August 15, 2012

InteRDom Inaugurates New Cultural Excursion to the Museum of the Dominican Resistance

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On Thursday, August 2nd, the 2012 InteRDom summer interns became the first to experience a visit to the newly-established Museum of the Dominican Resistance, which seeks to educate the public about the history and struggles of generations of Dominican people under the Trujillo dictatorship and promotes the right to and struggle for liberty.

“I enjoyed it,” said Graduate and Gap Year student Anna Groesser. “The museum was clean, air-conditioned and … the topic of Trujillo-era resistance was intriguing and interesting.

It made this country much more complex and admirable, hearing all the struggle and attempts to overthrow Trujillo.”

The excursion forms part of InteRDom’s new agenda of cultural activities reorganized to present Dominican history and culture to students in a chronological and ordered fashion.  It comes on the heels of excursions exploring the colonial history and anthropological evolution of the country, and was coupled with a film screening of the movie In the Time of the Butterflies to shed more light on the role that the Mirabal sisters played in the Trujillo resistance movement.

The Museum of the Dominican Resistance is considered a memorial museum rather than just a historic museum and is modeled after the Holocaust Museum in Israel.  It seeks to be an educational and research tool, a vehicle through which the victims of violence, human rights violations and the negation of civil liberties can tell their stories in order to raise public awareness and prevent their repetition.

Just days after the visit to the museum, InteRDom students were introduced to the world of organic farming and the import/export industry during a trip to the Cocoa Trail at the Hacienda La Esmeralda García Jiménez in San Francisco de Macorís to conclude the summer agenda of activities.

The internship program, InteRDom, an initiative of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), is the premier internship, research and academic study program in the Dominican Republic. It offers international students the opportunity to research important topics at the forefront of the United Nations agenda, obtain professional experience by interning with Dominican organizations and businesses related to their fields of study and/or earn academic credits by taking courses and seminars at a local university.