Moca: ruta histórica, cultural y gastronómica
Moca es una ciudad cargada de cultura, historia y riquezas gastronómica
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- Thread starter AlterEgo
- Start date
MOCA
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Moca has a bunch of old-style houses with large yards with lots of flowers and trees. I'd love to live there.
I've only just passed thru there on my way to and from Jamao. It seemed very clean to me.
Moca has too many one way streets with a lot of traffic. I would never, ever live there. Do not like to go there even when I absolutely must!
My aunt and uncle-in-law married in the Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Church when it was still rather new. I think it was in obe of its 20’s anniversary at that time. You can actually see it (and much of the town) from the air if sitting on a window seat to the left when entering an airplane. You can also see it in the horizon from the top of the Santo Cerro hill. Im fact, the steeple of the church is the reason you know that town in the horizon is Moca. lol
Several earthquakes have shook it since then and it never suffered major damages.
I was told the other major church (Rosario), which is the oldest in town, used to have two towers in the same style as the rest of the church, but they collapsed in an earthquake and were replaced with the bland ones that exist now. Right next is a small park and has on display via glasses some of the remains discovered there of people that were buried in the 1600’s, according to some analysis that were done to some of the bones.
That was also the church (that building was destroyed, the church is the same in name and place where it was, but the building that exist now is a rebuilt to replace the other one; is where were the bodies of many people in the main chapel and around 40 children in an adjacent chapel all butchered by the Haitian army im the invasion of Dessalines in 1805. The only survivors were two girls that pretended to be dead as they were covered by the blood of a family member that fell on too of them. Little it’s known that the father of them was a free black man, also killed in the invasion.
It was because of them that this event was known and that after the massacre people went to the church and found the scene. Although this invasion was headed by Dessaline, from what I have been told Henri Christophe was in charge of the branch of the Haitian army that destroyed Moca, which was basically the fate of al the towns in the Cibao. It was that those were more complete in not leaving anyone alive (San Francisco, Santiago, La Vega, etc; Puerto Plata was spared, no doubt because it required marching through the mountains.) They were hiding in the surrounding countryside when the Haitian army arrived in town. Many came out into the town believing the words of the leaders of the army that Dessalines had pardon them. Those that believed it and came out went to the church to give thanks to God with a mass for Dessalines’ change of mind. Then the Haitian troops surrounded the church with sables on hand (a type of machete) and all the doors were shut…
They were mostly too light skin and others were white, precisely the people Dessalines didn’t like. Those that stayed hiding in the countryside were proven to be right in not believing a single words from the Haitian generals.
Several earthquakes have shook it since then and it never suffered major damages.
I was told the other major church (Rosario), which is the oldest in town, used to have two towers in the same style as the rest of the church, but they collapsed in an earthquake and were replaced with the bland ones that exist now. Right next is a small park and has on display via glasses some of the remains discovered there of people that were buried in the 1600’s, according to some analysis that were done to some of the bones.
That was also the church (that building was destroyed, the church is the same in name and place where it was, but the building that exist now is a rebuilt to replace the other one; is where were the bodies of many people in the main chapel and around 40 children in an adjacent chapel all butchered by the Haitian army im the invasion of Dessalines in 1805. The only survivors were two girls that pretended to be dead as they were covered by the blood of a family member that fell on too of them. Little it’s known that the father of them was a free black man, also killed in the invasion.
It was because of them that this event was known and that after the massacre people went to the church and found the scene. Although this invasion was headed by Dessaline, from what I have been told Henri Christophe was in charge of the branch of the Haitian army that destroyed Moca, which was basically the fate of al the towns in the Cibao. It was that those were more complete in not leaving anyone alive (San Francisco, Santiago, La Vega, etc; Puerto Plata was spared, no doubt because it required marching through the mountains.) They were hiding in the surrounding countryside when the Haitian army arrived in town. Many came out into the town believing the words of the leaders of the army that Dessalines had pardon them. Those that believed it and came out went to the church to give thanks to God with a mass for Dessalines’ change of mind. Then the Haitian troops surrounded the church with sables on hand (a type of machete) and all the doors were shut…
They were mostly too light skin and others were white, precisely the people Dessalines didn’t like. Those that stayed hiding in the countryside were proven to be right in not believing a single words from the Haitian generals.
Yes and loads of junk car dealers. All cars sold in Moca are over 150K miles
I would beg to differ. I bought my current car in Moca and it is, up to now, the best I have had here. I went to buy it with an American friend, who buys wrecked cars and rebuilds them for a living, and he said the low mileage was genuine as far as he could tell. Car prices in Moca are quite high though, even by Dominican standards.
Anyway, the quality of used cars sold there does not really reflect on Moca as a town.
I'm in Moca 4 or 5 times a month. I have friends living in Jenny Maria and Puerto Rico Viejo. It's a great place to visit for anyone looking to soak up a little chaos. The entire town is very much old Dominican Republic.