El Maniel

El Maniel (haven) is the name given to high places (mountains) by runaway slaves in La Hispaniola. The slaves chose the high sierras to hide because the hiking difficulty of those places. The city of San José de Ocoa was founded by these slaves.

Near Neyba in the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic, there was a place called El Maniel. In 1784 the place was described in a letter to the Spanish king by Dominican archbishop Isodoro Rodríguez as having been formed over a century before.