Dominican Republic Quotes

• I was born in Texas and I lived there 'till I was 8. Then I moved to the Dominican Republic with my mom, lived there for two years and forgot every word of English I knew.

  Michelle Rodriguez

  Mom, Texas, Years

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• I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.

  Smedley Butler

  Boys, Cities, Oil

  Smedley Darlington Butler (2016). “War Is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier”, p.17, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Dominican Republic is, is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etcetera.

  Pat Robertson

  Healthy, Etcetera, Republic

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• The Dominican Republic is my holy land, my Mecca.

  Raquel Cepeda

  Land, Republic, Mecca

  Raquel Cepeda (2014). “Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina”, p.259, Simon and Schuster

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• People can say what they want, but historically, feminism in the Dominican Republic has been extremely strong. I guess the best way of saying it is that no one could have survived what we survived - whether it was first extermination and slavery, then abandonment and erasure, then the series of gunboat two-bit dictatorships, followed by the final apotheosis of dictatorships, the Trujillato. You couldn't survive it without the resistance of this kind of woman.

  Junot Diaz

  Strong, Two, People

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. March 8, 2008.

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• People can say what they want, but historically, feminism in the Dominican Republic has been extremely strong.

  Junot Diaz

  Strong, People, Feminism

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. March 8, 2008.

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• I learned to play (baseball) on the streets in the Dominican Republic when I was 8 yrs old.

  Albert Pujols

  Baseball, Play, Republic

  Interview with Jon Robinson, www.ign.com. May 19, 2006.

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• As far as preference between fall and spring collections, I have none that I prefer to design. With fall you have a lot more items, but of course I am from the Dominican Republic, so I love the warm weather.

  Oscar de la Renta

  Spring, Fall, Weather

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• The whole history between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is complicated. We share the island of Hispaniola, and Haiti occupied the Dominican Republic for twenty-two years after 1804 for fear that the French and Spanish would come back and reinstitute slavery. So we have this unique situation of being two independent nations on the same island, but with each community having its own grievance.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Independent, Unique, Islands

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

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• Players from the Dominican Republic have a history of not playing well in cold weather.... The ball hurts their hands when they make contact.

  Grady Little

  Hurt, Player, Hands

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• We still have our people working in the cane fields in the Dominican Republic. People are still repatriated all the time from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. Some tell of being taken off buses because they looked Haitian, and their families have been in the Dominican Republic for generations. Haitian children born in the Dominican Republic still can't go to school and are forced to work in the sugarcane fields.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Children, Taken, School

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

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• The DOCF all started when I made a trip to a local hospital in the Dominican Republic. I was visiting children who had received life-saving heart care operations. I couldn't help but think that in another life, one of these kids could be my own son. If it wasn't for baseball, I may have remained in the Dominican Republic and who knows where life would have taken me. It was then that I knew that I had to use the gift that I received, to play baseball, to do whatever I could to give back.

  David Ortiz

  Baseball, Children, Taken

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• It might interest you that just as the U.S. was ramping up its involvement in Vietnam, LBJ launched an illegal invasion of the Dominican Republic (April 28, 1965). (Santo Domingo was Iraq before Iraq was Iraq.)

  Junot Diaz

  Iraq, Vietnam, Republic

  Junot Diaz (2008). “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, p.4, Faber & Faber

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• Between 1831 and 1891, US armed forces - usually the Marines - invaded Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Brazil, Haiti, Argentina, and Chile a total of thirty-one times, a fact not many of us are informed about in school. The Marines intermittently occupied Nicaragua form 1909 to 1933, Mexico from 1914 to 1919, and Panama from 1903 to 1914. To 'restore order' the Marines occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, killing over two thousand Haitians who resisted 'pacification.'

  Michael Parenti

  School, Marine, Order

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• The Niagara on a bicycle. It's like trying to cross the Niagara on a bicycle, which is impossible, but it's an expression in the Dominican Republic that basically says that someone is going through a hard time.

  Juan Luis Guerra

  Hard Times, Expression, Trying

  Source: www.npr.org

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• I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

  Smedley Butler

  Brother, Light, Oil

  Smedley D. Butler (2003). “War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier”, Feral House

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• I came up under [Ronald] Reagan and under [George] Bush, and what are we to do now? We are here to fight. People can run off all they want. But for me, [Donald] Trump is already in the Dominican Republic.

  Junot Diaz

  Running, Fighting, People

  "Junot Díaz is staying put". Interview with Marcela García, www.bostonglobe.com. April 6, 2016.

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• I see [Lyndon] Johnson as the war in Vietnam, and the invasion of the Dominican Republic and so on. So I'm not a liberal in that sense, because i think of liberals as part of that establishment.

  Bill Ayers

  War, Thinking, Vietnam

  Source: thepointmag.com

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• I believe it is my responsibility to do what I can for children and people with Down syndrome as well as in my native Dominican Republic.

  Albert Pujols

  Children, Believe, Responsibility

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• For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.

  Jared Diamond

  Differences, Environmental, Making A Difference

  Jared Diamond (2011). “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition”, p.308, Penguin

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• People ask me all the time how I got hired onto the Office. Another common question is how do I manage to stay so down-to-earth in the face of such incredible success? ... A third frequently asked question is: "Girl, where you from? Trinidad? Guyana? Dominican Republic? You married? You got kids?" This is mostly asked by guys on the sidewalk selling I LOVE NEW YORK paraphernalia in New York City.

  Mindy Kaling

  Girl, New York, Kids

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• The best way to help the Latino community is to give back. I love giving back; I'm quiet about God and what I do, but we do a lot in the Dominican Republic.

  Daddy Yankee

  Giving, Community, Republic

  "CFL Chats with Daddy Yankee". Interview with Krystyna Chávez, www.cosmopolitan.com. March 29, 2013.

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• I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

  Smedley Butler

  Brother, Wall, Boys

  "War Is a Racket". Smedley Butler's speech in the U.S. (1933); later published as a book "War Is a Racket", www.businessinsider.com. 1935.

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• I have never injected myself or had anyone inject me with anything. I have not broken the laws of the United States or the laws of the Dominican Republic. I have been tested as recently as 2004, and I am clean.

  Sammy Sosa

  Law, Broken, United States

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• The Dominican Republic says 'We're black behind the ears.' And in Mexico, 'there's a black grandma in the closet.' They know, they've just been intermarrying for a long time. But if we did the DNA of everyone in Mexico a whole lot of people would have a whole lot of black in them.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Grandma, Dna, Long

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