Para la versión en Español, haga click aquí

Delegation's Schedule, click here /  Delegation Students' Evaluations, click here /  Press Review, click here

Under the Cultural Exchange Program, Melassa organized the first delegation of international students titled "A Vision of the Americas from the Dominican Republic".  The students from the Delegation were able to share with the eighteen girls who participated in the Hip Hop/Fuzion Dance and the Documentation Workshops.  Four out of the six students who participated were from the University of Massachusetts, Gloria Caballero and Vija Mendelson (doctoral canditates in the Department of Portuguese and Spanish), Emily Camin and Noelia Santana (undergraduate students), Janira Bonilla, student graduated from Smith College and Tené Howard, student graduated from Amherst College, coordinator of the Fuzion Dance and Hip Hop Workshop, both of whom were doing an internship with Melassa during the months of February through April.

Photo to the Left: international and local students
Photo to the right: international students: Emily, Gloria, Tené, Janira, Vija, Noelia, and Karin

Both groups participated in several activities in the capital including a talk by sociologist Carlos Segura in FLACSO (Latin American University of Social Sciences) where participants had a chance to discuss the current Dominican educational system and the Dominican Republic in the global economy.  We had two guided visits, one to the Museum of Anthropology where José Guerrero showed us the museum's exhibits on taíno, Spanish, and African culture.  The other visit was to the Center of Art and Dominican Folklore coordinated by Dagoberto Tejeda who talked about Afro-dominican identity and Black pride.  Julio from the Center showed us the permanent carnaval exhibit and told us about the main carnaval characters and their legends as well as the dominican musical instruments' collection.

Lunch meetings were organized in the capital and in the community of Mata Los Indios that serve as opportunities for participants to talk about their different cultural experiences.  The international students were incorporated into the Documentation Workshop and we could move forward in the collaboration proyect as we discussed issues of representation and visualization.  We had a workshop with documentarian Leo Silverio who spoke about the manipulation of the image and professional ethics, a workshop with Karin Weyland about interviewing and the group formulated the questions and the issues that would be addressed in the interviews with community members.  During the week, we interviewed Sixto Minier, Vitalina Nalesco, Enerolisa Nuñez and Pío Brazoban.  We also had a Photo Mural Workshop with local artist Cecilia Casamajor who taught them how to do collective murals with the photographs the workshops' participants had taken.  During the workshop they created five murals, giving shape to a collective photo mural exhibit hang at the Museum of the Brotherhood of the Congos of the Holy Spirit accompanied by excerpts from the interviews. Melassa also organized a workshop with the Brotherhood of the Congos of the Holy Spirit and Sixto and his grandson, Rubén, showed us how to play the Congo instruments (canoita, maraca, congo and conguito).

At the end of the week, we had a community festivity which gave closure to the Hip Hop/Fusion Dance Workshop and the first phase of the Documentation Workshop in Mata Los Indios.  The girls gave a performance of the coreographies they had created with Tené.  The Brotherhood also danced and sang to the rhythm of the Congo music.  On Sunday, as a farewell to the international students, we all went to Juan Dolio Beach, including Sixto and the families of the girls who had participated in the Delegation.

For the international students, the Delegation was a true and enriching cultural exchange, as they themselves expressed:

--"The involvement of the community and the delegation was truly an ‘intercambio’". Tené

--"The girls and the community in general were able to show their artistic side. It was a good way of doing team work." Gloria

--"I feel that the girls really got a chance to produce their own vision of their community and were involved in every step of the process. It came from them." Vija

--"I think it was the collaboration and equal participation that made the Danza Fuzion, the Photo Mural, and the project as a whole really work" Emily

Photo to the Left: Gloria, Marilyn, Emily
Photo to the right: Group from Mata Los Indios with certificates for their participation in the workshops

For the Mata Los Indios participants, the Delegation also was an experience of cultural exchange, and of putting into practice the knowledge they gained about research and visual documentation.  At the same time, they had the opportunity to reaffirm their own cultural values and create something new based on their own cultural knowledge, rich in musical and dance traditions, as they expressed:

--"My experience with Melassa was excellent because I learned to conduct interviews, to make murals, because I liked the talks and the dances with Tené and because I learned more about my country." Andreina, 11

--"I liked the culture of the girls who came. They learned from us and we learned from them." Yanneris, 11

--"I liked the workshops with Tené because we learned about empowerment, which is not a person who has power but a cultural exhange. I also liked the talk with Carlos Segura because he spoke about the economy which is what we suffer most in this country." Rosemeilyn, 16

--"I liked my experience because I learned to use a photographic camera and a video camera. I learned how to conduct an interview with Sixto Minier who spoke about the Congos and I learned to dance hip hop." Eugenia, 12

--"I liked the documentation workshops because for the first time I learned to use cameras and it was an experience coonducting the interview. I learned that when you conduct an interview, you have to have the questions before the interview. Also, I learned that I would like to continue researching more in these towns like Karin." Yessi, 12

During this cultural exchange, participants not only learned about other "American" cultures, but also had the opportunity to reflect on their own Latin(A)merican culture and identity:

--"I liked Tené's workshop because we learned about her culture and she learned about ours. I like my culture very much because I cannot deny it." Eugenia, 12

--"My experience has opened up my view of "America" as not centered in the United States but recognizing the importance of all the Americas. I was encouraged by the delegation to identify myself as American and explain my definition of American as being from both North and South America–it allows me to express both sides of my identity". Tené

--"I am Dominican but I have never known the statistical facts about my country."Noelia

--"I now know that all of the Caribbean and its inhabitants are Americans and that it does not only apply to North Americans. Also, I now have more pieces to my personal definition of what a "Dominican" is." Noelia

--"This experience really hasn’t changed my views on the "Americas" or on "Latino/a identity", but it has given me the chance to really start to get to know one community–one group of people–from a closer perspective." Vija

--"This workshop has taught me to value my own culture, and to represent it. I also learned about American culture, which I thought was a lot different." Naife, 14

--"I learned that there is no way "one Caribbean." Gloria

--"I liked the talk with Dagoberto Tejeda because I learned that one should not be ashamed of their culture or to feel ugly and simply bored with it." Yessi, 12

--"I learned that it is important to value our Black race because it is who we are and we have to be proud of it." Leonela, 17

--"It was a beautiful, inspiring and empowering experience." Janira