New York City
Dominican President Visits Brooklyn, Which Has Enough Dominicans To Run Against Him
By BSN Staff, . BSN Network. Satire.
BROOKLYN, NY, Sept. 24. Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader landed in Brooklyn on Wednesday for what his office described as a historic diplomatic visit, and what Brooklyn Borough Hall described as a celebration of longstanding cultural ties, and what the 100,000 Dominican residents of Brooklyn quietly described as a man showing up to a party he did not throw.
Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the first citywide borough president with Dominican roots, welcomed Abinader to Borough Hall in a ceremony that multiple attendees called emotional, historic and, in the words of one Washington Heights transplant standing outside on the steps, "kind of wild that he came here and not the other way around."
Abinader, for his part, praised the Brooklyn Dominican community for its "extraordinary contributions" to both nations, a phrase that carries slightly different weight when the community in question has been sending remittances back long enough to have funded a generation of infrastructure the Dominican government did not build.
The visit marks the first time a sitting Dominican president has made an official call to a New York City borough hall. Historians have noted the significance. Political operatives have noted something else.
"Brooklyn's Dominican population is larger than twelve of the country's thirty-one provinces by registered voter count," said Dr. Carla Mendez, a Caribbean political analyst at Fordham who asked that her full title be printed because she has been trying to get a book deal since 2019. "If Brooklyn were a Dominican municipality, it would be the third-largest in the country, it would have three congressional seats, and it would have voted out the incumbent twice already based on the price of plantains alone."
Reynoso, who was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York, called the visit a symbol of how two communities can remain one people across borders, passports and the BQE. He did not take questions about whether Brooklyn's Dominican community has developed opinions about Dominican domestic policy, though several people in attendance had printed those opinions on signs.
Abinader toured Borough Hall, met with community leaders and participated in what a press release called a "cultural exchange," which in practice meant eating food that Brooklyn Dominicans have been making better than Santo Domingo restaurants for approximately thirty years.
The Dominican government issued a statement calling the visit a milestone in bilateral relations. The City of New York issued a proclamation. A woman named Doña Carmen on Flatbush Avenue issued her own assessment, which was that it took him long enough and she hoped he tried the mangu.
Abinader returns to Santo Domingo Thursday. Brooklyn will remain where it is, doing what it has been doing, not waiting for the next visit.
The story we are making fun of: https://www.brooklynpaper.com/dominican-president-luis-abinader-historic-visit-brooklyn/