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contributed by Angelo Ortiz
Mercedes Rodriguez de Domenech passed away peacefully at her home on Sat., May 21 at the age of 98 with her loved ones by her side. Her passing went unnoticed in the bustle outside her apartment on Ft. Washington Avenue just one block north of the Columbia University/NYPH complex on W. 168th Street. In my family, however, it has sent reverberations felt across the continent.
Tia Mercedes was the matriarch of our family, and it was our great fortune that she came to New York City from the Dominican Republic by steamship in the 1930's, well before the airbridge to her home country was established. She eventually was able to bring over her mother, Ludovina Almonte de Rodriguez (Mama Luba), and her Aunt, Beatriz Almonte (Nenena). She was also instrumental in the immigration of her five sisters to New York, including my grandmother and her children, all before the early 1950s and remarkably during the Age of Trujillo. They all settled into Washington Heights, and the Rodriguez sisters began making a living while raising their families along Audubon Avenue in the W. 170s before branching out across the neighborhood.
Tia was a kind and generous person with a warm spirit and a bright smile, a sentiment echoed by those who knew her, including friends from a bungalow community in Ellenville, NY where she spent summers looking after her grandson, Sergio, and his cousin (me). She developed very fine skills in needle work and performed critical and delicate restorations for pieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and St. John the Divine. Her skills became reknown in lofty circles and attracted the attention of influentials, including one Jacquelyn Kennedy Onasis.
Several generations of our family have been raised in the States since her arrival, and we have benefitted from the fruits of her and her sister's efforts to make a better life for us. Many who came after her or were born in NYC went on to college, raised children who went to college, pursued careers or vocations in both private and public sectors, and have gone on to make important contributions. Her nephew, Dr. Rafael Tavares, made a big impact in WHaI in the field of Latino mental health as well as nationally in research on AIDS and HIV.
We are all spread out now in states from as far west as Nevada to the Northeast and Florida, but we all feel the impact and void of her loss. Our surnames may have changed to Nunez, Magana, Tavares, etc. as the generations have passed, but we owe it to Tia Mercedes to remember where we came from and to remember how the bravery of a little young woman from Santiago helped to pioneer a Dominican community in Northern Manhattan and changed forever one family's trajectory from the Dominican Republic.
Mercedes Domenech is survived by her daughter, Myrna Magana, and her grandson, Sergio Magana, both residents of Washington Heights.
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