In 1965, the United States invaded the Dominican Republic to prevent the creation of a “second Cuba.” The invasion and subsequent occupation of the Caribbean nation maintained peace in Santo Domingo beneath the banner of a multi-national peacekeeping force representing the Organization of American States (O.A.S.) as a provisional Dominican government prepared for a democratic presidential election. Although operation Power Pack, the U.S. military name for the intervention, is one of the largest uses of armed force in U.S. – Latin American history and both military and foreign policy leaders deemed the operation a success, few members of the U.S. military seem to remember Power Pack today.The one exception to this is the U.S. Army’s 82d Airborne Division. Unlike other U.S. military branches, or other parts of the U.S. Army, which fail to remember the intervention, the 82d Airborne remembers the intervention and has gone to great lengths to celebrate and memorialize its role in Power Pack. The division’s production of a commemorative book, the construction of political and intellectual discourse buoyed by the operation’s success, and the construction and maintenance of memorials and monuments to Power Pack make it clear that the organization has made a deliberate effort to maintain a collective memory of the conflict. A fuller understanding of why the 82d has maintained these memories is key to understanding why other U.S. military organizations chose to disregard their memory of Power Pack and allows scholars to begin to assess the cost of the military’s forgetfulness. / History

This research examines the percentage of imported foods sold in stores at three levels of the food retail hierarchy—small-sized retail food stores, known locally as colmados; medium-sized food retail stores, or super-colmados; and the large supermarkets, or supermercados —in the Dominican Republic. It also considers variations in sources of imported foods for the three types of stores. Data were collected during fieldwork conducted in Verónâ a small town located in the province of La Altagracia on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic—over a three-week period from August 15 to September 9, 2009. A stratified random sample was selected along the primary highway in Verón consisting of 15 stores. At these stores, the principal investigator collected inventory data and conducted interviews with storeowners and employees. The findings suggest that food import dependency increases as the level in the food retail hierarchy, or store size, increases. / Master of Science

This thesis examines the variance in human development paths and policies pursed on the island of Hispaniola by the governments of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The different paths have resulted in significant dissimilarities in contemporary levels of economic and social development across the island. Starting from the theoretical perspective of Acemplgu and Robinson (2012), I find that institutional explanations can only explain part of this divergence. I argue that a more complete explanation needs to take into consideration the role played by class, color, and race. I also find that foreign intervention, particularly the occupation of both countries by the US Marines in the 20th century, helped direct the development strategies of each country in different directions.

Discrimination manifests itself in an unending variety of forms and can be observed in nearly every society the world has seen up to the present. What is often overlooked, however, are the ways in which discriminatory behaviors form as a result of complex history and cultural relations. This is no less clear than it is with the case of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, two countries that share a small island in the Caribbean. This thesis places its focus in breaking down the complex history and attitudes that have, in turn, led to the creation and espousing of antihaitianismo in Dominican political policy. From here, historical accounts, cultural analyses, and statistical breakdowns will be utilized in unison to work towards providing a better understanding as to how a particularly authoritarian period in Dominican history worsened living conditions for Haitians in the country. Ruthless governance combined with antagonistic laws and incentives will be inspected and studied alongside existing data to better understand how conditions currently stand for those of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic.

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Our knowledge of whether hurricanes cause lasting changes in forest composition and the patterns and role of fire in Caribbean dry forests are lacking. This project combines paleoecological and paleotempestological methods to document the disturbance and environmental history of the last 1000 yrs at Laguna Alejandro, situated in the lowland dry forests of arid SW Dominican Republic. I analyzed multiple proxy data sources of a 160 cm coastal lagoon sediment profile. High-resolution (1 cm) sampling for loss-on-ignition and magnetic susceptibility indicated multiple erosion and hurricane events, including a hurricane ~996 cal YBP, and several erosion events and hurricanes between ~321 cal YBP and present day. Pollen analysis documented 32 plant families with most levels dominated by pollen of Fabaceae (legumes), the Urticales order, and Cyperaceae (sedges), though families of upland and montane vegetation are also present ~510-996 cal YBP. All pollen slides contained microscopic charcoal indicating the occurrence of regional or extra-local fires over the last ~1000 yrs. Local fires, as indicated by macroscopic charcoal, occurred before ~434 cal YBP and may be tied to hurricanes, increased moisture in the region (thereby increased fuel and ignition chances), or prehistoric human activities. Pollen spectra representing periods before and after disturbance events were similar and may support the idea of forest resilience, but more samples are needed. Multiple erosion events between ~294 cal YBP and present may be tied to hurricanes or tropical storms and increasing late-Holocene aridity in the region as documented by several studies from the Caribbean. / Master of Science

Despite an increase in domestic milk production, the dairy industry in the Dominican Republic (D. R.) has not been able to adequately meet the demand of the ever-growing Dominican population, prompting the government and milk processing plants to sponsor programs which will increase the national production of milk and eventually lead to milk self-sufficiency. One obstacle to this goal is a very low reproductive rate in cows and heifers due in part to the tropical setting. Year-round heat stress may result in abnormal follicular dynamics and decreased oocyte and sperm quality causing reproductive efficiency to decline drastically. The specific purpose of this project was to examine and characterize the reproductive practices and outcomes of the Dominican dairy industry by region and to attempt to identify factors that influence dairy reproductive efficiency. During the course of the study, 43 farms were visited over a 10-week period and evaluated. Farms were chosen throughout 4 of the 5 regions of the country and were selected based on their size (preferably 40 adult cows or more), availability of data, and demonstrated motivation by the owner in improving the herd. Individual herd evaluation was broken into four major components: owner interview, farm evaluation, collection of individual cow reproductive data, and adult cow evaluation. Once observations had been made and catalogued, all data were summarized on the herd level and analyzed descriptively. In addition to descriptive analysis, multiple regression techniques were used to select independent variables which explain most of the variance for each of four reproductive outcomes: days to first service, services per pregnancy, projected calving interval, and service rate. In general, reproductive management practices varied depending on region and farm size. Average lameness within the herd was the most important factor in explaining the variability within services per pregnancy and projected calving interval. As average herd lameness increases by 1 point (based on a 1 to 4 scale), services per pregnancy and projected calving interval increase by 0.65 services per pregnancy and 61.1 days respectively according to the model formulated. Increase in the number of employees involved in estrus detection resulted in higher days to first service. The Santo Domingo region had lower days to first service possibly due to widespread reproductive hormone use within the region. The percentage of Holsteins within the herd was associated with increased services per pregnancy and projected calving interval. Increases in service rate were most closely associated with the type of record category used, indicating that a larger sample population with thorough insemination records may be needed to adequately assess this outcome. In part, reproductive efficiency in the Dominican Republic can be potentially improved by enhancing methods for estrus detection. Mechanical aids to estrus detection (tailhead chalk, K-mar® patches, etc.) may help increase estrus detection efficiency in herds currently only relying on visual observation. Assigning 1-2 people primarily to estrus detection and increasing the frequency of hormone usage may also improve estrus detection efficiency. The main emphasis for Dominican dairy producers, however, should be on preventing new lameness and culling chronically lame cows once it is economically feasible to do so. Reducing the incidence of lameness could, in itself, dramatically improve reproductive efficiency in the Dominican Republic. / Master of Science

A sector-wide programming model of the Dominican agriculture is developed and used to analyze the impacts of trade and agricultural policies in the Dominican Republic. The model includes ten agricultural commodities which accounted for 75 percent of the total value of agricultural production in 1988. Linear demand functions for the commodities are included and the model is solved in its quadratic form using the GAMS/MINOS package. A competitive market is assumed where consumer and producer surplus is maximized. Quantities and prices are obtained endogenously. Nominal and Effective Rates of Protection were estimated for selected crops. Results indicated negative protection for most of the crops. Two sets of policy changes and market condition changes were evaluated using the sector programming model. Inward--oriented policies included a policy of self-sufficiency and a penalty on traditional export crops through an exchange rate differential. Outward-oriented policies consisted of a change in the fertilizer price to reflect the border price and the elimination of government subsidies in the agricultural sector. External market condition changes included the elimination of the US sugar quota and an increase in the US sugar quota up to the level assigned in 1990. Agricultural production, income and employment are increased by a policy of food self-sufficiency, a reduction in fertilizer price and an increase in the US sugar quota. A policy of food self-sufficiency requires more government spending given the input subsidies available from the government. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this book is to explore the idea of duration of physical architectural elements, and how their relative permanence or temporariness affects time and memory. This project takes on the program of a healthcare facility in the community of Verón located in the Dominican Republic. Through the exploration of materials, the identity of the project is defined by a series of walls that bring order and scale to not only the clinic but the surrounding community as well. / Master of Architecture

The integration of immigrants into host societies has been a topic of longstanding interest in the sociology of migration, whereas the study of transnationalism has only emerged in the last few years. Globalization, fueled by the rapid development of transportation and communication technologies, has been one of the principal factors in the rise of transnationalism. The aim of this study is to clarify the links between the immigrants' integration into the host society and the transnational activities in which they get involved. / The initial hypothesis of this study was that immigrants' involvement in narrow transnational activities is linked to their weaker integration into Quebec society. To test this hypothesis, a series of interviews was conducted with members of the Dominican community of Montreal. These Dominicans were involved in varying levels of transnational activities within political, economic, and cultural spheres. The interviews were aimed at determining the integration process experienced by the different interviewees. / The results of this study showed, in contrast to the hypothesized predictions, that involvement in transnational activities was not linked to lesser levels of integration. In fact, the Dominicans involved in the most intensive transnational activities revealed a capacity to integrate into the receiving society as easily as other Dominicans, often showing a greater dynamism in their integration. Involvement in intensive transnational activities seems to show a capacity on the part of some immigrants to grow and develop in two universes at the same time, that of the receiving and that of the sending society.