Dr. Rafael Nunez, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, presented a 45‑minute lecture at the Hoffman Estates Hispanic Heritage Fiesta on Dominican roots, noting the island of Hispaniola’s indigenous and colonial history and subsequent migration to the United States.

Nunez began by directing attendees to the island’s pre‑colonial population and political structure, saying, “It was estimated that there were around 250,000 Tainos whose population had shrunk due to diseases, starvation, physical elimination, and being forced to labor in silver mines by Spanish colonizers during the first 2 decades of the occupation.” He described how colonial labor practices led Spanish authorities to import enslaved Africans, producing a heterogeneous population over subsequent centuries.

The lecture traced early European settlement, recounting Christopher Columbus’s 1492 landing and subsequent expeditions that founded La Isabela and later settlements that became Santo Domingo. Nunez noted the city’s early institutions, including a town hall and cathedral, and emphasized the university founded there: “The oldest university in The Americas … Santo Tomas de Aquino … was founded in 1538,” he said, adding this predated some commonly cited institutions.

Turning to migration history, Nunez identified Juan Rodriguez (1613) as an early non‑native resident of what became Manhattan and outlined the mid‑20th‑century waves of migration. He said mass Dominican migration accelerated after the death of dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961 and U.S. intervention in Dominican affairs around 1965. Citing census figures, he said documented Dominican population in the United States rose from fewer than 12,000 in 1960 to “approximately 2.4 millions today.”

Nunez highlighted Dominican cultural contributions in the U.S., including music (merengue, bachata), sports (noting several major‑league baseball and NBA players of Dominican descent), literature (Julia Alvarez and Junot Díaz) and visual arts. On local impacts, he said many Dominicans who initially settled in New York later moved to Chicago, and that “the greater Chicago area … is now home to an estimated 15,000 Dominicans.” He also cited remittances to the Dominican Republic, saying Dominicans in the U.S. send “close to $12,000,000,000 a year.”

Nunez closed by connecting historical context to the day’s cultural programming, thanking the commission and attendees for the invitation and attention. The lecture contained historical summary, demographic figures, and cultural examples rather than policy recommendations or formal actions.