Esperanza

**Esperanza** (*English: "Hope"*) is a town in the Valverde Province of the northwestern Dominican Republic.

## Esperanza

### Region

 Valverde Province
Cibao NW

### Distance to:

Mao 13 km (*8 mi.*)
Santo Domingo:
197 km (*122 mi.*)

## Etymology

In the current lands of the municipality, Admiral Cristóbal Colón, on his second trip to the New World (1494), founded the Esperanza fortress. The following year, the advanced Bartholomew Columbus founded a village with the same name at the foot of the fortress.

## History

☀ The village founded in **1495** in lands of the Caonabó chieftain, ceased to exist for a century and a farmhouse and a herd reappeared at the beginning of the 17th century (*1600s*).

The destruction of the cities Guajaba, Puerto Real de Bayajá, Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata, during the government of Antonio Osorio, forced the population to emigrate to the southern part of the country. The ones that refused to accept this order are thes one that founded Hato Esperanza, among others, this being the place occupied by the Municipality of Esperanza today.

During the first decades of the nineteenth century, it began to have a nuance of more organized settlers in small dispersed groups. In the mid-1900s with the installation of the Esperanza mill, it was organized even more, in Esperanza Caña and Esperanza Pueblo.

• On **June 19, 1875**, the Hato de Esperanza was elevated to Cantonal Post, depending on the province of Santiago de los Caballeros, by decree No. 1433; later it is converted into a municipality of the same province, when the political constitution of September 9, 1907, which abolished the denomination of Cantonal Post was dictated.

The conversion of Esperanza into a Canton originated by a high petition by the inhabitants of the town and section, was addressed to the National Congress supported by the governor of the province of Santiago.

• When the province of Valverde was created by Law 4882 of **March 27, 1958**, the municipality was segregated from the Province of Santiago de los Caballeros from **January 1, 1959** and became part of the new province.

## Geography

Esperanza is located at 19.5853° N, 70.9844° W. According to the ONE, the municipality has a total land area of 215.24 square kilometers (83.10 square miles). It is bordered by the Puerto Plata towns of Los Hidalgos, Guananico, and Altamira on the north, the Santiago city of Bisonó on the east, the city of Mao to the south, and the town of Laguna Salada on the west.

## Economy

The lands are dedicated to a diversity of crops such as rice, bananas, bananas, coffee and cocoa, among other minor fruits.

In the portion of the Northern mountain range belonging to this municipality, coffee, cocoa and in a smaller quantity oranges are grown; These mountains are very sparsely populated. One of the main sources of income to the municpality's economy is the Free Zone of Hope that offers thousands of people to obtain employment.

## Enviornment

### Flora

A series of native and exotic trees make up its flora, among which grayumbo, guatapanal, beans, bayahonda, acacia, laurel, nim, as well as precious wood mahogany, oak and cedar stand out.

### Fauna

The cigua palm tree, national bird, madan sagá, garcilan, gallineta, gallareta, turtledove, woodpecker, lizard, snake, cattle, goat and pig, toad bogaert and bull, among others describe the richness of their fauna.