Spain celebrates Columbus, descendants defend his legacy

[MDP]

Check your facts señor and give us the actual percentage of Mestizo in the D.R. Hint: It's a large portion of the population, and it indeed does apply to the D.R. I know damned well what a Mulatto is, thanks. They're one step below a Mestizo in the original, regional casta, and one step above the Indians, who are above the Zambos, and who are themselves above the blacks. Above MEstizos were the Criollos and Castizos. Did you follow that?

Continuing, you're also wrong on the issue of where the best Spanish is spoken and there is one common denominator between Bogota and La Paz. 400 years of inaccessibility. That's right, until the industrial age, people didn't travel from city to city or country to country in South America much, especially at the altitudes of Bogota (almost 9,000 feet at the savannah to over 10,000 feet) and La Paz (between 10,000 and 13,000 feet)- and therefore the ORIGINAL Castillano dialects were preserved for that length of time, over 4oo years -UNLIKE Spain, where the dialects were polluted by foreigners with easy access to many areas of Spain long before the industrial revolution, and throughout the same length of time - 400 years. A whole lot of damage was done to the language as it existed in Europe in four centuries, while La Paz and Bogota had theirs preserved as if it were in a linguistic time capsule. Can you wrap your head around that?

Further, Amerigo Vespucci did indeed explore this side of the hemisphere and explored much of the South American coast all the way to Tierra del Fuego! He was also the first to identify the "New World" of North and South America while your hero Colon had thought until his own death that he had reached Asia. D'oh!

So don't talk to me about misinforming people, comic books or anything else, since that's apparently where you get your "information".

Try traveling or reading from valid sources of information if you are unable to travel beyond your fridge.

[Greenwave]

The racial distribution in DR is 73 % mulato, 16 % white, and 11 % Congoloid.

Before Columbus showed up, the Aztecs and the Incas were conducting indian cleansing of Central and South America. The drawings on the Aztecs pyramids and the skeletal findings clearly confirmed that these tribes were systematically eliminating other indian tribes. And life in pre-Columbian era was chaotic and cruel! That terror kept the Aztecs and Incas empires growing and as a result of that they (Incas and aztecs) had many enemies that enabled the Spaniards to conquer them!

The fate of the native americans was sealed if it was not the Spaniards, it was going to be the Portugueses or other european power was going to conquer them! Even China had a formidable navy in the early 1400's that almost landed on the Pacific coast of the Americas and the Chinese would have definitely conquered the indians! SO EITHER WAY, THE INDIANS WER GOING TO BE ELIMINATED EITHER BY HARD LABOR, ASSIMILATION, FOREIGN DISEASES OR SIMPLE MASSACRE!

By the way, since there are 74 % mulato in DR and some of you are claiming the majority of the Dominicans have African descendency, the same can be said that Dominicans have european descendency too!

[MDP]

Sorry, your first sentence is a falsehood. Check the facts again.

[ALJ]

We celebrate Columbus Day to celebrate Western civilization and Western values. It is a celebration of industrialization, science and order over barbaric stagnation. The world (all of it) is a far better place thanks to the courage of the early explorers led by Columbus.

[MDP]

LOL - what a load of absolute shite. Columbus led nothing. Read your history books. And values? That's just great. Is that why people are still raping, murdering and pillaging over 500 years later? Following his example I suppose.

HAHAHAAAA - a testament to our educational system, yes sir. I shouldn't laugh though. It's sinful that so many are so ignorant. Why else would we cause, or tolerate - the last 8 years... And in the future, as our educational systems degrade further, you can expect even worse material for our history books. That's a fact.

[Santiago]

Pepe 32 you are so right! The Dark Legend (Leyenda Negra) against Spain is based on the envy,(yes ENVY!) that many in the Anglo world have for not being first to arrive and settle the Americas... For example, how many know that the first European settlement in the modern day US was established by the Spanish (St. Augustine, Florida)?
These envious and aggressive people will demonize and LIE about Spain because of this envy. They have CREATED a false story with the intention of convincing the general public (who unfortunately is not well read) that Anglo culture and influence is better for the Latino world (a modern Monroe Doctrine). This way bananas, coffee, human organs, and cheap labor will keep on flowing to the US at low cost.
In fact, the richness of modern day Hispanic culture is the mixture of races, customs and cultures in the Spanish world. Had the Brits been first, they would have never mixed with or educated the Natives. They consider themselves superior to everyone else they invade and are not known for massively building churches, hospitals and universities in the countries they invade. Rather, they would have exterminated the locals!...Just like they did with the US Natives, to later put them in human zoos, sorry!....Reservations.
The Spanish,(humans after all), of course fought their battles against the rather primitive Natives, but at the end MARRIED, EDUCATED, CHRISTIANIZED, AND JUST PLAINLY MIXED WITH the locals to create a new and more diverse culture. AND THAT IS THE TRUTH!!!! They also envy this generosity and noble character on the part of the Spanish who built cities, roads, churches, hospitals, universities (like the Autonoma in Santo Domingo, first in the Americas).
In genetics, the wider the diversity, the stronger the species. And this, many Anglos also envy! They know that Hispanics have great GENETIC capacity and fear that this SLEEPING MONSTER may one day wake up and smell the coffee... ie.claim rights in the US, like having more HISPANIC medical students and doctors in US hospitals and LESS front-line soldiers in Irak and Vietnam(65 de Infanteria).
Much of the same applies to Blacks in the US, so stop quarreling! You are only playing into the game of those scared and envious Anglos!

[MDP]

South America, "the fourth continent" was discovered on behalf of Spain by an Italian, for which it was named.

[GrumpyGuy]

People tend to forget that in 1492 Spain had just finished a 700 year long brutal War for independence . In which the rest of the world just stood by or helped in the looting of Spain.
And since the rest of the world did not care about Spain when it was enslaved, why Should the Spanish of that time care about being nice to other people.
perhaps if the Arabs had not brutalized Spain for 700 years the Spanish would not have turned into brutal people.

[MDP]

Good point, but "Jimmy, two wrongs don't make a right". And in 2008, this lesson is still elusive...

[yuwiw]

umm. okay no. i'm dominican, and "afroDR" need's to do his homework because our country is made up of 70% European descendent's, 21% Taino Indian and 9% descendent's of African slaves.
Haitian's and Dominican's have not a thing in common. the Haitian black's were brought by the French from Africa. The Dominican black's were brougt by the Spaniard's from Spain; they were called the "African Munk's"
and their is no such thing as an Africanized Spanish. Dominican's speak spanish but some vocab word's are taken from the Taino language; for example, Dominican's got the word "hurricane" from the Taino. a lot of Spanish speaking countries say "que lo que" it's the modern way of saying "que tal" just like some in America say "what's good" instead of "whats up"
maybe you should do your research before you declare a whole nation to be one race. thank's
PERFECT EXAMPLE: i am dominican, have blue eye's & blonde/light brown hair with the taino skin color (caramel? light light brown. i have no African feature's at all.
when the Spaniard's came to DR it was all men, no women, so they mixed with the Indian, very few mixed with the African's for the reason that they were slave's. that's why those who claim to be of European descent in DR today have a brown skin tone, NOT BECAUSE OF THE FEO NEGROS pero because of the taino.
so because your a descendent of a negrito slave, doesnt mean we all are. thanks, bye!
you're full of it!!!

[Pepe32]

yuwiw wrote:

umm. okay no. i'm dominican, and "afroDR" need's to do his homework because our country is made up of 70% European descendent's, 21% Taino Indian and 9% descendent's of African slaves.
Haitian's and Dominican's have not a thing in common. the Haitian black's were brought by the French from Africa. The Dominican black's were brougt by the Spaniard's from Spain; they were called the "African Munk's"
and their is no such thing as an Africanized Spanish. Dominican's speak spanish but some vocab word's are taken from the Taino language; for example, Dominican's got the word "hurricane" from the Taino. a lot of Spanish speaking countries say "que lo que" it's the modern way of saying "que tal" just like some in America say "what's good" instead of "whats up"
maybe you should do your research before you declare a whole nation to be one race. thank's
PERFECT EXAMPLE: i am dominican, have blue eye's & blonde/light brown hair with the taino skin color (caramel? light light brown. i have no African feature's at all.
when the Spaniard's came to DR it was all men, no women, so they mixed with the Indian, very few mixed with the African's for the reason that they were slave's. that's why those who claim to be of European descent in DR today have a brown skin tone, NOT BECAUSE OF THE FEO NEGROS pero because of the taino.
so because your a descendent of a negrito slave, doesnt mean we all are. thanks, bye!
you're full of it!!!

You are seriously confused,I am a "criollo" Dominican but I would never say that we are a majority in DR.My blood is 100% Iberian extract but most of the people in DR are mixed blood (mulattoes) with a small number of pure white and pure blacks.We are not a black nation nor a white nation we are a true melting pot with every color in the rainbow united by a common Hispanic culture that joins us to our sister Hispanic nations.

You are doing what the afrocentrists do in reverse and the reality is that if you went to the capital *Santo Domingo" you would see your error.

Pepe

[GrumpyGuy]

MDP wrote:

Good point, but "Jimmy, two wrongs don't make a right". And in 2008, this lesson is still elusive...

True , but people need to understand things dont happen in a vacuum. Countries that have violence visited on them often produce violent people.
Another example wouldl be Germany. When Germany was weak and divided the rest of Europe decided it would be a great place to fight their wars. And when Germany united the rest of Europe was shocked to find the Germans where a war like people.

[MDP]

I don't know about that. Take Colombia, a country torn by almost 5 decades of violence and bloodshed as a result of the civil war. Then look at the people and what you have is a population of super friendly, helpful, genuinely happy people who are not corrupted by any of this. The side effect has been to make them open their eyes about the important things in life, and I can tell you these are one of the most culturally NON-bankrupt people I have ever encountered.

[vivamexico]

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the ethnic composition of the Dominican population is 73% mixed race, 16% white and 11% black.[2] The mixed population is a triracial mix of white (Spanish), Taino and black.[57][12] Other ethnic groups in the Dominican Republic include Haitians, Germans, Italians, French, Jews, Spaniards, and Americans. A smaller presence of East Asians (primarily ethnic Chinese and Japanese) and Middle Easterners (primarily Lebanese) can be found throughout the population

[MDP]

Long, long ago I learned that the CIA is the greatest promoter of bad "intelligence", and for some very precise and complex reasons, albeit very distorted reasons, and reading CIA "facts" as a consumer of what you may regard as information is very much like reading the National Enquirer, more or less.