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Chapter 3: Palo Today:
Palo’s Presence through Ethnographic Fieldwork
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Before beginning to discuss my time in the “field,” studying palo in Dominican culture,
it is important to understand what led me to the field. As fieldwork is motivated by the life
experiences and identities that makeup the field researcher, understanding the field researcher
can be a way to understand their work, perspective, and reasoning. While the previous chapters
offer historical context, this chapter introduces modern palo through my ethnographic fieldwork.
I begin this chapter with my life story to explain how I arrived to the field. I continue on to
highlight, similarly to chapter two, palo’s relationship to different sectors of Dominican society:
religion and the public. I focus on the changes surrounding palo which reflect a shift in its
relation to Dominican identity: the changes in where it is performed, and how it is responded to,
reflecting a modern acceptance, leaning towards popularization.
My Story
My research on the Dominican Republic draws heavily from experiences I have had long
before my formal fieldwork began. Although I was born in New York City, my mother is from
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic while my father is from Jánico, Dominican Republic. My
older brother and I, marking a milestone in our bloodline, were born first­generation American,
but our family assured that we maintain our Dominican culture. Within every significant memory
the sounds of bachata, merengue, and palo echo. Family celebrations were never quiet and
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I use quotes around the term field because the field in my work is more personal than a distant place where I spent
some time conducting research. Instead, my field, the Dominican Republic, marks my ancestry. My field has
travelled with me long before my fieldwork began.
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