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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Dominican Republic
Index
A bohío, or rural hut
DOMINICAN SOCIETY OF THE LATE 1980s reflected the
country's
Spanish-Caribbean heritage. It manifested significant
divisions
along the lines of race and class. A small fraction of the
populace controlled great wealth, while the vast majority
struggled to get by. The middle stratum worked both to
maintain
and to extend its political and economic gains. Generally
speaking, Dominican society offered relatively few avenues
of
advancement; most of those available allowed families of
middling
means to enhance or to consolidate their standing.
The majority of the population was mulatto, the
offspring of
Africans and Europeans. The indigenous Amerindian
population had
been virtually eliminated within half a century of initial
contact. Immigrants--European, Middle Eastern, Asian, and
Caribbean--arrived with each cycle of economic growth. In
general, skin color followed the social hierarchy: lighter
skin
was associated with higher social and economic status.
European
immigrants and their offspring found more ready acceptance
at the
upper reaches of society than did darker-skinned
Dominicans.
The decades following the end of the regime of Rafael
Leónidas Trujillo Molina (1930-61) were a time of
extensive
changes as large-scale rural-urban and international
migration
blurred the gulf between city and countryside. Traditional
attitudes persisted: peasants continued to regard urban
dwellers
with suspicion, and people in cities continued to think of
rural
Dominicans as unsophisticated and naive. Nonetheless, most
families included several members who had migrated to the
republic's larger cities or to the United States.
Migration
served to relieve some of the pressures of population
growth.
Moreover, cash remittances from abroad permitted families
of
moderate means to acquire assets and to maintain a
standard of
living far beyond what they might otherwise have enjoyed.
The alternatives available to poorer Dominicans were
far more
limited. Emigration required assets beyond the reach of
most.
Many rural dwellers migrated instead to one of the
republic's
cities. The financial resources and training of these
newcomers,
however, were far inferior to those among typical families
of
moderate means. For the vast majority of the republic's
population, the twin constraints of limited land and
limited
employment opportunities defined the daily struggle for
existence.
In the midst of far-reaching changes, the republic
continued
to be a profoundly family oriented society. Dominicans of
every
social stratum relied on family and kin for social
identity and
for interpersonal relationships of trust and confidence,
particularly in the processes of migration and
urbanization.
Data as of December 1989
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