Christmas Eve on a gamecock farm

Words by Cara Wilwerding
Photos by Cara Wilwerding and Matt Masin

Christmas Eve in the Dominican Republic is a feast day, said to be comparable to an American Thanksgiving. Dominicans travel across the island to dine on roasted pig, rice with corn, Russian potato salad, grapes and apples with their families. But rather than feasting, Matt and I took a two-hour journey to San Francisco de Macorís to visit Richard Hernande’s gamecock farm.

Many of these roosters, born and bred to fight to the death, will eventually become meals themselves. It’s tradition to cook the losing rooster after a battle lasting 10 minutes (or until one of them dies). Last week, one of Hernande’s roosters actually killed his opponent in 15 seconds.

Matt and I are anxious to see our first fight Thursday evening. Until then, here are some of the roosters and trainers who made our holiday so memorable.

The beginning

We arrived at our apartment in Santo Domingo about 5:30 a.m. yesterday after three gate changes and four hours of flight delays in Atlanta, one lost bag upon arrival and lots of airplane peanuts. So it went pretty smoothly overall.

During the next three weeks, this group of 13 University of Nebraska-Lincoln student journalists, led by professor Bruce Thorson, will be exploring issues in the Dominican Republic.

On this blog you’ll find updates from our stories, which range from child prostitution in Boca Chica to the citizenship issues, looked at through the border town Elias Pina and various bateyes throughout the country, to cock fighting in Santo Domingo. We hope you enjoy and learn something from following this blog, and  after today you won’t have to look at pictures of us anymore.

–Andrew Dickinson