The Studies in the Arts: Dominican Culture course examined multiple topic that relates to the culture of Dominican Republic, the political system during the past and the present, and all forms of music and sports that are popular in the country. The introduction to Antihaitianism in the Dominican Republic was first introduce at the beginning of the course. Antihaitianism is defined as the, “prejudice against, hatred of, or discrimination against Haitians and their language, culture, and race”. The two race have been in conflict due to sharing of the same island. For a long period of time, the Dominican army would kill the Haitians with weapons. During the 20th century the government and other political party wanted the island to be separated. …show more content…
The environment was demonstrated by the beautiful beaches, and also some poverty area of the Island. The two important music that was studied in this course were merengue and bachata. Merengue can only be played with only a Dominican drum and a guira. The Dominican tambora is a two headed drum which was used to play merengue music. They were made from salvaged rum barrels. The guira is known as a metal scraper which emerges from the Dominican Republic. This was used as a percussion instrument in merengue and also some kind of bachata. Merengue was originating in the Dominican Republic which became popular throughout Latin America and also was danced and played in the Hispanic neighborhoods of the United States. The Dominican Republic is the country of origin for bachata. Since the emergence of bachata in the early 1960’s, bachata was associated with poor rural migrants. Bachata was also considered too vulgar, crude, and too musically rustic. The music was not allowed in the mainstream musical landscape. Only a few years ago bachata was now finally respected by different class of the Dominican Republic. One of bachata’s most notable characteristics was extra musical; which