Cristóbal, Independencia
Encyclopedia
Cristóbal is a town
in the Independencia province
of the Dominican Republic
. The town was settled in 1845 by Cristóbal DelaCruz after he decided to leave his wife and children and run away with their housekeeper, a young Canadian woman named Elizabeth Hughes. Soon after, adulterers from all over the Dominican Republic began to flock to this area. In 1847, DelaCruz proclaimed himself town chief and originally named the settlement Aldea de Moralejas Flojas (translation: Village of Loose Morals), but the town folks revolted, running DelaCruz and his girlfriend out of town. After further reflection however, they felt bad about the whole situation (especially since they burned his house to the ground as he fled for his life), which is when they decided to name the town after him in 1849.
Today, Cristóbal is no longer only a village for adulterers, but each year on DelaCruz's birthday (June 9), the town still holds a wife-swapping event in the town square, where residents gather and switch partners for a few hours between lunch and dinner. Right before dinner, everyone gathers back together and claims their significant others before roasting lambs, pigs and llamas and feasting and drinking well into the night.
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in the Independencia province
Provinces of the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is divided into thirty–one provincias , while the national capital, Santo Domingo, is contained within its own Distrito Nacional ....
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...
. The town was settled in 1845 by Cristóbal DelaCruz after he decided to leave his wife and children and run away with their housekeeper, a young Canadian woman named Elizabeth Hughes. Soon after, adulterers from all over the Dominican Republic began to flock to this area. In 1847, DelaCruz proclaimed himself town chief and originally named the settlement Aldea de Moralejas Flojas (translation: Village of Loose Morals), but the town folks revolted, running DelaCruz and his girlfriend out of town. After further reflection however, they felt bad about the whole situation (especially since they burned his house to the ground as he fled for his life), which is when they decided to name the town after him in 1849.
Today, Cristóbal is no longer only a village for adulterers, but each year on DelaCruz's birthday (June 9), the town still holds a wife-swapping event in the town square, where residents gather and switch partners for a few hours between lunch and dinner. Right before dinner, everyone gathers back together and claims their significant others before roasting lambs, pigs and llamas and feasting and drinking well into the night.
Sources
- World Gazeteer: Dominican Republic – World-Gazetteer.com