The first one was Juana Nuñes, then Salcedo, and now Hnas Mirabal.
It was the birth place of the Dominican Republic's most historically important sisters:
the Mirabal sisters. In a time prior to the sexual revolution of the 60s, these three
sisters formed a secret organization which intention was to end dictatorship of the country's deadliest man: Trujillo.
This post is not meant to be a historical account of my own town or to describe its importance in a grand scale. Rather, I will describe how important it was for me, for the 12 or so years I lived there.
Its size was notoriously bothering to most people. The town center was only a few kilometers long, and a few kilometers wide. You could actually walk from one side of the town to another and come back in little or not time. It's main source of income in the time I lived there (1973-1986) was agricuture. People from the country side would come down to the town to sell their foodstuff and in turn buy clothes, and supplies from the different stores in the city. It was always buzzing with the loud noise of motor bikes, pickup trucks and and public passenger cars and vans. People came and went from Tenares, Sfco de Macoris, Moca, La Vega, Santiago, Puerto Plata, and Sto Domingo.
I remember the students lining up at the different exit streets toward Moca and Tenares, hitchiking to go study in the different college institutions that were located in the neighboring towns.
It had several clinics, a public school referred to there as Liceo, and several private schools, the most important of which was the Catholic school Sra. Corazon de Jesus.
When I lived there, the town had two huge movie theaters: Cine Ritz and Cine Karina, each from the same owner, and each in facing each other at the town's plaza (Where the Main Catholic Church Temple is located). One very modern discotec called Disco Sound, a very nice restaurant/disco called a Druño, my uncle's discotec called "El Tipico Salcedo" (Since it was the 70s, where Disco was so popular, the dance places were then called discoteques.) a Pizza place referred to as "la Pizaria. A huge hall made of wood called "el club", four gas stations. Two very famous clothing stores, la tienda Alexander (my father's store), and tienda Tono Coniel, which was in the same block of my father's store. Even though Tono was my father's biggest competitor, I don't remember ever meeting the guy. The famous car dealer Almanzar, which everyone said got rich by making fake money, and a Sport Complex in the outskirts of the city referred to then as "el complejo" where the town's youth went to practice sports during the day, and where the cheap prostitutes went with their clients during the night.
It was called by many as "el hotel gramita (grass hotel, figure it out).
It was called by many as "el hotel gramita (grass hotel, figure it out).
Everyone knew each other, or knew of each other in Salcedo. Gossip ran rampant. You couldn't do anything without everyone finding out about it the next day. Tenares and Villa Tapia were two small towns, part of Salcedo that were both seven kilometers away. Tenares to the east, and Villa Tapia to the south. Moca was 11 kilometers to the west. and Santiago (Dominican Republic's second largest city) just 30 kilometers away, or half an hour by car. Tenares was more popular than Villa tapia and it was where the super famous HD disco was located. Tenares was important because it was more in contact with its neighboring town Sfo de Macoris, which was back then the Dominican Republic third largest city and one of the richest in the caribbean. Sfo De Macoris was notorious for being the birth place of so many Dominican drug lords. It had the largest collection of Mercedes Benz and imported cars in the region. To the point of being called "Little Germany." It also had a lot of motels. something that Salcedo, nor Tenares had.
Salcedo is a very intoxicating city. I remember it was very hard for me to leave to Santiago when my mother decided to leave. It felt as though like home. its streets, its people, its places, its hideouts, were so familiar, so comforting, so safe, that to leave it all behind felt like hell.
This is the story of my home town. It no longer is the town I left behind. And now it has grown to be a bigger and more important place. But the old town, that I saw while growing up, the one with its loud noise, unique festivals, colorful carnivals, and a lively christmas season. It will forever be inside my heart.
Colegio Sagrado Corazon de Jesus (El Colegio de las Monjas)
Hans Gonzalez
Nice overview! Thank you for sharing
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