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Dominican Republic RACIAL AND ETHNIC GROUPS
Ethnic Heritage
The island's indigenous inhabitants were the Taino
Indians
(Arawaks) group and a small settlement of Caribs around
the Bahía
de Samaná. These Indians, estimated to number perhaps 1
million
at the time of their initial contact with Europeans, had
died off
by the 1550s. The importation of African slaves began in
1503. By
the nineteenth century, the population was roughly
150,000:
40,000 of Spanish descent, an equal number of black
slaves, and
the remainder of freed blacks or mulattoes. In the
mid-1980s,
approximately 16 percent of the population was considered
white
and 11 percent black; the remainder were mulattoes.
Contemporary Dominican society and culture are
overwhelmingly
Spanish in origin. Taino influence is limited to cultigens
and to
a few vocabulary words, such as huracán (hurricane)
and
hamaca (hammock). African influence has been
largely
ignored, although certain religious brotherhoods with
significant
black membership incorporated some Afro-American elements.
Observers also have noted the presence of African
influence in
popular dance and music.
There was a preference in Dominican society for light
skin
and "white" racial features.Blackness in itself, however,
did not
restrict a person to a lower status position. Upward
mobility was
possible for the dark-skinned person who managed to
acquire
education or wealth. Social characteristics, focusing on
family
background, education, and economic standing, were in fact
more
prominent means of identifying and classifying
individuals.
Darker-skinned persons were concentrated in the east and
the
south. The population of the Cibao, especially in the
countryside, consisted mainly of whites or mulattoes.
Dominicans traditionally preferred to think of
themselves as
descendants of the island's Indians and the Spanish,
ignoring
their African heritage. Thus, phenotypical African
characteristics were disparaged. Emigrants to the United
States
brought a new level of racial consciousness to the
republic,
however, when they returned. Those who came back during
the 1960s
and the 1970s had experienced both racial prejudice and
the black
pride movement in North America. Returning migrants
brought back
Afro hairstyles and a variety of other Afro-North
Americanisms.
Data as of December 1989
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