ajority of the whites came from Spain with minor infusions of French, English, Jews from Europe, Italians, Lebanese and other Arabs, Chinese and Japanese and, more recently, North Americans (Wiarda, 1969, p. 74). The blacks came directly or indirectly from Africa as slaves. All of these groups have blended into Dominican society through intermarriage and blood, creating a blend which Dominicans call sancocho, a local dish with many ingredients. The largest unassimilated minority is the creole and black Haitians who inhabit the area along the border with Haiti, make up most of the sugar cane cutters and/or are crowded into the shanty towns of the major cities of Santo Domingo (the capital) and Santiago de los Caballeros. They totalled in 1989 about 200,000 (Haggerty, 1991, p. 52).
The Dominican Republic has, therefore, been fortunate in not having large unassimilated minorities. Spanish is the common language. More than 90 percent of Dominicans share a common religion, Roman Catholicism.
Race Relations and Social Structure
Racial discrimination of the type encountered into societies with large racial minorities, such as the United States, does not exist as such in the Dominican Republic. The Spanish and other Europeans intermarried with blacks. Most of the Republic's political leaders have had some mixed blood and some, such as the dictator, Ulises Heureaux (1882-1899), have been primarily of African origin. According to Haggerty, "upward migration was possible for the dark-skinned person who acquired education and wealth" (1991, p. 80). Nevertheless, the Dominican Republic has always suffered from a rigid, hierarchical social structure in which "lighter skin was associated with higher social and economic status" (Haggerty, 1991, p. 39).
The social structure of the Republic dates back to the Spanish colonial era in which white soldiers and early settlers were awarded royal grants or encomiendas, control over large trac...