Customer Reviews

Quisqueya La Bella: The Dominican Republic in Historical and Cultural Perspective (Perspectives on Latin America and the Caribbean)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

More than a history text, Quisqueya La Bella helps you interpret the cultural and ethnic aspects that shaped the Dominican Republic. Read about one of the largest immigrant groups to the U.S.; read how the town of San Pedro de Macoris is home to more major league baseball players than any city in the world; read how the Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo brutually kept his iron-fisted grip on the island for over 31 years; read about the complex and often disturbing relationship with neighboring Haiti and how the Dominican Republic gave birth to the world-famous Merengue. Follow the rise and fall of slavery, sugar, and revolution. This English language book paints the "essential kaleidoscopic ingredients" of a fascinating people.

"Excellent Book" Very Highly Recommended

Quisqueya la Bella is a solid contribution to the understanding of the Dominican Republic today. It helps to close the existing gap concerning in-depth analysis in English of both the Dominican people and the socioeconomic problems that currently afflict Dominican society. Both deserve a wide audience...The author's text is generally passionate and committed...Cambeira sets out the shed light on the understanding of the Dominican mind.
New West Indian Guide Vol. 73 no. 1&2

The sad coincidence of the tragic fate of American Airlines flight 587 and at the same time finishing Alan Cambeira's fascinating book about the evolution of Dominican Culture is uncanny. Like any fascinating work, "Quisqueya La Bella" has opened my heart and mind in truly eradicating my irrational fear and shameful ignorance about a beautiful community of people that knows true suffering at every turn.
Flight 587 and this excellently crafted book should leave all of us with a new found, genuine compassion to seek the truth.
This book and the people of the Dominican Republic really touched me deeply. This is the best of its kind that I've ever read in my life..I give 5 stars...Will become the seminal work.

"Quisqueya" was the name that the pre-Columbian indigenous Taino people called their island before the Europeans arrived; it meant "Mother of All Lands." Today, the Dominican Republic (with the Republic of Haiti) occupies that island in the Caribbean. The author Alan Cambeira presents an overview of the historical and cultural development of the Dominican Republic from pre-Columbian times to the present. Cambeira shows how the encounter and merger of the three cultures across time have resulted in a distinctive Dominican Culture. The book also includes abundant geographical coverage and 3 appendixes that describe language diffences and other contemporary cultural concerns. For anyone planning a trip to this island or the the Caribbean generally will find this book a requirement before going. He does an excellent job in telling this story.

A Must Read Book!

Everybody called Quisqueya the "Athens of the New World".
It is a country with beautiful beaches and beautiful people and a complex history. The island's ethnic mix of indigenuous, European (mainly Spanish) and African cultures and their merger across time resulted in the distinctive Dominican culture that we know today. Cambeira's passion for his native island is evident on every page. This book gave me a really different and fresh perspective from other books on the subject by other authors that I have read. This is an excellent personal interpretation that I'm recommending to anyone interested in learning about the Atena del Nuevo Mundo.Thanks to the Author. My next reading will certainly be his novel that everybody is talking about: Azucar! The Story of Sugar.

This book is a fascinating journey through the history of the Dominican Republic from the time of recorded discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 to present day historical events. "Quisqueya la Bella" is an enlightening historical book that vividly describes the history and culture of a caribbean nation that is usually overshadowed by most historians but whose history, if known and understood, definitely answers the many questions about Dominicans, dominican culture, the Caribbean and caribbean people in general.

As a person of caribbean heritage, I consider the study and understanding of any caribbean country of vital importance since all have many elements in common. After my first visit to the DR in 1997 and many thereafter, I realized the immediate need to understand as much as possible about the history and culture of this diverse caribbean nation.

Alan Cambeira's book is an eye-opener and definitely answered many questions that I had. It also provided historical and cultural details that were foreign to my knowledege. The book will give you insight to the the mixture of the three cultures that compose the demographic make up of Dominicnas- the Indigenous, the African and the European Spanish, racial issues- which still need to be dealt with today by Dominican themselves, the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti-very controversial, the many years of dictatorship under Trujillo and the present day situation of the country.

An added feature of this book was explanation of the "dominicanismos", language particular to Dominicans that is heard in everyday speech, written in newspapers and magazines and most commonly heard in songs whose meaning is not always understood if you are not a native or have not previously been exposed to dominican culture.

Overall the book was well written and is not laden with irrevelant historical dates and details but rather factual, true and educational. Definitely a must read for anyone who plans to visit the DR or has already visited, is of caribbean heritage, Dominicans themselves or simply anyone who would like to learn more about "Quisqueya la Bella". A wonderful documentation!

Quisqueya offers a moving portrait of (Cambeira's) native Dominican Republic; the author approaches the subject of Hispaniola with care, precision, and love. I was amazed at the artistic mastery of language and his ability to make a historical manifesto as interesting and illuminating as most novels.

Very Highly Recommended!

Also recommended: AZUCAR! The Story of Sugar (a novel)
by Alan Cambeira.

Este libro era lo que estabamos esperando hace mucho tiempo. Quisqueya la Bella, bello titulo, describe la historia de un pais que ha puesto a sus pobladores a sufrir de ambos lados. Quien desee conocer mas sobre esta obra maestra debe leerlo y aprendera a conocer lo que es el merengue, la cultura y la historia, pero sobre todo acerca de la relacion entre Haiti-Republica Dominicana.
By the way, one reader stated that this book is boring and predictable. It is never a matter of predictability with history texts. This book is among the list of mandatory reading in Caribbean culture courses in many major universities. Yugoslavia is not a country anymore. I'm teaching this book each semester because this is the only book on the subject that I've read that presents a realistic and inclusive perspective of the country's cultural history. Quisqueya La Bella --- Simply the Best. I've waited a long time for a book like this.

Thanks Prof. Cambeira.
Very Highly Recommended.

My next reading will be AZUCAR! The Story of Sugar (a novel) by the same writer.

I am very impressed by this unusual perspective on Dominican history and culture by the Dominican writer Alan Cambeira. Cambeira's work is not your conventional history text. It reads more like an interest sustaining novel; It also presents some cultural aspects most writers on the subject usually omit or avoid altogether. I also found a surprising side issue: the theatrical version of Mario Vargas Llosa's La Fiesta Del Chivo (The Festival of the Goat) is in production by the well respected Repertorio Espanol and has an accompanying Study Guide done by Iliana Fuentes. I see that Ms Fuentes also lists Cambeira's book as a part of the suggested reading in this regard. To me, then, Cambeira has a winner. His book is definitely worth the read. ...

Bravo Cambeira!

This definitely is a timely book with very valuable and insightful information given the current very tragic situation in the island shared by the two republics. Cambeira's intelligent focus and keen interpretation of the island's development in every sense helped me better understand especially the Dominican culture that most of us know so little about. I am sure many readers who are curious about Caribbean cultures will find this work extremely informative.
I also recommend this writer's new novel Azucar! The Story of Sugar.