By Amaury Rodríguez
January 26, 2023
Eight in a series of articles that focus on research of Dominican history and society.
As of this writing, we (humanity) have survived tremendous hardships. It’s winter and you want something real, exciting and worth pursuing. We know you want to move on from the traditional historical narrative. So we came up with some ideas, a brief outline of Dominican topics to explore this year and beyond.
1. Zapote and the Political Economy of Batidas in the Dominican Republic
Making and enjoying a batida (fruit milkshakes) at home or at a cafeteria represent one of the less explored aspects of Dominican food consumption. Batidas are obviously modern drinks tied to the emergence of home appliances and the idea of the Americanized modern family. The popularization of batidas in the 1980s and 1990s was a revolutionary (literally) process as it signified the acceleration of manual labor through the use of a blender machine. And while the traditional jugo’s naturales did not rely in synthesizing various ingredients, sweeteners and refrigeration, batida preparation required mixing to attain a flavorful and thicker drink. Through the lens of batidas, researchers will study the ongoing consumption of sugar and processed cow milk as well as the uses of home appliances such as blenders and refrigerators in a country where black-outs are the norm.
As a bonus, researchers will also study Dominican’s irrational love for zapote (also known as mamey) juice/batida.
2. Historical Memory, Social Media and Balaguer’s Reign of Terror
This research will examine the role of social media in preserving historical memory. In recent years, more and more young people are using social media to remember victims of Joaquín Balaguer’s twelve-year dictatorship (1966-1978). Via the use of memes, young people continue to maintain the figure of Balaguer in the forefront of political discourse by using humor. Although the younger generation have no physical memory of this traumatic past, young people who use and consume social media become part of this collective memory by rescuing the past and breaking the silence around state repression; in the process, social media users demand justice for those who suffered at the hands of the state hoping to preserve the archive of terror in digital form.
3. Extra! Extra! Canillitas and Child Labor in Santo Domingo
Historically, children in the Dominican Republic worked as street sellers or canillitas selling newspapers. This research will analyze, explore and historize newspaper distribution by children during the heyday of the Dominican press (spanning the 1970s to the 1990s) when poor and working-class children sold newspapers in street corners and in most occasions, walked long distances outside of their communities to make a living for themselves and their families. One of the aims of this study is to investigate why, how and when this form of child labor became normalized in Dominican society.
4. Humor, Resistance and Re-telling of Dominican Archetypes in Mario Emilio Pérez’s Estampas Dominicanas
Mario Emilio Pérez
The prolific writer Mario Emilio Pérez has delighted many generations of readers with his humorous vignettes that bring to life all the imaginable stereotypes about Dominicans. His work highlights gender relations, resistance and escapism as well as la vida cotidiana (everyday life) in an extremely patriarchal and violent society. At the same time, Mario Emilio Pérez’s work serve to illustrate how Dominicans use humor to alleviate the difficulties of life itself.
This research will look into the work of this best-seller author—perhaps one of the few in the DR to attain such status—in order to gain a broader understanding of machismo and sexism, and some of the contradictions of Dominican society where sexual innuendo and openness co-exist with religious zealotry. Researchers will explore the uses of humor to portray gender relations, poverty, luxury and the promise of the institution of marriage, women’s resistance to marriage and traditional norms, the ideology of the popular sectors as well as conservative views from above, some of which have become a thing of the past while others remain embedded in modern Dominican life.
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Emmanuel Espinal and Nelson Santana contributed to this article.
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