Washington Heights Dominicans rally in support of presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía ahead of May's election. Photo by Russ Finklestein/Northattan.
Hundreds of supporters of Dominican presidential candidate Hipólito Mejía came out for a “bandereo,” or flag waving, rally on the streets of Washington Heights last Sunday.
The crowd circulated along St. Nicholas Avenue around 181st Street waving pro-Mejia flags and chanting slogans like “llegó papá!” (“Father has arrived!”) Mejía supporters also carried a purple coffin bearing a photo of incumbent party candidate Danilo Medina, symbolizing their hope that the May elections will bring an end to the Dominican Liberation Party’s 8-year hold on the presidency.
Polls suggest that Mejía, who was president of the Caribbean nation from 2000 to 2004, represents the biggest threat to Medina, whose running mate, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, is the wife of the current president, Leonel Fernández.
But aside from bolstering local support for the Dominican Revolutionary Party’s political platform, campaign organizers in New York are also doing their best to register voters. Amid the chanting and flag waving, campaign volunteers like Argentina Lijanio comb the crowd with clipboards ready to register eligible Dominican voters before the approaching December deadline.
“I left my job in order to motivate people to vote so that we can get rid of this corrupt government we’ve got in power,” said Lijanio, who normally works as a machine operator in a garment factory.
Though the 2010 Census counted over half a million Dominicans living in New York City, only about 80,000 of them are expected to vote.
“I still haven’t figured out who I’m voting for, but I’m definitely going to vote because I feel like I should,” said Luz Maria Portéz, who is registered to vote in the May elections. “It’s my responsibility.”
Dominicans living abroad have traditionally played an important role in the national economy, though before 2004 they were required to travel home to vote in national elections. According to the World Bank, Dominican expatriates sent an estimated $3.3 billion home to friends and family members. These payments, called remittances, make up 7 1/2 percent of the country’s national economy.
U.S.-born Dominicans need to obtain a national ID in order to register and vote in the Dominican election, but many are unmotivated to do so.
“I’m so fixated on other things like work and school that I haven’t really thought about it,” said Brianna Perez, a 26-year-old student and teaching assistant at CUNY.
Perez, who was born in the U.S., says she will not vote in May because she doesn’t have the time or energy to file the necessary paperwork.
The 2012 elections will also be the first time that Dominicans abroad can vote on new legislative representation for expatriates. Seven out of the 178 members of Congress will represent Dominicans living abroad; three of them will represent constituents in the U.S. Most of the leading candidates live in New York, the unofficial capital of the Dominican community in the U.S.
These legislative candidates are aligned with the key national political parties, including Mejía’s Dominican Revolutionary Party. Many of them have a hand in local grassroots organizing in New York, including events like Sunday’s “bandereo.”
This Saturday, local representatives of the Dominican Revolutionary Party are organizing an appearance by Mejía himself in Washington Heights. The rally will feature a speech by Mejía followed by music from prominent Dominican musical acts El Torito, Hector Acosta, Mirian Cruz and Shino Aguakate, which organizers hope will draw more potential voters who they hope to register before the December deadline. The event is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in Armory Arena and tickets start at $20.
This article has been updated to correct that the representatives of expatriates in the Dominican Congress will be elected for the first time in 2012.
