Dominican Music and Film Essay - 2093 Words

Dominican Music and Film The Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic is little known by most Americans, but America is ever present in the Dominican consciousness. Until Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire went head to head in the legendary homerun battle of 1998, few Americans were aware of any American-Dominican rivalry in western hemispheric culture. Nothing gave Dominicans more pride than to see Sosa hold Major League Baseballs homerun record, albeit for less than 24 hours before McGuire reclaimed U.S. dominance in Americas favorite pastime. Only merengue, a tropical music and dance form, exceeds baseball in its ability to raise Dominican nationalist sentiment vis-à  -vis the United States. For years, Dominican musicians and†¦show more content†¦During the dictatorship, popular lyrics extolled the virtues of Trujillismo even as it was speciously based on terror and rule by a mano dura (iron fist). After Trujillo was killed in an assassination plot that many Dominicans deemed heroic (see next page), merengue faced an uncertain future. Artists trained during the trujillato, including king of merengue Johnny Ventura, summarily dropped the overt propaganda, but they emerged from the Trujillo era with a heightened awareness of the power of their craft. Johnny Ventura would later become an active political figure, and in 1998, win the mayoral election of Santo Domingo, the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic. In an interview in the summer of 2000, Johnny Ventura asserts, I believe getting involved#8212;not just the artists#8212;in the search for solutions to the great wrongs and problems that we [Dominicans] face should be everyones obligation. Of course the great majority of Dominican leaders are non-artists, but Venturas statement highlights an assumption in Dominican culture that merengueros can make serious contributions to Dominican society and politics. Monumento a la muerte del Tirano Trujillos Death Monument De 1930 a 1961, el tirano Rafael Leonidas Trujillo dirigià ³ la Repà ºblica Dominicana como dictador y se mantuvo en el poder mediante el imperio del terror. En 1961 su auto fueShow MoreRelatedCrash and Racism886 Words   |  4 PagesPaul Haggis’ Crash is a drama set in the Los Angels area, the main concept of the film is racial and social tensions in L.A., Paul Haggis claims that it’s a â€Å"passion piece† due to it being inspired by a real life incident wherein his car was stolen outside a store in 1991 as he clearly states on the Crash commentary track. Now my reaction to this film was at first shocked and in awe of the brutality of the first 30 minutes. Such as Anthony and Peter’s discussion in the first few minutes aboutRead MoreLatin American Music And Its Impact On America915 Words   |  4 Pagesa lot of contributions to the USA such as military, language, fine arts, literal arts, music, politics, food and others. 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