Two Countries, One Warning
A visit to my mother’s homeland made me worry more about Italy’s burgeoning tourist economy
The Best Angle for a Photo
The musicians outside the Cathedral weren’t bad. Then again, they play the same few songs over and over, every afternoon.
I picked a park bench under the trees and facing the 500-year-old church and helped my elderly mother sit. It was late April, and the shade and a modest breeze helped make the midday sun bearable. It didn’t take more than a couple of minutes before one of the musicians strolled over to us and started crooning.
Bésame!
Bésame mucho!
Como si fuera esta noche
La última vez!1
I am with my mother, I wanted to tell him. But instead, when he finished, I gave him 20 pesos (around €0.35) and a smile. His expression was unchanged as he drifted toward the side of the plaza where a white tourist train waited to fill up.
A few minutes later, the tourist train lurched forward and then disappeared around a corner to wind through the narrow streets past well-preserved Colonial-era buildings and dozens of kitschy souvenir shops selling off-brand rum and second-tier cigars, along with the usual magnets, pins, tee-shirts, and shot glasses, all bearing the Dominican flag.
Inside the Cathedral Primada de América -- free for Dominicans; a small fee for visitors -- the heat and clatter of the colonial zone faded. The bright afternoon light was softer inside, filtered through stained glass. Instead of marble, the Gothic interior is coral and stone, but the atmosphere would feel familiar to anyone who knows European churches.
Back outside, the noise returned.
“The Cathedral is the oldest Christian church in the Americas,” a tour guide droned into a bullhorn. “This is the best angle for a photo.” A group of around two-dozen sunburned visitors held up their phones and momentarily reduced five centuries of history to a backdrop.
The Curse of Punta Cana
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