Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: The Society and Its Environment
wedding their lineage and lands to the monied merchantimmigrant
clans. Although the Chinese were generally
excluded from this process of assimilation, and the Arabs
encountered resistance, almost everyone else found ready
acceptance.
This pattern has repeated itself over the years. Each political
or economic wave has brought new families into the elite as it
imperiled the economic standing of others. By the 1990s, this
privileged segment of society was no longer monolithic. The
interests of the older elite families, whose wealth is based
mostly on land (and whose prosperity diminished during the
Trujillo years), do not always match those of families who
amassed their fortunes under Trujillo, or of those whose
money came from the expansion in industry during the 1960s
and 1970s, or from the shift away from sugar and to the industrial
free zones and tourism in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1965
civil war further polarized and fragmented many segments of
the middle and upper classes (see Democratic Struggles and
Failures, ch. 1). These developments have resulted in a new
Dominican elite, whose wealth comes from banking, property,
light industry, the professions, and tourism, one which co-exists
with the earlier elites—the small traditional landed gentry, the
business and commercial group that came to the fore in the
late 1900s, and the wealthy group that worked with Trujillo.
Although rural elite families are relatively monolithic, in
Santo Domingo and especially in Santiago there is a further
distinction between families of the first and second rank (gente
de primera and gente de segunda) . Those of the first rank can
claim to be a part of the 100 families referred to locally as the
tutumpote (totem pole, a term implying family worship and
excessive concern with ancestry). Those of the second rank
have less illustrious antecedents; they include the descendants
of successful immigrants and the nouveaux riches who have
managed to intermarry with more established families.
Family loyalties are paramount, and the family represents
the primary source of social identity. Elite families rely on an
extensive network of kin to maintain their assets. In difficult
times, the family offers a haven; as the situation improves, it
provides the vehicle whereby one obtains political position and
economic assets. Siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, and in-laws
comprise the pool from which one selects trusted business
partners and loyal political allies. This process of networking
pervades every level of society. The elite, however, profit to a
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