Tag Archives: population

Important

Useless Trivia

Dominican Republic Dumb Facts, Trivia, and Useless Information

Here are all those facts you always wanted to know but just did not realize you wanted to know them. These may be very helpful when playing the game of Dominican Trivia that is so popular now (joke).

If you know of any more interesting and pertinent items to add please let me know. Let’s compile a list of all the useless, dumb, facts that everyone does not need to know.

Good reading for those who are bored, have nothing else to do with their time or are looking for some non-important good junk.

Note: We here at Colonial Zone-DR.com cannot vouch for the truth of this information. Consider the things listed here as fun, maybe true, could be true, maybe not true at all, or complete crap. It is all in fun, or is it?

*The worlds largest pot of Sancocho was prepared at the 7th Dominican Fair at La Sirena February 12, 2007. After 5 hours of cooking in a four meter cooking pot three thousand people got to eat this yummy, typical Dominican dish. Eleven chefs and their assistants used 300LBS of beef, 250LBS of pork, 150LBS of chicken, 500 plantains, 300LBS of malanga, plus the other ingredients used to make this hugh Dominican dish. (for information on how to make Sancocho)

Cooking some sancocho over a fire
Cooking some sancocho over a fire

*Even though Santiago is the second largest city in Dominican Republic, as of 2006 the metropolitan area of New York City had a larger population of Dominicans.

*There is an old law dating back to Trujillo’s era. He had the highest peak in the Caribbean known as Pico Duarte named after him. Legally, because of some kind of mistake, it is still called Pico Trujillo instead of Duarte.

*Dominican Republic has the only flag with a bible in it. It was designed by a Vexillographer (flag maker) who was a vexillologist (one who studies flags ) and into Vexillology (the study of flags). More information on the Dominican flag.

Dominican Republic flag among others
Dominican Republic flag among others

*In the Colonial Zone on July 8, 2001 the Association of Spanish Festivities in Dominican Republic held the islands first bull run, a version of Spains’ San Fermin bull run. A three-minute bull run took place from Calle Atarazana, through Vicente Celestino Duarte to Cristobal Colon. Youths raced and the poor, confused bulls had no idea what was happening. It seems that the Dominican bulls were just too lazy, resulting in them having to be pushed through the streets, instead of them chasing the participants.

*Did you know that there was a small town in Dominican Republic where it was discovered and documented in the early 1970s that girls turned into boys? It seems that children appearing to be girls turned into men at puberty. First girls when they reached puberty they grew testes, and a penis. They called these children ‘guevedoces’ which literally means “penis at 12 years”. Also known locally as machihembras (‘first women, then man’). It was published in the American Journal of Medicine. For pictures and more information http://www.usrf.org/news/010308-guevedoces.html

*The Austrian musician, Falco (Johann “Hans” Hölzel), famous for his electronic Euro-pop smash hit ‘Rock Me Amadeus’ in 1986, was killed in Dominican Republic. Returning to his home in Cofresí, Puerta Plata, after spending time drinking at a local bar, his vehicle was involved in a collision with a bus. He died instantly and was pronounced dead in the hospital on February 6th, 1998 from head injuries at the age of 40. He is buried in Vienna, Austria. There is a cross marking the location where Falco died in Montellano, Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic Falco CD on Amazon.

* Huracan is a Taino (natives that inhabited the island) word that is thought to have come originally from the Caribs (a cannibalistic tribe that also inhabited the island). Huracan was the Carib god of evil and that word is thought to have come from “Hurakan” who was the Mayan god of wind and storm. (More about hurricanes in Dominican Republic.)

*The longest baseball game in the Caribbean Baseball Series had 18 innings. The game was 6 hours and 13 minutes long. Played at the Roberto Clemente stadium in Puerto Rico February 2, 2007. The Aguilas Cibaeñas of Dominican Republic won 4 to 3 over the Tigres de Aragua of Venezuela.
Update – the Aguilas won the series for 2007!

A baseball game at the Estadio Quisqueya
A baseball game at the Estadio Quisqueya

*Lisa Marie Presley (Elvis Presley’s daughter) and Michael Joseph Jackson (Jackson 5) got married May 18, 1994. The ceremony was held at Casa de Campo in La Romano, Dominican Republic. Their marriage lasted only 20 months.

*Rush Limbaugh was detained by customs officers in Florida, USA when he landed after a visit to the Dominican Republic. He had a bottle of 29/ 100 MG pills of Viagra with him and he didn’t have a prescription! Bad Bad Rush!

*Can you speak only using your nose? Dominicans are famous for their “nose talk“. A little twitch here and a little wrinkle there. The nose knows.

*Did you know that the town of Nagua has its own slogan? “A Nagua tu entras si quieres, y sales si puedes” (translated, Enter Nagua if you want, leave if you can). Make sure to visit Nagua and you just may understand.

Watch a Barcelo rum television commercial taped in Nagua around 2006 and hear for yourself this slogan.

* Do you know what a Merentician is? It is a Merengue singer and Politician in one. Merengue artist Sergio Vargas is one.

* A man (boy) has to be 16 to get married and a girl (woman) needs to be 15 years of age. Even if the parents agree that the kids can be wed in matrimonial bliss most likely the government will not grant their wish. My thought: Many people here do not have birth certificates or birth records so how can they really prove their correct age? (they are trying to change this law now 3-17)

* Dominican Republic in position 74 of the 121 nations classified in the Global Peace Index in 2007 according to the British magazine The Economist, for reference The United States and Iran appear in positions 97 and 98. Norway and New Zealand are number 1 and 2. Sudan and Iraq come in the last place.
more information at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2091513,00.html

* Parque Colon is considered one of the great public places by PPS – Project for Public Spaces. It was voted on because of its vegetation, the nearness to historical landmarks, its accessibility, and its usability. They describe it as an “urban living room” and a “magic space”. see the article(7/09)

Saturday afternoon in Parque Colon
Saturday afternoon in Parque Colon

* According to an independent research group in Britain that has the goal of building a new economy, “centered on people and the environment.” in their “Happy Planet Index,” that seeks countries with the most content people. Surveying 143 countries Dominican Republic ranked second in 2009. Each year our little island country makes the top of the list as do many of the smaller islands. Check out the map of the Happy Planet Index for 2011 and make sure you come and visit one of the happiest places in the world!

Historical Documents

James Logan Journey 1838

Notes of a journey through Canada, USA, and the West Indies.

By James Logan, advocate, of Edinburgh.
Created/Published: Edinburgh [etc.] Fraser and co., 1838.
Digital ID: lhbtn 26860 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/lhbtn.26860

These are excerpts taken from this document of the notes that were written about Santo Domingo. It is so interesting to read the views of the writer at this time. It seems that Port-a-Prince (Haiti) was the largest town on the island at this time and much more cosmopolitan. (To read the entire 259 page document refer to the link above.)
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CHAPTER IX. JAMAICA.
(page 217)
On our coming in sight of St Domingo, a gentleman, a Mr P., on board the schooner, who had been resident some time there engaged in mercantile pursuits, gave me the following account of it:–This island, now the centre towards which all the eyes of Europe are turned, as developing the working of a republic of black population, has not come up to the expectations of the speculator on the system of precipitate emancipation. The Negroes of St Domingo or Hayti, about forty years ago, expelled their masters, the French and Spaniards, from the island, and after several leaders had ruled different divisions, and been successively put down, one of them, Christophe, a Negro from an English island, and who had been a servant in the town of Cape Hayti, governed for several years the northern division of the island, of which Cape Hayti is the capital.


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(page 218) At one time the most productive island in the West Indies, it is now amongst the least, though the population is considerably increased. No reasonable man sends his coat to the carpenter to be mended; he knows that a carpenter is not a tailor, his trade is quite distinct; before the carpenter can profess the trade of a tailor, he must serve an apprenticeship to the latter, that he may be fitted for the trade, Again, boys and girls are not fitted for the work of, men and women, they require experience and practice; and is not the Negro’s an analogous case? Unmercifully torn from his home and friends, treated like a dog, generally compelled to a labour he never before heard of, to

(page 219) adopt customs and views totally foreign to his nature, is it to be supposed that he works willingly, or that he has any desire to learn? It can only be time that will modify his mind and practice, and bend him to his situation, and, combined with other causes, may ultimately stimulate him to exertion for himself. To set him free at once, is analogous to opening the door of a prison to let loose the hundred criminals, who, as experience has shown us, generally return to their old habits. Here lie the difficulties even the rulers of this republic have to contend with; and what have the other islands not to contend with?

West Indies Map-James Logan Journey

St Domingo is, in point of size, next to Cuba, and is very mountainous. The plains are fertile, and have yielded abundant crops of sugar, coffee, rice, tobacco, &c. The northern parts of the island are most healthy, being exposed to more regular sea breezes from the Atlantic, which in winter are sometimes so cold as to render a fire necessary. The principal produce of the island for exportation is coffee, cotton, tobacco, and cigars, to which may be added mahogany and logwood. Rice, which, in the time of the French, formed one of the principal articles of export, is now largely imported for the use of the inhabitants, and in 1836 very considerable quantities of East India rice were even imported from Liverpool. Although at one time as much sugar was made here as on all the other West India islands together, now barely sufficient for their own use is raised. The imports consist principally of British, German, and French linens, (page 220) cottons, cloth, silk, and hardware and cutlery, with American flour, salt fish, and lumber.

The population is supposed to be about 700,000, seven-tenths of whom are entirely black. The French language is used in all the legislative proceedings, though Spanish is the prevalent language in that part of the island formerly called Hispaniola.

Port-au-Prince is said to be the most populous town in the island, having nearly 22,000 inhabitants, and at which a great proportion of the foreign trade of the island is carried on. Here the President Boyer resides. The town has a pretty appearance from the harbour, but is very irregularly built, the houses of wood principally, though some of the merchants have both stores and houses of brick. These materials are better suited to the climate, there being less expense and danger to be apprehended from earthquakes, shocks of which are of frequent occurrence, and sometimes very injurious to property. The town is situated in the beautiful bay of the same name on the west side of the island.

The story continues on…..
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Taken from the Library of Congress – American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lhtnhtml/lhtnhome.html