We hope 2020 is a year of many blessings for our readers. The new Roaring Twenties has the potential to become a noteworthy decade given the changing political climate across the world. In the Dominican Republic, most Dominican people have publically condemned femicides and the corrupt actions of politicians whereas, in the United States, the recklessness of the current president has led to a more divisive and polarized nation. What does the future hold? We do not know, yet you can count on us to document the journey.
In 2019, ESENDOM published several articles of interest to our diverse readers. It should come as no surprise that ESENDOM’s most engaging content for our readers included topics that touch-upon culture, music, politics, and the arts. Since its founding, ESENDOM has maintained its coverage of the arts, culture, and literature, writing articles about the accomplishments of writers such as Elizabeth Acevedo, who became the first person of color to win the Carnegie Medal or writing about Sophie Maríñez’s poem that visits Santo Domingo and its heroes. Several Dominican-descended people also departed from this world in 2019 including Alanna Lockward, Yoskar Sarante, and Anthony Ríos, among many others.
In 2019, ESENDOM, led by its three editors, Emmanuel Espinal, Amaury Rodríguez, and Nelson Santana, continued to document the Dominican community on the island and abroad. ESENDOM’s editors, along with collaborators and contributors Graciela Azcárate, Thelmo Cordones, Lorena Espinoza, and Juan Valdez, provided coverage about major events, including massive demonstrations against femicides, government corruption, and a well-coordinated attack and campaign aimed at tarnishing the name of the Dominican Republic. As standard, ESENDOM also conducted several interviews of artists, writers, and people who celebrate Dominican culture. As 2019 has come to an end and the new year is merely a few days old, ESENDOM would like to revisit some of the most noteworthy articles published in 2019. (Please note that the articles are not ranked.)
1
Imágenes de la Marcha de las Mariposas en contra de la violencia machista
Photo: Lorena Espinoza.
Commemorating the anniversary of the deaths of the Mirabal Sisters at the hands of dictator Rafael Trujillo on November 25, 1960, many people participated in the Marcha de las Mariposas (March of the Butterflies). November 25 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in honor of Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa. Lorena Espinoza Peña’s photographic lens provides ESENDOM readers with a record of the march.
2
Marcha del Cibao Stops Danilo Medina's Presidential Bid / Marcha del Cibao: pueblo dominicano sale a la calle en Santiago
Photo: Nelson Santana/ESENDOM.
ESENDOM sent a video and photographic journalistic team to provide coverage for the historic Marcha del Cibao in the Dominican Republic. On Sunday, July 14, 2019, thousands of Dominicans successfully marched in Santiago as one voice to challenge President Danilo Medina’s attempt at a third presidential bid in the form of constitutional reform. Participants also protested the Partido de la Liberación Dominicana’s (PLD) corruption and impunity. Weeks after the march, coupled with the forced resignation of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló, President Medina officially withdrew his candidacy from the 2020 presidential election. Hence, the Marcha del Cibao had some success. The article includes photos from the event as well as interviews with participants, including renowned journalist Sara Pérez and Mario Fernández of Santiago Somos Todos.
3
La tinta que perdura: los suplementos culturales en Santo Domingo
Photo: Zaida Corniel.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the suplementos culturales of the Dominican press helped to educate more than one generation of artists and writers. Unfortunately, this creative network of thinkers and these cultural spaces began to disappear one-by-one. In this interview, ESENDOM sits down with Zaida Corniel, with whom we take a tour of those years of journalistic effervescence in Santo Domingo in the middle of a convulsive era where the printed press occupied a central role in many of those fierce political debates of the Cold War and in the dissemination of new aesthetic proposals and cultural scenes.
4
Dominican Harvard Professor Lorgia García-Peña Denied Tenure; Concerned Allies Protest
Photo: Lorgia García Peña.
In one of the more shocking stories of the year, Harvard University denied tenure to star academic Lorgia García-Peña. Fellow academics, students, and activists immediately rebutted Harvard’s decision. In the aftermath, students and scholars created and signed a petition rejecting Harvard’s decision, the website Ethnic Studies Rise has been created to celebrate the work of García-Peña and serves as a platform to discuss the importance of ethnic studies, the Twitter event #LorgiaFest provided people on Twitter with the opportunity to engage in García-Peña’s work. This is one of four articles published in ESENDOM with regard to García-Peña.
5
#LorgiaFest Dedicated to Lorgia García Peña Reinforces Need for Ethnic Studies
Photo: Lorgia García Peña.
A previous entry touches upon Lorgia García Peña’s tenure denial at Harvard University. García Peña’s tenure denial served as the catalyst for Ethnic Studies Rise and #LorgiaFest. The former is essentially a website platform that allows for the wide public engagement of García Peña’s work and more broadly, with Ethnic Studies. (Thus far, several intriguing roundtable discussions have emerged.) #LorgiaFest was a Twitter event that invited Twitter users to participate by tweeting meaningful passages from García Peña’s award-winning book The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation, and Archives of Contradiction (Duke University Press, 2016). ESENDOM provided the first (and as of this writing the only) article post-#LorgiaFest.
6
Photo: Alanna Lockward.
Prior to this piece, ESENDOM editor Amaury Rodríguez wrote a letter to Natahlia Romero and Listín Diario asking them to make a correction to an article about Alanna Lockward that was written by Romero (for more details, please read the entry that follows). In this piece, Rodríguez acknowledges that Romero read her letter and noted the error in her original article regarding the cause of death of Lockward. Rodríguez ends the article noting, “There are still decent people even within the journalistic world of a conservative newspaper in Santo Domingo. Nonetheless, it is refreshing to know that the truth and journalistic ethics prevailed.”
7
Photo: Alanna Lockward.
Earlier this year, the world lost decolonial scholar, curator, and journalist Alanna Lockward. Born in the Dominican Republic, the thinker saw herself as Caribbean first then Dominican and Haitian, and afterward transnational. Shortly after her passing, several media outlets began to report that Lockward had contracted a disease in Haiti. ESENDOM editor Amaury Rodríguez published this piece, where he not only challenged the erroneous narrative propagated by conservative Dominican media, but he also shared a letter that he sent to respected journalist , Nathalia Romero. Although Romero’s piece in the Listín Diario—a major yet conservative Dominican newspaper—pays homage to Lockward, it repeats the same error regarding Lockward’s death.
8
Se soltó Teodoro: la ira y el hambre empuja Teodoro Reyes a ser el bachatero más sentimental
Photo: Teodoro Reyes.
Who knew the most popular article of 2019 would be about one of bachata’s longest-tenured singers? In this biographical sketch of bachata legend Teodoro Reyes, one learns more about the interesting life of a blind boy who grew up to become one of the most revered singers of amargue. Humble, sincere, a prolific composer, and first bachata artist to win a Premio Soberano (known as Casandra at time awarded), Reyes’s story of triumph is one for the ages. This article is based on an interview conducted by Colombia Alcántara for Al Tanto TV, which we embedded in the article and that you can watch in its entirety. Click to find out why this was our most-read article of 2019.
9
El Torito incita a otros artistas a expresar solidaridad en contra de la corrupción
Photo: Héctor Acosta.
After video footage surfaced of a corrupt judge alongside law enforcement officials planting drugs at a barbershop, Dominican singer Héctor Acosta “El Torito” called on fellow musicians to demonstrate solidarity to bring attention to corruption in the Dominican Republic. In this article, Emmanuel Espinal notes how “El Torito’s” call for solidarity fell on deaf ears most artists benefit economically from government officials in one way or another.
10
Meet Adam Taub: The Bachata Educator Transforming the International Dance Scene
Photo: Adam Taub with Edilio Paredes and Joan Soriano.
In this interview, ESENDOM talks with Adam Taub, a Bachata aficionado, researcher, documentarian, and educator who is immensely in love with Bachata and Dominican culture. When he is not dancing Bachata for pleasure, Adam is either working on his next documentary project or somewhere in the world educating people about the genre’s history and teaching students how to dance it.
11
Photo: Víctor Estrella/By Nelson Santana/ESENDOM.
A dreamer, visionary, artist, and social critic. These words describe Víctor Arcturus Estrella. In this audiovisual interview, ESENDOM sits down with Victor — a young man who, apart from discussing his own life as an artist, talks about his societal worries and why he uses his platform as an artist to bring attention to social issues today. Víctor Maintains awareness through his art, making social criticism through his songs and literary stories.
12
Entrevista con Marco Antonio Rodríguez sobre adaptación de Oscar Wao en el Repertorio Español
In October 2019, the Repertorio Español brought Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer-winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) to life via theatre. Renowned playwright Marco Antonio Rodríguez is the mastermind who brought Díaz’s work to life. Rodríguez is the author of other award-winning plays including La luz de un cigarrillo and Barceló con Hielo. In this interview, Emmanuel Espinal and Marco Antonio discuss the thought process behind adapting a masterpiece from a novel to a play as well as other matters.
13
Photo: Grupo D’Ahora/By Emmanuel Espinal/ESENDOM.
Aris Rocha Ortega is a singer that has mostly interpreted merengue and merengue típico. As a fan of Michael Jackson, he emulated the steps of the "King of Pop," hence his artistic name. This biographical sketch provides insight into one of the co-founders and leaders of Grupo D’Ahora.
14
In 2019, conservative media in the United States launched a sinister campaign against the Dominican Republic in an attempt to hurt tourism in the Caribbean nation and ESENDOM was not having it. ESENDOM pushed back on the misleading narrative, publishing an article that contextualized tourist deaths and provided readers with examples on the bad journalism on the part of Fox News and New York Post, among other conservative mouthpieces. At no moment does ESENDOM deny any of the tourist deaths, however, several deaths occurred in previous years and the manner they were reported misled readers to believe these occurred recently. The article ends with an eerie warning: “Given the political climate during the era of “Fake News,” they [conservative media] will continue to push their agenda by disseminating inaccurate and misleading information with no context, not only in the Dominican case, but across the board.”
15
In this piece, scholar and writer Juan Valdez writes about the invisible and silenced solidarity in the Dominican Republic. He ends his piece by writing: “Why not yearn for that Republic built by the fighting people devoted to living and working with effort and joy, for their well-being and for the common good? Precisely, that society raised by delightful, bright and understanding people who tend to their homes, protect their neighborhoods and serve their jobs with dignity, warmth and compassion is the most loving and kind Dominican Republic.”
A un año de su partida, Kyrzayda es recordada por su calidad humana (Honorable Mention)
Kryzayda Rodríguez was a fashion blogger who passed away in October 2018 due to cancer. In commemoration of the anniversary of Kryzayda’s passing, ESENDOM interviewed two of her closest friends, photographer Geraldine Torres and digital creator and public relations expert Joanna González.
Alina Ramírez: Reciclaje creativo una solución verde a la polución (Honorable Mention)
In commemoration of last year’s Earth Day and in our mission to raise awareness about pollution, ESENDOM interviewed Alina Ramírez. A graduate in fashion design, Ramírez leads handicraft workshops with recyclable materials in the Dominican Republic. Her current passion calls for creative recycling.