National Dominican group heads to Hub

Yawu Miller

Among American cities, Boston has the fifth largest Dominican community with 35,000 people here claiming birth or ancestry from the Caribbean nation.

It’s a far cry from the estimated 495,000 Dominicans living in New York, but Boston’s Dominican community will be the center of attention for three days in October when the city will host the Dominican American National Roundtable’s annual conference.

The conference, which will be held at UMass Boston October 7-9, is expected to draw 1,000 Dominican activists, elected officials, students, scholars and business people.

The conference will focus on the organization’s mission of empowering Dominicans, according to Andres Paniagua, a UMass Boston professor and political activist who is co-chairman of this year’s conference.

Paniagua says that while local Dominicans are active in the politics of their island, they are lagging in participating in local politics.

“With the lack of political participation comes the lack of access to many institutions and the lack of knowledge about the opportunities in housing, women’s issues, youth issues and other areas,” he said.

“Dominicans are lagging behind other Latino groups like Puerto Ricans and Cubans. We don’t have the same degree of wealth.”

While there are Dominicans represented on the state legislatures of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico, no Dominican has yet been elected to Congress.

Locally, no Dominican has ever been elected to a city office in Boston.

Despite the lack of political representation, however, Dominicans in Boston have managed to thrive, opening businesses and integrating themselves into the civic life in cities like Boston, Worcester and Lawrence, where City Council President Marcos Devers is a leading candidate in the city’s mayoral race.

“We’re not the oldest community, we’re just in our second generation,” said Tony Barros, who owns a clothing store and works as a special advisor to the Mayor. “But we’re hardworking people striving for the best. We are family-oriented and very successful.”

Dominicans in Boston own businesses ranging from bodegas and bakeries to travel agencies, restaurants and money transfer services.

Money transfer services, which enable people in the local community to wire funds to relatives back in the Dominican Republic, are a vital life link from U.S. cities to the island. It is estimated that Dominicans here send $2.7 billion home a year.

DANR is currently lobbying for changes to federal regulations that would make it easier for them to send funds back home. The organization also successfully lobbied Congress to include the Dominican Republic in the Central America Free Trade Act — which made it easier for businesses on the island to export goods to the U.S.

The organization has worked to help professionals who are licensed in the Dominican Republic — like teachers and engineers — to get certified to practice their professions in the U.S.

The conference will kick off Friday, October 7 with a 7:00 p.m. reception at City Hall hosted by Mayor Thomas Menino.

For more information on the conference, visit www.danr.org.