… with Emilio Guzman, guide at the famous Lighthouse in Santo Domingo.
The lighthouse in Santo Domingo was inaugurated in 1992 order to honour the 500 Year Jubilee of Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the Americas.
The Lighthouse, which looks like a gigantic sarcophagus, is constructed like a cross with what are supposedly remains of Columbus buried in the “cathedral” in the middle. The lighthouse was constructed at an enormous cost by an almost blind president. When the light was turned on – it was visible all the way to Puerto Rico. It consumed so much energy that the whole country had to be turned off…
Nowadays, the lighthouse is only turned on during special occasions and the day for my visit there is not even electricity inside (yes, a power cut).
For me, the monument is a symbol of colonization, megalomania and mismanagement of public resources. Emilio, who has been working as a guide for ten years, defends the monument: “I’m proud of it, it tells about our history and how the first peace agreement was reached in the new world. I like very much to present and spread knowledge to people from other countries, for this is like a school where both students and visitors from the whole world”, he says.
Today, a new wave of tourists is coming from Russia to the Dominican Republic and many guides are preparing themselves in the new language.
For Emilio Guzman, happiness is about family and having God in his heart. If it not where for the religion we would not have peace, he says.
And of course, he also likes the work at the monument. He sees it as a meeting of two continents.
