One island, two worlds. “Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures” (Chavez). Recently the idea of merging the Dominican Republic and Haiti has gotten vast amount of attention. There has been an extensively turbulent past between these two countries, ever since the formation of the “Hispaniola”. The tensions between these two countries were eased for a period of time, after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. At this point, the Dominican Republic aided Haiti in its time of need. This earthquake resulted in the idea of merging both countries to benefit one another economically. Ultimately, the merge of these two cultures would destroy both cultures. The Dominican Republic and …show more content…
“…Spanish is the official language, in the Dominica Republic…” (Dominican Republic - Culture.). “…French and Creole are the official languages, in Haiti…” (Haiti-culture). Although these two countries are on the same island, they both have different influences. The Dominican Republic gets Spanish from the Spanish colonist, while Haiti get French from the French colonist and creole, which is “a creolized version of French” (Haitian-creole), due to its African influences. By having three distinct languages, the problem of which language would be used if these two countries were to merge. If either of the three languages were to be eliminated, citizens of either country would feel stripped away from a part of their cultural …show more content…
“Haitian culture developed out of centuries of slavery and colonialism… Haitians created a distinctive new culture…” (Haiti). “…The Dominican Republic’s society and culture largely reflect its Hispanic heritage; African traditions have also influenced the nation because of its slave heritage…” (Dominican Republic). Both countries African roots may seem to be common ground, however the French influenced Haitian culture and the Spanish influenced Dominican culture make up the majority of both countries. Sports and recreation, play a part in cultures to provide both a source of entertainment and a sense of unity. In the Dominican Republic, baseball is the national past time whilst in Haiti, cockfighting is a common pastime. Although in both countries there are some who practice similar recreations, there will be an extent of a cultural barriers since the majority in either prefer their countries pastimes. The arts give most cultures an identity to who the people of these countries are. Literature in Haiti is mostly written in French (some in Creole), while in the Dominican Republic, Spanish dominates all of its literature. Culture is important in both countries, if either or even both were to be extinct, unique values and traditions would be lost for future
The Nation of Haiti has been plagued with excessive bad luck when it comes to external invasion. Whether it be larger countries taking control, or outsiders brought in as slaves, Haiti has endured many hardships. These issues, while very common in a lot of countries, are exposed in a short story by a native Haitian. In “A Wall of Fire Rising”, Edwidge Danticat illustrates a myriad of historical issues in Haiti from the 17th to the 20th century through a series of events in one family’s life. One such issue would be the Haitian Revolution and the consequences that came of it.
The languages of these two ethnic groups are completely different. Dominicans speak Spanish and Afro-Americans speak English. Dominicans don't speak casual Castillan Spanish. They speak Spanish with a twist of African influences. Gleijeses says, "Dominicans don't speak true Spanish, so they are not treated as Spanish” (7). African-Americans speak English with a diffe...
Today I bring to your forefront of thought, the island of Hispaniola. This island is the namesake for the two countries who run the land, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both nations hail from a joint introduction into the world market and post-European colonization, but as time progressed, each one had a different outlook to the world stage. The present day Dominican Republic and Haiti are worlds apart on an island which keeps them together. Their culture is separated by the colonial residuals that lay imbedded into their communities. They are on different sides of the spectrum of structural growth due to the resulting outcomes from decades of political ruling and policy making. On one side we have the second independent state of the Americas,
The Dominican Republic is different from many countries but specially the United States. Many people go on summer to the Dominican Republic but had they ever ask themselves what makes this small and beautiful island different from the most powerful country in the world (The United States).When I wake up in the Dominican Republic the year stations are all the same, hot, no change. The climate in the Dominican Republic is Semitropical. The language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish. Still the culture of the Dominican Republic is unique. The Dominican culture is awesome all types of colors and variety in base of people. People dance all the time. However every weekend is a celebration. I can go to the beach whenever I like to, I don’t have to wait until summer. But what does it makes it different from United States. In contrast when I wake up in the United States it can be cold one day and the next day hot. The climate in the United States varies due to the differences in latitude and a range of geography features. Basically United States has 4 types of weather, cold, not too cold, a little bit hot, too hot. The language in the United States is English. The culture of the United States is Western, but is influenced by African, Native Americans, Asian, Polynesian, and Latin American. United States has a mix culture because people come all over the world, to have better opportunities or just to change their way of life. The weekends in the United States are
Haiti is located in the Caribbean; it occupies the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. Haitians migrated to the U.S. due to regime change. In Florida, over 700,000 Haitians live there (Background on Haiti & Haitian Health Culture). Many Haitian-Americans share both cultures. There are similarities and differences between the American and Haitian culture. The two cultures have different foods, holidays and economy.
is a very sports-minded country. Baseball, basketball, football, and hockey are the most watched along with many other sports. However baseball is known as “America’s favorite pastime”. In America, games are usually played within its country’s borders. If a game is played outside of the country they will call it a “world championship” or something of the like (American Behavior). The main sport for Spanish speaking countries is futból, which is also known as soccer. In Hispanic culture this sport is huge, everyone learns to play when a kid and continues to either pay or watch as an adult (Spanish Culture). Bullfighting and bicycling are also common in this culture. Hispanic cultures spreads through many different countries around Spain, therefore they would go outside country borders to play other teams for games (Understanding the Hispanic
“Family is the most important thing in the world.” ~ Princess Diana. The Dominican Republic is a diverse country in the Caribbean. It shares many of the same values and norms as the United States. In order to fully understand Dominican Republic families it is important to look at their structure, traditions, and values.
Language is an important value for the nationalistic identity of a nation. Hispanic culture is the way of life of people from Latin America and Spain, and their main identifying factor is the fact that they speak Spanish as their main language. Therefore, Hispanics are not necessarily Spaniards but other groups like Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans who speak Spanish are also part of this group (Shaw and Dennison 207). American culture on the other hand is mainly comprised of the people who speak English as their main dialect. Therefore, the Spaniards have Spanish as their native language while the Americans use Englis...
Haiti means “mountains country” Haitian culture represents a specific mix of physical characters especially skin color, hair texture. hair color and facial features the African culture is an ethics mix of African and European elements due to the French, African and indigenous dialects. Major customs of Haitian culture are Catholicism and voodoo a mixture of African animism which means belief in spirits and nature, some Haitians even practice both at one time. There are significant holidays in the Haitian culture as well voodoo is considered a holiday(is a belief system based on practices and traditions that originates from west African traditional regions)
Several of the problems that Haiti faces today have their genesis in the country’s colonial history. The country was like a toy being fought over by spoiled children. The first of these children arrived in the early sixteenth century in the form of Spanish settlers in search of gold. They enslaved the native Taino population and, poisoned by avarice, nearly eradicated the indigenous work force. Thousands of African slaves were brought in to take their place. Eventually, the Spanish left the island to grab their share of newly discovered treasure in other lands. Tiring of their toy, the Spanish
The economics of Haiti has deceased in the last 4 years after the devastating earthquake that struck it 4 years ago. The Haiti economy has become very poor and one of the poorest country in the south, Central America and Caribbean region making it ranked 24 out of 29 countries in this area and its overall score is below average. Haiti’s economic freedom is 48.1 making it economy the 151st freest country while in the last several years Declines in the management of government spending, freedom from corruption, and labor freedom make its overall score 2.6 points lower than last year. Recovering from the disastrous earthquake in 2010 with the support of the U.S. recovering efforts “Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction efforts continue, assisted by substantial aid from the international community. Governing institutions remain weak and inefficient, and overall progress has not been substantial. The parliament has not renewed the mandate of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which had been tasked with overseeing reconstruction efforts but was unpopular.”( .heritage.org). The open market of Haiti trade weighted to be 2.1 this is because the lack of tariffs hamper the trade freedom of Haiti. Foreign investors are given national treatment but the investment is small and the financial sector is remained underdeveloped and does not provide any adequate support.
Puerto Rico is a small island in the Caribbean that holds a vast, and rich culture. Due to its accessible geographical location, it is often called the key to the Caribbean. Puerto Rico enriched its people with one of the most innate and unique culture different from the rest of the world. The colonization of Spaniards left us not only with myriad architectural heritage, but also with language and cultural traditions that beholds Hispanic imagery and representations. Our music, our love of dancing and festivities, as well as our practice of Catholic beliefs represents
Haiti lifestyle and America lifestyle is different. In Haiti They don’t have the same sources as Americans do. In fact, Most Haitians don’t have Electricity and rely on charcoal for energy. While in America most people are able use stoves or microwaves to prepare food quickly. People in Haiti don’t bathe as much as people in America because they don’t have access to clean or running water. However, In America people are able to bathe every day. In America people often eat 3 meals a day which is breakfast, lunch and dinner. In Haiti they only eat 2 meals a day. Haitians usually eat bread and coffee in the morning and later on the evening they eat fried meat like goat, chicken, pork etc. Americans on the other hand, may eat eggs, bacon, sausages,
The word community is defined as a group of individuals residing in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. We all, whether we know this or not, belong to particular communities and even sub communities (self contained community within an unusually large area). One particular community that I've been a part of during my entire life is the Haitian community. An Haitian Community is usually a place where a group of Haitian nationals reside, we share many cultural beliefs and practices together. In this paper I will be investigating some of the beliefs and practices of the Haitian Community.
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Agriculture is one of the incomes of the population. However, everything changes after the 2010 earthquake. The losses caused by the quake were between 8 billons and 14 billons dollars (Haiti earthquake). Joblessness, the lack of Foodland, the lack of clean water, further affected the economy because people chose to emigrate to other places for work such as the Dominican Republic (Haiti earthquake). Furthermore, “Haiti was a Republic of non-governmental organization to become a Republic of unemployment,” and in order to accomplish an economical growth Haiti needs the investment of companies that can help many of the people find jobs. Companies such Royal Oasis, are creating hundreds of jobs for many Haitians. Thayer Watkins, an economics teacher at San Jose State University, provides his review in his analysis of the Political and Economic History of Haiti, which states more than 80 percent of th...