CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library

Delightful Visit and Conversation with Gina B Voices

It was a pleasure meeting and spending time with Gina Bess-Bonilla who shared information about her family history, including Dominican musician Ramón E. García (1907-1989).

From left to right: Dr. Vanessa K. Valdés, Prof. Sarah Aponte, Gina Bess-Bonilla, and Librarian Jhensen Ortiz, April 3, 2023

To see photos that feature Ramón E. García, you can visit A History of Dominican Music in the United States website:

1. Press photo of Ramón García's band the Conjunto Típico Cibao, please click here
2. Ramón García with Angel Viloria y su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño performing at the legendary Palladium Ballroom in New York City with Haydee Malagon in 1953, please click here
3. Ramón García with Dominican bandleader Josecito Roman and his orchestra Quisqueya in 1949, including his brothers Brunito Garcia (1905-unknown), José Garcia (1904-1965), Tito Garcia, Nino Garcia, sisters Ana Luisa (1905-2002) and Ligia García (1921-2005), please click here
4. Ramón García with brother Brunito Garcia and Dominican percussionist Luis Quintero in Washington D.C. at the Dominican embassy in 1953, please click here 
5. Front cover of the concert program for the "Merengue Songbook/Cancionero del Merengue" which took place on September 29, 1951, please click here
6. Press photo of Angel Viloria y su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño where Ramón García is pictured with the alto saxophone, please click here

 Gina Bess-Bonilla is the voice narrator for the exhibition Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City. To learn more and hear the Audio Guide, please click here. The exhibit was co-curated by Dr. Vanessa K. Valdés, Associate Provost at the City College of New York (pictured above).

By Prof. Sarah Aponte and Librarian Jhensen Ortiz

Dr. Norma Fuentes-Mayorga donates latest publication to CUNY DSI Library

We would like to thank Dr. Norma Fuentes-Mayorga, Associate Professor in Sociology and Latin American and Latina/o Studies at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, The City College of New York for donating her recent publications to the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library.

Dr. Norma Fuentes-Mayorga signing a copy of her PhD dissertation for the library. 

Prof. Sarah Aponte with Dr. Norma Fuentes-Mayorga holding a copy of her recent book and PhD dissertation on April 4, 2023.

We are grateful that Prof. Fuentes-Mayorga donated a copy of her PhD dissertation back in 2005 and has now signed and dedicated a copy of her recent book From Homemakers to Breadwinners to Community Leaders: Migrating Women, Class, and Color (Rutgers University Press, 2023) to the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library.

In addition, she shared her recent article: "Migraciones sin hombres y en contextos racializados. Contribuciones de las mujeres
dominicanas migrantes a las comunidades de origen y de destino," Ronddhha (Revista del Centro Internacional para la Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, CIPDH-UNESCO), N0. 1, Vol. 1, Feb. 2023, 98-103. You can read the article by clicking here.

We are are grateful for her support!

By Prof. Sarah Aponte and Librarian Jhensen Ortiz

El historiador y ensayista José C. Novas dona su publicación

La Profesora Sarah Aponte agradece al historiador José C. Novas por donar su reciente publicación Trujillo, la emboscada final. Muerte y funeral del generalísimo (Editorial Argos, 2014) a nuestra biblioteca. Actualmente, el Prof. Novas es uno de los ganadores de la beca de investigación CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Archives and Library Research Award. Su trabajo de investigación es sobre los Judíos de Sosua.

Jhensen Ortiz

Asistente bibliotecario

 

Visita del Dr. Manuel Rodríguez Bonilla

La Profesora Sarah Aponte agradece al Dr. Manuel Rodríguez Bonilla por donar varios de sus libros a nuestra biblioteca y por su grata visita. La donación constituye de tres obras: La Batalla de La Barranquita (Comisión Permanente de Efemérides Patrias, 2016), Juan de Jesús Reyes El cantor de la Barranquita (Soto Castillo, 2016), y La Barranquita hablan los patriotas y la traición (Archivo General de la Nación, 2016).

Jhensen Ortiz

Asistente Bibliotecario

Prof. Sophie Maríñez shares her work with us

Professor Sarah Aponte would like to thank BMCC Professor Sophie Maríñez for taking the time to share her academic work with us at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library.

Prof. Sophie Maríñez has made available via her profile on the academic social networking site Academia.edu her poems "Carnival Day in Santo Domingo," "Sentencia del Infierno," and a French translation of one of Frank Baez's poems "La Marilyn Monroe de Santo Domingo." She has also translated into French "Comrade, Bliss ain't playing" written by Josefina Báez in 2012. We encourage students, researchers, and the general public to check out her profile and tell her we sent you!

Assistant Librarian

Jhensen Ortiz

Playwright Marco Antonio Rodríguez donates to the DSI Library

Professor Sarah Aponte would like to thank Marco Antonio Rodríguez for donating two of his award winning plays “La Luz De Un Cigarrillo” and “Barceló con Hielo” to the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Library.

Marco Antonio is a winner of the 2016 Dominican Archives & Library Research Grants and is conducting research on cultural and historical information to develop two forthcoming plays. Stay tuned!

WEPA!

Jhensen Ortiz

Assistant Librarian

Thank you Professor Danny Méndez for your visit and kind donation

CUNY Dominican Studies Institute’s Chief Librarian Sarah Aponte is happy to share information about Prof. Danny Méndez’s research visit from Michigan State University and the donation of his book to the Dominican Library
Méndez, Danny. Narratives of Migration and Displacement in Dominican Literature. New York, New York: Routledge Press, 2012. Print.

After requesting this book via interlibrary loan time after time, we finally get our very own copy from the author himself during his recent visit to the CUNY DSI Archives and Library. Prof. Méndez’s book is focused on narratives of migration and displacements in the works of Dominican contemporary writers. Throughout his book Prof. Méndez analyzes the works of Pedro Henríquez Ureña, Josefina Báez, Junot Díaz, and Loida Maritza Pérez while engaging critically with the different process of racial and identity constructions of the Dominican experience in the Dominican Republic before they embark on their journey to the United States. Moreover, he argues that "their representations of immigration and traveling in New York City reflect the racial, ethnic, class, and gender experiences that have marked their internalized conception of dominicanidad” at different historical junctures. Méndez explains that dialogues with past notions of gender, sexuality, and race gained in the Dominican Republic emerge displaced and link to new forms of dominicandad in the context of the United States.

We highly recommended this book for literary scholars and students with an interest in understanding Dominican literature and the works of Dominican authors dealing with themes of immigration, displacement, race, and identity.

During his research visit, Prof. Mendéz consulted The Normandía Maldonado Collection. He is currently exploring the cultural production of Dominican women in the arts particularly dance, music, and acting. To hear him speak, go to the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress in New York City from May 27-30th this year. He will be presenting about his latest research on the figure of Maria Montez. For more information on his presentation you can view the program here.

Jhensen Ortiz

Assistant Librarian

 

Visita y generosa donación del investigador Aquiles Castro (Archivo General de la Nación)

La Profesora Sarah Aponte agradece al Sr. Aquiles Castro, investigador del Archivo General de la Nación, por donar varios documentales y publicaciones digitales del Archivo General de la Nación a nuestra biblioteca. También nos donó libros de los autores Manuel Salazar, Virtudes Álvarez, y a la edición dominicana del libro El Capital de Carlos Marx Tomo I y Tomo II.

La donación consiste de 7 libros, y 17 DVD y CD:

Libros:

Mujeres, huellas, mirada y resistencia de Virtudes Álvarez

Sobre los conceptos y las categorías de análisis de Manuel Salazar

El Capital tomo I-II de Carlos Marx

Audiovisuales, Historia Oral y Audio-Libros del Archivo General de la Nación (AGN):

La cárcel de la 40

Vejaciones y asesinatos dictadura de Trujillo

La devoción de la Virgen de la Altagracia  

Abril boda de oro con la patria

Historiadores opinan sobre Duarte y el Bicentenario

La ferocidad criminal de la tiranía trujillista

Lilís biografía de un dictador

Una revolución constitucionalista

La misión en palma sola

Voces de la Revolución de Abril de 1965

La archivística

Juan Bosch: gobierno y caída

Publicaciones del AGN:

Publicaciones recientes del AGN

Revistas de Historias Dominicana

1933-2015 CLIO

1938-2015 Boletín del AGN

  

Jhensen Ortiz

Asistente Bibliotecario

 

Cañete's El exilio español

Chief Librarian Sarah Aponte would like to thank Prof. Carmen Cañete Quesada for her kind visit and for donating her book to our library.

Cañete, Quesada C. El exilio español ante los programas de identidad cultural en el Caribe insular, 1934-1956. Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2011. Print.

This book examines the lives of three Spanish Civil War exiles that at one point during their time in exile lived in or two of the following Caribbean islands: Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. These three men are established in the core of Hispanic literature — Juan Ramón Jiménez, María Zambrano, and Eugenio Granell. In her introduction, she establishes the reasoning for choosing these three writers in an effort to explore how these figures reveal particular subthemes of exile: cultural insularity, race, nationality, the politics of the islands in conjunction with the fraught politics of Spain in the aftermath of a devastating war, geography (a lost geography and a found one) as a motivation for writing (Ugarte, 232). Furthermore, this is an important book for students, faculty, and the public seeking a better understanding and appreciation of Spanish Civil War exile experience in the Spanish Caribbean.

For an in-depth review of the book, please see: Romanische Forschungen, T. 126, vol. 4 (December 2014), Retrieved from http://www.ibero-americana.net/noticias/Rezensionen/Canete_Exilioespanol_RomanischeForschungen.pdf

Jhensen Ortiz

Assistant Librarian

(Re)Framing Raza: Digital Dissertation is now made available

 

A few weeks ago, we were fortunate to be visited by our friend and recent PhD graduate Dr. Eva Michelle Wheeler. About a year ago, she presented part of her dissertation research at the Fifth Biennial Dominican Studies Association Conference in Naugatuck Valley Community College to scholars and students. It was our first introduction to her perspective employing linguistics in analyzing Dominican race and skin color descriptors. Her inventive study examines the intersection of language and race in the Dominican Republic utilizing what she describes as “a mixed methods approach for the examination of race that first analyzes how meaning is constructed for each term (in lieu of translation), and then empirically tests hypotheses regarding physical and social information via photo description questionnaires.”

In the same spirit, the CUNY Dominican Studies Library will like to share her complete dissertation to students and scholars through her personal website. Her dissertation is titled (Re)Framing Raza: Language as a Lens for Examining Race and Skin Color Categories in the Dominican Republic is highly recommended for students to gain a better footing on the Dominican racial setting.

Jhensen Ortiz

Assistant Librarian