The River Ozama has been used in art, mainly in poetry, as a symbol of the country. Many poets wrote poems about the river when they were out of the country because of political reasons; they sang to the river to represent the return to their country. José Joaquín Puello, a Dominican poet of the 19th century, wrote several poems where the name is used to represent the country; two of them are "Ecos del destierro" ("Distant sounds from the exile") and "La vuelta al hogar" ("Back to home").