Villa Bisonó

**Villa Bisonó** (also called **Navarrete**) is a town in the Santiago Province of the northwestern Dominican Republic.

## Villa Bisonó*Navarette*

### Region

 Santiago Province
Cibao N

### Distance to:

Santiago: 22 km (*14 mi.*)
Santo Domingo:
182 km (*113 mi.*)

## Location

Bisonó is the gateway to the Northwest Line Region, it is located west of the province of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Central Cibao, forming part of the plains that stretch between the Central and North mountain ranges.

The municipality is 15 minutes from the city of Santiago de Los Caballeros, 20 minutes from the first beach of the Amber Coast, Puerto Plata and 18 minutes from the city of "the beautiful sunsets."

## History

The municipality was founded as a rural section of the municipality of Santiago in **1939**. In **1956**, the rural section of **Villa Bisonó** was created, leaving **Navarrete** as its location. At the end of the 50's Villa Bisonó was elevated to the category of Municipal District and its condition of section, belonging to the newly created municipal district, was returned to Navarrete. In **1962**, by Law 5646, Villa Bisonó was elevated to the category of Municipality of the Province of Santiago with the name Municipality of Bisonó.

### Tobacco and textile crisis

Historically, tobacco production was the backbone of its economy until at the end of the 90's the local and world crisis of the aromatic leaf made succumbing the main source of livelihood of its inhabitants. These producers, for the most part, kept the land idle as a result of the fact that harvesting tobacco is the only activity to which they have dedicated much of their lives.

In Bisonó, between **1994** and **2000**, 14 cigar factories disappeared, almost at one stroke, five of the largest tobacco packing warehouses with the same impetus that thousands of land tasks dedicated to tobacco collection stopped producing a penny thereby throwing hundreds of families into total ruin whose only hope was the "little crop" of tobacco.

With the so-called textile crisis, in the international markets at the end of the last decade, six of the eight warehouses in the Industrial Free Zone of this municipality collapsed, surviving two of them as a result of the fact that its largest shareholder had no way of dismantling it and carry its heavy ground.

## Geography

The municipality of Villa Bisonó is located at 19.5594° N, 70.8693° W. According to the ONE, the municipality has a total land area of 92.63 square kilometers (35.76 square miles). It is bordered on the north by the Puerto Plata town of Altamira, on the east by the town of Villa González, on the southeast by the city of Santiago de Los Caballeros and on the west by the city of Santa Cruz de Mao and town of Esperanza, both of Valverde Province. This municipality extends in its southern part through the extensive Yaque Del Norte Valley, with characteristics of subtropical dry forest, and to the north it ascends towards the Northern Cordillera. It acts as a communication node between Santiago, the north coast and the Northwest Line.

It includes one Municipal District: **Villa Bisonó**.

### Physical Geography

The space and the geographical landscape of the municipality is very rich in natural accidents of beautiful and peaceful vegetation by authentic intervention of the Creator and its inhabitants. Its natural landscape is made up of a varied climate, since in the plain it averages 28°C (*82F*), while in the mountainous area it is around 18°C (*64F*) in the year. The presence of the Yaque River, as well as a good part of the small rivers and streams that cross its territory from north to south from the bowels of the Northern Mountain range.It is a very attractive demarcation of an area.

Two thirds of its territory are composed of arable areas, others are dedicated to livestock and a quarter of the humanized landscape are populated centers, industrialized areas, recreational areas, communication and transportation, among others.

## Economy

The waters of the Yaque River and those of the UFE Channel are the main aquifer source that this municipality has for the irrigation of its abundant and fertile lands as well as for human use and consumption.

The main crops that support the production in the plain are rice, plaintains, bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes and smaller fruits, among other crops.

In the mountainous area avocado, guineo, tayota, orange, coffee, and cocoa are produced, among other items. But the situation created by low international prices and pests, such as the drill, etc., which for a decade, have reduced production and reduced crops to a minimum, which has resulted in discouragement in the sowing of these items and forced producers to think about what to do with lands that have lost value and that are the means of family support.

The economic activity of the municipality is based mainly on rice and tobacco production, rice and tomato paste agribusiness and a free zone industry. Melon, watermelon, lechosa, and peppers are also harvested. This municipality has a free zone industrial park that concentrates 3 companies, with approximately 60 employees in total. In the urban area, the commercial dynamic revolves around the purchase and sale of agricultural products and the supply of provisions to travelers who travel on the Duarte Highway, which connects Santiago with the Northwest Line.

### Rice factories and industrial workshops

Rice is the crop with the greatest roots and dominance in agricultural production in Navarrete. It was, at the time, the community that had the largest productive infrastructure and production installed throughout the Caribbean and Central America.

• Factoría SAN RAFAEL, by Arturo Bisonó: this company was established in **1940**, by Mr. Arturo Bisonó, a migrant from the community of El Limón de Villa González, who settled here attracted by the ease of acquiring land ... This company had several rice mills in Villa Vázquez and Castañuelas.

In Navarrete there are three rice factories, an agribusiness and tomato paste processing company (Transagricola) that has been operating since 1967 with a fixed and other seasonal or seasonal harvest. Two coffee mills-warehouses for drying and container with fixed pawns.

## Industrial Workshops

Three industrial workshops of very artisanal technology that maintain a level of production subject to customer request. It has three banking establishments of the strongest commercial banks and a savings and loans association. Only Agriculture and Women, of all the Secretariats of State, have a small office with very limited services for farmers and women.

## Granceras

To the extent that the production of tobacco, as a productive activity in the municipality of Bisonó, was losing possibilities of recomposing itself, as a consequence of the crisis in which it submerged in the **90s**, in that same measure the so-called granceras have been raised.

Therefore, the lands, which since the beginning of the last century, were large plantations for the planting and cultivation of tobacco, have become gravel, gravel and sand processing companies as raw material for asphalt, road constructions, neighborhood roads, and blocks.

## Infrastructure

### Education and Culture

There are testimonial physical references of the first place from which formal teaching was officially initiated in **1914**. That was where the Dominican state opened, for the first time, formal education in the community of Navarrete. This place is owned by the Bisonó Cabrera family. And it is located on Av. Duarte next to the Navarrete Recreational Club.

There are currently three schools and two public high schools in the urban area and one school for each Section of the municipality run by the 07-08 School District that also covers the municipality of Villa González. At the level of private education there is a branch of the Santiago Academy, and seven schools that teach up to the secondary level; fruit of the multiple deficiencies in the Dominican education system and the constant strikes and stoppages produced by the teachers 'union called Dominican Association of Teachers -ADP' and student groups, demanding the solution to specific problems prevailing in public education.

### Health

In **1977**, the only public hospital center built by this municipality, the Maternal and Child Center, was built. Delimited services that have a medical staff, nurses, employees and support staff, an ambulance, an apothecary, etc.; In it, parturient mothers, children, the general public, etc. are cared for. But its service is very limited in proportion to the demanding population.

There are three private clinics, three clinical laboratories and several medical offices, which offer their services to users according to the possibilities of the patients pocket.

### Social

The social infrastructure of the municipality is reduced, so the population moves to the city of Santiago to obtain the main services. It has a Maternal and Child Sub-Center and about 3 private clinics; Claridila Cepín School, Pedro Maria Espaillat High School, José Maria Imbert School and Juan Pablo Duarte Club. The Rosa Duarte Park is the main public space of this community

The municipality has the Catholic Church and Santa Ana Parish, the Free Methodist Church and several religious sects including that of the Mormons. There are several recreational clubs and community service, as well as more than a dozen carnival groups called Los Judas, which also develop an important socio-cultural work. The so-called poular organizations and the Neighborhood Councils have been operating for several years. It also has relief agencies such as the Red Cross, Fire Department and Civil Defense. Several NGOs have also been operating for several decades, which from their organizational and social referents have been developing a titanic work for the benefit of the local and regional community. In 2006, La Casa de la Cultura de Navarrete, a non-governmental cultural institution that develops a specialized artistic education work that has the support of the local City Council.

### Transportation

The Santiago-Navarrete Highway is the road with the greatest vehicular traffic in the Dominican Republic, according to report. This gives direct access to the provinces of Puerto Plata, Valverde, Santiago Rodríguez, Montecristi and Dajabón. The roads and neighborhood roads that connect Navarrete with its different Sections and Places, such as Villa Nueva, Pontón, Villa Tabacalera, La Lomota, Los Ruales, Los Cabrera, Los Higos, La Sierra, Cañada Bonita, Crucero de Barrero, Mejía , Estancia del Yaque, La Estación, Vuelta Larga, and La Atravesada, etc., are in deplorable state and very bad conditions. It has an efficient local passenger transport service to and from different parts of the country and the Region. And, like the entire nation, has the efficient and expensive "motoconcho" service.

## References

Villa Bisonó [1], [2]

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