CONSTANZA, Dominican Republic.- She was walking bouncily on the street in front of the town square as the crisp morning air began ceding to the bright sun and deep blue sky - what you might expect of any teenager living in this small city whose huge valley is blessed with black soil and stable weather- but still seemed quite out of place.

She’s Naomi Takayosi, a third generation descendant of the Japanese who arrived here between 1954 and 1956, she’s not sure. But despite her 25 percent Dominican heritage looks totally Asian. She speaks perfect Spanish, dances merengue and giggles and smiles throughout our talk and walk toward her aunt’s shop one corner away.

At first she’s reluctant to be interviewed, true to the Japanese reserve, but eases up and describes how her great grandparents settled in three areas of Constanza; La Colonia Japonesa, just two kilometers south of the town center; La Sabina, a bit further to the southeast, and a third area she couldn’t specify to the north, all fertile lands the dictator Rafael Trujillo provided for them as part of a wider agreement that included at least four other settlements in the country’s then sparsely populated southwest and northwest regions.

We reach Detalles K, the women’s accessories shop where her aunt, Kaori, welcomes us with a striking smile and the camera-shyness expected of a member of the second generation.

Town girls come in, ask prices, and browse the offerings as we talk. Aoki looks not much older than her niece and both seem to permanently wear a smile.

They said for the most part their relatives still work in the settlements and Naomi said they travel often to Japan. “I was there recently.”

The Japanese are credited with developing an intensive form of agriculture in the homesteads and introducing several varieties of vegetables, flowers and fruit trees, with the loquat, original name bi’wa the most abundant, now known as jaimi.

They also mixed with the locals as their descendants of varying proportions can be seen around town and at La Colonia, where the oldest of the original settlers still owns and operates the largest colmado there. There we also asked a dark man with Oriental eyes if he was one of the descendants… “No but I’m called El Japones.”

The Japanese withstood times of drought, Trujillo’s reneging on agreements and surmounted the barriers of language of culture to survive and thrive, unlike other settlers here such as the Hungarians, who opted to abandon the farms. 

Another group of homesteaders, the Spaniards, also thrived in agriculture to the point that they even have their own Consulate in town.

For Naomi and Kaori Constanza is and has been home since their birth and form part of the several cultures that contributed to its unmatched agriculture and ever growing tourism appeal.

They, along with the trace-blood descendants of the Tainos, of the Africans and of the Europeans- are living and smiling proof that Dominican Republic is the New World’s first melting pot.