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This is a message for all Dominicans.
They call me the "*** Aplatana'o" (Dominicanized ***)
I am so happy and proud to have lived so long in the Dominican Republic
I love your country and culture. You should feel so proud to have been born in such a
unique and special country.
In the years that I lived on the island,
you showed me the beauty of your culture and your people.
The most humble Dominicans have a spiritual richness, a profound love for their families
and others.
I worked in the Cibao countryside with Dominican children and others on education initiatives.
This is one of them, Darlyn, my godson. Despite the poverty he lives in, he wants to
"get ahead" in life and become a doctor one day to help his community and others.
"Where are the cows, godfather?"
Some of his friends in the community are children and grandchildren of Haitian immigrants.
Despite their different origins, they have the same story as Darlyn, the same dreams.
They were born in the same place and they speak the same language, Spanish.
Friends, what just happened in the DR deeply worries me. It doesn't just go against four articles of the
Dominican constitution and international law,
but even more important for me, it goes against the values of love that you taught me.
The decision of the Constitutional Tribunal will affect thousands of Dominicans who do
not have any other country.
Here in New York, I have many Dominican friends, some undocumented, others who are children
or grandchildren of documented and undocumented immigrants from the Dominican Republic.
Imagine if tomorrow Obama said that your Uncle from Mao who left in 1955, who has lived here
in this country his whole life...he and all of his children and grandchildren had to leave.
They're not US citizens anymore.
But his grandchildren don't even speak Spanish. They have never been to the DR. And they're professionals here in the US.
Why would they go live in a foreign country?
How crazy and horrible would that be! That just isn't done. (You can't do that)
Think about it, friends. Doesn't it seem unfair that just for having been born in the DR from
parents or grandparents who came from Haiti, we're going to steal from them all that they
have worked to build, extinguish their hope for the future and separate families? Please.
That just isn't done. (You can't do that)
To the Dominican people I care so much for, think about it, this is an injustice
that we simply cannot accept.
This just isn't done.