Santo Domingo

The most modern memento to Santo Domingo's status as the oldest European city in the Americas is a mammoth structure built on the eastern shore of... the Ozama River in the early 1990s to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World. It was designed in an open competition in 1929, but only built 60 years later.
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Estadio Quisqueya is a baseball stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It is often used as a multi-use stadium. The Quisqueya holds about... 16,500 people after its renovation. The Dominican League Of Baseball Authority is in charge of its management. It is the only stadium in Dominican Republic to host two different baseball teams, the Licey Tigers and the Escogido Lions . Its field dimensions are 335 feet at the foul poles, 383 feet at the power alleys, and 411 feet at the center field. It was built in 1955 as Estadio Trujillo, during the Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina dictatorship, taking the Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium as the design base. The Estadio Quisqueya underwent a rebuilding job which expanded its amount of seats and the overall look of the field. The bullpens are now enclosed and out of play. President Leonel Fernández announced in 2009 that there are plans to turn the stadium and the adjacent area into a modern sports complex which will bear the name Complejo Deportivo Juan Marichal in honor of the only Dominican in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
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The Teatro Nacional is part of the Plaza de la Cultura complex, located in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The theatre is the center piece of... the complex and is surrounded by several museums and cultural institutions. The complex is located on the Avenida Máximo Gomez, a central artery of the city of Santo Domingo. The theatre was designed by Dominican architect Teófilo Carbonell and it was opened on August 16, 1973. The theatre's main hall, Sala Eduardo Brito, is named after a famous Dominican opera singer and seats 1,600 spectators. The 24 by 25 metres stage can easily accommodate 250 people, while the orchestra can seat 120 musicians. Another hall, Sala Ravelo, is named after a Dominican musician and can seat 189 spectators. This secondary hall is dedicated exclusively to theatrical productions. The theatre's facade is articulated by classic arches made of travertine marble. The building has four levels that, in addition to the two main halls, house the administrative offices, a reception hall, the Sala de la Cultura and a bar.
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Michel Camilo is a pianist and composer from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He specializes in jazz, Latin and classical piano work. Camilo lists... some of his main influences as Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Art Tatum. Camilo was born into a musical family and as a young child showed aptitude for the accordion that his parents gave him. Although he enjoyed the accordion, it was his grandparents' piano that sparked his interest the most, so at aged 9 he asked his parents to buy him one. Their response was to first send him to the Elementary Music School, part of the National Conservatory, and then a year later to grant his wish. The formal system of the music school taught Camilo to play in the classical style, and by age 16 he was playing with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic.
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José Alberto Pujols Alcántara , better known as Albert Pujols , is a Dominican-American professional baseball first baseman for the Los... Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Major League Baseball. Pujols is considered one of the top players in Major League Baseball, and was the most feared hitter in baseball in 2008, according to a poll of all 30 MLB managers. During his eleven seasons as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, Pujols won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2001, was selected as an All-Star nine times, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award three times. He has also twice won the National League Hank Aaron Award, and has two World Series rings from the Cardinals' 2006 and 2011 titles. At the end of the 2011 season, he led all active players in batting average , slugging percentage , and OPS , and ranked 37th in number of home runs in Major League Baseball history. He was selected by ESPN.com as the greatest player of the decade from 2000–09. He stands 6 ft 3 in tall, weighs 230 pounds , and bats and throws right-handed.
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David Américo Ortiz Arias , nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox of Major League... Baseball. Previously, Ortiz played with the Minnesota Twins from 1997 until 2002. Ortiz is a seven-time All-Star and holds the Red Sox single season record for home runs in a regular season with 54, set during the 2006 season. In 2005, Red Sox ownership presented him with a plaque proclaiming Ortiz "the greatest clutch-hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox". Ortiz graduated from Estudia Espallat High School in the Dominican Republic and in 1992 he was signed by the Seattle Mariners who listed him as "David Arias". He played for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Mariners farm team, until 1996, when he was traded to the Minnesota Twins as the player to be named later in an earlier trade for Dave Hollins. When he arrived in Minnesota, he informed the team that he preferred to be listed as "David Ortiz." He made his Twins debut in September 1997. For a few years, he was moved back and forth between the Twins and their minor league affiliate in Connecticut, the New Britain Rock Cats.
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Milagros Quezada Borbón, known simply as Milly Quezada, is a Latin Grammy-winning Dominican Merengue music singer. She is a singer in Latin... America; especially in those Latin American countries bordered by the Caribbean Sea, and in the eastern seaboard region of the United States. She is also known as Merengue Queen. Milly Quezada was born in Santo Domingo, the daughter of two Cibao natives and sister of four musician brothers. Growing up in such a musical family, Quezada became interested in music as a toddler—she would sing along with her brothers for family, friends and small gatherings near her home. She expressed an interest in developing her singing talents as a young girl, and, partly for this reason the Quezada family moved to New York City when she was still a child. Milly spent her pre-teen and teen years in New York, a city that is well known as a school for Merengue and Salsa singers from its Latino barrios, e.g. Spanish Harlem.
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Dania Ramírez is a Dominican- TV and film actress. She is most recently known for playing Alex in Entourage, Maya Herrera in Heroes and Blanca... during the last season of The Sopranos. She also played Callisto in X-Men: The Last Stand. Ramirez was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At an early age, she decided to become an actress. As a young child, she would reenact telenovelas for her family. She was discovered by a modeling scout while working in a Los Angeles convenience store at the age of 15, and was cast in a small part in a soda commercial. Later, she decided to pursue acting seriously and studied at the Actor's Workshop in New York City under Flo Greenberg. She graduated from Montclair State University in 1999, where her volleyball talents led her to be placed among the top five in career digs, digs/game, solo blocks and total blocks. She then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career.
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Manuel Arístides "Manny" Ramírez Onelcida is a Dominican-American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter who is currently... with the Oakland Athletics organization. He was recognized for great batting skill and power, a nine-time Silver Slugger and one of 25 players to hit 500 career home runs. Ramirez's 21 grand slams are third all-time, and his 28 post-season home runs are the most by any player in MLB history. He was a fixture in the All-Star Game with 12 appearances including eleven consecutive beginning 1998. He appeared in the All-Star game in every season that he played with the Boston Red Sox. Ramirez was allegedly among a group of 104 major league players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during 2003. In 2009 he was suspended 50 games for violating baseball's drug policy by taking human chorionic gonadotropin , a women's fertility drug. According to steroid dealer Victor Conte, hCG is often used to restart natural testosterone production after a steroid cycle.
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