San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic

[Lemba]

San Francisco De Macoris, Dominican Republic, North East (Cibao)




San Francisco de Macoris, is the 3rd largest city in the Dominican Republic. It was originally inhabited by the Macorix Natives, whom spoke a different language from the "Taino" group, and exhibited different culture, they even needed translators. Followed up as a region where many Africans escaped from during Slavery, as well as Natives. The base of San Francisco de Macoris was originally made up of Africans and Afro-indegenous persons mostly, with European admixture as well. However alot of people have migrated to this town from many other towns, some near by in the Cibao and some from the south and east. There have also been some signficant foreign immigrations since the early 1900s to this town from Lebanon/Syria as well as Cuba. It is now vibrant in culture, the African presence is very vivid in the culture and people, it is recognized as one of the towns infamous for its traditional Long Drum music based on Congolese traditions (Palo), even some of the sections of the city have African names such as "Ugamba". Their is also a strong native presence as their is in most of the country, and also white crillo and middle eastern presence. Religiously there is a mixture of Roman Catholism with African religions (Dominican Vodou, 21 Divisiones), as well as a growing protestant population.

This City was founded by two Black Families, the Tejada and the DeJesus, the latter being family of mine. These two families where generous enough to donate most of their land into the making of the town which now became a city. 90% of the land that is now San Francisco de Macoris was donated by these two families. Most of the land is still countryside, but what is city is TRULY city, and highly "Developed", this fast growth is largely due to the influx of deported dominican-yorks which where original from this city and came back with alot of Traficking/Drug money, continued their operations and build most of the mansions and big houses in the town, as well as "developed" some countryside areas. The main crops here are Cacao and Rice, the local diet originally consisted of Root Vegetables such as Manioc (Yuca), Sweet Potatos, Yams, Pipiota, Yautia and many others, and proteins we have Pork, Chicken, Guinea Hens, Curios (Hutias), Turtles, and River fish, not as much sea fish as the nearest beach is atleast 45 minutes away. The town is founded on the banks of the River Jaya, and the topology is mostly valley sorrounded by mountains.

The pictures consist of street scenes, teams, churches, sports teams as well as Folklore shows. All true representations of the towns, i have as many street shots as possible, so that it may respresent what its like walking down the street of this town, phenotypically and culturally. None of these are handpicked, and none of them are from places where only certain classes would reside such as Clubs, and places with alot of people from other towns such as Universities.

[Caine]

Ay Ay Ay, mi gente mi gente!! its been wayy too long since I been to the island.

[windie]

I see White Black and Taino in many of the people. Dominicans and Mexicans form the largest recent hispanic immigrants to the Bahamas. Filipinos and recent Chinese for Asians.

[Caine]

I see White Black and Taino in many of the people. Dominicans and Mexicans form the largest recent hispanic immigrants to the Bahamas. Filipinos and recent Chinese for Asians.

While at first glance some of the people look apparently Taino-mixed, upon closer inspection many of them instead have Arabid, Mediterranean and even Seminic blood (that hook-nosed man in the last pic is a common phenotype and is a great example) from relatively recent immigration of many Arabs and Jews to the island. Not to mention, the original Spaniards that came to the island weren't the whitest Spain had to offer, including many swarthy Canary Islanders, Andalusians, etc.

Some slanty-eyed Dominicans even exist, which on first glance would appear to suggest Taino ancestry but is actually thanks to the relatively large number of Chinese and Korean immigrants as well. While the Asians and Arab-esque influence isn't necessarily dominant at all, it's present in slight nuances in many people and is pretty widespread, something Amerindiocentrists often ignore and instead use to purport supposed Taino survival (and I'm not saying you're one of those psychos, Windie, I know you aint)

Of course, some are undeniably Taino-influences phenotypes are present, like this one:

However, these are much rarer, usually isolated to very specific regions, like practically unheard-of little po-dunk villages.

[Annawon]

Has there been any dna studys on Dominicans? Most of them appear tri-racial.

[Lemba]

YES there has been DNA studies done in the D.R, one of my friends Jorge Estevez knows a group in the D.R and it was a pretty wide study, of i think 600+ people but ONLY MTDNA. All over the country in both urban, suburban, recluded, and remote areas. And overall the results for D.R's Mtdna where...

20% Taino/Amerindian
20% Eurasian (the bulk of which was berber/middle eastern)
60% African (Of which a very rare and specific haplogroup belonging to a rare ethnic group, was a commonly found distributed through the island, interesting find)

Ydna would probably tell a dna story and probably have more Afro-Euro. But in some secluded towns in parts of hte south and the cibao the taino mtdna could go up as high as 80% of the town, and in some others it could be close to 0. D.R is pretty variable, but overall the African component seems to dominate in Mtdna. Kinda the reverse of the puertorican mtdna studies where the Taino dominated.

Autosomal might tell a differnet story, but autosomal is not exactly all that accurate either. I know from oral history and looking at phenotypes in my family that i have Afro-Indegenous-Iberian. But i dont have any direct middle eastern/arabid component. I have cousins from my town who do as mentioned by Caine some Dominicans have Pseduo-taino features and some are truly taino mixed, phenotype alone is never a good way for native ancestry specially if its subtle, now if the person looks like they just walked out of the amazon there is no denying it.

[g-man]

Related article:

An Afropop Field Guide to Afro-Dominican Music Styles

Off Topic Question for Lemba:

Months ago on this forum I think you mentioned links between some Afro-Puerto Rican styles of music, specifically Bomba, and folkloric musical styles from Martinique and Guadeloupe. Would you happen to have any references or more information one could access?

[windie]

Related article:

An Afropop Field Guide to Afro-Dominican Music Styles

Off Topic Question for Lemba:

Months ago on this forum I think you mentioned links between some Afro-Puerto Rican styles of music, specifically Bomba, and folkloric musical styles from Martinique and Guadeloupe. Would you happen to have any references or more information one could access?

Offtopic

I remember his post. Dominicans for the most part identify with Hispanics or Latinos,mainly in the U.S. The same as Puerto Ricans and Cubans. I am not saying their culture is less black, or less African than English French or Dutch West Indians. Or they're not Caribbean/West Indians.

Latin America
# In one sense, Latin America refers to those territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, and (in the Caribbean) Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico � in summary, Spanish America and Brazil. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires.[7]
# Also, particularly in the United States, the term more broadly refers to all of the Americas south of the United States; thus, English-speaking countries such as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas, as well as Haiti and Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and Suriname are included. (Nevertheless, in this use, it is noted that in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, Papiamento � a predominantly Iberian�derived creole language � is spoken by the majority of the population.) This definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. (See, for example, dependency theory.)[8] As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead, as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_America

This is French Caribbean

Areas in or around the Caribbean region that are predominantly French-speaking or French Creole speaking. These areas include Martinique, Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La D�sirade, Terre-de-Haut, Terre-de-Bas), Haiti, French Guiana, French St. Martin and Saint-Barth�lemy as well as portions of Dominica, St. Lucia .

The term Anglophone Caribbean is used to refer to the independent English-speaking countries of the Caribbean region. Upon a country's full independence from the United Kingdom, Anglophone Caribbean traditionally becomes the preferred sub-regional term as a replacement to British West Indies.

The independent island-nations that are considered as Anglophone Caribbean include:

* Antigua and Barbuda
* The Bahamas
* Barbados
* Dominica (predominantly Antillean French Creole-speaking)
* Grenada (some Antillean French Creole speaking)
* Jamaica
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Saint Lucia (predominantly Antillean French Creole-speaking)
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
* Trinidad and Tobago
.

[Lemba]

Related article:

An Afropop Field Guide to Afro-Dominican Music Styles

Off Topic Question for Lemba:

Months ago on this forum I think you mentioned links between some Afro-Puerto Rican styles of music, specifically Bomba, and folkloric musical styles from Martinique and Guadeloupe. Would you happen to have any references or more information one could access?

Yes, that is an interesting article. There are variations All over the islands of Palo music in D.R.

Now about the Afro p.r music , specially bomba and how its related to Martinique Bele and Guadeloupean Gwoka, and to French Guiana Kaseko. I will make another thread comparing them, but they all use the same barrel drums, and alot of the same rythms. They all seem to be from a wave of Francophone africans who came to puretorico from one of these places, the same way they came to cuba and brought tumba francesa. In fact the earliest of puertorican bomba songs are sung in kreyol, and there are even prayers recited in kreyol called 'rosario frances' during older bomba cermeonies. The style of singing, and the rythms are very much related in all of these islands, sometimes the rythms even have the same names! In other words puertorican bomba is a mix of local pre-1800s African influence and post 1800s Francophone enslaved Africans who came from haiti, guadeloupe, martinique. I will find u some articles and videos and put it in a new thread. But thre w those names out there so u can look for yourself too. The Haitian revolution had a big impact on ALL of the carribean. As a matter of fact Dominican Bambula music is a cousin of these francophone derived african musics. But not Dominican palo.

[g-man]

Fascinating...Having heard both, I always wondered if there was a connection...Supposedly Anglophone Caribbean immigrants to Puerto Rico had some influence in the formation of Plena too, or so I've been told.