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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.
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.
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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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