Caribbean Connections: The Dominican Republic

In 2005, Teaching for Change partnered with the Yale Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies to publish Caribbean Connections: The Dominican Republic, a unique resource for middle school readers to adults.

We are honored that award-winning author Julia Alvarez wrote the foreword. In it she said, "And so you, reader, are now holding one end of a string of many voices. I can’t help but hope in these times of division and wars and rumors of wars, that the string played out in books such as this one might indeed provide lifelines. In place of glib sound bites and the violence of chauvinistically severing connections, dividing people into us and them, we can posit connection. By reading, by listening, by speaking in turn, we can create a string of understanding that circles the world.” Full foreword.

Caribbean Connections: The Dominican Republic provides a unique, reader-friendly overview of the history, politics and culture of the fourth largest Latino community in the United States. The 250-page book includes essays, oral histories, poetry, fiction, lesson plans and beautifully illustrated timelines and maps. Noted authors include Julia Alvarez, Edwidge Danticat, Junot Díaz, Rhina P. Espaillat, Pedro Mir, Josefina Báez and Sherezada Vicioso (Chiqui). The readings are organized into the following sections:

• Geography, History, Economy
• Migration and the Dominican Diaspora
• Shaping a Dominican Identity: Language, Race, and Gender
• Haitian-Dominican Relations
• The National Goes Global: Dominican Music and Baseball

Ideal as background text for students or book groups reading literature by Dominican authors, communities with Dominican-American students, and for everyone interested in this Caribbean country which has had a long history of U.S. involvement.

A Spanish language companion is available, Conexiones Caribenas: La Republica Dominica.

Table of contents: English edition and Spanish companion volume.

Editors: Anne Gallin, Ruth Glasser and Jocelyn Santana with Patricia R. Pessar

Faculty Advisors:

Julia Alvarez
Paul Austerlitz

Ginetta E.B. Candelario
Daisy Cocco de Filippis

Junot Díaz 

Jorge Duany

Rosario Espinal
Ramona Hernández

Peggy Levitt

Samuel Martínez

Patricia R. Pessar

Ydanis Rodríguez

Rob Ruck

Ernesto Sagás

Andrew Schrank

Silvio Torres-Saillant

Funded by the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies; the U.S. Department of Education, through its International Research and Studies and National Resource Centers programs; and the Connecticut Collaborations for Teaching the Arts and Humanities grant program, a partnership of the Connecticut Department of Higher Education and the Connecticut Humanities Council.

Photo of Julia Alvarez: 4²5²★Productions | David Terry, October 2010.