REMATRIATION RD
ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITY
REMATRIATION BEGINS BEFORE YOU RETURN HOME
Reclaim Your Roots & Reimagine Your Relationship with Home 🇩🇴
Rematriation RD Online Community is a six-month learning and mentorship community for Dominicans in the diaspora.
Through history, culture, and collective learning, you'll deepen your connection to the Dominican Republic and gain greater clarity, confidence, and community as you navigate your own journey.
Inaugural Founding Cohort
January–June 2027
$665 USD · Founding Member Investment
Applications open November 2, 2026
Knowing the Dominican Republic and knowing how to build a life connected to it are two different things.
You can grow up visiting the island, speaking Spanish, and staying connected to family while still having questions about its history, politics, communities, and the realities of living there.
As your relationship with DR evolves, so do the decisions you're considering. Whether you're preparing for a return, exploring life between countries, or looking for more meaningful ways to participate from abroad, having the right knowledge and relationships can change how you move forward.
You deserve more than scattered information and figuring it out alone.
You deserve a community that understands the journey.
Imagine what becomes possible when you have the knowledge, relationships, and support to move forward.
Over six months, Rematriation RD brings together Dominican history, cultural education, lived experience, and community to help you develop a more informed and intentional relationship with the island.
A deeper understanding of the Dominican Republic
Go beyond the history you inherited or learned growing up. Examine Dominican identity, colonization, race, gender, politics, and the relationship between people and land through conversations with educators, organizers, and practitioners.
You'll gain a broader understanding of the forces shaping the Dominican Republic today and how they inform your own relationship with the country.
Greater confidence navigating the realities of rematriation
Learn about the considerations that shape life connected to DR, including livelihood, financial preparation, citizenship, housing, civic participation, and land stewardship.
You'll gain access to perspectives and resources that can help you ask better questions, identify what requires further research, and make more informed decisions about your next steps.
Relationships and a community you can grow with
Build connections with other Dominicans across the diaspora and on the island who are exploring similar questions, making decisions, and sharing lived experiences.
Through facilitated conversations and Rematriation Diaries, you'll have opportunities to exchange perspectives, learn from others' journeys, and develop relationships that can continue beyond the six-month experience.
A personal roadmap for what comes next
Begin with a Personal Rematriation Map to identify your intentions and priorities. Throughout the experience, you'll reflect on what you're learning and how it applies to your circumstances.
By the end of six months, you'll develop a 12-Month Rematriation Roadmap outlining the relationships, resources, and next steps you want to pursue.
You bring your questions.
We bring the people, knowledge, and space to explore them.
Rematriation RD brings together Dominicans across the diaspora and on the island for six months of guided learning, honest conversations, and shared exploration.
You'll learn from people with expertise in how DR works, exchange perspectives with fellow members, and have a community to turn to as you navigate your own journey.
What's included in your inaugural founding cohort
Live Learning & Community Sessions
Engage with guest educators, organizers, and practitioners through facilitated sessions exploring the history, culture, politics, and realities of life connected to the Dominican Republic.
A Private Community Online Space
Connect with fellow founding members between sessions, continue conversations, share resources, and build relationships with Dominicans navigating their own journeys.
Curated Resources & Practitioner Perspectives
Access selected readings, tools, and resources, along with insights from people working across cultural education, community organizing, livelihood, land, and other areas relevant to rematriation for the duration of the program.
Rematriation Diaries
Join monthly conversations centered on lived experiences of rematriation, where personal stories, lessons, and questions become opportunities for collective learning.
Guided Reflection & Personal Roadmaps
Use reflection exercises, the Personal Rematriation Map, and the 12-Month Rematriation Roadmap to apply what you're learning to your own intentions and decisions.
Extended Community Access for Inaugural Founding Cohort
When you join this one-time opportunity as a member of the Inaugural Founding Cohort, it includes continued access to the community and monthly Rematriation Diaries through December 2027, giving you space to stay connected beyond the six-month learning experience.
Built from lived experience. Guided by people who know the journey.
Rematriation RD was born from a simple realization: having roots in the Dominican Republic and knowing how to build a meaningful, sustainable life connected to it are two different things.
Meet Ysanet Batista Vargas
Founder & Creator, Rematriation RD
I grew up spending summers in the Dominican Republic, speaking Spanish, and staying connected to family. I thought I knew the country. But when I moved there in my twenties, I quickly learned how much I still had to understand.
I wasn't financially prepared, struggled to build relationships beyond my immediate circle, and lacked the historical and political context to navigate what I was experiencing.
When I returned to the United States, I spent the next four years preparing differently. I studied Dominican history, race, and identity, explored my ancestral roots, learned about land and community organizing, and developed relationships with people who helped me understand the island in new ways.
When I returned to DR in 2020, the country hadn't become easier to navigate. I had become better equipped.
Today, I'm raising my daughter in the Dominican Republic and building a community that brings together the knowledge, relationships, and lived experiences I once had to seek out on my own.
I created Rematriation RD because I believe our journeys deserve that kind of preparation and community. Also, no one should do this alone.
Meet Anyi Espinal
Membership & Community Coordinator, Rematriation RD - Online Community
I left the Dominican Republic as a teenager and spent 20 winters in the US Northeast as a changemaker, working with formerly incarcerated people and youth, organizing in Latino political campaigns, and leading a decade of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work. When home and my ancestors called, I answered. I planned my return step by step and arrived in 2018 with two suitcases.
Today I am a wife, a homeschooling mamá, and a land steward, living in a container home on a hilltop in Santo Domingo, near my 83-year-old mother's cacao, sugarcane, and coconut land. I am also the founder of Casa Bienestar, where I teach yoga, Ayurveda, and mindfulness.
In our community, I am your guide from the moment you apply. I welcome new members, support you through onboarding, and facilitate our community conversations (Rematriation Diaries) with the same calm and care that carried me home.
A Collective of Educators, Practitioners & Community Voices
Throughout the experience, you'll learn from Dominican educators, organizers, cultural practitioners, and people with lived experience across the island and diaspora.
Together, they bring perspectives on history, identity, political life, livelihood, land stewardship, ancestral practices, and community building.
Your next step starts with a conversation.
We're bringing together a founding community of Dominicans who are ready to explore their relationship with home more intentionally. Our application process gives us an opportunity to learn about your journey, answer your questions, and make sure the experience is a good fit.
Here's how it works
01. Submit your application
Tell us a little about yourself, your connection to the Dominican Republic, and what you're hoping to explore through Rematriation RD. The application takes about 10 minutes, and you can answer in English, Spanish, or both.
Applications close January 15, 2027, at 11:59 pm ET.
02. Connect with our team
After you complete your application, wait for the confirmation page that appears after you submit. You will see a link to schedule a conversation with Ysanet or Anyi to discuss your intentions, learn more about the experience, and explore whether it's the right fit.
03. Confirm your place
If accepted you will receive the details to complete your founding member investment and secure your place in the inaugural cohort.
If you secure your place by December 14 you’ll receive exclusive Rematriation RD merch.
If you secure your place between December 15–31 we’ll donate 10% of your membership to a local organization: Parto Humanizado, Reconoci.do, or Yemaya Surf.
Testimonials
When I first learned about Rematriation RD, I was already drawn to the idea of moving back to the Dominican Republic and starting that process. I love the fact that Ysanet is living and breathing the experience in real time. When we set time up to converse about the pros and cons of what actually goes on in the Dominican Republic, it’s a knowledgeable resource that helps me plan to make informed decisions for my family’s future
Dabrali Diaz, Author - The Music From Our CountryI first learned of rematriation through Ysanet. I think that as Dominicans in the diaspora it is important for us to think about the ways that our day to day lives and politics inform how our communities think about the island and specifically the ways that we engage with the social and political life in the island. Through my workshops with Ysanet, and through her writing, I have been able to better equip myself to better politically think about what living and even visiting the island looks like. What are the ways that I am engaging with organizing on the island? How do I engage with the land in ways that challenge nationalism? All questions that need to be engaged with prior to beginning a process of rematration.
Penelope Ramirez, Community Organizer and DesignerTestimonial 3
FAQs
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No. Rematriation is about cultivating a more intentional relationship with the Dominican Republic, whether you're preparing to relocate, exploring life between countries, or strengthening your connection from abroad. You'll have opportunities to apply what you're learning to your own circumstances and intentions.
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You're welcome here. The experience brings together Dominicans at different points in their journeys. If you're already living on the island, the conversations, cultural education, and community can support you in deepening your relationships, understanding, and participation.
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Fluency isn't required. We will have interpretation, and Rematriation RD welcomes Dominicans with different relationships to language.
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The six-month experience includes 18 live learning and community sessions, along with guided reflection and opportunities to connect between gatherings. All sessions will happen in the evening EST.
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There will be recordings available.
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Yes. The founding investment is $665 USD, with the option to pay in full or in two installments. Payment details will be shared during the enrollment process.
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You’ll have access to the online community for the entire year as part of the founding cohort. You’ll have lifetime access to the learning materials, such as recordings and the 2027 curriculum.
The relationship you want to build with home deserves your time, curiosity, and commitment.
Whether you're preparing for a return or exploring what a deeper connection could look like, you can begin that work today.
Join us for the inaugural founding cohort of Rematriation RD and spend six months learning, building relationships, and creating a path forward alongside a community of Dominicans who share that commitment.
