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The purpose of this thread is for the collaboration of free books publshed in Latin America and cn be electronically downloaded. The books should not be academic types, instruction books, etc. Only about subjects concerning certain aspects of each country, its history, its culture, its cuisine, its architecture, etc. The books must be from Latin America, not books by Latinos in the USA, Canada or elsewhere.
It should be noted that I will not be presenting books other than those from the Dominican Republic, but if others are able to collaborate other countries in the region could be shown too. As is often the case, hardcopy of these Dominican books are on sale in various bookstores and/or cultural institutions in the Dominican Republic, but free to be electronically downloaded. The reason why the hardcopy books aren't free is due to the added cost of printing the books and they tend to be limited editions that aren't printed in new editions. Hence,once they are all sold, getting a new one is impossible.
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I will start with the INICIA Collections. INICIA is one of the large companies from the Dominican Republic and for several years they contribute to further enrich the literary culture of the Dominican Republic by publishing at least one book every year or two about certain aspect of the country. Their books are free to download in Kindle and Apple Books and all are bilingual with texts in Spanish and Englidh in each book.
Keep in mind this collection isn't static and grows as they publish new books of their own creation.
PS1. Due to the nature that Hispaniola is one island with two countries (Dominican Republic and Haiti), while focused on the Dominican Republic the book is actually covers both countries. That is the case of "Alas & Colores" about endemic birds of Hispaniola, not endemic birds of the Dominican Republic only. While some birds live in parts of the Dominican Republic only, other birds in Haiti only (also in the book), and other birds are found islandwide. In the book each bird specie starts with a map of the entire island with the area where it lives shaded in orange. Hence, these particular books pertains to the homelands of Dominicans and Haitians.
PS2. In each book if you double click on an image you will get a full screen look of the same.
The Italian Embassy in the Dominican Republic in collaboration with many government ministries, Dominican companies (should be noted the ones involved in this project belong to Dominican-Italian families) and institutions recently created a book that documents the Italian presence and influence in the Dominican Republic.
Unlike typical Dominican books that are published in more thsn one language, this one is not just published in three languages (Spanish, English, and Italian) but each language has its own edition instead of one book containing all three languages.
Agsin, hardcopies are for sale in the Dominican Republic and online, but these electronic versions are free.
The Banco Popular Dominicano (or Banco Popular) is the largest private bank in the Dominican Republic and one of the largest banks in Central America & the Caribbean despite almost all its operations are limited to the Dominican Republic. The Dominican company has been publishing its own books on many aspects of Dominican society.
Many tend to be bilingual, but usually the Spanish version is first and halfway through the book or further starts the English version. Here I will post their bilingual books only. Again, hardcopies are on sale in the Dominican Republic, but their electronic versions are free.
Click on the titles.
Un pueblo unidos por la fe (A look to religious artifacts and churches from the Dominican Republic. Book first in Spanish and then in English and French.)
TaÃno: Arte y sociedad (Archeological artifacts of the Taino indians unearthed in the Dominican Republic and on display in Dominican museums. Book first in Spanish and then in English and French.)
La Sierra (About a section of the Central Mountains of the Dominican Republic and the efforts Bsnco Popular had made in the reforestation project. Book first in Spanish, then in English, and then in French.)
Imágenes insulares: CartografÃa histórica dominicana (This book is in Spanish only, but since most is showing images of old maps mostly of Hispaniola but also of some surrounding islands in the Caribbean, this shouldn't be much of an issue for English speakers.)
Arquitectura popular dominicana (About Dominican architecture among the masses; book first in Spanish, then English, and then French.)
Trazos en el mar: Guillermo González arquitecto de la modernidad dominicana (Guillermo González was from Santo Domingo and graduated from Yale University in Connecticut as an architect. Upon graduating he return to the Dominican Republic. Most of his architectural work was done in the Santo Domingo area, many of which are still standing. He is considered to be a pioneer of modern architecture in the Dominican Republic, introducing this style in the country. He was also a professor of architecture at the University of Santo Domingo, today Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. The book is first in Spanish, then in English, and then in French.)
Carnaval popular dominicano (Mostly images from carnivals in the Dominican Republic. Book first in Spanish and then in English.)
Grupo SID is another major company from the Dominican Republic. In 2018 they published Palmas de la Española (Palms of Hispaniola) which covers all the palm species that grow in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Although this is a very dicely done book and with very beautiful photos, it has three drawbacks. The first is that it's available as a hardcopy only, despite it was published in recent years (2018) it's already sold out and a new edition haven't been created, and the last one is that everything about this is in Spanish.
However, the following link of the Dominican Embassy in Spain is of a website focused on this book and in the page linked in particular are the 30 palm species that are nstive to Hispaniola on display. Clicking on each name will take you to a more detailed page of each species. Again, it's in Spanish only but you can see the Latin name of the species, photos of each, and a map of Hispaniola with the area where the tree grows naturally in yellow (for example, the "Cacheo de HaitÃ" or in Latin Pseudophoenix Lediniana grows in a part of Haiti only and is included here.)
PS. I think they created an error having this in Spanish only. At the very least it should had been translated to English and French too, since it does covers the entire island which has different languages. Hopefully they rectify this if they do a second edition.
PD2. Samples of the different palm species from Hispaniola were planted at the Real JardÃn Botánico (Royal Botanic Gardens) in Madrid, Spain. If you are ever in Madrid and go to the botanical gardens, there is a section dedicated only to palms from Hispaniola. Look for it.
The Banco Popular Dominicano (second largest bank in the DR and the largest of the privately owned banks) every year commissions one book to publish about several aspects of the Dominican Republic, its culture, its people, its nature, etc. This is part of that company's contribution to Dominican culture and literature. This is the one for 2023 published in November.
There are no laws that forces companies to do things such as this or community service (which Banco Popular also does around the country in addition to a reforestation plan where thousand of trees are plantes by thrm mostly in mountainous areas.) They simply do it because they want to and also because books like this are needed and either they don't exist or what does usually is very old. These things are not profitable to the company at all.
I also think these books would be helpful for Dominican-Americans, Dominican-Spaniards, etc that would like to know more aspects of the culture of their country of origin, as this provides a more formal look and understanding.
All their titles are for sale in Dominican bookstores and they all have a free PDF version. Several books are also donated to the Pedro HenrÃquez Ureña National Library in Santo Domingo (the biggest library in the country and government created and owned.)
All photos in the book are of places in the Dominican Republic.
The book is in three languages (in this order):
Spanish
English (starting on pages 252 - 253)
French (starting on pages 280 - 281)
In the LiatÃn Diario newspaper of April 11, 2024 on page 19 is an article of their second issue (March 2024) which became available last month (though its free digital version is still not available.)
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