The Cibao, usually referred as "El Cibao", is a region of the
Dominican Republic located at the northern part of the country. As of 2009 the Cibao has a population of 5,622,378 making it the most populous region in the country.
The region constitutes a "developed macro-region"; with a large industrial base and high levels of progress among its inhabitants, it has the highest levels of education and the highest quality of life among the three
main regions of the Dominican Republic. Cibao is social-culturally characterized by the overwhelming predominance of the
European legacy in the island, and economically for being the most prosperous region in the country.
Etymology
The word Cibao, ; , means "place where rocks abound". Cibao was a native name for the island, although the Spanish used it during the Spanish conquest to refer to the rich and fertile valley between the Central and Septentrional mountain ranges.
Geography and economy
El Cibao occupies the central and northern part of the Dominican territory. To the north and east of the region lies the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...
; to its west lies the
Republic of Haiti and to the south the Central Range, which separates El Cibao from the other natural regions.
The
Cordillera Central mountain range is located within El Cibao, containing the highest peak in all of the Caribbean,
Pico Duarte
Pico Duarte is the highest peak in the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola and in all the Caribbean. At above sea level, it gives the Dominican Republic the 16th-highest maximum elevation of any island in the world. Additionally, it ...
. Two of the largest rivers of the country are also located inside this region: the
Yaque del Norte
The Yaque Del Norte River (Spanish, ''Río Yaque del Norte'') is the longest river in the Dominican Republic, as well as the second longest river on Hispaniola, behind the Artibonite River. It is 296 km long and flows northwest into the Atlantic ...
, the largest river of the
Dominican Republic, and the
Yuna river
The Yuna River (Spanish: ''Río Yuna'') is the second longest river in the Dominican Republic at in length. It forms within the Cordillera Central mountain range southwest of the city of Bonao in Monseñor Nouel Province, and passes through th ...
. Both of these rivers contain several chains of dams used to provide the region with water for irrigation (since agriculture is the main activity of the area) and hydroelectric energy.
Rice,
coffee and
cacao are the most important crops grown in the area.
The central mountain range also has important mining activity. Its main mineral resources include
gold,
iron and
nickel, among others. The largest gold mine in the Americas and second largest in the world, the
Pueblo Viejo mine
The Pueblo Viejo mine is a gold mine located in the north-central region of the Dominican Republic in the Sánchez Ramírez Province. It is the largest gold mine in Latin America and fifth largest in the world. It is also the first exploited mine ...
, is located in the Cibao region. The internationally known
Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...
and
Falconbridge are the companies in charge of the extraction of these ores.
Culture
The valley is not only a geographical unit, but also a cultural and linguistic unit. The Cibao region is considered to be the cultural heartland of the Dominican Republic. The typical accent spoken in the Cibao region is a mixture of two dialects: that of the 16th- and 17th-century
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
colonists in the Cibao valley, and of the 18th-century
Canarian settlers.
Merengue music, played using the
güira,
tambora and
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
, was originated in El Cibao. The original folk type of merengue is known as ''perico ripiao'' or ''típico'', which is played to this day by local musical groups, as a variation of the merengue, with a faster pace.
During Late January and through February, several carnivals are held within the region. The most popular of these festivals belongs to the province of
La Vega, and dates back to the first European settlements. It began as a religious activity celebrating the pre-Lent season, and the carnival's theme revolves around the victory of good over evil.
Many important Dominican patriots were of Cibaenian origin. Among the most important are local generals
José Desiderio Valverde
José Desiderio Valverde Pérez (1822December 22, 1903) was a Dominican military figure and politician. He served as president of the Dominican Republic
The president of the Dominican Republic ( es, Presidente de la República Dominicana ...
and
José Antonio Salcedo
General José Antonio Salcedo y Ramírez, known as "Pepillo" (1816–1864) was a 19th-century President of the Dominican Republic.
Biography
Salcedo was born in Madrid, Spain from Criollo (white creole) parents of Spanish heritage who had bee ...
, who were responsible for the restoration of the Republic in the later decades of the 1800s. During the Trujillo dictatorship, the
Mirabal sisters
The Mirabal sisters ( es, hermanas Mirabal ) were four sisters from the Dominican Republic, three of whom (Patria, Minerva and María Teresa) opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo () and were involved in clandestine activities against his ...
arranged clandestine organizations to rebel against the fascist dictatorship. The sisters were brutally murdered in 1960, and remain today as some of the biggest martyrs on behalf of the Dominican nation.
The bulk of the population is mainly concentrated in the center of the region. The city of
Santiago de los Caballeros constitutes the regional center and main focus of development of the area.
Provinces
References
{{Authority control
Regions of the Dominican Republic