Coloring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic

Howard, David. Coloring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic. Oxford: Signal Books, 2001. 227 pp.

David Howard's stated purpose in writing Coloring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic is to focus on the importance of race for the understanding of nation and ethnicity in the Dominican Republic. Howard, a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, argues that Dominicans have celebrated their European and Indian heritages but discounted their African roots. he claims that Dominican nationalism has been "colored by a pervasive racism centered on a rejection of African ancestry and blackness" (p. 1).

Although Howard acknowledges that racial terms are highly specific to person and place, he spends a great deal of time criticizing the color-coded terms that Dominicans use to characterize themselves. Howard is particularly annoyed that the Dominicans avoid the use of the term mulatto. he believes that the use of the term indio by a large percentage of the Dominicans to describe their color is a deliberate attempt to negate the presence of African ancestry by claiming Indian ancestry. Howard argues that the term mulatto "is seldom used since it projects the negatively perceived African image" (p. 14).

Historically, Latin American culture is a blending of the three major groups (Europeans, Africans, and Indians) that came into contact with each other during the colonial period in the Americas. The specific footprint that each group left on contemporary societies depends on the level of demographic representation of the three groups. Three factors-pre-Colombian Indian population levels, involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and the sugar industry, and levels of European immigration-account for the varying ethnic footprints in contemporary Latin America.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic, while sharing the same island, have markedly different historical experiences and legacies. On both sides of the island, the Indians were eliminated fairly early in the colonial process. On the Haitian side of the island, the French chose to implement a slave colony producing sugar, while on the Dominican side the Spanish allowed the colony to become a peripheral part of the colonial empire. Haitian independence was accomplished by a violent slave revolution (1791-1804) that resulted in the death or exile of most members of the white population. Dominican independence was delayed until 1844 by twenty-two years of military occupation by Haiti. Whereas the strongest footprint in Haiti came to be African, that in the Dominican Republic was Iberian.

Howard implies that Dominican resentment against Haiti is exaggerated. Although mentioning the Haitian occupation, he does not elaborate on the violence and brutality that accompanied it. Rather, the author insists that the occupation was really not so terrible and that the "populations were brought closer together" by the military occupation (p. 28). Incomplete citing precludes the reader from examining possible evidence supporting this contention.

To point out anti-blackness or anti-Haitianess (one is unsure which, since the author often confuses the two terms) in Dominican society, Howard mentions the three statues-Enriquillo, Lemba, and Bartolome de Las Casas-out-side one of the nation's most important museums, the Museo del Hombre Dominicano, as an example of Dominican racism. Howard claims that some opposition (without stating the nature of that opposition) to placing the statue of Lemba (who led a slave revolt and was black) outside the museum epitomizes the racist tendencies of Dominican society. The statue's permanence outside the museum for two decades, however, weakens his argument.

Howard also contends that the repeated failure of Jose Francisco Pena Gomez to win the Dominican presidency is due to political chicanery based on racism. Although Pena Gomez had dark skin pigmentation and many Dominicans called him an Haltiano, the author did not consider whether the politician's political agenda and/or behavior had anything to do with his failure to obtain the presidency. If Dominicans are so anti-black and racist, as Howard argues, how does one account for Pena Gomez's election as mayor of Santo Domingo during the 1980s? Howard, nevertheless, argues that blackness in the Dominican Republic "loses elections" (p. 153). In addition, the author hypothesizes that perhaps Pena Gomez's electoral defeat in 1996 could be attributed to ex-leader juan Bosch's "racially prejudiced" views of Pena Gomez.

Factual errors weaken the study. For example, the author's definition of jabao is erroneous (p. 3). Howard implies that jabao can be used interchangeably with the term mulatto, when in fact jabao applies only to a small sector of the population that is light-skinned but has African features. The author's contention that the Roman Catholic Church "continues to reinforce gender inequality" in the Dominican Republic is asserted without any substantiating documentation (p. 90).