The first Dominican to migrate into what is now known as the United States was sailor-turned-merchant Juan Rodríguez who arrived on Manhattan in 1613 from his home in Santo Domingo.

He arrived on Manhattan in 1613 from his home in Santo Domingo, which makes him the first non-Native American person to spend substantial time in the island.

He also became the first Dominican, the first Hispanic and the first person with European (specifically Portuguese) and African ancestry to settle in what is present day New York City.

[6] During the 1930s and 40s, the flow of Dominicans to the United States fluctuated after Rafael Trujillo, who rose to power in 1930, imposed heavy restrictions on the outward migration of his citizens.

Many of the 1,150 Dominicans immigrating to the United States between 1931 and 1940, came as secondary labor migrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico and Panama.

The first period began in 1961, when a coalition of high-ranking Dominicans, with assistance from the CIA, assassinated General Rafael Trujillo, the nation's military dictator.

[9] In the wake of his death, fear of retaliation by Trujillo's allies, and political uncertainty in general, spurred migration from the island.

In the early 1980s, unemployment, inflation and the rise in value of the dollar all contributed to the third and largest wave of emigration from the island nation, this time mostly from the lower-class.

[11] Until about the early 2000s, the majority of immigration from the Dominican Republic came from the Cibao region and "La Capital" (Santo Domingo area).

[13][14] U.S. states with higher percentages of Dominicans than the national average (0.6%) as of 2020, are Rhode Island (4.9%), New York (4.4%), New Jersey (3.5%), Massachusetts (2.6%), Connecticut (1.5%), Florida (1.3%), and Pennsylvania (1.2%).

Lawrence in particular has one of the highest percentages of Dominicans in the nation alongside Perth Amboy, New Jersey; Haverstraw, New York; and Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, there are sizeable Dominican populations in the eastern portion of the state, including Philadelphia, Hazleton, Bethlehem, Allentown and Reading.

[22] Since then, Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan has remained the center of the Dominican American community, often nicknamed "Little Santo Domingo".

[38] According to the 2013 Pew Research Center survey there is an estimation about 1.8 million of Dominican origin that are residing in the United States which account for 3.3% of the US Hispanic population in 2013.

A significant number of Dominican Americans are young, first-generation immigrants without a higher education, since many have roots in the country's rural areas.

[48] Over two dozen Dominican Americans are elected local or state legislators, mayors or other in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

[53] Traditionally, Dominicans living in the United States are passionately involved in politics "back home", but unlike other Hispanic/Latino national groups, such as Cuban Americans and Mexican Americans, they are not as inclined to take an active part in U.S. politics, but recent research has shown an increasing involvement in this area.

[57][58] Julia Alvarez is the nationally recognized author of In the Time of the Butterflies, a fictional book based on the lives of the Mirabal sisters, and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.

[59] Nelly Rosario, born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City, also won critical acclaim for her debut novel Song of the Water Saints.

Cid Wilson was ranked #1 Wall Street financial analyst in the Specialty Retailing category by Forbes in 2006.

[63][64] On July 14, 2014, he was named President & CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) in Washington, DC, thus becoming the first Afro-Latino to lead a major national Latino organization in the U.S.[65] Julio A. Portalatin, chairman and CEO of Mercer LLC (subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies), is the highest ranking Dominican American Fortune 500 executive in the U.S.[66] Traditional Dominican cuisine has translated well to the United States as Dominican Americans have opened reputable restaurants throughout the diasporic communities.

Achieving that taste is not hard in the United States as most grocery stores stock Dominican, Puerto Rican and other Latin American products made by Goya Foods.

Michelle Rodriguez, born of a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father, is known for her roles on the television series Lost and the films The Fast and the Furious, S.W.A.T.

[71] Dania Ramirez is known for playing Callisto in X-Men: The Last Stand, Sadie in Quarantine, Alex on Entourage and Maya Herrera on Heroes.

Tina Aumont, Miguel A. Nuñez, Karen Olivo (a Tony Award winner), Victor Rasuk, Judy Reyes, Shalim Ortiz (son of Charytín) and Tristan Wilds also have Dominican origin.

[78] President Barack Obama made his first major Dominican American appointment on March 13, 2009, when he nominated Thomas E. Perez to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and later United States Secretary of Labor.

[86] In September 2017, New York-based rapper Cardi B became the first person of Dominican descent to reach number one in the history of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, since it was launched in 1958.

The larger portion of MLB players of Dominican origin immigrated from the Dominican Republic, number in the hundreds, and count among them Robinson Canó, José Bautista, Rafael Soriano, David Ortiz, Albert Pujols, Edwin Encarnacion, Hanley Ramírez, Manny Ramírez, Bartolo Colón and Hall of Fame members Juan Marichal, Vladimir Guerrero and Pedro Martínez.

Basketball has seen the likes of Felipe López, Francisco Garcia and the father-son pair of Tito and Al Horford, all originally from the Dominican Republic, as well as Charlie Villanueva and 2015 NBA draft top pick Karl-Anthony Towns from the New York area.

[91] Among other notables of full or partial Dominican origins are Nancy Alvarez, sexologist and talk show host in Spanish-language media; Susie Castillo, Miss USA 2003; Mary Joe Fernández, a tennis player and television commentator; CNN columnist Geovanny Vicente, a community leader and political strategist in Washington, D.C.;[92][93] Providencia Paredes, an assistant and confidante to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; and Ilka Tanya Payan, an AIDS/HIV activist, actress and attorney.