CUNY DOMINICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE PRESENTS "FIRST BLACKS IN THE AMERICAS" WEBSITE
THE CUNY DOMINICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE (CUNY DSI), a research unit of the City University of New York housed at The City College of New York, has announced the publication of their online educational platform "First Blacks in the Americas," the first digital platform devoted to disseminating the history of the early inhabitants of Black-African ancestry of today's Dominican Republic, then a Spanish colony named La Española (Hispaniola, in English) that occupied the entire island of the same name, shared today by the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti.
"The main goal of this platform will be to disseminate the little known story of how the first Black-African dwellers of the Americas in modern times, that is after the arrival of Colombus in 1492, arrrived, worked, struggled, lived, survived, produced a culture, died and left a long-lasting legacy that has become an integral part of Domincan culture and the cultures of the Americas," said Dr. Ramona Hernández, Director of CUNY DSI. "It is a story," —added Dr. Hernández— "that began in La Española, the first colonial settlement of the modern Americas, that later would evolve into what we know today as the Dominican Republic and the Dominican people."