I note here that in the DR, certainly in Barahona, that huelga does not mean that there is a bunch of people who stay home from work to protest some condition. Rather, it means that a bunch of clown simply make it hard to prevent anyone from going anywhere. When I arrived in Barahona, the driver stopped a mile or so outside of town and some guy told him that Casandra Damiron, the street that the main highway runs on, had a huelga going on, so I got out at the first bomba and took a motoconcho to my destination. There were only a couple of rocks in the street. No real problems. The huelga was over electric shutoffs, which are daily.
There is electricity on a varying schedule: it usually comes on at 9:00-10:00 AM, and shuts down around noon, then it comes on at sometime between 9:00 PM and midnight and goes off at around 4:00 AM. Water comes on, with varying amounts of pressure, around 8:00 AM and goes off at 10:00and occasionally does not come on at all. If there is enough pressure, the tinaco gets filled, those without a tinaco pass a hose around and fill up their tanques. Lots of women carrying buckets around. No one in Palmarito has paid a light or water bill for several years, at least no one I know. Some nights the lights come on, then go off and come back on again several times. This upsets people watching Canal 57, a TV station which runs nonstop films with lots of shooting and action and only commercials for new movies, which no one in Barahona ever sees, because there is no cine, and has been none for years.
I like to think that the guy who made the posters of Maria Montez, one of two famous Barahoneras, the other being dancer Casandra Damiron, calling her "La Reina del Technicolor" did so because he had a sense of humor, since the image of Montez was in Black and White, but the lettering on the poster was not. It announced a showing of a couple of her film could be seen last months at the University Auditorium, so those with time machines could venture back and take a peek. No one I know says they have ever actually seen a Montez film. She was sort of a Dominican version of Carmen Miranda. I find it interesting that Montez' father was a Spaniard, and Miranda was actually born in Portugal, so two famous Latin American Bombshells were not actually really all that authentic as Latinamericanas.
Now Rita Hayworth,( Margarita Carmen Cansino) she was a real Mexicana, though.
Downtown Barahona was a boring place to be. They are redoing the Parque Central, and encircled the whole thing with a "barracada de cinc". A peek through a hole revealed no one doing anything. The benches were all stacked up and there were several piles of pavers, but no one working.
One positive thing I have noticed is that there is almost no graffiti.
No one I know sympathizes with the huelguistas, who are said to be a bunch of tigres from the Camboya Barrio. The 26th of July, I think there was a threat of a huelga, and all the colmados closed early. Nothing happened, though.