- Thread starter snoops12
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Living in Santiago...
My highly biased opinion
Since I have lived here most of my entire adult life, is that Santiago is a nice place to live than Santo Domingo.
The people are nicer, depending, of course, on just who you hang with.
There is enough cultural stuff to satisfy most people, except NYC Ballet season ticket holders perhaps, there are sports-Winter Baseball is now in full swing--very nice Country clubs, a golf club, good movie place-I hear, anyway-one of the top museums in Latin America and a cultural center in and of itself. Plenty of music, ajzz, latin or pop as well as Dominican bachata, merengue and salsa. Even a place to dance "sones," which, I was startled to learn originated in Santiago!!. Even the Cuban musicologists admit this...huh!
And good schools, if you can afford them, up through university.
HB, what's not to like?
And I left a lot out: Distance to beaches or Santo Domingo, major airport, excellent communications, job opportunities (for talented people, numbnuts need not apply)
Since I have lived here most of my entire adult life, is that Santiago is a nice place to live than Santo Domingo.
The people are nicer, depending, of course, on just who you hang with.
There is enough cultural stuff to satisfy most people, except NYC Ballet season ticket holders perhaps, there are sports-Winter Baseball is now in full swing--very nice Country clubs, a golf club, good movie place-I hear, anyway-one of the top museums in Latin America and a cultural center in and of itself. Plenty of music, ajzz, latin or pop as well as Dominican bachata, merengue and salsa. Even a place to dance "sones," which, I was startled to learn originated in Santiago!!. Even the Cuban musicologists admit this...huh!
And good schools, if you can afford them, up through university.
HB, what's not to like?
And I left a lot out: Distance to beaches or Santo Domingo, major airport, excellent communications, job opportunities (for talented people, numbnuts need not apply)
Even a place to dance "sones," which, I was startled to learn originated in Santiago!!. Even the Cuban musicologists admit this...huh!
The son originated in Santiago de Cuba. NOt the one in El Cibao.
The same goes for the bolero. Where did you see the info about the son originating in Santiago, DR?
The son originated in Santiago de Cuba. NOt the one in El Cibao.
The same goes for the bolero. Where did you see the info about the son originating in Santiago, DR?
To make a quick point into this, the pros and cons to living in Santiago are the same to living in Santo Domingo, except that they are 5 times smaller in many cases.snoops12 said:
SDQ and STG are the same deal, just that SDQ is 5 times the size of STG, as such, expect problems in STG to be 5 times bigger in SDQ and vice versa.
For example:
In SDQ traffic is a concern, especially along the main drags and during rush hours. In STG, traffic is much much more leasurely, though it gets pretty thick at times.
Not trying to hijack this thread, but its true, Son is of Dominican origin. It is believed that it reached Cuba during one of the exodus of Dominicans to Cuba during one of the invasions from neighboring Haiti. At least, this is what I have been told...Hillbilly said:
Ever heard Paniagua, one of my favorite singers, though his themes are a bit on the depressing side, but still fabulous stuff.
I wonder if Bachata developed out of Son?
I'm not going to contradict this possibility, in the end it doesn't matter where it was actually created. The point is that its a fabulous music genre, among the most soothing sounds of all the sounds humans make!juancarlos said:
But, for the sake of the contradiction as to where it was invented, it must be pointed out that Santiago de Cuba received a lot of influences from the Santo Domingo, mostly due to the proximity to the DR. STG of Cuba also received French influences from Haiti during the revolution there when French fled enmasse to Santiago de Cuba and built the many fabulous colonial style mansions that exist there today.
Since STG of Cuba could be said to had been the gateway of Cuba (it was the capital of that island at one point), maybe that explains why Cubans and DR share alot of commonality in their cultures. Both cultures are about as similar as they are different, more so than any other two Latin countries, with the exception of maybe Puerto Rico, but then again, PR has never been a real country, at least not officially.
Dude
I would not venture into musicoligy if I was not sure on the point.
However, since I just found this out, I thought I'd pass it on. It comes from Santiago de los Caballeros. Got to STGO de Cuba and do some research...The fact that it fourished in Cuba and not here makes no nevermind...
HB
I would not venture into musicoligy if I was not sure on the point.
However, since I just found this out, I thought I'd pass it on. It comes from Santiago de los Caballeros. Got to STGO de Cuba and do some research...The fact that it fourished in Cuba and not here makes no nevermind...
HB
Living in Santiago
This is a purely personal response--and a generalization, no doubt, at that--but someone in Santo Domingo who tried to grab my purse with my passport and pesos is probably singing soprano now. I didn't give a rat's *** about the dinero as it was not all my stash, but I couldn't bear to think about losing my passport. That happened in London once and I almost lost a husband he was so aggravated. Anyway, I had no one attempt any such shenanigans in lovely Santiago; quite the contrary, even strangers in parks and shoeshine boys were kind and helpful to this happy tourist. I'd pick Santiago anytime over Santo Domingo for a place of residence. Save the capital for quarterly excursions!
Saludos,
Nancy Bell
This is a purely personal response--and a generalization, no doubt, at that--but someone in Santo Domingo who tried to grab my purse with my passport and pesos is probably singing soprano now. I didn't give a rat's *** about the dinero as it was not all my stash, but I couldn't bear to think about losing my passport. That happened in London once and I almost lost a husband he was so aggravated. Anyway, I had no one attempt any such shenanigans in lovely Santiago; quite the contrary, even strangers in parks and shoeshine boys were kind and helpful to this happy tourist. I'd pick Santiago anytime over Santo Domingo for a place of residence. Save the capital for quarterly excursions!
Saludos,
Nancy Bell
Stuff like that can and has happened in Santiago too.nancybelle said:
One of my family acquaintances (a female) was in Santiago with her friend. They were near the Cibao mall and two very young guys came up to them. The guys started acting as if the women were they girlfriends in a fight saying very loudly "what have I told you about looking at men like that!" etc. According to the women (and this is my suspicion also) the men acted in such way because if people thought they were a couple, nobody would get involve. After all, there were tons of people around according to the women.
In the end, one of the women had her purse taken by one of the men and her friend received a few marks on her arms and back because one of the guys was grabbing her tightly by her arm and constantly was pushing her and hitting her while talking loudly, to make it seem as if it was a couple having a fight. The women kept screaming that they don't know these men, but nobody did nothing. This occured about a month ago in Santiago.
The women are fine, they finally took my advice of taking some karate classes and self defence courses. They don't go anywhere without a man nowadays.
Things happen anywhere. One should not base one's total perception of a place based on one's own experiences. Although there is more crime in SDQ, there are also more people in SDQ and thus, the chances of being a victim is lower than what most people would think.