Transnational Dominican Activism: Documenting Grassroots Social Movements through ESENDOM.

Dominican-descended people are one of the most dynamic Caribbean and Latin American ethnic and cultural communities in the United States. Whether in the Dominican Republic or as members of a transnational community, the Dominican population has a long and rich history of challenging the powers that be, confronting unjust acts, and opposing oppressive laws within the communities they inhabit through their civic engagement. This paper addresses one question: As Dominican society and the world have evolved, what has been the role of U.S.-based online media in sustaining, disseminating, and rescuing the long tradition of civic involvement and struggle exemplified by Dominicans at home and abroad? To answer that question, we explore the role of the ongoing online Dominican-centric magazine ESENDOM to demonstrate how online journalism documents activism within the Dominican community. ESENDOM and similar media have filled gaps that the mainstream media has failed to fulfill, as there is a media blackout on the Dominican Republic and its people. This project is one about activism. This humanistic project documents some of the most important social movements to take place in the Dominican Republic and the United States in the past thirteen years (2009-2022), coinciding with the founding of ESENDOM in 2009. This project will present a timeline and an attempt to chart a chronology of political dissent and social struggles within Dominican communities in the United States and the Dominican Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]