Dominican Identity Research Paper

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-NUESTRO origen racial blanco y nuestra tradición de pueblo hispánico, no nos deben impedir reconocer que la nacionalidad se halla en peligro de desintegrarse si no se emplean remedios drásticos contra la amenaza haitiana. (Joaquín BALAGUER, La Isla Al Revés, 1983). Dominicanidad and the “Haitian other” In the case of the Dominican Republic’s national identity, one of dominicanidad, a sense of being Dominican, has been created on the notion of national race, rather than ethnicity emphasizing the importance of color (Baranov 2003: 227). In the Dominican Republic a national identity has been constructed on the emphasis of hispanidad and an indigenous past, the denial of African roots and a strong anti-Haitian feeling. If one is ‘truly’ Dominican, one is simply ‘not Haitian’. While the two countries share the same island they are complete opposites. Haitians are…show more content…
However Dominicans rarely use the term mulatto, rather they prefer to refer to themselves as Indio/a (Indian) . This seems odd because the Indians were wiped out within a century and because of the frequent denigrating use of the term Indio/a in many Latin American countries. The message in the Dominican Republic is: ‘If one is not white, better to be “Indian” than African’ (Howard 2001: 25). Indio is the word most used to describe someone with a darker skin-complex with all kinds of adjectives added to it, to make more distinctions within it. Furthermore, Dominicans use a wide range of color-coded terms to deny African ancestry. Skin colors as “trigueno”, “Moreno”, “claro”, “aceitunado” or “Blanco oscuro”, and “cenizo” are regularly applied to the slightest variation of color and tend to be wholly inconsistent and variable in their usage. People try to avoid the use of black, since black is for the Haitians, and is associated with ugly and poor (Howard 2001:
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