People from the USA were not always aware of the DR as a vacation spot.
They weren’t aware of the DR in general. Some of the things were:
- Never heard of it.
- Saw a map of the DR and noticed Haiti is next door, the automatic assumption was “it must be the same.” Haiti’s image had already been tarnished and back then it was a semi-functioning country with no gang problem.
- If they heard of the DR, the conception they had of the place was wrong. For example, completely getting it wrong its true size. Once I knew a woman who was getting married and their honeymoon was going to be Punta Cana. In fact, that’s what lead to the conversation. At one point she said “we are planning to go everywhere on the island” and I said “no you are not, 6 Connecticut’s fit in Dominican territory and there is still land left“ (not even counting the Haiti part.) It was as if in that moment she had an epiphany. lol
They had no reference and what to expect of the DR.
The only people that had a better image of the DR (not always a fully accurate one) were some other Hispanic groups such as Puerto Ricans, many of whom call the DR Santo Domingo including if they were thinking of a place outside the capital.
Also Haitians. All heard of it and it was interesting to notice some of the things they believe were true if you feign ignorance. Some of the most memorable was when one time a Haitian took it upon himself to “teach” me about certain aspects of the DR past and he basically concluded that in Haiti he would be considered a mulatto and that Dominicans are 100% the same as Haitians. He said mulatto Haitians had the habit of moving to the DR and it’s from them that most Dominicans descend from. The other time was how a Haitian was perfectly fine talking to as long she didn’t know the origin. Ah, but then the question because when this is done in the USA, everybody know what they mean. Where are you from? In an instant she made the greatest face of disgust and to this day I don’t think she was aware she was doing that when she heard Dominican Republic. It was such a strong dislike she couldn’t even hide it if her life was depending on it. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Many others it didn’t mean anything as they never changed the treatment at that point, but then there are others that their greatest desire is for the DR not had never existed and this is not an exaggeration at all.
It was also interesting when I met a Haitian woman who was a classmate and the realize what was her last name… Blanchard. That isn’t a very popular last name in Haiti and what that means the likelihood it means what I think it does is very high. By then I already knew of some Dominican Blanchard… white Dominicans Blanchard with a history connecting to the border, in fact descendants of the French colonists in Saint-Domingue. It doesn’t takes long to connect the dots. She didn’t know that I knew that since somethings you only think about but never say.
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