Baní

Baní is a capital town of the Peravia Province, Dominican Republic. It is the commercial and manufacturing center in the southern region of Valdesia. The town is located 65 km south of the capital city Santo Domingo. Baní is the headquarters of the Southcentral General Directorate of the National Police, the Central Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and the South Regional Directorate of the General Directorate of Traffic Safety and Land Transport (DIGESETT).

The city of Bani is the capital of the Peravia province; its residents also know it as the home of poets. The province's population is 169,865 people, with 61,864 living in the Bani metro area. This is a tightly knit community with families and neighborhoods dating back several centuries. Bani is a Taino word meaning "abundant water." The area was named after an important Taino leader of the Maguana people. He was said to be one of Caonabo's closest allies. But, it wasn't until 1764 when a group of neighbors concerned with their security and safety came together to purchase a property large enough to build their own village in the valley of Bani. Historians set the sum of this purchase as that of “300 pesos fuertes” for a property called Cerro Gordo; the principals were listed as Francisco Baez and Bartolome del Castillo.

The settlement by the colonizers in the Baní plain has its origins in the beginning of the 16th century, during the beginning of sugar production. In its vicinity there were several sugar mills near the Nizao and Ocoa rivers. One of the most important mills was founded by Alonso de Suazo, judge of the Royal Court of Santo Domingo, on the banks of the Ocoa River. From 1680 to 1684 families from the Canary Islands spread throughout the fields nearby Santo Domingo, especially through the territories of today's Baní. After a synod in 1683, a parish, dedicated to Our Lady of Regla, was erected in Baní to serve as a center of worship for the surrounding haciendas and estancias. The city of Baní was officially founded on 2 March 1764, when a sale contract for 374 Spanish dollars was signed between the parishioners of Baní and the del Castillo and Báez families, the owners of the land in which Baní was to be erected, under the auspices of the Spanish governor Don Manuel de Azlor. Father Manuel Franco de Medina, the parochial vicar, participated in this negotiation, representing the landowners, while General Pablo Romero represented the neighbors. On the same day, the streets of the town were laid out the parishioners divided the land, laid out the streets, and began to build what would become their town houses, as in that time, people typically used to have a farm and house in the countryside and a house in the most nearby town. Also the local parish was enlarged by adding a chapel. In 1789 Baní was an ethnically homogeneous town, with a white population of Canary Islander origin that reached 2,000 inhabitants; the base of its economy was cattle ranching (mainly swine) and logging. Agriculture was non existent. Despite the efforts of Governor Azlor, Baní would not have a town council nor autonomy from the city of Santo Domingo until 1810, because during the 1700s the Santo Domingo elite of Basque and Castilian origin disdained the Canary Islander population for their supposed "moral inferiority" and their Berber heritage. By 1810 much of the old colonial elite had fled to Venezuela due to the 1805 Haitian invasion. After the Independence, the Central Government Board established a territorial division of the Republic in 1844, which made Baní a commune in the Department of Santo Domingo. In 1844 Baní was the headquarters of the “Ocoa Battalion” unit of the Dominican Army made up of soldiers from the region and composed of two Rifle Companies and one of Hunters. Baní was connected by land with Santo Domingo through the royal road, being a narrow in a trip that lasted around 12 hours, which communicated with the south of the country through the communities of Sombrero, Matanzas, Sabana Buey and Palmar de Ocoa. To transport goods, the sea route was used using schooners, through coastal ports that existed along the coast.

Its culture and customs were most accurately portrayed in the novel Bani o Engracia y Antoñita, written by Francisco Gregorio Billini. The local beach is "Playa Los Almendros" (Almendros Beach,) situated south of the center square. The town's original design follows the classic Spanish square, with a park in the center of the town surrounded by the local church and the local government (mayor's office). The city's Patron Saint is "Nuestra Señora de Regla," whose celebration is on 21 November each year. Baní is surrounded by many smaller towns, many with their own specific identities. One example is Paya, well known around the country for its milk based candies (most famously "Dulce de Leche," or Milk Candy.) Another is Salinas, a town by the Salinas bay, where salt is produced. Salinas is famous for its Sand Dunes, that make the Dominican Republic the country with the largest sand dunes in the Caribbean.

Owing to its location in the rain shadow of the trade winds, Baní has a relatively dry tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) with a pronounced dry season between December and April.

Baní's economy is based on agribusiness. In Baní, different products are processed such as coffee, tomato, corn, pigeon peas, onion, coconut, mango, banana, cashew, milk and salt. The main industries are Peravia Industrial (La Famosa), Industrias Banilejas (Induban), La Fosforera del Caribe, the Banileja free zone and the Punta Catalina Thermoelectric Power Plant. There are also different industries in the construction sector. Retail trade is also part of the town's economy. The main shopping centers are the La Maravilla network of stores, the Retailers Association Supermarket, La Sirena and the El Bravo Supermarket. In the services sector, the Las Dunas Restaurant, La Casona Restaurant, Yarey Restaurant and Pizzeria, Fiesta del Chivo Restaurant stand out, as a hotel in the city there is the D"Pravia Hotel, the Caribaní Hotel and as a beach hotel there is the Hotel Salinas and the Hotel Ibiza. The tourism sector is developing in the province with the construction of two large tourist projects such as: Caney Beach Home, located in the Municipality of Matanzas by businessmen Banilejos and the Puntarena project, located in the community of Sabana Ox, by businessman Frank Reinieri. Peravia Industrial (La Famosa) and Industrias Banilejas (Induban), had their origins in Baní. Valdesia Coffee produced between the mountains of Peravia, San Cristóbal and Ocoa was recognized as a Protected Designation of Origin by the European Union in 2017.