What is the importance of Santo Domingo in the novel, Monstro?

Santo Domingo is the narrator's ancestral homeland. The author describes the city in detail and captures its lush splendor, all while making a point of how environmental change is rapidly destroying the natural landscape and making the island increasingly uninhabitable. Capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo is the oldest colonial capital in the new world and was the sight of Christopher Columbus' arrival. As the first European settlement in the Americas, Santo Domingo is a metaphoric ground-zero itself for the disease and displacement of the region's indigenous inhabitants that led to their eventual eradication.