COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: Dominican Republic

The Caribbean country, which borders Haiti, won the random Country Of The Week selection. My earlier interaction with Dominicans came in the form of a middle-school classmate who was light-skinned (a tad darker than actress Rosie Perez, who is of Puerto Rican ancestry) whose parents were from the Dominican Republic. Her mother would actually walk her daughter to and from the school door with an umbrella so her daughter's skin would not get darker. Even as an 11-year-old kid, I thought that was massive self-hatred. Thus, I have generally associated Dominicans as being in severe denial about their African ancestry (especially after since reading that the Native American (Taino) population there was basically decimated by the Spanish so there are virtually no bona fide indios or mestizos there, and national ID cards in the Dominican Republic even list a person's complexion - wouldn't a photo make this obvious? - and hardly anyone one calls themselves black, no matter how dark-skinned they may be).

Wikipedia writes: "More than 500 years of mixed lapses of prosperity and turmoil give this island-nation the longest historical record of any of the other country in the Western hemisphere: The Dominican Republic is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, and became the first point of colonization in the Western Hemisphere by explorers from Europe. The Dominican Republic has the first cathedral and university, as well as the first European-built road and fortress, in the Americas. Santo Domingo (originally New Isabela) was also the first colonial capital in the Americas."

According to the CIA World Factbook, the Dominican Republic has 9,365,818 people. 73% are classified as mixed-race (defined as "mestizo" or mulatto), 16% as white, and 11% as black. Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion, with 95% of Dominicans calling themselves Catholic. Spanish is the official language, and 87% of the population is literate. The per capita GDP is US$8,400.

Famous Dominicans include fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. There are many Dominicans in Major League Baseball, including Felipe Alou, Moises Alou, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Sammy Sosa.

Famous Americans of Dominican descent include actor baseball player Alex Rodriquez (aka "A-Rod", whose parents are Dominican), Alfonso Ribeiro (who played Carlton Banks on "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air", and whose parents are Dominican), actress Michelle Rodriguez (of "Lost" fame, and whose mother is Dominican), actress Zoe Saldana (parents are Dominican), the late actor Merlin Santana (of "The Steve Harvey Show" fame, and whose parents are Dominican), and rapper Juelz Santana. The rapper Kid Creole is a Canadian-American of Dominican descent.