flour and yucca and water starch were tossed at the passersby. All sorts of pranks and confrontations were made without minding social class distinctions. The celebration was considered a “true war.” On that day participants were forced to dress in white, according to traditions, and change as many times necessary so as to make these false confrontations, in honor of Saint Andrew who most likely never participated in a game as such, more exciting. b) The elite in power organized exclusive dances at private residences where the general public had no access. Riders in costumes walked through the streets and ports and boats adorned with the color and joy of the carnival made “flower war” demonstrations on the Ozama river as the towns folk observed from the port.
At the beginning of the school year, students from Universidad de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo University) would elect a board of directors with a treasurer, who would be in charge of organizing carnival activities. A monthly fee was charged so that students could enjoy from activities like masquerades, dances, excursions throughout the year. Raffles were also held to help with fund-raising When the activity date was near, these would rent a house, contract a popular orchestra, and look for women of doubtful ways, who they would dress in costumes, from the districts of Santa Barbara, San Miguel and San Antonio. The day of the celebration they would dance to the music until sunrise. Many drunkards would roam the streets masked, shouting disturbing words, making noise, singing out of tune, making fun of everyone, satirizing, criticizing and imitating all of the city’s authority figures, leaving observers in awe. This scandalous behavior was controlled/prohibited with sanctions for students who would avoid traditional social controls through their foreign or elite social status, which allowed them a certain degree of impunity. The students’ attitude was a subversive response to imposed social rigidity and the system’s moral hypocrisy, which contradicted with new social classes formed by economic success brought about by the prosperous sugar industry. This was really an event of cathartic dimensions, allowing for periodic relief, equilibrium and social order through the use of satire and social criticism. Religious celebrations, such as that of San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) and Las Mercedes, were accompanied by profane objects like sugarcanes, bulls and masquerades with wax eyes who would toss rotten oranges. For Corpus Christi, the colony’s most solemn religious celebration – where all social classes participated in what was considered a religious, social, political, and economic event – “the slaves would dance with frenzy to the sound of drums, wearing diabolic and animallike masks,” according to professor Manuel Mañón de Jesús Arredondo in what Cuban anthropologist Joel James called a “colonial proto carnival.” The “carnaval del agua” (water carnival) was celebrated for Saint Andrew. In addition to the traditional wax eyes (eggs with perfumed water), rotten oranges and water-filled syringes, wheat
The Carnival’s Historical Evolution INDEPENDENCE, RESTORATION, AND FIRST AMERICAN INVASION TRUJILLO’S ERA AND POSTTRUJILLO PERIOD
The struggle of European empires (Spain, France, England and Holland) for the Caribbean’s geopolitical division, the weakening of the Spanish colonization, and the rise of Haiti as an independent country, a growing Dominican consciousness and the process of “criollización” were all key variables in the formation of the Dominican society. As a result of the struggle and agreements made with the empires and the treaty of Basel in 1795, Spain ceded the oriental part of the Island to the French, which they split into two colonies. The resistance and struggle of slaves of African origin, demonstrated by their heroic and revolutionary fight, made possible Haiti’s independence on the 1st of January, 1804, thus becoming the first free and independent country in America. This was an unprecedented historical event in which rebel slaves triumphantly beat an empire, making possible what was seemingly impossible. It was a symbolic struggle in which humanity triumphed, resolving never to accept slavery again. In its struggle for survival and preservation of their independence, Haiti occupied Dominican territory, becoming the island’s sole owner throughout 22 years (1822-1844). This is the least studied and most prejudiced period in the history of
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