The Dominican Republic might be seen as a poor country, but in reality it is a country rich in colors, culture and customs. The history of the Dominican Republic is one of many hardships and tragic stories. Unlike the history of many neighboring Latin American countries, the Dominican Republic gained independence from their next-door neighbor, Haiti, rather than Spain. Their history is also “tragically unique because of the brutality of the long dictatorship of Raphael Leonidas Trujillo,” (Brown xvii). This significant yet catastrophic portion of history has had a negative affect on the social mobility of Dominicans in New York City.

Isabel Brown states that as the price and market for sugar has plummeted, and as the Dominican Republic learns to cope with globalization, which tends to benefit established economies, living conditions have become almost unbearable for the poorest Dominicans and wages have not kept up with cost-living increases (62). It is only fair for one to assume that the easiest way to get out of this repulsive lifestyle is to flee.

The transfer from the Dominican Republic can be very devastating to the entire family, especially the children. They must become accustomed to their new lives. There is a new environment and new settings. Most of them come not speaking a word of English. For any child of any race this can be very intricate. Hernandez reported that “as much as 65.5 percent of Dominicans in New York who were twenty-five years or older did not have a high school diploma or equivalent…” (2).

According to Davis, Dominicans are on the verge of displacing Puerto Ricans as the poorest major ethnic group in the city with thirty-six percent in poverty and only nine percent self-employed (128). As a community, the Dominicans have struggled greatly in New York City. They usually immigrate with the little money that they have in their pockets. How can anyone expect the Dominicans to be as successful as other Latinos, such as the Cubans in Florida, if they have nothing to begin their new lives with? For instance the Cubans were given government dollars in order for them to escape the communist lifestyle in Cuba and begin a whole new life in Florida. When the Cubans came in swarms of thousands in the early 1960’s, the U.S. government welcomed them as political refugees. This is why most Cubans have achieved such great success in America (Novas 217). The United States did not do the same after the Trujillo era for the Dominicans.

In Dominican New Yorkers: A Socioeconomic Profile, 1990, Ramona Hernandez states that “the income of the Dominican population is one of the lowest in New York City”. She then goes on to say that in 1989, the per capita i

Some topics in this essay:
Dominican Republic, York City, Dominicans York, Revolucionario Dominicano, Leonidas Trujillo, Christopher Columbus, Himilce Novas, Republic Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Trujillo Dominican, dominican republic, york city, raphael leonidas, leonidas trujillo, raphael leonidas trujillo, thirty-six percent, trujillo era, households poverty line, percent dominican, dominican population, poverty line, poverty rates,