The culture of the Dominican Republic is a diverse mixture of different influences from around the world. The Dominican people and their customs have origins consisting predominantly in a European cultural basis, with Indigenous and African influences., Claudio «La hispanización del mestizaje cultural en América» Revista Complutense de Historia de América, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. p. 133 (1981)
The Dominican Republic was the site of the first European settlement in the Western Hemisphere, namely Santo Domingo founded in 1493. As a result of over five centuries of Spanish presence in the island, the core of Dominican culture is derived from the culture of Spain. The European inheritances include ancestry, language, traditions, law, the predominant religion and the colonial architectural styles. Soon after the arrival of Europeans, African people were imported to the island to serve as slave labor. The fusion of European, Indigenous, and African traditions and customs contributed to the development of present-day Dominican culture.
Language
Spanish is the official language in the Dominican Republic. The country has a variety of accents most of which derive from the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands and western Andalusia of southern Spain. The accent spoken in the Cibao region is a mixture of two dialects: that of the 16th- and 17th-century Portuguese colonists in the Cibao valley, and that of the 18th-century Canarian settlers. Dominican Spanish also has borrowed vocabularies from the Arawak language. Some common words derived from the Taíno natives include: barbecue, canoe, caribbean, hammock, hurricane, iguana, manatee, mangrove, savannah, and tobacco among others.
Schools in the Dominican Republic are based on a Spanish educational model. Both English and French are taught as secondary languages on private and public schools. Haitian Creole is spoken by the population of Haitian origin and Dominicans that live in provinces close to the border.
Samaná English is a variety of the English language spoken by descendants of Black immigrants from the United States who have lived in the Samaná Peninsula, there's currently is a community of about 8,000 speakers in the Samaná Peninsula. Tourism, American pop culture, the influence of Dominican Americans, and the country's economic ties with the United States motivates other Dominicans to learn English.
Religion
The Dominican Republic is 68.9% Roman Catholic, 18.2% Evangelical, 10.6% with no religion, and 2.3% other. Recent immigration, as well as proselytizing, has brought other religions, with the following shares of the population: Spiritist: 2.2%, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 1.1%, Buddhist: 0.1%, Baháʼí: 0.1%, Chinese Folk Religion: 0.1%, Islam: 0.02%, Judaism: 0.01%. The nation has two patroness saints: Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia (Our Lady Of High Grace) and Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (Our Lady Of Mercy).
The Catholic Church began to lose popularity in the late 19th century. This was due to a lack of funding, of priests, and of support programs. During the same time, the Protestant evangelical movement began to gain support. Religious tension between Catholics and Protestants in the country has been rare.
There has always been religious freedom throughout the entire country. Not until the 1950s were restrictions placed upon churches by Trujillo. Letters of protest were sent against the mass arrests of government adversaries. Trujillo began a campaign against the church and planned to arrest priests and bishops who preached against the government. This campaign ended before it was even put into place, with his assassination.
During World War II, a group of Jews escaping Nazi Germany fled to the Dominican Republic and founded the city of Sosúa. It has remained the center of the Jewish population since.
Music
Musically, the Dominican Republic is known for the creation of multiple musical styles and genres. The country's music culture is mostly recognized for merengue, a lively, fast-paced rhythm and dance music consisting of a tempo of about 120 to 160 beats per minute (though it varies) based on musical elements like African drums, brass, piano, chorded instruments, and traditionally the accordion, as well as some elements unique to the Dominican Republic, such as the tambora and güira. Its syncopated beats use Latin percussion, brass instruments, bass, and piano or keyboard. Between 1937 and 1950 merengue music was promoted internationally by Dominican groups like Chapuseaux and Damirón "Los Reyes del Merengue", Joseito Mateo, and others. Radio, television, and international media popularized it further. Some well-known merengue performers include Johnny Ventura, singer/songwriter Juan Luis Guerra, Fernando Villalona, Eddy Herrera, Sergio Vargas, Toño Rosario, Milly Quezada, and Chichí Peralta. Merengue became popular in the United States, mostly on the East Coast, during the 1980s and 1990s, when many Dominican artists, among them Víctor Roque y La Gran Manzana, Henry Hierro, Milly Jocelyn y Los Vecinos, residing in the U.S. (particularly New York) started performing in the Latin club scene and gained radio airplay. The emergence of bachata, along with an increase in the number of Dominicans living among other Latino groups in New York, New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts contributed to Dominican music's overall growth in popularity.
Bachata is a guitar-based genre that originated in the Dominican countryside and developed into a music style in urban Santo Domingo's shantytowns in the 1960s. The term "bachata" originally referred to informal gatherings in backyards. Early bachata drew influence from a wide range of Latin American genres, including Cuban bolero and son, Puerto Rican jíbaro music, Mexican corrido and ranchera, Colombian vals campesino and pasillo, and Dominican merengue. A typical bachata group features five instruments: the requinto (lead guitar), segunda (rhythm guitar), bass, bongos, and güira. Over time, the instrumentation has evolved, reflecting musicians' personal styles and the genre's development. Some have incorporated electric guitars, piano, saxophones, and additional percussion instruments like timbales. In the 1970s and 1980s, bachata was dismissed by the Dominican elites due to its association with rural, working-class communities, its use of sexual innuendo, and the informal musical training of many performers. However, the release of Juan Luis Guerra's Bachata Rosa album in the early 1990s propelled bachata into the mainstream, eventually surpassing merengue in both popularity and album sales. Despite this, bachata flourished and has now gained worldwide acceptance. One of the most popular bands making bachata music was the former band Aventura.
Palo is an Afro-Dominican sacred music that can be found throughout the island. The drum and human voice are the principal instruments. Palo is played at religious ceremonies - usually coinciding with feast days for saints - as well as for secular parties and special occasions. Its roots are in the Congo region of central-west Africa, but it is mixed with European influences in the melodies. Palos are related to Dominican folk Catholicism, which includes a pantheon of deities/saints (primarily known as misterios) much like those found in the African derived syncretic religious traditions of Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, and elsewhere. Palos are usually associated with the lower class, black and mixed populations.
Salsa music has had a great deal of popularity in the country. During the late 1960s Dominican native Johnny Pacheco, creator of the famed Fania All Stars, played a significant role in the music's development and popularization, and is also credited for coining the term "Salsa" to denote the genre.
Dominican rock is also popular among younger and not so younger crowds of the Dominican Republic. Dominican rock is influenced by British and American rock, but also has its own sense of unique style. The rock scene in the Dominican Republic has been very vibrant in recent years, spanning genres of rock such as pop rock, reggae/rock, and punk. There are also several underground metal concerts occurring occasionally mainly in the cities of Santo Domingo and Santiago, where teenagers and young adults usually not satisfied with the other genres express themselves. Luis Días, known as "El Terror," is widely regarded as the father of this genre. A prolific musician and composer, Días' influence extends far beyond rock, leaving a lasting impact across multiple musical styles.
Cuisine
Dominican Republic cuisine is predominantly made up of a combination of Spanish, Indigenous, and African influences. Many Middle-Eastern dishes have been adopted into Dominican cuisine, such as the "Quipe" that comes from the Lebanese kibbeh. Dominican cuisine resembles that of other countries in Latin America, those of the nearby islands of Puerto Rico and Cuba, most of all, though the dish names differ sometimes.
A traditional breakfast would consist of mangú, sauteed onions, fried eggs, fried salami, fried cheese and sometimes avocado. This is called "Los Tres Golpes" or "The Three Hits". As in Spain, the largest, most important meal of the day is lunch. Its most typical form, nicknamed La Bandera ("The Flag"), consists of rice, red beans and meat (beef, chicken, pork, or fish), sometimes accompanied by a side of salad.
Meals tend to favor meats and starches over dairy products and vegetables. Many dishes are made with sofrito, which is a mix of local herbs used as a wet rub for meats and sautéed to bring out all of a dish's flavors. Throughout the south-central coast, bulgur, or whole wheat, is a main ingredient in quipes or tipili (bulgur salad).
Other favorite Dominican foods are chicharrón, yuca, casabe, pastelitos (empanadas), batata, yam, chaca (also called maiz caqueao/casqueado, maiz con dulce and maiz con leche), chimichurris, tostones. Some treats Dominicans enjoy are arroz con leche (or arroz con dulce), bizcocho dominicano (lit. Dominican cake), habichuelas con dulce, flan, frío frío (snow cones), dulce de leche, and caña (sugarcane). The beverages Dominicans enjoy include Morir Soñando, rum, beer, Mama Juana, batida (smoothie), jugos naturales (freshly squeezed fruit juices), mabí, and coffee.
Sports
Baseball is by far the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic. The country has a baseball league of six teams. The Milwaukee Brewers have a summer league here called the baseball academy. The baseball season usually begins during October and ends in January. After the United States, the Dominican Republic has the second-highest number of Major League Baseball (MLB) players. Ozzie Virgil, Sr. became the first Dominican-born player in the MLB on September 23, 1956. Juan Marichal is the first Dominican-born player in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Some of the highest paid baseball players of all time Juan Soto, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, and Robinson Canó are of Dominican descent. Other notable baseball players from the Dominican Republic are: Julián Javier, Pedro Martínez, Francisco Liriano, Manny Ramírez, José Bautista, Hanley Ramírez, David Ortiz, Ubaldo Jiménez, José Reyes, Alcides Escobar, Plácido Polanco and Sammy Sosa. Felipe Alou has also enjoyed success as a manager, and Omar Minaya as a general manager. In 2013, the Dominican team went undefeated en route to winning the World Baseball Classic.
In boxing, the Dominican Republic has produced scores of world-class fighters and several world champions. Basketball also enjoys a relatively high level of popularity. Al Horford, Felipe Lopez, and Francisco Garcia are among the Dominican-born players currently or formerly in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Olympic gold medalist and world champion hurdler Félix Sánchez hails from the Dominican Republic, as does NFL defensive end Luis Castillo.