New group mobilizes Dominican Americans to register and vote

Though the Dominican American population in the United States has grown considerably over the past few decades, few efforts have been done to politically mobilize this growing Latino group.

But a newly formed organization dubbed Dominicanos USA is looking to change that by mobilizing Dominican Americans to register and vote.

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On Wednesday, it announced that it had registered more than 26,000 mostly Dominican American voters in New York City and in Providence, Rhode Island — two cities with large populations of Dominican Americans.

“As one of the fastest growing ethnic population in New York City and Providence, Rhode Island it made perfect sense to start our focus in these two places where our community has lived, worked, and thrived for years, yet has not fulfilled its civic and political potential to have a say in the city’s political and policy affairs,” stated Manuel Matos, a board member of Dominicanos USA.

An estimated 1.5 million Dominican Americans live in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center. They are the fifth-largest Hispanic group in the country, accounting for 3.0 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population.

The top five states with the largest populations of Dominican Americans are New York, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Though the Dominican American community in Rhode Island is smaller than in New York, it is the fastest growing and the largest ethnic group in the state, according to Dominicanos USA.

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Matos told VOXXI that some Dominican Americans, like many immigrants, have maintained a strong foothold in their native country and haven’t fully integrated into American society. As a result, they are not as civically engaged as other Americans.

“What we want to do is to help establish those roots in the United States and help people along the integration process in a way that makes them feel proud to claim their American-ness,” Matos said.

“We want to emphasize the American in Dominican American,” he added.

The idea for the voter registration effort came up after members of Dominicanos USA came together and agreed that they wanted to do something impactful to encourage Dominican Americans to become civically engaged. They decided that one of the best ways to do that was by registering and encouraging Dominican Americans to vote.

The group used cutting edge technology to identify Dominican American voters in New York City and in Providence, Rhode Island. It now plans to expand these efforts to other cities and states with large Dominican American populations.

“I really believe that we are doing something novel and important — and maybe that can serve as a model for future efforts,” Matos told VOXXI.

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