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The
Dominican Republic was the first country
colonized by the European invaders from
Spain. These settlers brought with them
diseases and greed, the combination of
which decimated the native population.
To replace their workers, the colonists
started to import slaves. The Dominican
Republic's culture is said to have roots
in Europe, Africa, and Indigenous America.
(Many Dominicans, however, prefer to think
of ourselves as European.)
While
Dominicans regard themselves as being all
one big Dominican family, there are vast
differences in class and education that
separate different groups. There are very
rich people, e.g. the Barcelo family, and
there are very humble, poor farmers and
marginal urban barrio-dwellers. The metropolitan
culture available to the upper class and
vanishing (due to economic turbulence as
of late) middle class is often comparable
to the life of city dwellers in the rich
countries of Western Europe and the United
States. But
this metropolitan culture doesn't reach
the poorest people, who may not have the
most basic amenities-- light, running water,
sanitary facilities, electronic goods.
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The
things that all class groups share are particularist
interpersonal relations, folk Catholocism, and
popular music.
Dominicans
are known by outsiders to be gifted at the art
of indirect communication. The phrases "no
hay problema" and "es Ud. que sabe"
are popular and heavily used manners of deflecting
disagreement. In the small society which is
"the Dominican Family," it is highly
important that people not embarrass each other
nor be seen to act with malice. Ideally, one
wishes to develop "confianza" with
as many people as possible. Who one knows is
a much more important than any law or absolute
standard of conduct.
As
such, it is very important to be open, warm,
and friendly. Foreigners can be surprised at
the ease with which rural people will offer
them food or coffee, as well as how social people
are in public spaces. It is good to be willing
to converse with anyone, and good form to inquire
about the health of one's acquaintances' family,
even if one does not know the family. In the
rural poor areas, anyone can reasonably expect
to walk in to a house and be offered coffee
or a meal, though the large urban areas are
quite a contrast to this form of life.
A
typical casual rural conversation upon meeting
someone else would be
Campesino
#1: Ay! Digame, como 'sta la cosa? Campesino
#2: Bueno, Ud. lo ve como va. Y la famila suya,
como 'stan? Campesino #1: 'Stan bien, gracias
a Dios. Campesino #2 Y la mujer? Campesino #1
Ay, esta un poco regular, pero mejor, gracias
a Dios. Campesino #2 Bueno, entonces nos vemos...
Campesino #1: Abul, abul!
Folk
catholocism is the religion of the country.
Not so many people are observant communion-taking
Catholics, but most everyone is nominally Catholic
unless they convert to Evangelical Christianity.
The Evangelical movement is strong in certain
areas, particularly the East, the Capital, and
Samana.
In
addition to the conventional beliefs of the
Roman Catholic Church, Dominican Catholics are
involved in the cult of the saints, and the
cult of the national virgins, Altagracia and
Mercedes, the latter two being symbols of Dominican
identity just as much as the flag.
The
music style of merengue is unique to the republic,
but also similar to the Cuban-Haitian son. Bachata
is also a Dominican invention, one that has
become increasingly popular worldwide.
The
national beer is Presidente, the drink is rum,
and the game is either dominos or baseball.
Dominicans
speak a Spanish that they describe as "morcha'o",
or cut off. There is the tendency to simplify
certain consonant combinations, especially -ado,
and to level c, z, and s such that cazar, casar
and cacer might sound similar. Unlike Mexican
Spanish, for instance, Dominicans emphasize
the vowel sounds. Dominicans truncate or aspirate
their final s es such that "Vamos a las
dos o a las tres" sounds like "vamo
a las doh o a lah treh." Like our Puerto
Rican and Cuban neighbors, the /r/ final may
be flattened into an /l/. In fact the pronunciation
of the final r is indicative of regionalism:
people from the Cibao speak with the "ai,"
the south with rolled /~r/, and the east with
the flattened /l/.
The
Cibao ai is a uniquely identifying linguistic
habit. Mujer sounds like mujeai, and "algunos"
would be pronounced "aiigunos."
The
Dominican Republic is a tuteo country, which
is to say that the form of the familiar second
person is "tu."
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and sources:
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