Manhattanite previously said:

Some of you guys are pretty well read so please share, amongst all the books on DR you've read, your favorite and why. If you can't narrow to one book then who do you think is the best historian?

I couldn't pick a historian I'd call the strongest yet but I really like this title for it's briefness, pace, and an overall accurate survey up through 1960-ish:

Trujillo: Causas De Una Tiranía Sin Ejemplo by Juan Bosch

generoso previously said:



How could I be guilty of plagiarism for sharing the public information of a book to readers taken from the book's back cover and adding my own, for the purpose of promoting that same book?
You finger pointing is a cheap shot, when we are trying to promote reading here, not steal somebody's else thunder for our own profit, benefit and glorification. Maybe I omitted the punctuation
marks, what about the rest of my statement that you conveniently omitted? What is this the Inquisition?
What earthy pleasure to you get from trying to ridicule others of wrongdoing, in such a cynic manner?
And by the way I do not agree to place Somoza and Duvalier peasant policys with Trujillo's so the statement is my own interpretation.

cibaeño75 previously said:



Plagiarism is defined as "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own". You posted Mr. Gudmundson's quote with very little variation as your own for you gave him no credit for it. And you still try to take credit for it simply because you changed it a little! Unbeleivable. And yes, I do indeed take pleasure in exposing people that are intellectually dishonest. Very good observation.

USADR previously said:

generoso,
I've never lived in PR, I've only visited for a week or two at a time and stayed with Puerto Rican relatives (via marriage to family members). I didn't notice any real racist and/or anti-Dominicanismo, but I agree that someone who lives among them (island Puerto Ricans) would most likely have a better grasp on these things than a random visitor.
As far as those in the US diaspora, it's indeed like Cib said, despite the rivalry/tension and pride of both they are the two most similar Latino groups. I would go as far to say that PR/DR mixes are so widespread that it's common for PR families to have at least one family member married to a DR and vice versa.
And as far as the racial makeup, even though the stereotype is for a Dominican to be darker and a Puerto Rican to be lighter there is alot of overlap between the two. I've been confused for Puerto Rican, by Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico as well as here and I've seen this with many other Dominicans, the same for PR's confused for DR's. If it weren't for the accents it would be even harder to distinguish between the two. And I'm by no means saying they're identical or carbon copies of each other.

Here's an anecdote that does remind me of what you said.I work with Cubans who're business owners and have relatives via marriage in PR. These relatives belong to PR's high socioeconomic class and they're relatively much more European looking. They've expressed anti-Dominicanism , telling my Cuban bosses & co-workers 'be carefull with Dominicans, they're corrupting the island, drugs, etc.'.

Lautaro previously said:

Now, now, general & ciby, could you please agree to disagree. It's of bad taste to be infighting among us. Remember that one of the factors that explains the existence of Haiti today is the terrible infighting on the french colonist side. Do you both want us to run the same fate as those people?

Manhattanite previously said:


Definitely a good one, I reviewed it @ my blog. In fact I may have recommended it to you gen! It's an important contriubution towards balanced understanding of that era, and the American historian doesn't have a brazen agenda pro or con Trujillo. My take, also informed by the Bosch book I mentioned, is that the jefe's emergence was almost necessary given the threats (from sugar and on the border) and opportunity for 'rational' reorganization of land. I also took notice of the section on the failure of the so-called barbudos from Cuba. Makes you wonder about the necessity of the Yankee invasion.

generoso previously said:

You did recommended to me, will you now accuse me of book suggestion plagiarism?