|
|
Article: Dominicans
- Article from:
- Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Dominicans
PRONUNCIATION:
dah-MEN-ih-kuhns
LOCATION:
Dominican Republic; United States (primarily New York City)
POPULATION:
7.8 million in the Dominican Republic; 0.5
–
1 million or more in New York City
LANGUAGE:
Spanish
RELIGION:
Roman Catholicism; Evangelical Protestantism; voodoo
1
•
INTRODUCTION
The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the nation of Haiti. Hispaniola was sighted by Christopher Columbus (1451
–
1506) in 1492. Four years later, his brother, Bartolome (c.1444
–
1514), founded Santo Domingo, the present-day capital of the Dominican Republic and the oldest European-founded ...