DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

In an editorial on 13 May 2025, Diario Libre executive editor Anibal de Castro focuses on the reality that the DR is a mixed race and ancestry country.

The editorialist writes:

“The election of Leo XIV as Supreme Pontiff has brought about more than just a name change at the Vatican summit. It has brought to the surface a history that many would prefer to ignore: the multiple, complex, and in this case, mestizo origins of the new leader of the Catholic Church.

The fact that the Pope has Dominican blood and Afro-descendant Creole heritage and that one of his grandfathers was classified as “black” in 19th-century America, should not cause much surprise.

But it does: unfortunately, we continue to drag along a cultural discomfort —a visceral resistance— to accept that the Dominican, the Catholic, and the universal can simultaneously be black, mestizo, Creole, and proudly...