Culture
The three most important elements of Dominican culture are family, music, and food. They cannot live without all three. Music is usually played extremely loud. The three traditional forms of music were bachata, merengue and salsa, but in recent years, due to the American influence the young are now listening to reggaeton and hip hop. Merengue began in the Dominican Republic. One way to recognize the dance is by “a stiff right leg which is dragged to meet the left foot after which the left foot steps to the left to complete the sequence” (Eduljee). The Merengue music was enjoyed mainly by the poorer people of the Dominican Republic. Once upper-class people started listening to it, it became more popular. Although Merengue was not easily accepted by all, religion was a different story.
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The latest information gathered in 2006 said that 95% of the people consider themselves as Roman Catholic. This includes practicing and non-practicing (“Library”). Religion and family usually go together. Family is very important to Dominicans. When the children start working, they give money to their parents. Although the family is important, very few Dominicans actually marry, they just live together. Which is interesting since the majority of them are Catholics. The relationships do not always appear to last long, and it is common for a woman to have several children by many different fathers.” (Focus). Due to the influences of the United States on the country and the large amounts of poverty, it is common to have members of the family leave to go to America and send a part of their wages back to the Dominican Republic to their family. The final thing that Dominicans cannot live without is