Mother of Actress Michelle Rodriguez from Jarabacoa

I came across a celebrity actress who misspelled the Jarabacoa city name in a twitter tweet from Oct 2nd, 2010.  In a reply to the question “what part of the Dominican Republic you are from?” Michelle Rodriguez said:

“Im not from the dominican republic my mother is from Harabacoa, Im from san Antonio Texas thats where mom delivered me to the planet”

At first I chuckled to myself that yet another person spelled the Jarabacoa incorrectly… but then I realized “Woah, this is ‘The’ Michelle Rodriguez… and she not only knows about the little town of Jarabacoa… but she just told the world that her own mother is from there!

Another source of this fact is Juan Carlos Jiménez. He wrote about a press conference held in the Dominican Republic where Michelle Rodriguez talked about her role in the movie “Trópico de Sangre.”  (A film about the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo where she portrays Minerva Mirabal, one of four sisters who opposed his dictatorship.)

Mr. Jiménez said that during the press conference “…some thought that Michelle would deny her Dominican roots because they had never heard her refer to herself as such… The actress said that she is the daughter of a Puerto Rican man “and a Dominican woman from the capital and Jarabacoa.”"

He went on to quote Michelle Rodriguez as saying: “It is time for me to go home, and proclaim to the world, that I have a passion that has something to do directly with my people, here there is a warmth which is unmatched, and I want to teach the world through this story  that Dominican Republic has so much love.”

I have to agree with her… the warmth of the Dominican people is unmatched.  They are friendly people who are always willing to lend a helping hand.

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Source material for translation was taken from: fuegoalalata.blogspot.com

“…algunos creían que Michelle renegaría de su “Dominicanidad” porque nunca se le ha escuchado referirse al respecto, la actriz… afirmó aquí que es hija de un puertorriqueño “y una dominicana de la capital y Jarabacoa”.

A la conferencia, [ella] dijo que “Ya era tiempo de volver a mi casa, y aclamar al mundo, que tengo una pasión que tiene algo que ver directamente con mi gente, aquí hay un calor que es in igual, y yo quiero a través de esta historia enseñarla al mundo que República Dominicana tiene mucho amor”.