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June 9, 2005

Jeremy Schwab

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez may have visited Boston last week to receive an honorary degree at UMass Boston’s commencement ceremony, but his visit meant something else to the tens of thousands of Dominicans who make up Massachusetts’ second-largest Spanish-speaking ethnic group.

It emphasized the important role they play in the life of their country. It is no accident that Boston was one of the cities Fernandez visited in recent years as he established his Fundacion Globale Democracia Desarollo to study issues of importance to the Dominican diaspora.

Immigrants to the United States play a major role in the Dominican Republic’s economy and politics, and Boston is one of the centers of the diaspora in the United States, with around 37,000 Dominicans living in Boston and another 25,000 in Lawrence, according to census figures.

Immigrants send billions of dollars to the Caribbean island nation each year in the form of remittances — wages sent to family members.

Furthermore, Dominicans working in the United States tend to have more money than those in their homeland, so politicians can count on ex-patriots for campaign contributions.

Last year, Fernandez, like other Dominican candidates before him, courted voters in the United States due to their capacity to help fund campaigns and the influence they exercise with voting family members back on the island.

But last year, there was an additional reason to court the support of those living in the United States. For the first time, the Dominican government allowed citizens living in the United States to vote.

The impact of the overseas vote will likely grow in future elections.

“In the past election, it didn’t change too much, because there were only around 50,000 votes,” said Fernandez, who was born in Santo Domingo and raised in New York City. “So I’d say it was more symbolic. But it is a system we have to perfect, and we need to increase the number of registered voters. I think in the future it can have a tremendous impact on the outcome [of elections].”

Tony Barros, who headed the Dominican Election Department’s New England campaign to register voters last year, said the question is how much the government can afford to spend on outreach to help ex-patriots update their identity cards, a necessary step to become eligible to vote.

“Given our financial crisis in the Dominican Republic, it is always a question of whether large resources should be allocated to make this possible,” said Barros, who works as an assistant to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. “But at the same time, for the democratic development of the country and with people abroad being so important to the Dominican economy, I think it does make sense.”

Fernandez was elected to a second term after inflation, the devaluation of the Dominican peso versus the U.S. dollar and the failing of some Dominican banks hurt the economy under his predecessor, Hipolito Mejia. Fernandez’s first term ended in 2000.

Fernandez promised to turn the economy around and improve the exchange rate between the peso and the dollar.

“We are trying to have a disciplined fiscal policy, trying to control spending and increase revenues,” he told the Banner during a press conference at UMass following the commencement ceremony.

The poor exchange rate, which was reportedly 48:1 when Fernandez took power and is now down to 28:1, hurts Dominican consumers because their money cannot buy as many foreign goods.

“Everything we import, virtually, is in dollars,” said UMass professor and Dominican American National Roundtable board member Andres Paniagua. “So if the dollar goes up, there goes the economy.”

Paniagua is acting as co-chairman of the eighth annual Dominican American National Conference, which will be held October 7-9 at UMass Boston. At the conference, workshop participants and panelists will discuss issues impacting the diaspora in the United States — political participation, economic empowerment, community development, women’s issues and identity issues.

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