A compendium of the facts, characters, institutions and folklore of the Dominican Republic is what houses the “Dominican Cultural Dictionary”, prepared by the filmmaker of this country Jimmy Sierra and will be presented this Sunday at the Miami Book Fair.
The book, about 400 pages and published this year, offers a “cultural worldview of the phenomenon of the Dominican Republic,” said Efe Sierra, who during his career has developed his activity in various fields such as theater, literature and journalism , among others.
The publication, whose presentation forms part of the opening day of the Miami Book Fair, seeks to serve as a consultation tool for researchers and especially for young people, in agreement with its author.
“Youth have the right to know what happened”, said Sierra, who in that sense defends that in the dictionary are contained without distinction “all the ideological slopes” and policies of the Dominican Republic.
The idea of ​​the text, he explains, came from former Dominican President Leonel Fernández, who will be in charge of presenting the publication at the bookish meeting in Miami.
The exmandatario and president of the Global Democracy and Development Foundation (Funglode) suggested that he embark on the “complete compilation” of the most relevant facts of the culture of his country, work that he accepted and for which he had four collaborators.
The text also has a multimedia format, in which each entry has links that take the reader to other related content and where you will find “any concern you have of an event or character of the culture of the Dominican Republic,” Sierra explained.
This dictionary includes terms of the idiosyncrasy or Dominican folklore, such as the alcajé, that magical place where “the zombies reside”, said the author, as well as information about the aboriginal cultures of the island of Hispaniola, shared by Dominicans and Haitians , and of the Taino culture.
It also contains references to the author Cristóbal de Llerena, as well as to Gregorio Luperón, a military man and politician who exercised the presidency of the country during a provisional mandate from 1879, and in which a cultural policy was developed that granted “material support” to each author who published a book or each person in charge of a newspaper, said Sierra.
Among the most recent events, the author highlights as an example the massive musical festival, with political spirit, known as Siete DÃas con el Pueblo, developed in 1974 in Santo Domingo, as well as in Santiago de los Caballeros and San Pedro de MacorÃs.
After the act of Miami, the publication will be presented in Washington.
