Encuentro de Dos Culturas

Columbus Day Weekend! Fall! The one part about Winter that I appreciate. (If it’s possible to have Fall without Winter, someone let me know. I will live wherever that is). Hope that you’re reading from somewhere where you can appreciate the best season of all, and that your weekend involved something classically Autumn-related; apple picking, football games, candy corn, pumpkin carving, parades, corn mazes, cider, fairs, chai tea lattes (no? just me?) :), haunted hay rides, flea markets (yes!). Hope that you were somewhere you could take in the trees, and that the sun was warm and that it was brisk not freezing. Autumn, si Dios quiere, see you next year. (It’s weird the things you miss). Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Here this day (October 12) is known as Dia de la Raza (Day of the Race) or Encuentro de Dos Culturas (Meeting of Two Cultures) or other name variations aside from Columbus Day. And as those names suggest, the day is more of a celebration of sharing, races and cultures than it is a remembrance of one individual’s actions. On this holiday, many Dominican schools put on a play of the meeting of Columbus, the Spaniards and the Tainos. 

Some pictures from our celebration last year are posted here. 

This year’s reenactment was even better! All the students participated playing the Tainos (people indigenous to the island), Columbus, the Spaniards, Ferdinand and Isabella. The younger students presented foods the Tainos used to eat and how they were prepared. The older students performed and danced in the play, retelling the early history of their country. ...And the American designed Taino clothes out of empty rice bags and Spanish sailor hats out of tissue paper. Fashion world, are you reading this? Chekealo. :)

Some photos from the day:

Baja Audicion class preparing Taino houses 

Basica 1ro y 2do as Taino natives

"Foods used by the Tainos and our country" by Maternal and Pre-Primaria classrooms

some of the Pre-Primaria class with the traditional food

Maternal class poses alongside the table

The Spaniards, King, Queen, & Columbus

Sailing on the Nina, Pinta, & Santa Maria

Peace.

XO