Mainstream New York City press is covering the little-known fact that the first non-Indian immigrant to New York City is now thought to have come from Hispaniola.
According to researchers at the Institute of Dominican Studies at New York University, the first immigrant to stay in New York was a Dominican! Well, maybe not a Dominican in the modern sense, but according to Ramona Hernandez, the director of the Institute, he came from Hispaniola in 1613 on board a Dutch trading boat, and either jumped ship or left the crew before they returned to Holland. His name was Joao or Jan Rodriguez, he was a dark-skinned mulatto, and he was a crewmember of the Jonge Tobias, captained by Thijs Mossel. According to Hernandez, Rodriguez spoke several languages, and eventually married a local Indian. When Dutch traders returned, they found him administering a trading post. Hernandez said that researcher Simon Hart, looking into early Dutch documents on New York discovered the mention of the “Dominican” immigrant.
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed legislation on Tuesday 2 October, co-naming Broadway in Rodriguez’s honor from 159th Street in Washington Heights to 218th Street in Inwood. Both neighborhoods have large Dominican populations.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/feature?section=resources/lifestyle_community/community/events&id=7658816
www.diariolibre.com/ecos/2012/10/08/i354784_primer-habitante-nueva-york-era-dominicano.html