The Dominican Republic has achieved something rare: UNESCO recognition of two of its musical genres as intangible cultural heritage — merengue in 2016 and bachata in 2019.
Merengue
Merengue was born in the nineteenth century in the Cibao, the agricultural north, with a characteristic line-up: accordion, güira — a metal scraper — and tambora, a two-headed drum played with hand and stick. Its fast two-beat rhythm and simple side step make it accessible to anyone.
For decades it was rural music despised by the elites, until the Trujillo regime adopted it as a national symbol in the 1930s and moved it into the ballrooms. Merengue típico, or perico ripiao, keeps the original line-up; orchestra merengue, with brass, is what went international in the 1980s and 90s.
Bachata
Bachata is younger and had an even worse press. It emerged in the mid-twentieth century in poor neighbourhoods and the countryside, with guitars, bongo and lyrics of heartbreak and bitterness, and for years was dismissed as cantina music and kept off the radio.
Its rehabilitation came through Juan Luis Guerra, who brought it to an international audience in the late 1980s, and then through a generation of Dominican groups in New York who fused it with pop. Today it is danced worldwide.
The carnival
The Dominican carnival runs every Sunday in February, with the main parades at the end of the month and the national parade in Santo Domingo in early March. Its central figure is the diablo cojuelo, in papier-mâché masks with elaborate horns and vivid costumes hung with mirrors and bells.
The devils carry vejigas — inflated, dried animal bladders — with which they strike spectators on the legs. It is part of the game and does not hurt much, but it is worth knowing before standing in the front row.
The La Vega carnival is the most famous and the most crowded; Santiago, with its lechones, and Monte Cristi, with its bulls and civilians, have very different traditions of their own.
Where to dance
In Santo Domingo the Colonial Zone concentrates venues with live music, and the Malecón fills at weekends. In any village the corner colmado turns the music up on Saturday afternoon, and that is in fact the usual stage.
Perico ripiao
If you want to hear merengue in its original form, look for a perico ripiao trio — accordion, guira and tambora — which still plays at fiestas patronales, roadside stops and family celebrations across the Cibao. It sounds startlingly different from the orchestral merengue exported in the nineties.