December 5, 1492 - December 5, 2023
On December 5, 1492 arrived for the first time the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María carrying Christopher Columbus et al. The place this happen was where Christopher Columbus named Cabo San Nicolás (today Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti.) He gaved it that name because the day after is the saint's day of Saint Nicholas (San Nicolás) in the calendar of the Catholic Church.
Regardless of what anyone could think of Christopher Columbus, whether he was good, he was a villain, a combination of the two or a victim of his time and modern historical revisionism; what can't be debated that that event in particular paved the way for the surgence of many (if not most or all that descend from colonial times) of the Dominicans alive today. This is different to most nationalities and at this stage the people that are direct descendants (particularly from illegitimate liasons) most don't know that they are and they include all features, all colors, all types. This also doesn't limits itself to Christopher Columbus, but many if not all the men that accompanied him in that endevour. Today, Dominicans show some Taino ancestry in the DNA, that predated this event, and along with that comes some ancestry from the Spaniards abd other Europeans that arrived in this occasion.
Would Dominicans exist today if that had never happened?
PS. The Governor Osorio's Devastations of 1606 (when the western side of the island was depopulated by orders of the governor) is the main reason that Haitians don't have a similar amount of Taíno DNA as the Dominicans and the same, but more intense, with regarding to Spanish, Portuguese and Italian ancestries. It's also true that if the Governor Osorio's Devastations had never ocurred, that Haitians would not exist as a state and as a people since, taking Cuba and Puerto Rico as examples where notthing like Governor Osorio's Devastation ever took place, the entire island would had been Dominican. Most direct descendants from Hispaniola have to be Dominicans.
It should also be noted that in addition to having many direct descendants of Christopher Columbus and company (even those that don't know since not knowing doesn't imply it doesn't exist), many Dominicans are also the people that descend from:
- The first mestizos of the world (the old saying that the first mestizos appeared 9 months after this event isn't far fetch.)
[*]The first mulattoes born outside of the "Old World" (not necessarily the first mulatto in the Americas, as there was one in one of the voyages.)
[*]The first whites (particularly Spaniards but also Portuguese and Italians -Columbus himself was from Genova, Italy and he wasn't the only one, in fact his brother is the founder of Santo Domingo and probably he was from Italy too-) to be born in the Americas (and to be buried in the Americas, in La Isabela Historical Park near Puerto Plata still exist the first cemetery where Europeans were buried in the Western Hemisphere -the cemetery itself is a combination of Europeans and Tainos, all the Europeans arrived in the second voyage of Columbus-.)
[*]The first blacks born in the Americas (not necessarily the first black in the America's as even some of the Spanish conquistadors were not just blacks but Africans that first moved to Spain and many years later to Santo Domingo and the rest of the American continent, Juan Garrido is one example of that.)
All of that took place in Hispaniola (a good chunk on the north coast) and most of the descendants of that are Dominicans.
PS. Due to immigration from the distant past and recently, many Dominicans that unbeknowingly are direct descendants took some of that to places where these men never went to such as New York. That means that because of this there are many Americans and other folks that unbeknowingly are direct descendants too.
