The Era…

While re-designing my website I took the time to read and search for music that I liked from the Dominican Republic. Asking for kareoke music from the era of Trujillo on Remolacha.net serveral Remolacheros came through with some music files. I was awed by the selection, the sound, and the number of songs that people sent. In particular Francisco Gonzalez and Victor Ramirez. The music is priceless… It repressents an era of an infamous leader that ruled with an iron fist. To me it represents much more then that… It’s music. I’m not into the politics of the music. It’s just music. Musicians that lived the times and hardships of this dictator and still managed to be heard.

Rafaelito Martinez, one of the few singers from that era that is still alive and well, sang with the musical group Los Hermanos Perez. Now at the age of 80 he keeps his voice tuned in and states that he has never used drugs, he has never had any drinking problems and does not smoke as frequently. His son José Martinez recently contacted me and will be forwarding tons of his wonderful music.

Once in power, Trujillo continued to clothe himself in the merengue, promoting it as a national (read political) symbol. Top merengue bands were renamed after him, propaganda songs were written and performed, and his brother Petán was allowed to run a major radio station that broadcast live merengue music. La Voz Dominicana as it was called, played a great role in consolidating national acceptance of merengue cibaeño. Petán’s penchant for live music meant that merengue bands seldom recorded, and even then only with his permission. Starved of recording opportunities and dissatisfied with the level of state control, many artists left for Puerto Rico and New York, spreading the merengue and beginning the Dominican diaspora.

Even the upper classes were not immune because they were compelled to play merengue cibaeño at all formal social occasions. Perhaps President Trujillo delighted in this: he was an avid merengue dancer although he was not originally of the Cibao region, and his early attempts to fraternise with the elite while he was of junior rank had been spurned.

Rafael Trujillo kept his grip on power for more than thirty years through his absolute control of the military, and by maintaining popular approval of rural Dominicans through the use of merengue. It did not prevent him from being assassinated as he made his way to his estate in 1961 [read the complete article]