 n Santamaría, Castalia 467 Santamaría, M. 68 n Santana, Carlos 307 Santana (Santana Family), Pedro 46, 52, 149150, 163-164, 341, 381-382, 454, 474 Santana Di Carlo, family 63 Santanchè, Leopoldo Angelo Baldassarre 131 Santángel, Luis de 104, 118 Santerro, Rosa 53 Santil Pérez, Cristobalina 61 Santos, Altagracia 97 n Santos M., J. 412 Sanz, G. 412 Sardi Sardi, Marina 60 Sarnelli, Fiore/Flor 83 Sarnelli, Vincenzo/Vicente 80 Sartori, Giovanni 463 Sartori, Italo 430 Sarubbi Schiffi, Gaetano/Cayetano 61, 70 n Sassone, Australia 95 n Sassone, family 84 Sassone Maimone, Enrico/Enrique 388 Savina, Oreste 167, 170 Savino, Giovanni 34 Saviñón, Francisco 384 Savonarola, Girolamo 125 Scaldaferri, Angela 80 Scalfaro, Oscar Luigi 65, 230, 483 Scalley Trifilio, family 61 Scandiani, Matteo 189, 199 n Scaroina (Scaroina Montuori), Alfredo Giuseppe 75-76, 262-263, 292, 473 Scarpa, Carlo 291 Scarpini, Pietro 373 Schiaffino, Rosanna 377 Schiele de Caggiano, Inge 373 Schiffino, family 61, 77, 84, 388 Schiffino, Alejandro 98 n Schiffino, Angelo/Ángel 85, 96 n, 458 Schiffino, Filomena 61 Schiffino, Francesco/Francisco (Pancho) 78, 88, 98 n, 99 n Schiffino, Javier 99 n Schiffino, Luigi/Luis 87, 89, 99 n Schiffino, Maria Giuseppa/María Josefa 61, 94 n Schiffino, Matteo/Mateo 60, 98 n Schiffino, Pedro (Petruccio) 99 n Schiffino Blandino, Rosina 61 Schiffino Catanzariti, Giuseppe/José 60 Schiffino Cosentino, family 61, 84 Schubert, Franz 361

527

Schubert, Karin 377 Scrivano, Paolo 291 Schotborg Herrera, Violeta 64 Scotto, Renata 325 Segni, Antonio 229 Segré Prando, Roberto 272-274 Seguiti, Tullio 430 Ségur, Luis Gaston de 135 Sellers, Julie 321 Selman, Eduardo 181, 187 Selman, Gloria see Mejía de Selman, Gloria Senada, Luisa de 98 n Sención, Patricia 203 Senise, family 84 Senise, Archimede/Arquímedes 97 n Senise, Emmanuele/Manuel 85, 96 n Senise, Giuseppe/José 97 n Senise, Maria B. 94 n Senise, Stanislao 94 n Senise Schiffino, family 84 Senise (Senise Schiffino), Matteo/Mateo 75, 94 n, 97 n Serafini, Luigi 301 Seravalle, Neidy de 476 Seravalle, Renzo 12, 33, 176, 475, 478, 511 Seravalle, Terenzio 67, 430 Seravalle Innocenti, Lilia 67 Seravalle Innocenti, Renzo 67 Serlio, Sebastiano 254, 284 Serra, Antonia 57 Serrati, Giovanni Battista 56 Serrati Capriles, Luigi Amedeo/Luis Amadeo 56, 69 n Serrati Capriles, Francesco/Francisco (Queco) 56 Severino, Jorge 332 Sevez, Edmon 81 Shakespeare, William 325 Shrever, Richmond 268 Siant, Isabel 96 n Siloé, Diego de 254 Silveri, Paolo 373 Silvestre, Ermenegirda 93 n Silvestri, Augusto 368 Simancas, Mercedes 70 n Simeoli, family 78 Simeoli, Luigi/Luis 78 Simeoli, Vincenzo/Vicente 78 Simó, Manuel 363-364, 371 Sinatra, Frank 307 Siragusa, Mary 361 Smilovits, Joseph 363 Sochting, J. 412 Solano, Domingo Antonio 75 Solano, Rafael 71 n, 369 Solano Sarubi, family 61 Solari, Pietro 170 Sollazzo, family 84

528

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Sollner, Richard 213, 389 SOM | Skidmore Owings and Merrill, architectural firm 291 Soñé, Francisco (Pancho) 76 Soñé Ortiz, Amparo Antonia 67 Soriano, Victoriana 60 Soriano Matos, Altagracia 66 Sorrentino, Luigi/Luis 76 Sosa/Cotes, Isabel 55, 147 Sosa, María Luisa 55, 147 Soto, Argentina/Celia Argentina de 86 Soto, Victoriana de 52 Sottsass, Ettore 301 Spignolio, Luigi/Luis 59, 95 n Spignolio Fasana, Carlo Felice/ Carlos Félix 59, 81, 95 n Spignolio Garrido, Pietro/Pedro 95 n Spignolio Mena, Fernando Alberto 81 Spignolio Mena, Giuseppe Antonio/José Antonio 81 Spinola, Battista 107 Spinola di Luccoli di Ronco, Nicolò 107 Squillero, Adolfo 430 Stefani, Giovanni Battista/Juan Bautista 93 n, 97 n Stefani, Juan Héctor José (Bullo) 83 Stefani Espaillat, Juan Bautista 93 n Stefani (Stefani Espaillat), María 83, 95 n Stefani Espaillat, María Adela 93 n Stefani Espaillat, María Electa 93 n, 95 n, 376 Stefani Espaillat, María Octavia 93 n Stefani (Stefani Morcini), Giovanni Battista 93 n Stefani (Stefani Morcini), Pietro/Pedro 83-84, 97 n, 98 n Stefani (Stefani Virgani), Pilade 75, 83-85, 97 n, 376 Stefani (Stefani Virgani), Vittorio 75, 93 n, 97 n Steffani, Marie (Felícitas) 52 Steffano, Natalia 63 Steinkopf, Adelaida 95 n Stephen, Violeta 371 Strozzi (Strozzi de Cavagliano), Dirce 66, 219, 295 Sturla, family 56, 78 Sturla, Antonio 69 n, 94 n Sturla, Cristoforo 56 Sturla Cambiaso, Salvador Arquímedes 56 Sturla Chiossone in Pizzoni, Adelaide 56 Sturla Chiossone, Antonio 55-66, 78, 459 Sturla Chiossone, Giovanni Battista/Juan Bautista 56, 66 n Sturla Chiossone, Ersilia 56 Sturla Chiossone, Ludovica 56 Sturla Marrero, Amadeo 459 Sturla Richetti, Amedeo/Amadeo (Mallín) 78, 94 n

Sturla Richetti, Hilda 459 Suárez de Deza, Pedro 115 n Suero, Julían 217 Suero Marranzini, Camilo Horacio 219 n Suero Marranzini, Rhina 219 n Suero Moquete, Camillo (Camilito) 218 Suleiman I (Suleiman the Magnificent), sultan, Ottoman Empire 251 Summa, Giancarlo 30, 512 Suriel Liranzo, Mercedes 64, 461 n Svelti, Francesco/Francisco 62 Svelti Bardi, Francisco 62 Svelti Bardi, family 63 Svelti Caminero, family 63 Svelti Paulino, family 63 Svelti Valerio, family 63 Svelti Veloz, family 63 Swarowsky, Hans 363 Szeryng, Henryk 363 Tabares, Agustín 68 n, 70 n Tafuri, Manfredo 297, 299 Taínos, indios 322 Tallaj Almánzar José 99 Tamburini, Eugenio 60 Tamburini Compartico, Ettore 60 Tamburini Roca, Héctor 60 Tampone, Gennaro 297, 299 Tapley Bennet, William 223 Tavárez, Gustavo 438 Tavárez Justo, Manuel Aurelio (Manolo) 219 Tavárez Mayer, Carmen Isabel 65, 77, 268-269, 283 Taveras, José Francisco 96 n Taviani, Paolo Emilio 476 Team X, architectural firm 291 Tedesco (Tedesco Giffone), Arcangelo 97 n Tejada, Adriano Miguel 457 Tejada, Juan de 242 Tejeda Rosario, Príamo Pericles 354 Tejera, Emiliano 341-342, 344 Tejera, Victoria 52 Tejera Bonetti, Emilio 59 Tejera Bonetti, Luis 59 Tejera Penson, Juan Nepomuceno Publio Scipión Emiliano 54, 68 n Tenerani, Pietro 344 Terola, María 55 Tessón Hurtado, Guarina Mercedes 219 n Testa, Clorindo 291 Teti, Camillo 377 Thomén, Víctor F. 99 n Ticchioni, Lorenzo 366 Tinti, Gabriele 377 Toca Simó, Nelson 203 Toimil, Francisco 96 n Tolari Spanu, Pietro Paolo 67 Tolentino, Inés 334 Tolentino, Marianne de 81, 95 n, 186

Tolentino, Vicente (Tico) 335 Tolentino, Rafael César 425 Tomagnini, Arturo 341, 344-345, 347, 356 Toribio, Genaro 97 n Toro, Rafael A. 412 Torraca, Giorgio 296, 300 Torres, Luis de 321-322 Torres de Soto, Oscar Antonio 376 Torrigiano, Pietro 254 Toscanelli, Paolo dal Pozzo 41, 103 Toscanini, Arturo 366 Toussaint Louverture, François-Dominique 228 Totalora, Manrique 113 Trabucco, Maria 56, 467 Traverso, Giuseppe 67 Traverso, Joyería 67 Trifilio, family 77 Trifilio, Francesco 61 Trifilio, Luis/Luigi 94 n Trifilio Abreu, family 61 Trifilio Gilisbert, Francesco Paolo 61 Trifilio Hérnandez, family 61 Trifilio Ibarra, family 61 Troncoso, José 68 n Troncoso Sánchez, Pedro 294, 330 Troyer, Hans 430 Trotta, Helena 301 Trueba, Carlos 275 Trueba, Ramón 275 Trueba y Suárez, Benigno de 274, 280 n Trujillo, family 269 Trujillo Molina, José Arismendi 364, 366-367, 372 Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leónidas 11, 30, 53, 62, 66, 71 n, 81, 83, 132-133, 137-140, 141 n, 161, 168, 213-215, 217, 222-223, 228, 230, 268-270, 273, 275, 277, 280 n, 284, 292-295, 320, 330, 341, 345-346, 356, 389-390, 425-426, 427 n, 434, 455-457, 459-460, 482 Tucciarelli, Ernesto 264 Tudor, royal family of England 119 Tudor, Arthur (Prince of Wales) 119 Turcios, Vaquero 110 Ubrí, Gustavo 301 Umberto I, King of Italy 55 Uribe Matos, Néstor 346 Utrera, Cipriano de 424 Uzcudun, Paulino 83 Vaiverde Podestà, Manuel 281 n Valdez, Silveria 161 Valdez Ramírez, Aurora 96 n Valentino, Giuseppe 60 Valentino Germarelli, Gennaro 60 Valentino Sardi, Emilio César 60 Valenzuela, Rodrigo 476 Valera Valdez, Vetilio Manuel 53 Valerii, Tonino 377

INDEX OF NAMES

Valerio, Piro 359 Valerio-Holguín, Fernando 320-321 Valverde, Dolores 69 n Valverde, José María 93 n Valverde Morel, Cristina 93 n Varela, Consuelo 41 Varela, Fernando 484 Vargas Maldonado, Miguel 170, 176, 181-183, 188, 199 n, 203-205, 207 n, 231, 471, 479 Varricchio, Armando 478 Vasari, Giorgio 254 Vasconcelos, Ernani 269 Vásquez, Horacio 83, 209, 211, 267, 272, 406-407, 409 Vásquez, Rafi 332 Vázquez, Carmen 114 Vasco de Gama 103 Vega, Bernardo 11, 30, 198 n, 438, 512 Vega, Nicolás 294 Vega Boyrie, Wenceslao 33, 180, 512 Vega Malagón, Edgardo 295 Vegas (Vegas Pacheco), Martín 291 Velásquez, Federico 69 n, 209 Vela Zanetti, José 332 Velli, Raffaella 61, 70 n Veloz, Felícita 77 Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio 27, 31, 68 n, 73, 192, 198 n, 317-322, 335, 401, 460 Veloz Molina, Francisco Javier 318, 336, 460 Velutini, Daniela 176 Velutini, Luis Emilio 176, 198 n Venegas, Margarita Consuelo 64 Ventura, Adriana 69 n Ventura, Andrés 96 n Ventura, Juan Bautista/Giovanni Battista 55, 69 n Ventura, Marcos 96 n Ventura, Michelangelo 55 Ventura, Michele/Miguel 383 Ventura Cambiaso, Adriana Rosa Catarina 55 Ventura Danielli, Giovanni 55 Ventura Danielli, Luisa 55 Ventura Danielli, family 55 Ventura Danielli, Michele 55 Ventura Terola, family 55 Ventura Terola, Antonio 55 Venturella, Antonio 171, 469, 471, 474 Venturella, Rosalba 476 Venturi, Robert 296 Venturini, Roberto 170, 224 Verde, Simón 41 Verdi, Benito 67 Verdi, Giuseppe 96 n, 326, 360, 367, 371, 476 Verrocchio, Andrea de 350 Vespucci, Amerigo 41, 43 Viani, Lorenzo 347 Vicini, Amelia 181 Vicini, Angelo Maria 49, 57, 467

Vicini, family 24, 49, 57, 389, 392, 401, 438 Vicini, Felipe 12, 188, 198 n, 207 n, 397, 478 Vicini, Giovanni 474 Vicini, Giovanni Battista 28, 57 Vicini, José Angiolino 469 Vicini Ariza, José Delio 467 Vicini Ariza de Rodríguez, Celeste Elena 467 Vicini Ariza de Alberti, Clara Isidora Teresa 467, 471 Vicini Ariza, Fiume 467 Vicini Ariza, Franz Augusto 467, 471 Vicini Ariza, Italia Nettina 467, 471 Vicini Baher, Alejandro 471 Vicini Burgos, Juan Bautista (Chico) 30, 57, 209, 211, 388 Vicini Cabral, José María 390 Vicini Cánepa, Andrea/Andrés 49, 57, 69 n, 467 Vicini Cánepa, Giovanni Battista/Juan Bautista 47-48, 57, 69 n, 70 n, 209, 383-387, 467 Vicini Cánepa, Giuseppe 57, 467 Vicini Cánepa, Maria 57, 467 Vicini Castillo, family 57 Vicini Santamaría, Francesco 471 Vicini Trabucco, Angiolino 33, 57, 189, 204, 467-468, 470-471, 473 Vicioso, Julia 30, 42-43, 300, 512 Vicioso de Mayol, Rosa María 474 Víctor Emmanuel II of Savoy, King of Italy 55, 73 Víctor Emmanuel III of Savoy, King of Italy 164 Victoria, Eladio 99 n Victoria, Eduardo 99 n Victoria Guzmán, Josefa Altagracia 99 n Vidal, Petronila 68 n Vidal Henríquez, María del Carmen 54 Vidal Tejeda, Evangelista (Angelica) 63 Vidal Savory, Victoria 68 n Vieira, Lorenzo de 254 Vieira, Salvador de 257 n Vierucci, Andrea 34, 191 Vigarny, Felipe 254 Viggiani, Fernando 98 n Vignali, Luigi Maria 177 Vigniero, family 77 Vigniero, Alejandro 77 Vignola (Jacopo Barozzi) 254 Villabona, Maddalena 55 Villanueva, Francisco 96 n Villanueva, Rafael 474 Villari, Domenico 98 n Villari, family 80 Villavizar Bello, Ana Silvia (Nena) 65 Viñas, Abelardo 99 n Vincitore, Emanuele 63

529

Vincitore Giannone, Emanuele 63 Vincitore Giannone, Natalia Palmira Adriana 63 Vincitore Giannone, Pietro 63 Vincitore Giannone, Yolanda 63 Vincitore Steffano, Pietro 63 Virgani, Filomena 93 n Viro, Angelo 188, 397-399, 478 Viro, Orazio 67 Viro, Orazio, engineer 399 Viro, Rosangela 399 Viro Emmi, Angelo Carmelo 67 Visconti, Luchino 305 Visconti Guerrieri, Maria 63 Visone, Adelaida 76 Vita, Fortuna 63 Vita, Rachele 63 Vitiello, Concetta 59 Vittini, family 53 Vittini, Tomaso 53 Vittini Chiossone, Pedro 53 Vivaldi, Guglielmo 170 Vivaldi/Vivaldo, brothers 103 Vivaldi/Vivaldo, Adán 43 Vivaldo Castellón, family 44 Vozzi, Ruggero 171 Wagner, Richard 326 Waldseemüller, Martin 424 Wax, Massimiliano 188, 397, 399-400 Welles, Benjamin Sumner 211, 214 Welser, merchants 43 Wessin y Wessin, Elías 223 White, Dagmar 372 Wiarda, Howard 137 Wilson, Jean 56 Windt Lavandier, César de 476 Woss y Gil, Alejandro 158, 167 Wright, Frank Lloyd 269, 278, 291 Wycliff, John 125 Yentzen, Eduardo 433 Zabludovsky, Abraham 291 Zafra, Enriqueta 362 Zagrebelsky, Gustavo 464 Zaiter-Trifilio, family 61 Zaltron, Vittorio 98 n Zamboni, Guelfo 170 Zander, Giuseppe 300 Zanini, Lino 36 Zanolli, Ángelo 325 Zanón, Giuseppe 475 Zanuttigh, Loriana 176 Zarza, Vasco de la 254 Zella Corsino, Beniamina 64 Zevi, Bruno 298 Zoppis, Renato 429 Zorda, Aquiles 82 Zouain Díaz, María Antonia 84 Zuazo, Alonso de 115 n

Index of places

Abyssinian War (Second Italo-Ethiopian War) 468 Abruzzo, region of Italy 261 Adriatic Sea 84, 403 Africa 23, 41, 43-44, 102, 111, 114, 121, 124, 280 n, 302, 351, 392, 403, 430 437, 477 Agrigento, Italy 76 Ajaccio, France 77, 82 Alba (Cuneo), Italy 51, 77, 261, 338 n, 403, 453, 505 Albacete, Spain 270 Alba Pompeia see Alba Albissola (Savona), Italy 259 Alcáçobas, Treaty of 104 Alcázar de Colón see Santo Domingo-Viceregal Palace Alhambra, Spain 106 Altamira (Puerto Plata) 75, 81, 93 n, 94 n, 132 Altos de Chavón (La Romana) 27, 31, 305-309, 333, 336 - Amphitheater 307 - San Estanislao, Church of 306 - Regional Archaeological Museum 306 Amelia (Terni), Italy 43, 109, 117, 121, 127, 228, 251, 259 America(s) 11, 20, 30-31, 43-44, 49, 74, 84, 93 n, 101, 104, 107, 109, 111, 113-114, 115 n, 121, 125, 127-129, 139, 145, 185, 199 n, 205, 207 n, 215, 223, 230, 235, 239, 241-242, 251, 261, 279, 280 n, 291, 321-322, 330, 353, 361, 370, 391, 404, 409, 415, 429, 488, 491, 499 - Central America 44, 185, 242, 248, 306, 401, 477, 488 - Latin America 22, 24, 49, 122, 138, 158, 163, 214, 230, 291, 296, 344, 350, 370, 391, 403, 413, 427 n, 506 - North America 45, 49, 57, 279, 280 n, 405, 408, 477 - South America 44, 201, 280 n, 477 Anagni (Frosinone), Italy 341, 352 Andalusia, region of Spain 102-103, 106 Andrés, bay of 467 Antilles 41-42, 281 n - French Antilles 53 - Greater Antilles 163 - Lesser Antilles 118 - Spanish Antilles 109, 115 n

Apulia, region of Italy 65, 109 Aragon, region of Spain 102, 109, 117, 119, 251 Arenzano (Genoa), Italy 56 Argentina 49, 74, 201, 215, 272, 344, 348, 364, 412 Arroyo Hondo (San Juan) 483 Aruba, Netherlands 437 Asia 41, 392, 477 Atlantic Ocean 41, 102, 106-107, 311, 468, 470 Australia 348 Avellino, Italy 58-61, 63, 131-132, 217, 398 Ávila, Spain 254 Azores, archipelago 41 Azua, province of 454 Azua de Compostela (Azua), municipality of 54, 56, 58-61, 112, 382-384, 387, 398, 415 - Battle of 149, 163 - Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios, Church of 59, 60, 70 n Baarn, Netherlands 427 n Bahamas 436 Bahoruco, jungle/mountain range of 124, 424 Balbano (Lucca), Italy 64 Banes, Cuba 87 Baní (Peravia) 46, 49, 51, 53-54, 59-61, 67, 70 n, 95 n, 132, 155, 160, 331, 338 n, 354, 383-384, 454 - Nuestra Señora de Regla, Church of 60-61 Bánica/ San Francisco de Bánica (Elias Piña), municipality of 52, 281 n Barahona, province of 60-61, 149, 177 Barcelona, Spain 74, 104, 117-118, 293, 354, 367, 431 Barga (Lucca), Italy 84-85, 93 n, 96 n Basel, Switzerland 293 - Treaty of 228, 453 Basilicata, region of Italy 65, 366 Bávaro (Punta Cana) 435 Bayahibe (La Altagracia) 177, 189 Bayamo, Cuba 68 n Bayona (San Cristóbal) 384

532

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Bayuna, Diocese of 109, 115 n Bear Run (Pennsylvania), United States 269 - Kaufmann House 269 Belgrano (San Luis), Argentina 348 Belém (Pará), Brazil 71 n, 399 Beler, battle of 46, 149, 164 Belo Horizonte, Brazil 270 Benevento, Italy 93 n Bequia, island of 118 Berlin, Germany 268 - Columbushaus 268 - Museum and Botanical Garden 409 Bern, Switzerland 405 Bisagno, valley of 102 Black Sea 101 Boca Chica (Santo Domingo) 177, 392, 435, 438 Boca Nueva (Puerto Plata) 98 n Bogotá, Colombia 79 - Plaza Mayor 344 Bologna, Italy 79, 96 n, 217 Borgo San Dalmazzo (Cuneo), Italy 75, 133 Boston (Massachusetts), United States 30 Bovino (Foggia), Italy 65, 77, 267 Bracigliano (Salerno), Italy 83 Brazil 49, 53, 65, 71 n, 74, 99 n, 132, 137, 201, 268-270, 272, 280 n, 344, 364, 399, 405, 437 Bremen, Germany 381 Brittany, region of France 117 Bridgewater (Massachusetts), United States 175 Brigue, La (Alpes-Maritimes), France (formerly in Piedmont) 63 Brooklyn, borough of New York City 385 Buenaventura, Santo Domingo (National District) 112 Buena Vista (Iowa), United States 337 Buenos Aires, Argentina 334 Burgos, Spain 113 Burgundy, region of France 117 Cabarete (Puerto Plata) 435 Cabrera (María Trinidad Sánchez) 90, 435 Cádiz, Spain 104-106, 123, 127 Cagliari, Italy 368 Cagnes-sur-Mer, France 335 Calabria, region of Italy 49, 51, 60-65, 76, 84, 97 n, 213, 215 n, 364, 388-389, 458 Calitri (Avellino), Italy 132 Cameroon 400 Campania, region of Italy 51, 58-61, 63-67, 93 n, 97 n, 131-132, 217, 263, 334, 338 n, 398, 481 Canary Islands 41, 51, 104, 155, 159, 382 Canicattì (Agrigento), Italy 76 Cannes Film Festival 308 Caoba Corcovada (Yaguate) 48, 385 Cap-Haïtien 44, 60

Cape Verde 104 Cap Cana (La Altagracia) 67 Caracas, Venezuela 134, 280 n, 330, 336 Carcare (Savona), Italy 67 Caribbean Islands 123-124 Caribbean Sea 275, 355 Caribbean, region 78, 104, 121, 123, 146-147, 163, 185, 201, 215, 222, 236, 239, 281 n, 284, 299, 305-306, 308-309, 311, 321, 333, 337, 362, 375-376, 388, 391-392, 401, 416, 418, 435, 437, 448, 468, 481, 488, 491 Carrara, Italy 254, 263, 344, 347 Casa de Campo (La Romana) 27, 31, 177, 305, 311, 391, 477 - Barranca 1, vacation residence 295 - Marina 31, 311-313 Castelfidardo (Ancona), Italy 370 Castello d’Argile (Bologna), Italy 79 Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (Lucca), Italy 59 Castile, region of Spain 251 Castillo del Cerro (San Cristóbal) 280 n Cathay (China) 104 Catania, Italy 67 Cerveteri (Rome), Italy 326 Cesinali (Avellino), Italy 131-132, 261 - Church of San Rocco 132, 261 Chaco, Paraguay 137 Chavón, river 199 n, 305-306, 308, 312-313 Chicago (Illinois), United States 414 Chieri (Turín), Italy 133 Chieti, Italy 132, 261 - Church of San Rocco 261 China 101, 104 Cheshire, England 280 n Church of Saint John the Baptist (Chiesa dell’Autostrada del Sole), Campi Bisenzio (Florence), Italy 291 Cibao, province of 11, 62, 75, 89-91, 104, 156, 276-277, 359, 405, 408, 420-421, 429 Colonial City see Zona Colonial Ciudad Nueva, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 221, 273 - Cemetery of 221 - La Primavera 281 n Ciudad Trujillo (name of Santo Domingo from 1931 to 1960) 141 n, 222, 269, 317, 361-362, 373 Cofresí (Puerto Plata) 435 Cologne, Germany 346 Colombia 79, 423 Concepción de la Vega see La Vega Congo 222 Constanza, province of 81, 134, 406, 468 Corales (La Altagracia) 441, 445 Corsica, island of France 51, 77, 79, 82, 228, 332, 335 Corfu, island of Greece 311 - Gouvia Marina 311

Coro, Archdiocese, Venezuela 252 Costa Ámbar/Costa de Ámbar (Puerto Plata) 435, 438 Costa Caribe (Boca Chicha-La Romana) 435, 438 Constantinople 107, 131 Costa Rica 334, 437 Cotuí (Sánchez Ramírez) 263, 429, 431 Cuarón, river 431 Cuba 62, 68 n, 69 n, 71 n, 87, 99 n, 104, 115 n, 124, 129, 163, 201, 215, 223, 241, 332, 338 n, 364, 376, 385, 389, 390, 407-409, 453 Cuneo, Italy 51, 61, 66, 75, 133 Curaçao 45, 47, 64, 131, 342, 345, 437 Duarte, province of 78 Dubrovnik, Croatia 280 n Egypt 84 El Aguacate (Puerto Plata) 390 El Cortecito (Higüey) 437 El Maniel (Barahona) 60 El Morro (Montecristi) 77 El Salvador 362, 497 El Seibo, province of 52, 59, 63, 68 n El Túnel (Santiago) 97 n Emilia-Romagna, region of Italy 79 England 47, 117, 119, 123, 127, 143, 280 n, 301, 325, 370, 465, 493 Española, La Isla see Hispaniola Estero Hondo (Puerto Plata) 81, 502 Europe 19, 22, 44-45, 80-81, 104, 109, 120, 122, 125, 127-128, 168, 188, 201, 204, 230, 252-253, 267, 270, 279, 280 n, 294, 327, 330, 332, 336, 362-363, 365-366, 368, 370, 375, 384, 391-392, 401, 404-405, 408, 415, 429, 460, 463, 477, 491, 499 - Northern Europe 43-44, 109, 122, 125 - Southern Europe 227 European Union 206, 392, 464, 491 Fermo, Italy 77, 301, 403 Flanders 43, 101-102 Florence, Italy 62, 76-77, 117, 120, 254, 263-264, 293, 296-299, 300-301, 352, 361, 373, 398, 403 - Baptistery of Saint John 352 - Rucellai Palace 297, 299 Foligno (Perugia), Italy 297, 299, 300-302 France 47-48, 51, 63, 74, 82, 101, 133, 135, 143, 159, 163, 168, 228, 230, 259, 261, 332-333, 336, 362, 370, 453, 463, 492-493 Frascarolo (Pavia), Italy 64 Frascati (Rome), Italy 133 Fucecchio (Florence), Italy 82, 84, 338 n Gascue/Gazcue, sector of Santo Domingo 271-272, 277, 390

INDEX OF PLACES

Geneva, Switzerland 141 n, 267 Genoa, Italy 34, 42-43, 45-47, 51, 53, 54-58, 68 n, 69 n, 84, 93, 96 n, 101-102, 105-106, 145, 147, 153 n, 163, 168, 173, 191, 201-202, 209, 228, 254, 262, 317-318, 335, 338 n, 359, 369, 399-400, 459-460, 467-468 - Banco di San Giorgio 102, 105-106 - Christopher Columbus House 27 - Cathedral of San Lorenzo 326 - Porta of dell’Olivella 102 - Porta Soprana 102 - Port of Genoa 398 - Sampierdarena, neighborhood 56, 459 Germany 123, 127, 168, 228, 230, 268, 301, 346, 389, 405, 423, 493 Great Britain 30, 228, 384 Greece 311, 476 Grenadines, archipelago 118 Guadeloupe, overseas region of France 53 Guayubín (Montecristi) 75 Gubbio (Perugia), Italy 392 Guanahaní (San Salvador), Bahamas 104 Guananico (Puerto Plata) 89 Güibia (Santo Domingo) 473 Guinea 102, 114 Gurabo, sector of Santiago de los Caballeros 85, 96 n Haina (San Cristóbal) 364, 405, 408, 412 - Agricultural Experiment Station 406, 408, 412-413, 425, 427 n Haiti 44, 46, 54, 68 n, 70 n, 104, 131, 138, 141 n, 159, 163, 213, 281 n, 317, 320, 356 n, 375, 381-382, 387, 392, 409, 453-454, 461 n, 488, 491, 499 Halle, Germany 107 Hamburg, Germany 381 Hatillo (San Cristóbal) 429, 431 Hato del Prado see Mata de Palma Havana, Cuba 66, 213, 215, 239, 332, 370 Hawthorn (Melbourne), Australia - Sanctuary of St. Anthony Church 348 Higuamo, river 292, 435 Higüey (Altagracia) 29, 132, 341, 352-353, 390, 437 - Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia 32, 141 n, 279, 280 n, 331, 341, 352, 354-355 Hispaniola 41-44, 104-106, 109-112, 114, 115 n, 121-123, 129, 131, 163, 168, 228, 252, 311, 317, 321, 424, 429 Hiroshima - Peace Center 279 Holland (Netherlands) 334, 370, 372, 492 Honduras 106 Hyaguata, archdiocese 115 n Iglesias (Carbonia), Italy 67

Imperia, Italy 67, 79 Indies, Spanish 43, 103, 105-106, 121-122, 125 n, 127, 251, 321 - Council of the Indies 111-113, 252 Iceland 102 Ispani (Salerno), Italy 64 Ispica (Ragusa), Italy 63 Jamaica 106, 163, 392 - Montego Bay 392 Jánico (Santiago) 87 Japan 41, 228, 401 Jarabacoa (La Vega) 76, 134, 407, 468 - National Park 407 Jayabo Adentro (Mirabal sisters) 64 Jerusalem 101 Jicomé (Valverde) 431 Jobo Bonito (La Altagracia) 294 Juan Dolio (San Pedro de Macorís) 435 Juana, old name of Cuba 104 Kingdom of Italy 73, 165, 168, 227 Kingdom of Sardinia 164-165, 178 Kokette (Reparto Kokette), sector of Santiago de los Caballeros (Santiago), 90 Lazio, region of Italy 169, 478 Lafiteau, Haiti 392 Laguna Salada (Valverde) 415 La Isabela (Puerto Plata) 89, 104, 384, 435 La Limonada, battle of 353 La Paz, Bolivia 344 Lares de Guahaba, Diocese of Bayuna 115 n La Romana, province of 31, 66, 305, 311, 329, 391, 435, 438, 477, 488 La Sarraz, Castle of (Canton Vaud), Switzerland 268 Las Carreras, battle of 149, 153 n, 163 Las Lagunas (La Altagracia) 97 n Las Matas de Farfán (San Juan) 274 - Church of Santa Lucia 60, 70 n Las Terrenas (Samaná) 177, 377 La Vega/Concepción de La Vega (La Vega) 49, 52, 64, 68 n, 73, 75-76, 78, 86-87, 98 n, 99 n, 115, 121, 133-135, 138, 141 n, 263, 276, 338 n, 354, 375, 388, 455 - Cathedral/Church of the Conception 294, 298 - Duarte Park 76 - Gardens of Cerro de Fula 135 - Gioconda Cafe 76 - Hotel Italia 76, 87, 99 n - Progresista Theater 73 - San Sebastian School 75, 134 La Yeguada del Sur (San Pedro de Macorís) 68 n Lecco, Italy 400 Liguria, region of Italy 29, 41-42, 49, 51,

533

53-55, 58, 67, 79, 101-102, 105, 228, 332, 338 n, 455, 458, 497 Lima, Peru 335, 344 Lisbon, Portugal 102, 107 - Jewish Quarter 107 Liverpool, England 45 Livorno, Italy 84-85 Loma Caribe (Bonao) 431 Loma Caballero 431 Loma La Mina (Sánchez Ramírez) 431 Loma Peguera (Bonao) 431 Lomé, Convention of 392 London, United Kingdom 109, 222, 224, 251, 268, 366 Long Beach (Puerto Plata) 435 Los Ranchos see Tenares Lucca, Italy 64, 93 n, 263, 341, 344, 347, 373 Luperón (Puerto Plata) 435 Macao-Punta Cana (La Altagracia) 67, 391, 438 Madeira, archipelago 102 Madrid, Spain 123, 253, 268, 294, 317, 332-333, 373, 459 - Academia de San Fernando 333 Magua (Hato Mayor) 115 n Maimón (Monseñor Nouel) 81 Mandas (Cagliari), Italy 368 Mao/Santa Cruz de Mao (Valverde) 87, 354 Maratea (Potenza), Italy 83-84, 88 Maret (Maretto, Asti), Italy 52 María Trinidad Sánchez, province of 89-90 Mata de Palma (formerly Hato del Prado) 52 Mata Grande (Santiago) 431 Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 70 n, 71 n, 362 Mediterranean Sea 84, 101-102, 239, 311 Messina, Italy 63 Miami (Florida), United States 301, 364 Miches (El Seibo) 431 Milan, Italy 44, 59, 65, 71 n, 93 n, 101-102, 291-293, 299, 301, 303, 325, 334-336, 346347, 370, 373 - Accademia di Brera 129 - Bookcity 129 - Galleria d’Arte Moderna 347 - La Scala 325, 370, 372 - Museum of National Sciences 427 n - Royal Palace 279 - Triennial 347 Miraflores, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 272 Moca (Espaillat) 61, 75-77, 86-87, 94 n, 99 n, 263, 276, 336, 373, 388-389, 406, 408-409, 412, 420 - Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario 75 - College of Agriculture and Agronomic Station 406, 408-409, 412, 414, 420 - Rivoli Theater 76

534

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Modena, Italy 89, 267 Monción (Santiago Rodríguez) 431 Monferrato, area of Piedmont 97 n, 101 Montecalvo (Avellino), Italy 58, 338 n Montecorvino/Motta Montecorvino (Foggia), Italy 119, 251 Montecristi/San Fernando de Montecristi (Montecristi) 64-65, 71 n, 77, 177, 180, 267-268, 292, 346, 406 - Church of San Fernando 64, 71 n - Duarte Park 80 Monte Plata (Monte Plata) 431 Montesano (Salerno), Italy 66 Montlhéry, France 362 Monterrey, Mexico 459 Montevideo, Uruguay 132 Montserrat, Spain, monastery 254 Monza, Italy 346, 400 - Fontana delle Rane (Girl with a Frog fountain) 346 Morignole (Alpes-Maritimes), France 63 Moscow, Russia 268 - Palace of the Soviets 268 Naco/Ensanche Naco, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 34, 135, 189 - former residence of the Ambassador of Italy 189 Nagua (María Trinidad Sánchez) 89 Nantes, France 336 Naples, Italy 60, 65-67, 70 n, 71 n, 74-76, 8385, 93 n, 96 n, 97, 109, 117, 202, 251, 254, 262, 292, 481 - Spanish Viceroyalty of Naples 109, 119 Narba (Narbona di Castelmagno, Cuneo), Italy 53 Navidad/Fuerte de la Navidad, Haiti 104, 321 Nemours, France 362 New York 34, 48, 57, 63, 65-66, 69 n, 70 n, 71 n, 80, 96 n, 137, 215, 267, 293, 330, 333, 336, 364, 384-385, 401, 434, 454, 481-482 - Avery Fischer Hall 362 - Carl Fischer Hall 362 - Carnegie Hall 362, 368 - City Center 370 - Parsons School of Design 306, 336 - Empire State Building 268 - Guggenheim Museum 279 - MoMA - Museum of Modern Art 268 - Rockefeller Center 268 - St. Anthony of Padua Church 348 - Steinway Hall 362 - Town Hall 368 - Wall Street 399 Nizao (Peravia) 385 Nizao, river 390 New World 42, 44, 104, 107, 121-125, 201, 207 n, 239, 311, 468

Oceania 415 Ocoa, bay 46 Oneglia (Imperia), Italy 79 Orinoco, river 105 Oropus, diocese of 131 Orsomarso (Cosenza), Italy 76, 97 n Ostia (Roma), Italy 326 Otranto (Lecce), Italy 132 Ozama, river 41, 141 n, 235, 241, 243-244, 275, 303, 351, 467 Pacific Ocean 243, 392 Padua, Italy 350 - Basilica of St. Anthony 346 Pajarito see Villa Duarte Palenque (San Cristóbal) 48, 385-386 Palermo, Italy 60, 70 n, 77, 463 - Chiesa Madonna dei Remedi/Church of Our Lady of Remedies 348 - Teatro Massimo 373 Palma de Mallorca 437 Palos/Palos de la Frontera, Spain 104 Panama 71 n, 106 - Embassy of Italy 169 - National Institute 344 Panama City 239 Paraíba, state of Brazil 99 n Paraje Palo de Caja (Peravia) 390 Paraná, Argentina 344 Paris, France 47, 268, 293-294, 334-335, 347, 362, 370, 375 - Saint Germain-des-Prés 362 - Pompidou/National Museum of Modern Art 291 Pavia, Italy 64, 77, 248, 403 - Sartirana Art Foundation 179 - Botanical Garden of the University 80, 403, 407 Pavulo nel Frignano (Modena), Italy 331 Peravia, province of 390 Peru 317 Peschiera Maraglio (Brescia), Italy 66 Petra, Jordan 287 Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), United States 37 n, 213, 368, 390, 499 Piedmont, region of Italy 51-53, 58-60, 64, 67, 73, 133, 261, 329, 331-334, 338 n, 453, 461 n Pietrasanta (Lucca), Italy 263, 341, 344, 347, 350-351 Pietralcina (Benevento), Italy 347 Pimentel (Duarte) 75, 78 Poland 306 Pombal (Paraíba), Brazil 99 n Pontezuela, sector of Santiago de los Caballeros (Santiago) 406 Port Jervis (New York), United States 364 Portobello, Panama 239 Portofino (Genoa), Italy

- Piazza/Plaza 313 Portugal 102, 104, 117, 163, 322, 370 Port-au-Prince, Haiti 44, 375, 392 Puerto Rico 51, 60, 70 n, 71 n, 104, 109, 115 n, 121, 132, 140, 163, 213, 334, 349, 362, 376, 386, 389, 404, 418, 434, 436-437, 499 Porto Rotondo (Olbia-Tempio), Italy 311 - La Marina 311 Porto Santo, Portugal 102 Potenza, Italy 65, 366 Prado Sesia (Novara), Italy 52 Pueblo Viejo (Sánchez Ramírez) 431 Puerto Plata, province of 81, 349 Puerto Plata, city 44, 48-49, 59-61, 63-65, 70 n, 75, 77-80, 83, 86-87, 89-90, 93 n, 96 n, 97 n, 98 n, 99 n, 132, 145, 156, 177, 189, 199 n, 213, 217, 292, 332, 338 n, 348-350, 362, 372, 375, 383-384, 387, 389, 388, 433, 435, 438 - Apollo Theater 362 - Curiel Theater 78, 80, 375 - Grand Hotel Rainieri 433 - San Rafael School of Painting 332 Punta Cana (La Altagracia) 28, 30, 33, 177, 189, 203, 391, 399, 435, 437-440, 444-445, 448, 477 Punta Caucedo (Santo Domingo) 467 Punta Rusia 435 Quinigua (Santiago) 77 Quinto (Genoa), Italy 102 Ravenna, Italy 295-296 Rome, Italy 24, 27, 30-31, 58, 70 n, 73, 84, 117, 121, 125, 131, 133, 140, 141 n, 143, 168, 176, 181, 189-191, 198, 202, 204-205, 215, 221, 223, 225, 227-228, 230-231, 259, 261, 263, 268, 283, 291-296, 298, 300, 305, 325-326, 330, 334, 338 n, 355, 359, 362, 366-367, 370, 403, 426, 471, 478 - Accademia Americana 296 - Accademia di Belle Arti 337 - Appian Way 325 - Capitoline Museum 350 - Central Institute for Restoration 300 - Chigi Palace 478 - Colosseum 325 - Embassy of the Dominican Republic 189 - Experimental Center of Cinematography 376 - International Center for Conservation and Restoration 264 - Military Hospital 267 - Nuovo Accademia di Belle Arti 301 - Parioli, neighborhood 325 - Quadrienniale of Rome 347 - Quirinale/Quirinal 181, 230-231 - Quirino Theater 370 - Rinascente, building of 291

INDEX OF PLACES

- Rome Opera House 325, 370 - Saint Cecilia Conservatory 365-366, 368, 370-371, 373 - Saint Peter in Chains Basilica 259 - San Pietro in Montorio, convent 283 - Tempietto (small tomb) of San Pietro in Montorio 287 - Valle Giulia, building for school of architecture 326 - Villa Borghese 325 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 97 n, 269, 280 n, 332, 344 Río San Juan (María Trinidad Sánchez) 89, 435 Ruins of La Caridad fort, historic site in Santo Domingo 248 Sabana de la Mar (Hato Mayor) 81 Sabana Grande de Palenque (San Cristóbal) 392 Sabaneta (Santiago Rodríguez) 77 Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands 47, 79, 88, 146, 338 n, 453 Salcedo (Mirabal sisters) 64, 75-77, 87, 94 n, 372 Samaná (Samaná) 56-57, 65, 69 n, 75, 78, 81-82, 338 n, 385-387, 431 - Villa Ramfis 276 Sampierdarena see Genoa Sánchez (Samaná) 65, 76, 79, 82, 133, 383, 385-386 Sánchez Ramírez, province of 431 San Carlos/San Carlos de Tenerife, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 51-53, 272, 362 San Cristóbal (San Cristóbal), city 52-53, 61, 66, 76, 346, 367, 385-386, 390, 409, 431, 460 - Church of San Cristóbal 70 n - Municipality 48, 69 n, 292 San Cristóbal, province of 48, 280 n, 405, 408 San Francisco (California), United States - Golden Gate Bridge 268 - Opera 370 San Francisco de Macorís (Duarte) 56, 75, 78, 94 n, 276, 294, 354, 459 San Francisco de Quinigua (Santiago) 95 n San Isidro, free trade zone 399 San José, Costa Rica 334 San José de las Matas (Santiago) 87, 96 n San José de los Llanos (San Pedro de Macorís) 51 San José de Ocoa (San José de Ocoa) 60, 64, 70 n San Juan, Puerto Rico 71 n, 109, 129, 132, 239, 335, 362, 454 San Juan de la Maguana (San Juan) 61, 70 n, 93 n, 96 n, 141 n, 217, 219 n, 354, 364, 373 n, 398, 431

San Lorenzo Minore (Benevento), Italy 93 n San Nicola Arcella (Cosenza), Italy 64, 77, 389 San Pedro de Macorís (San Pedro de Macorís), city 60-61, 63-67, 70 n, 71 n, 75, 87, 99 n, 134, 138, 180, 263, 277, 280 n, 332, 342, 367, 373, 383-388, 397, 435 - Hospital San Antonio 134 - Church of Saint Peter the Apostle 280 n San Pedro de Macorís, province of 60 San Remo (Imperia), Italy 53, 68 n, 458 San Salvador 104 San Salvador, El Salvador 362 San Secondo Parmense (Parma), Italy 79 Santa Ana de Engombe (Santo Domingo) 384 Santa Barbara, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 54-55, 249 - Catedral Castrense de Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara Military Men of the Sea Cathedral) 243-244, 248 Santa Barbara of Samaná (Samaná) 56, 69 n - Church of Santa Barbara 69 n Santa Cruz del Seibo (El Seibo) 52, 68 n Santa Domenica Talao (Cosenza), Italy 49, 60-61, 63, 75-76, 78, 80-89, 94 n, 96 n, 97 n, 98 n, 99 n, 364, 388, 458 Santa Fe, Granada, Spain 104 Santa Fiora (Grosseto), Italy 67 Santa Lucía, Cuba 71 n - Nuestra Señora de Dolores 71 n Santa Lucia di Serino (Avellino), Italy 60-61, 70 n, 398 Santa Margherita Ligure (Genoa), Italy 54, 317, 359, 455 Santa Sede see Vatican City Santiago de Chile, Chile 268 Santiago de Cuba 63 Santiago del Estero, Argentina 344 Santiago/Santiago de los Caballeros (Santiago), city 11, 29, 48-49, 54, 56, 58, 61, 73, 75-80, 82-85, 88-89, 92 n, 93 n, 94 n, 95 n, 138, 141 n, 177, 189, 213, 225 n, 268, 276277, 292, 294, 299, 301-302, 333-334, 338 n, 350, 354, 359, 373, 375, 383, 388-389, 399, 405-407, 426, 433-434, 458-459 - Cathedral 96 n, 97 n, 99 n - Church of Our Lady of Altagracia 82, 93 n, 96 n - Colón Park 88 - Consistorial Palace 277 - Hotel, Comercio 433 - Hotel, Mercedes 270 - La Joya, neighborhood 82 - León Center 189 Santiago/Santiago Rodríguez, province of 83-84 Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba 407 Santo Cerro (La Vega) 73, 75, 132, 134 - Church of Our Lady of Los Mercedes 74

535

- Seminary 132 Santo Domingo/Santo Domingo de Guzmán (National District) 36, 141 n, 299, 302, 397, 483 - Archdiocese of (formerly Diocese of) 109110, 115 n, 120-121, 127, 131-132, 251, 259, 262, 265 n, 306 - Art Nouveau Center 334 - Avelino Abreu, building of 295 - Bella Agency, building of 295 - Botanical Garden 66 - BlueMall SD, commercial center 179 - Casa de Bastidas 332 - Casa de Francia 336 - Casa de Italia 33, 66-67, 169, 176, 330-331, 470, 473-479 - Casa Vicini 42, 45-46 - Cathedral Archives 263 - Christopher Columbus Memorial Lighthouse 138-139, 141 n, 263, 268, 276, 344, 499 - Church, Saint Juan Bosco 71 n, 133, 140 - Church, Saint Barbara 55 - Church, Saint Teresa of Jesus 66 - Conciliar seminary (formerly Palace of Borgella) 131-132, 134 - Convent, Mercedes 131 - Copello, building of 270, 275 - Corporativo 2010, building of 53 - Customs Administration Building 272 - Customs office, former 46 - Embassy of Italy 12, 21-22, 27-28, 30-31, 33, 53, 169-170, 175, 177, 180, 185-187, 189-192, 204-207, 230-231, 295, 299, 401, 469-470, 473-474, 477-478, 491, 499, 502 - First Cathedral of the Americas 11, 29, 31, 53, 59, 127, 138-139, 181, 183, 186, 199 n, 205, 207 n, 259, 262, 264, 296, 311, 338 n, 467 - Grupo Diario Libre, building of 456 - Hotel, Ambassador 300 - Hotel, Jaragua 270, 275 - Hotel, Sheraton 294 - Italian Center of Santo Domingo 67 - Italy Avenue 188-189 - La Concepción Fort 243 - Landolfi Cinema 376 - Malecón (George Washington Avenue) 294, 473, 481, 483 - Mausoleum of Archbishop Fuenmayor Lopez 263 - Mausoleum of Archbishop Geraldini 252, 254 - Mausoleum of Archbishop Meriño 262 - Mausoleum of Christopher Columbus 263, 344 - Mercado Modelo 269-270, 217 - Monastery, San Francisco 294

536

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

- Museum, Casa Mella Russo 328, 335 - Museum of Modern Art 332 - Museum of the Royal Houses 185, 278, 295, 317, 332 - Museum, Fernando Peña Defilló 185-186 - National Meteorological Observatory 420 - National Gallery of the Palace of Fine Arts 186 - National/Presidential Palace 27, 31, 65, 77, 224-225, 267, 270, 273-275, 278-279, 280 n, 283-284, 292, 390, 473, 476 - National Pantheon 28, 152, 173, 331 - Naval Academy 149 - Office of Works and Museums of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo 263-264 - Ozama Fortress 241-243, 248, 345 - Park, Duarte 76 - Park, Independence 350 - Park, Ramfis 269, 275 - Plaza de la Cultura 477 - Puerta del Conde 337, 351 - Port 46, 62, 64, 70 n, 456 - San Gil Fortress 243 - Seguros Pepín, building of 295 - Shell Conalco, building of 292 - Theater, Colón (formerly Casino de la Juventud) 360, 376 - Theater, Independence 365-366 - Tower of Homage 243 - Viceregal Palace 30, 42, 235-236 Santo Domingo, island of 145-146, 192, 329, 424 Santo Domingo, East (Santo Domingo) 351, 392, 508 Santo Domingo, North (Santo Domingo) 392 Saona, island 29, 42, 199 n São Paulo, Brazil 332, 399 Sardinia, island of Italy 67, 117, 164-165, 178, 311, 335, 368, 430, 475 Savona, Italy 29, 42, 53, 67, 101-102, 259 Scala (Salerno), Italy 254 Scalea (Cosenza), Italy 64, 76, 461 n Segovia, Spain 121, 251 Serra Pedace (Cosenza), Italy 84 Seville, Spain 41, 43, 105-106, 109, 112-113, 115, 121, 251, 254, 321 - Archdiocese of 109, 115 n - Cathedral 254 - General Archive of the Indies 123 Siena, Italy 369, 373 Solero (Alessandria), Italy 59 Somalia 403 Sosúa (Puerto Plata) 89, 203, 435 Spain 43, 48, 68 n, 101, 104, 114, 117, 119, 122-124, 149-150, 159, 163, 168, 201, 228, 236, 239, 252-254, 259, 301, 322, 325, 341, 370, 373, 382, 389, 403, 409, 429, 435, 437, 453-454, 492-493

South Africa 437 Switzerland 74, 267, 293, 370, 405 Stockholm, Sweden - Imperial Museum, Botanical Department 409 Tahiti 437 Taliesin West (Arizona), United States 269 Tamboril (Santiago) 87 Tenares (former name of Los Ranchos) 78 Teora (Avellino), Italy 59 Toledo, Spain - Cathedral 254 Tombetta (Verona), Italy - Basilica of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus 347 Tordesillas, Treaty of 104 Turin, Italy 13, 51, 133, 137, 164, 267, 291, 337, 370 Tortorella (Salerno), Italy 66 Tortuguero, Costa Rica 46, 149, 153 n, 163 Tuscany, region of Italy 59, 62, 64, 67, 82, 85, 228, 333-334, 338 n Tricesimo (Udine), Italy 132, 263 Umbria, region of Italy 43, 109, 117, 228, 259 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) 268 United States 13, 30, 36, 37 n, 44, 49, 59, 74, 132, 139, 163, 168, 199 n, 209, 211, 215, 223, 228, 267-269, 277, 291, 317, 330, 332-333, 361-364, 368, 384, 387, 389, 391, 405, 413, 423, 435, 456, 463, 481-482, 487-488, 499-500 Uruguay 64, 74, 132 Valenza (Alessandria), Italy 334, 338 n Valladolid, Spain 106 Valsalice (Turin), Italy 132 Vatican City 262, 294, 346 - Holy See 30, 138, 153, 227, 231, 330, 346 - Sistine Chapel 259 - St. Peter’s Basilica 283 - Vatican Apostolic Archive (Vatican Secret Archive) 352 - Vatican Library 352 Vaud, Canton of, Switzerland 268 Vega Real (La Vega) 104 Venice, Italy 60, 73, 225, 293, 297, 299, 346, 350, 369-370 - Arsenal 296 - Biennial of Art/Venice 187, 331, 347 - Biennial of Architecture 296 Venezuela 89, 112, 118, 131-133, 179, 222-223, 252, 254, 272, 280 n, 301, 330, 337, 342, 364, 437 Veracruz, Mexico 239 Veragua, duchy of 106 Vercelli, Italy 66

Verón (La Altagracia) 67 Vibonati (Salerno), Italy 61, 84, 88, 97 n, 99 n Vienna, Austria 361, 363, 370 Vignola (Modena), Italy 89 Villa Altagracia (San Cristóbal) 431 Villa de la Quebrada (San Luis), Argentina 348 Villa Duarte (Pajarito), sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 55 Villa Francisca, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 319, 460 Villa Luperón see Luperón Villa Mercedes (San Luis), Argentina 344 Villa Vásquez (Montecristi) 373, 415 Villaorba (Udine) 346 Virgin Islands 104, 338 n Viterbo 326 Vulturara/Volturara Appula (Foggia) 109, 119, 128, 251 Wales, United Kingdom - Ludlow Castle 119 Washington, D.C. 13, 82, 214, 297, 335, 368, 395 n, 400 - Pan American Union 342 - White House 230 Weimar, Germany 301 Yaguate (San Cristóbal) 48, 385 Yale University (Connecticut), United States 268 Yauco, Puerto Rico 60 Yemen 222 Yugoslavia 225, 280 n, 295-296 Zambrana, valley 429 Zoagli (Genoa), Italy 46-47, 49, 57, 79, 338 n, 467 Zona Colonial/Colonial City, sector of Santo Domingo (National District) 185, 241, 243, 248, 299, 330, 355, 477, 474 - Chapel of Los Remedios 185 - Cathedral of the Military Ordinariate, dedicated to Saint Barbara 243-244, 248 - Dominican Convent and Chapel of the Third Order 331

Printed by Grafiche Antiga spa Crocetta del Montello (TV) June 2021

EDITED BY ANDREA CANEPARI

any stories of the richness and depth of the history of friendship and ties between Italy and the Dominican 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.

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN 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 reviewed 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 cultural 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 influence 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 engagement in international dialogue since its foundation.

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC History Architecture Economics Society

Andrea Canepari Ambassador of Italy to the Dominican Republic

SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY PRESS 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131 610.660.3402 email: sjupress@sju.edu www.sjupress.com

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Saint Joseph’s University Press

Saint Joseph’s University Press

28/05/21 09:26