El Barrio VS la Urbanizacion

indiana16

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Jan 5, 2006
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When I go to DR I stay in an urbanizacion in Santiago. I like la urbanizacion because it's a very nice neighborhood. All the houses there are nice. Building houses of wood and tin roof is prohibited. Although it's more pleasant to live in an urbanizacion, I notice the people in these neighborhoods stay in their homes more often than not. They don't readily visit their neighbors. These behaviors are more typical of dominicans that are better off financially. Houses in La urbanizacion are more prone to be burglarized. When a robber looks at these big houses, they assume that there is a lot of valuable loot to take, and he is right. A lot of these beautiful houses are nicely furnished and have valuables inside.
On the other hand there is El Barrio. Barrios have many small wooden houses with tin roofs, but it also has beautiful homes. Ironically in a Barrio a house that looks like a shack can be next to one that appears to be a mansion. It all depends on the financial situation of the owner. People from el barrio are not as well off financially as urbanizacion dwellers, but they sure seem a lot happier. One of the things I like about barrios is that the neighbors look out for each other more.That is why there are less incidents of burglary in barrios. They visit each other more and are often seen in "La Chercha". La chercha is when a group of people get together and chat about all kinds of topics while drinking presidente beers. The social activity in a barrio is greater that in an urbanization. It is in the barrios that fun activities like festivals or "fiestas patronales" take place. There is a saying in DR: " Pueblo pequeno infierno grande." This mean small town big hell. What this really means is that since barrios are small, everybody knows each other. People more readily find out about each other's business, and if don't want to be the talk of town you need to watch what you do or say. Words and rumors spread quickly in barrios. This is one of the bad parts about this type of neighborhood.
I find that I like to live in an urbanizacion because I have more comforts. However; I visit barrios from time to time because of its festivals, fiestas patronales, la chercha, and higher level of social activity as well as other reasons.
Perhaps it is because of the higher level of social activity that tourists find themselves in barrios and choose to hang out with barrio dwellers. Well, to each his own.
How about you what do you prefer? the barrio? or la urbanizacion?