Municipio
Pedernales: Pedernales
Geographic Location
The Pedernales municipality is located in the extreme southeast
of the Dominican Republic. It is bordered in the north by
the Independencia province, in the south by the Caribbean
Sea, in the east by the Oviedo municipality and in the west
by the Haitina town of Anses-A-Pitre.
History
The first settlers in Pedernales were neighbors from the
nearby towns of Duvergé, Enriquillo and Oviedo. In
1927, during the government of Horacio Vásquez, the
area was declared a colony and was put under the protection
of Nuestra Señora de La Altagracia, within the plan
of colonization of the border, as a way of containing the
pacific invasion by the neighboring Haitians.
The first administrator of the Pedernales colony was the
distinguished writer and historian Sócrates Nolasco,
who selected the first 48 families that formed the original
nucleus with the collaboration of Genaro Pérez, a native
of Duvergé.
The government subsidized each one of the immigrants so that
they would settle in the area, and as a way of incentive for
them to move, with a daily amount of 20 cents for each parent
and 10 cents for each child.
In 1937, the Oviedo-Pedernales road is built with he participation
of 500 men divided in brigades of 10; in 1938, by a resolution
of the Enriquillo City Council, Pedernales is made into a
municipal district, in the same year various buildings are
constructed, such as the Justice of the Peace and the Post
Office.
In 1947 Pedernales is made into a municipality. The affluence
of immigrants from different parts of the country in search
of employment begins in 1945 with the installation of the
Alcoa Exploration Company.
Another component of the human conglomerate in the area during
its beginning were a certain number of military prisoners
and delinquents and other fugitives that fled some type of
persecution.
Meanwhile, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, in his eagerness to
"dominicanize" the border and with the openly racist
purpose of "refining the race", brought peasants
from the Cibao region to this area and had Japanese families
settle there (1950) at the end of World War Two.
Pedernales is made a province along with the Oviedo municipality
on the first of April, 1958, leaving Pedernales as head community
and no longer politically tied to the Barahona province, to
which it had belonged.
The Dr. Elio Fiallo Hospital is inaugurated in this year
as well as the buildings of Justice, Agriculture and other
entities. The "Sindicato Autónomo de Trabajadores
de la Alcoa" (Autonomous Sindicate of Alcoa Workers)
(SATA) is founded in 1961 and in 1966 Hurricane Inés
destroys a large part of the city, which made necessary the
construction of the Ines Barrio in order to house the hurricane
victims.
The Beata island is the second largest in territorial size
in the country, after the Saona island. It has the privilege
of having been discovered by Admiral Christopher Columbus,
who also named it.
It has no residents. It possesses an area of 27 square kilometers,
nine in length and six in width. The island is located to
the south of the Dominican territory, a distance of 32 miles
from Pedernales and 70 from Barahona. It used to belong to
Barahona, but it is currently dependent upon Pedernales.
There is an abundance of medicinal plants within it, such
as "manzanilla", "copey", "uvilla",
bitter wood, white poplar, "canelilla", wild Creole
Peruvian bark, "jobobán", "higo",
cherry tree and wallflower.
A great amount of precious trees were produced in its sandy,
limestone, marshy earth and which were devastated by intruders
who went to the small barren island in past times.
Seven miles from the Beata island is the Alto Velo island,
the smallest in the country. It is thirteen miles away from
Barahona.
It was originally rich in guano and small bats. The name
of "Alto Velo" (High Veil) was given because during
moonlit nights it looks like a ghost, according to the legends
of old sailors.
The small island was discovered by Christopher Columbus,
who named it during his second voyage.
Alto Velo has a history full of alternatives, since it was
originally populated by Haitians in the 16th century. Then
in 1854, the Haitians were evicted by a group of American
adventurers who wanted the territory in order to extract all
the guano that was produced there, but failing in their attempt.
Source: a) Síntesis del Plan Decenal de Educación
de la Regional de Barahona
Plan Decenal de Educación
SEEBAC/ ADP/ EDUCA/ PLAN EDUCATIVO/ PNUD
Editora de Colores. Sto. Dgo., s/f.
b) Síntesis de Ciudades, Pueblos e Islas del País
M. M. Pouerié Cordero
Impresora Mary. Sto. Dgo., 1997.
Production
Pedernales is a municipality whose economy depends on agriculture
and fishing and that until recently, also depended on mining.
Twenty percent of the active population works in agriculture;
this includes landowners and day laborers. Ten percent are
involved in fishing, including the various employers, fishermen,
fish market owners and street vendors. Thirty percent work
in the construction sector, for private works and for the
State. Six percent develop commercial activities related to
agricultural products, cattle and small stores, among others.
Lack of work has caused almost 3% of the population's youth
to work in contraband and smuggling to and from Haiti. Two
percent work in the Ideal Dominicana company and a large number
of young men work in "motoconchos" (a popular reference
to the transport of passengers in motor vehicles).
The main agricultural products within the municipality include
coffee, beans, potatoes, bananas, sweet potatoes, yucca, celery,
corn, avocado and grapefruit. The Pedernales area has a great
agricultural potential, since it possesses extensive plains
and important water reserves.
Maritime products also constitute a source of income for
the municipality. Diverse fish, lobster, conch meat and other
shell fish, extracted daily by some 200 people, are sold in
several fish markets. Production ascends to some 80 quintals
a day in fish and seafood.
Bauxite and limestone are among the known mining reserves
in the municipality. The bauxite mines are currently not functioning,
since they were closed by decree 15-19. This has harmed an
important part of the population, since 2% of the men in the
community work in the Ideal Dominicana (formerly Alcoa) company.
Currently, only limestone is being extracted.
The municipality has an economically active population (PEA)
of 4,344 people, out of which 3,062 people (or 70% of the
PEA) are currently employed. Of those that work, 825 are public
servants, representing 27% of this amount.
Source: a) Síntesis del Plan Decenal de Educación
de la Regional de Barahona
Plan Decenal de Educación
SEEBAC/ ADP/ EDUCA/ PLAN EDUCATIVO/ PNUD
Editora de Colores. Sto. Dgo., s/f.
b) ONE 1993.
c) Censo Nacional de Servidores Públicos
Datos Preliminares
ONE. March 1998.
