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the ship that was carrying the brilliant
navigator and his companions on
December 5, 1492. It was also from here
that a fort called “Christmas” was built.
Finding Fort Christmas destroyed during
his second voyage, Columbus explored
the area to the west of the original
construction site and chose an open inlet
where the founded the first city in the
New World to be baptized with the name
of La Isabela, in honor of Spain’s Queen,
Isabel la Católica.
La Isabela was the seat of the first
European government in the Americas.
It was here that the first court of law
adjudicated disputes and where,
according to historical records, Father
92
Bernardo Boil celebrated the first mass in
the New World on January 6, 1494.
Puerto Plata has also made immense
contributions to the literary and political
cultures of the Dominican Republic.
Among the city’s illustrious sons are:
Gregorio Luperón, “standard-bearer of
the Restoration,” and Emilio Prud’Homme,
poet, educator, and composer of the
Dominican national anthem and other
tunes.
El Porvenir, a newspaper that was
first edited in Puerto Plata in 1873, is
the pioneer of the national print and
publishing industry.
Puerto Plata produces and exports coffee,
cocoa and tobacco and is among the ten
provinces in the country with the largest
cattle ranches. It produces liquor, dairy
and pasta products, leathers and furs. A
portion of its population is drawn into the
fishing industry. Sugarcane, first brought
to these parts by Columbus in 1493,
is cultivated and remained one of the
regions most important crops until 1990.