If you asked a majority of Dominicans where San Ignacio de Sabaneta was, you would probably just get a blank stare. “Huh?” would be the dominant answer. The town is the little known capital of the Santiago Rodriguez province in the northwest of the Dominican Republic. Some of the locals call it “Sabaneta”. It is an interesting place, the seat of a large milk producing region and a major manufacturer of the famous cassava bread made from the bitter yucca plant. It is also a center for producing typical Dominican candies.
With nearly 60,000 inhabitants, three municipalities and hundreds of small farms, the province exported the greater part of the 587,000 kgs. of cassava bread that was shipped from the DR in 2004. There are 225 small “factories” producing the Taino Indian-style bread, most using techniques that have not changed much over the past few centuries. For over 200 years the area has been a center for milk and cattle production. In 1907, according to Indenor, there were 300 grazing lots and 170 cattle farms. Today, 35% of the milk used by the Nestle Company (Codal) comes from farms in the province.
The province is also a major producer of tobacco and rice and is host to large forest areas of pine and cedar.
Land-locked, Santiago Rodriguez is surrounded by Monte Cristi and Valverde to the north and east, San Juan de la Maguana and Elias Pina on the south, Santiago on the East and Dajabon on the west. In it flow the Mao, Guayubin, Yaguajay, Grande, Cana, Inage, and Aminilla rivers. Moncion, the Cassava Capital of the World, is located in the province.
The provincial name comes from one of the heros of the Restauracion in 1863, when general Santiago Rodriguez, together with Jose Cabrera and others won the Battle of Capotillo on 16 August, 1863.