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when the Dominican Army massacred 800 ​Palmasolistas​, and arrested 700 more. Nevertheless,
Palma Sola​, similar to ​Liborismo​, lives on through Vodú and its sounds of palo, where it is now
considered sacred land.
Conclusion
An historical analysis of palo’s presence in the Dominican Republic highlights the critical
ways in which palo reflects the Dominican identity of those excluded from the elite concept of
modernity. Beginning with the adaptation of the religion to survive slavery, Vodú has developed
as a popular religion to respond to the ever­changing governmental and economic tides within
the country. Popular practices, such as ​trabajos​, reflect the inaccessible formal medicines and
public services that Dominican elites hoarded. Dominican ​modernity​ has led to massacres and
the implementation of laws targeting lower socioeconomic classes (​read: the majority of the
Dominican Republic​). Nevertheless, practitioners have continued to adapt their music and
religion to keep their religious freedom, when all other liberties have been stripped away.
Practitioners have created larger communities, with mutual understanding of financial hardships,
to be able to continue celebrating their religion, their tradition: an Afro­Dominican tradition.
These communities have led movements, facing domestic and foreign powers, for the social
justice of the larger Dominican populace. At the center of these ceremonies for​ misterios​ and
difuntos​, and social movements has been the palos, the holy drums. In these settings, palo, and its
associated Vodú, have become vehicles for anti­colonial, anti­hegemonic, and anti­imperial
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Adams, Jr. 17.
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