Santa Cruz del Seibo is a city in the El Seibo

El Seibo

El Seibo , alternatively spelt El Seybo, is a province of the Dominican Republic. Before 1992 it included what is now Hato Mayor province.-Municipalities and municipal districts:...

 province of the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

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History

The El Seibo municipality is located in the eastern part of the country. It was founded in 1506 by the conqueror of Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, Juan de Esquivel

Juan de Esquivel

Juan de Esquivel was born in Seville, Spain and died in Jamaica in 1513. He conquered the island of Jamaica for the Spanish Crown.He accompanied Christopher Columbus in his second trip to the American continent in 1493 and participated in the conquest and colonization of the isle of La Española,...

, with the name of Santa Cruz de Icayagua.

Towards 1518, its population disappeared and settled in Cuesta Prieta, to the east of Seibo River, where it branched off along with Soco River.

The Seibo was the largest eastern province until December 31, 1944 because it was formed by the municipalities of El Seybo, Hato Mayor, Miches, Sabana de la Mar and La Romana. Its territory began to decrease with the creation of the province La Altagracia, on January 1, 1945, which consisted of La Romana as the head city, the municipality of Higuey and the municipal district of San Rafael Del Yuma.

Notable residents

Some of the distinguished people from El Seibo include Manuela Diez, mother of Juan Pablo Duarte

Juan Pablo Duarte

Juan Pablo Duarte y Díez is one of the Founding Fathers of the Dominican Republic. He was a visionary and liberal thinker who along with Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Matías Ramón Mella is widely considered the architect of the Dominican Republic and its independence from Haitian rule in 1844...

, Cesáreo Guillermo and Alexander Woss y Gil, who were Presidents of the Republic. In addition, Monsignor Octavio A. Beras, Archbishop of Santo Domingo and Cardinal of the Catholic Church and Minerva Bernardino, who represented the country in several international events and defended women's rights, were also from Santa Cruz del Seibo, as well as world renowned and respected tenor, Francisco (Chahin) Casanova. Also famed baseball player Cesar Jeronimo (Jr). Famous psychiatrist and public personality: Dr. Máximo Beras Goico; tv personality, actor and comedian: Freddy Beras Goico, and pop singer and tv personality Charityn Goico.

Attractions

El Seibo, which venerates Saint Cruz with great fervor, have celebrations to honour this saint from 1 May to 10 May. It is the only city in the country that in its supervisory celebrations organizes bullfights.

Another attraction of the supervisory celebrations is the popular vigil of "atabales", a type of popular percussive music. These celebrations enjoy great popularity in all sectors of the community.