Sociological research has allowed us to follow the steps of the Dominican diaspora, this already infinite file of native sons and daughters that one day took up their bags and left with their pockets full of faith alone, in search of a promising future.

The remittances that arrive to the country every moment (in 2003, they were 12% of the GDP) allow us to see, through the cold statistics, what has caused so many departures through the history of the massive exodus, which only continued after the death of the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo and the civil revolution of 1965, in an economically feeble country.

According to the Census of the United States of 2000, 799,768 Dominicans live in the North American nation, which, together with Spain and Venezuela, gathered the greatest number of Dominican migrants decades ago, though Italy, Germany, Switzerland have thousands of Dominican expatriates that arrived and stayed in many of their principal cities.

The official figures on the most desired destinations by Dominicans do not record other numbers on exile. The numbers that continue to grow are those that die in the attempt to leave. We only know that the U.S. Coast Guard has detained 25,724 Dominicans, from 1982 to 2004, attempting to arrive at its coasts in illegal vessels.

But the Dominicans that have departed maintain their bond with the motherland. In addition, their established status in the U.S., where they are part of the largest ethnic minority, is manifested in political statements at the polls and in higher educational institutions and bookstores. There, as in the rest of the world, these Dominicans left to construct a better future, and in many cases have done so through their hard work and desire for progress.