Hola, I’m Ysanet. (pronounced IS-uh-net)

I am a Black Queer woman from Ayiti—on the right side of the island today known as the Dominican Republic—born in Harlem, New York.

I am a mother, community organizer, racial equity facilitator, social impact business owner, and land steward. For the past 10 years, I have dedicated my work to creating alternative ways to care for people and heal from racism through land stewardship, ancestral cooking, cooperative economics, and relationship building.

My life’s work is rooted in a simple but expansive belief: We carry the wisdom we need to imagine and build different ways of being.

For me, that means returning to what has always held us: our culture, our ancestors, our food, our land, our waters, and our relationships with one another.

From Food to Land, From Community to Home.

In 2016, I founded Woke Foods, a culinary arts and food justice worker cooperative. For seven years, I brought Dominican plant-based foods to communities in New York City and the Dominican Republic while exploring the connections between food, culture, racial justice, and collective liberation.

During that time, I deepened my relationship with land and food sovereignty through the Farm School NYC Urban Agriculture Certificate program, the Soul FIRE Farming Immersion Program, a Certificate in Permaculture Design through Quisqueya Permacultura, and Maroon Beekeeping with La Colmena Cimarrona.

In 2020, my work began to shift after I returned to live in my homeland of the Dominican Republic. I began creating spaces, both virtual and physical, where Dominican people in the Diaspora and on the island could reconnect with our culture, history, collective nature, food, land, and water.

That journey led me to Rematriation.

My Work Is Rooted in Rematriation.

I understand rematriation as a return to relationships, to homeland, land, culture, ancestry, community, and ourselves.

The questions that guide my work are:

How do we return with intention?
How do we remember what has been interrupted?
How do we rebuild our relationships to land, water, culture, and one another?
And how do we create the conditions for our communities to thrive?

This is the thread connecting the work I am building today.

An Ecosystem of Return.

These are different expressions of the same vision: creating spaces where Dominicans and others can return to ourselves, to one another, and to our relationships with land and water.

REMATRIATION RD | Return to homeland, culture, community & ancestral wisdom.
A community and learning space for Dominicans in the Diaspora who want to reconnect, contribute, learn, heal, and explore what it means to return home—from wherever they are in the world.

CASATIERRA REMATRIATION CENTER | Return to the land, home & collective stewardship.

A communal homestead and physical space in Cabarete rooted in land stewardship, belonging, healing, and our relationship to home and Earth.

MADRE MAR SURF | Return to water, healing & belonging.

A women-led coastal sanctuary and community-rooted surf and stewardship space creating trauma-informed experiences of healing, growth, reciprocity, and connection to Mother Ocean | Launching October 12, 2026.

YEMAYA SURF | Ocean access, surf equity & healing for Dominican girls and women.

A nonprofit creating access to surfing, surf therapy, ocean conservation, and climate justice for Dominican girls and women.

Where Do You Fit In?

I know you’re probably thinking: “Wow, you do a lot. I love it all, but where do I fit in?”

I got you.

If you are Dominican and want to reconnect with your ancestral wisdom, deepen your relationship to the homeland, or explore what it means to return, start with Rematriation RD.

If you want to deepen your relationship to land, home, and collective stewardship, CasaTierra is for you.

If you want to experience the healing power of the ocean through trauma-informed surfing and water experiences, Madre Mar Surf is for you.

If you want to support Dominican girls and women in reclaiming their relationship to the ocean and accessing surf therapy and ocean-based healing, Yemaya Surf is for you.

Thank you for being here. May we continue returning—to ourselves, to each other, and home.

— Ysanet