The battle at Santo Cerro took place in the mid-1490s,but I don't have the exact date right on me. It was before Santo Domingo was founded, when Columbus was at La Isabela. He had abandoned his original plan to trade for gold with the Tainos, because they had no real interest in mining it for manufactured goods -- this system was called Factoria and was used by the Portuguese in West Africa -- so he set out on a slaving expedition into the Cibao to capture Tainos that he would then use as slave labor at La Isabela. Santo Cerro is the high ground in this part of the Cibao, and there was a major battle here during the campaign. The legend says that the Tainos were winning until Columbus planted a large cross on the hill, and the Virgin Mary appeared perchec upon it, upon which the emboldened Spaniards took heart and slaughtered their enemy. The current festival is a candlelit procession up the hill to the church, very dignified and beautiful but not with the African religious overtones of most Dominican religious festivals.