SANTIAGO — THINGS TO SEE AND DO
Santiago (a.k.a. Santiago de los Caballeros), the island’s second-largest city (with nearby two million residents) grew in importance thanks to the large presence of its former residents in the USA, especially in New York City (which has half a million Dominican immigrants, and New York-born Dominican residents there). The city’s airport, Aeropuerto Internacional del Cibao (opened from 2003), reflects the constant flow of people from here to the USA and elsewhere (accommodating flights from New York, New Jersey, Miami, Havana (Cuba), Providenciales (Turks & Caicos), and Panama).
For Dominicans residing overseas, as well as for tourists, Santiago has at least one conspicuous historical site: “El Monumento” (The Monument) – located in the heart of the city, and built to commemorate Dominican independence from Spain after that country’s war of restoration in 1863. This part of Santiago is also distinct, because it is located on the hilliest part of the city, offering panoramic views of the area’s diverse districts.
The Monumento area is a popular hangout spot for locals, complete with a string of bars and restaurants. A short walk away from El Monumento is the Hotel Matum, built during the infamous Trujillo dictatorship, and a virtual historic destination unto itself, since it was the site of a battle during that country’s civil war in 1965 (the walls of its reception area have an exhibition of photos from that event). With some claiming the hotel is still stuck in the past, it still attracts visitors interested in gambling at its casino.
In further exploring the history of that part of the country, the best place for that would be the sleek, modern museum known as “Centro León” (built within the property of Dominican manufacturer E. León Jiménes). That firm is best-known for its line of hand-rolled cigars, as well as being the Dominican affiliate of Marlboro cigarettes. E. León Jiménes’ status as one of the country’s leading corporations affords it resources to put together various exhibits, including one showing the region’s pre-Columbian history of not only the Santiago region, but the rest of the island as well. Many of the artifacts exhibited there were from the local indigenous Arawak and Carib tribes (whose population was significantly reduced after the settlement of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his group of Spanish conquistadors in the southern part of the island – an area that’s now the nation’s capital, Santo Domingo).
The region’s indigenous roots live on today in the form of tobacco production. Over the years, due to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, the U.S. cigar market has increasingly bought hand-rolled fine cigars from the Santiago region (a.k.a. El Cibao). E. León Jiménez’s best-known label is “La Aurora”. There are also foreign-owned cigar labels in the area, such as Davidoff, Fuente, and Cohiba (General Cigar Company), among others. Depending on the cigar label, some of them allow for tours of their production facilities. It is no surprise that a few of these cigar makers (such as Fuente) were once cigar makers in nearby Cuba before that country’s revolution.
Santiago’s thriving cigar industry throws an event to promote itself called the “Pro Cigar Festival”. Held every February, it attracts American and other international cigar aficionados. The well-known publication Cigar Aficionado always has a presence there. Participants get a chance to meet the cigar makers themselves (including Avo Uvezian, the grandfatherly-looking Lebanese-Armenian entrepreneur whose “Avo” cigars are distributed overseas by Davidoff). With his white suit and plantation straw hat, Uvezian is hard to miss. In addition, participants get to tour the tobacco fields and curing & rolling areas to inspect in person these labels’ cigar production. Pro Cigar’s festivities are capped off by a ballroom party (often held at the finest hotel in Santiago, the Hotel Gran Almirante), and a golf outing at the Casa de Campo resort complex on the island’s southern coast.