News (Noticias) Tagged ‘Dominican Republic’

Edgar Mercedes has made a fortune taking bets. So when the bookie saw 13-year-old Michel Inoa throw 78 mph off a mound in 2005 he knew that the lanky, 6-foot-3 right-hander was worth the wager. He’s workable. He’s workable, Mercedes kept saying to himself as he thought of the adjustments he would make to Inoa’s delivery: the flick of his wrist, the angle of his waist. Mercedes, whose own career as a catcher had been derailed by injuries, had found the next best thing to being a professional ballplayer — developing them.”*

The assignment
To create initiatives and platforms to promote the  Dominican Republic as a vacation destination and a  productions location for the television and film  industries.    Born and raised in the Dominican Republic and now  based out of Los Angeles, Isabella is a member of the  Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, a writer,  actress and entrepreneur. Her acting credits include ER,  Nip Tuck and Days Of Our Lives.     In recent years Isabella realized the need for family  encouragement in the lives of teenage girls and created  an advocate platform for quinceañeras, the Latina  coming of age celebration of the fifteenth birthday,  hugely popular among Hispanics in the US including  Mexicans and Dominican-Americans.     Isabella became the spokesperson for the quinceañera  industry when she was named “Fairy Godmother of  quinceañeras” by the Latin media and has been  compared to Ann Landers for Hispanic girls. Her  mission, promoting that this once in a lifetime event is a  trans-cultural celebration in the United States and an  important way to bring families together.

Isabella is the co-author along with husband Marty Wall, of “Chasing Rubi, The truth about Porfirio Rubirosa, the last playboy”; the first English published biography about the Dominican playboy-diplomat rumored to have been Ian Fleming’s inspiration for James Bond, recently featured on History Channel international and soon to be turned into a movie. www.ChasingRubi.com    In her book, Isabella describes the Dominican Republic as “the new St. Bart, where one sometimes can see the likes of Bill Clinton, Oscar De La Renta, Julio Iglesias, Brad and Angelina, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Oscar de la Hoya and Sammy Sosa, strolling about the beautiful beaches, where tourism and luxury home construction are booming. Wealthy Americans are flocking there in droves because, though the Caribbean remains crystal blue as it always was, the sunsets are as stunning as ever, and the lush tropical landscape still beckons”.   In Isabella’s opinion, “discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the island of Hispaniola AKA Quisqueya by the native Taino Indians, is still not completely uncovered. There are coves still hidden and white foamy waves that look more like lazy fluffy feathered seagulls, lying along the sandy shores, that need to be exposed. The dollar still goes a long way in this heavenly paradise and we are looking forward to shooting many important movie scenes that may announce to the world, “Just call us the DR, that’s who we are”.

Forget about “Bachata Rosa.” It’s time for bachata roja — the hard-drinking, fast-living precursor to today’s Dominican it beat.

Relatively unknown outside the Dominican Republic and MIA from the airwaves, early bachata is having a renaissance thanks to the critical success of last year’s compilation album, “Bachata Roja: Acoustic Bachata From the Cabaret Era.””*

(Chicago, IL) Between truth and deception, between justice and abuse, a stonewiser stands alone with the stones… Or so begins the Stonewiser’s oath. But what happens when a rebellious stonewiser discovers that lies have tainted the stone tales?

Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone (Mermaid Press, 464 pages) In her first breakout novel, Dora Machado creates a spell-binding combination of action, adventure, intrigue and romance, set against a vivid, imaginative and timeless background. It’s a world devastated by the rot’s widespread destruction, where only the tales preserved in the stones can uphold truth and justice. In this world, stonewisers are the only ones capable of retrieving the tales from the stones. Sariah is the most gifted stonewiser of her generation. She’s also willful, rebellious, and curious. When she discovers lies in the stone tales, she is forced into a desperate quest. Armed only with her wits—and an unholy alliance with her bitterest enemy—she must discover the truth and restore justice to the land before the rot destroys her world.

“Sariah is a bitter-sweet heroine,” Dora Machado says. “She’s tremendously talented, strong and smart. But owned by the Guild and raised as a slave, she’s endured much hardship. She is fundamentally flawed. She’s got baggage. In a way, she is a lot like you and me, full of good intentions but hampered by her upbringing and her own limited sense of self. To succeed, she has to do something that’s very hard to do: she has to overcome her own prejudices and embrace the diversity of a changing world.”

Stonewiser’s universal themes have a wide-range appeal. They attract those fantastic, faithful readers of the fantasy genre, but they also attract cross-over readers from the historical fiction and romance genres. “Stonewiser offers an empowering, evolving tale that delights the mind and touches the heart, combined with a clever, complex plot that surprises to the end,” Dora Machado says. “I often find that as women, we’re always searching for that magic combination between fun and romance, something interesting and enriching. Stonewiser has it.”

About The Author

Dora Machado holds a master’s degree in business administration and earned her bachelor’s degree in History from Georgetown University. She is a Phi Beta Kappa but thinks that surviving motherhood is the greater accomplishment. She was born in Michigan and grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a bilingual fascination for writing, a preference for history, and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories. She lives in Florida with her indulging husband, her two extraordinary teens, her exchange students, three very opinionated cats, and a goldfish. For more information on Dora go to www.merpress.com

ISBN 13:987-0-9799682-0-4

June 2008 Publication

Mermaid Press

Available through amazon.com, Atlas Book Distributors, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Borders, Barnes & Noble.

Cultiva Entertainment announced today that Build-A-Bear Workshop(R) will exclusively offer uniforms, headwear and apparel for the Alianza Latina de Béisbol brand, which features the Serie del Caribe tournament as part of its product offerings.
Build-A-Bear Workshop has been granted an exclusive multi-year license to produce uniforms and apparel featuring the Alianza Latina de Béisbol participating country designs that include, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Alianza Latina de Béisbol celebrates the Serie del Caribe tournament (Carib Series), the annual championship tournament of Caribbean Winter Leagues endorsed by Major League Baseball(R) for player participation. The upcoming tournament will be hosted in Mexicali, Mexico beginning February 2 through February 7, 2009.

“This is all about fun. Our partnership with Alianza Latina de Béisbol is a great opportunity for us to extend the Build-A-Bear Workshop brand to more of our Guests and to make our products even more relevant to their lifestyles”, said Maxine Clark, Build-A-Bear Workshop Chief Executive Bear.

“We are very excited to offer young Hispanic baseball fans the opportunity to celebrate their country pride through Build-A-Bear Workshop,” said Anthony Loarte, Principal of Cultiva Entertainment. “Hispanic youths represent a large percentage of the U.S. population and we are pleased to offer them a product that resonates with their affinity to baseball and their culture.”

About CULTIVA ENTERTAINMENT
Cultiva Entertainment is the producer of Alianza Latina de Béisbol(TM), whose mission is to entertain the 55+ million Latino baseball fans and salute professional Latino players. Cultiva Entertainment also holds the exclusive licensing rights for the Caribbean Confederation of Professional Baseball and the Serie del Caribe Tournament. Its website, www.ebeisbol.com, is the official website of the Serie del Caribe. Cultiva also develops, produces and markets Latino Entertainment. For more information on Cultiva, log onto www.cultivaentertainment.com. “*

Beginning August 19th through September 30th, 2008, Dominican Republic-based foodservice company MercaSID and its brand, Aceite Cristol, will unveil Proyecto “MUJER Dominicana en Nueva York” (The Dominican Women‚s Project in New York), a major photo exhibition highlighting the lives and achievements of Dominican women across the Diaspora. “*

They sure did try to keep it under wraps, but Shalim Ortiz and Leslie Ann Machado will indeed marry this Saturday, July 19, in Santo Domingo, according to a source close to the couple who exclusively told People En Espanol.com.”*

Marketwire, a full-service newswire and communications workflow solutions provider, today announces the debut of NoticiasDigitales, the newswire industry’s first real-time business-to-consumer digital news service to publish Spanish-language news on Latin American websites. An enhancement to its Spanish-language press release distribution circuits, Marketwire’s NoticiasDigitales displays press releases on more than 100 leading newspaper, financial and economic news, and media websites and portals that bring corporate news to millions of influential Spanish-speaking viewers across North America, Central America and South America.

“With the rapid growth of social media and ‘citizen journalism,’ the future of the newswire industry depends on leveraging new technologies to offer effective business-to-consumer news delivery solutions,” commented Marketwire Vice President of Emerging Markets Hector Botero. “Ethnic, emerging and international markets represent enormous, untapped opportunities for an online digital news distribution service, and we are extremely excited to launch an industry first to our clients who target Spanish-speaking audiences.”

Participants in the large web network at the core of Marketwire’s NoticiasDigitales include major news media, business, finance and technology websites published in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Examples of participating websites are Caracol Radio, Clarín.com, Dinero.com, El Universal.com and Nacion.com.

A 30-day testing period revealed that between June 11 and July 11, 2008, Marketwire’s NoticiasDigitales received more than 4 million total impressions from visitors in 21 countries. Thirty percent, or 1.2 million of those impressions came from visitors in Colombia, an economy growing at 6.8 percent a year (two full points faster than the Latin American average); 29 percent, or 1.18 million of the impressions were from the United States; 13 percent, or 520,000 impressions, came from visitors in Argentina, a country that has experienced four consecutive years of more than 8 percent growth in GDP; and 11 percent, or 431,000 impressions, came from Mexico, a country counting the United States as its largest trading partner.

Now, by adding more than 100 websites and 3 million-plus monthly views to its comprehensive Latin America distribution circuits that, combined, reach more than 80,000 media points in Latin America, Marketwire reinforces its position as the leading Latin American market press release distributor. NoticiasDigitales is included in all of Marketwire’s Spanish-language press release distribution circuits: five Latin America/South America distribution packages; newslines to 17 Latin American countries; and its industry-leading North America Hispanic newsline that reaches more than 5,000 journalists and editors through Marketwire’s NoticiasFinancieras news syndicate generating news for print publications with combined circulation exceeding 3 million daily, and readership, including web properties, exceeding 10 million.

About Marketwire

The only fully integrated North America-based global newswire, Marketwire, Inc. is a full-service partner to IR, PR and MarCom professionals seeking top-tier news distribution, media management, multimedia and monitoring solutions. Marketwire’s customer-centric corporate philosophy focuses on being the best by infusing every aspect of its business with the following core attributes: precision, adaptability, innovation and simplicity.

Marketwire delivers its clients’ news to the world’s media and financial communities, fulfilling disclosure requirements in North America in compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), and serving as Primary Information Provider (PIP) with the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA). With a reputation for technology leadership, Marketwire offers innovative products and services — including Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Dashboard Mobile Financial, News Dashboard coverage reports, exclusive access to networks such as the Canadian Press Wire Network, Easy IR and Easy PR workflow solutions, and more — that help communication professionals maximize their effectiveness while ensuring accuracy and best practices.

Having merged companies (Market Wire and CCNMatthews) in April 2006, and enjoying a combined history of 25 years of service, Marketwire is now majority-owned by OMERS Capital Partners, the private equity arm of one of Canada’s largest pension funds. Marketwire distributes the majority of press releases issued by publicly traded companies in Canada and serves more than 8,000 clients worldwide through 19 offices on four continents. For more information, visit us at www.marketwire.com. “*

Federal authorities are investigating a group of general managers, scouts and scouting directors for possible fraud and tax evasion in connection with the signing of Dominican prospects, according to a lawyer with knowledge of the inquiry.”*

Panama continues to be the fastest-growing tourism market in Latin America, but Uruguay is the winner when it comes to growth in receipts. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic is the country with the region’s highest receipts as a percentage of GDP, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of new data from the World Tourism Organization. “*

Fans can watch talented baseball players from the Dominican Republic this month without paying Major League prices.

The first New England Latino Baseball Series, a group of games featuring top Latino athletes, will be played during the month of July.”*

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Wendy Canelones was curious about the custom her grandmother and great-grandmother had of lighting candles on Friday afternoon.

She assumed it was just an old habit. But she was unaware — as were her relatives — that they were carrying on a centuries-old Jewish tradition of welcoming the Sabbath with the lighting of candles every Friday at sunset.”*