capodominicano said:
I dont want to get off topic but he asked about Dominicans, I just responded as I would, there are real Dominicans & fake Dominicans out there. The people who have an asterisk are the ones that deserve it, AZ & Fabolous have admitted in interviews of being of Dominican descent but not knowing anything about the culture or even the language, how can I put them in the same categorie as Johnny Ventura or Nelson "the midget". There is a level of Dominicaness, it doesnt matter where a person is born but how much knowledge they have on their culture or parents culture. If that Dominican born in Wisconsin, Wyoming or Alaska knows spanish, knows some history about DR & culture I would consider them Dominican but if they dont know jack about DR history & culture & the only spanish they know consists of curse words, then no they are not Dominican.
The simple fact in my age group alot of these so-called Dominican-Yorks claim to be Dominican. When they're not, most Dominican youths in NYC can't tell you who Juan Pablo Duarte is, oh yea it's just a Blvd in the heights or about the trinitarios to them it's just a street gang. I can go on & on but there is such a thing as real & fake, Dominican born & Dominican descent, it's a big difference.
Peace,
Capo
PS Dont knock Republicans, Im not one, I have no political affilations (yet).
Even though I partially agree to what Deelt said, I also agree on what you said.
Being Dominican is not just biological. The adquisition of Dominican knowledge is just as important, if not more important than anything else. What I mean by Dominican knowledge is knowing why we as Dominicans are the way we are, what our history is, why our country is how it is, how can we change for the better, what it means to be Dominicans besides dancing Merengue, etc.
There are some people who are not biologically Dominican, but know more about the DR, its people, etc that they might as well be considered Dominican.
Then comes the question of shame for being Dominican. Someone pointed out here that some of these Dominicans that are in entertainment, television, etc don't point to their roots because of shame due to the DR's situation.
I find that to be due to their ignorance of the DR. How can anyone be ashamed of a country that made it possible (one way or another) for his/her ancestors to live and meet each other and mate up until the time came for his or her own existence to come into reality? How can someone feel shame of a country that explains why you are the way you are? How can someone feel shame when we are constantly reminded of the importance our land had in time past?
How can anyone take shame of a country that is among the most beautiful in the world?
I guess the biggest question is how can anyone take shame of the DR, when there are non-Dominicans (like Julio Iglesias, King Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, and many genuine foreign expats among others) who love this country as if it was their own?
It's just an inconceivable idea to me. Maybe people are very opinionated when it comes to feeling shame of being Dominican. There are things that could be better with the DR, but this country is not in such shape as to be hated or denied of one's own roots.
The sad thing is that whether they want to or not, the existence of the Dominican Republic is a big reason why they are alive today. If the DR never would have come into existence, the proper conditions that lead to the many meetings and matings that eventually lead to the birth of every single Dominican or partial Dominican person today would never had taken place. That means that if it wasn't for Juan Pablo Duarte's bravery of establishing this country, many of us probably would never had come to enjoy the lives that we have encountered.
The DR deserves to be at the very least aknowledge as part of one's existence, even if you are of Dominican decent and was born in Finland and don't know nothing about the DR or can't speak Spanish. That is my opinion on this.
