The $3.15 million in federal funding procured by U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat will enable CUNY-DSI to renovate and expand its facility.
U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) praised The City College of New York-based CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (DSI) as a “perfect example of how you can strengthen a community by giving dollars for research and other types of programs.” He said this as he presented a ceremonial check for $3.15 million in federal funding that will enable the Institute to renovate and expand its facility.
Espaillat highlighted recent work of the DSI in researching and preserving the story of Dominican-born 2nd Lt. Esteban Hotesse, the only known Afro-Latino member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
“His name disappeared because it was lost during a fire, but DSI Director Ramona Hernandez and her team were able to dig that up,” said Espaillat. The discovery resulted in a presentation of Hotesse’s posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to his two military veteran grandchildren in a ceremony at CCNY.
“Their grandfather was not only a Tuskegee Airman, but was one of the guys that led the protest in the officers’ hall, and the officers’ club, which…helped spark the civil rights movement,” said Espaillat. “This guy, who nobody knew about, Dr. Hernandez was able to find out about him.”
This type of work “makes us stronger as a community, as a city, as a state, and as a nation,” he said. “In fact, the way we fight back now is by strengthening this identity that she's stubbornly trying to preserve. I commend her for her work, and I'm glad to give $3.1 million for this program, and there's more to come.”
“The Dominican Studies Institute perfectly blends an academic mission of rigorous research and a consistent, energetic mission of community outreach,” said CCNY President Vincent G. Boudreau, lauding “the work they have done over the years to recover and make available to the broad population the history of Dominican people of the United States [and] the role of the Dominican community in civic action.”
Boudreau thanked Espaillat for being “an energetic and generous advocate of a program that has truly taken off” and for “his support for and enthusiasm for the work of the DSI, his support for the college, his ability to figure out what the opportunities are at the federal level to support the work that we do at a time when federal opportunities need figuring out.”
“This work wouldn't be possible without the support you've given us,” said Boudreau. “Thank you so much from the institution, from the DSI, and from me personally.”
Speaking for the DSI, Hernandez also thanked the Congressman.
“This is to expand an institution that is the only one in the United States,” she said. “It's the only one outside of the Dominican Republic. Congressman, you are right, like always. This is going definitely to transform the Dominican Studies Institute in terms of the space and in terms of our capacity.”
Founded in 1992, CUNY DSI is the nation's first university-based research institute devoted to the study of people of Dominican descent in the United States and other parts of the world.
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Syd Steinhardt
212-650-7875
sstenihardt@ccny.cuny.edu