In response to:

Very Bad News from the March 24, 2005 issue

To the Editors:

In my article “Very Bad News” [NYR, March 24] I confused the names of Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean, and the Dominican Republic, the Spanish-speaking half of the island of Hispaniola, and perhaps too glibly referred to the latter as “Spanish-Indian,” whereas the Indian element has long since been radically reduced. I apologize for the error.

Clifford Geertz

Princeton, New Jersey

This Issue

June 9, 2005