i Dominican Republic - travelfilm.de

1503. This first act of cruelty has gone
down in historical records as the Jaragua
Massacre. Made a prisoner, the Taino
Queen responded to the heinous act with
these words:
“It is not honorable to kill; nor can honor
propitiate the tragedy. Let us open a
bridge of love, so that across it even our
enemies may walk and leave for posterity
their footprints.”
Language
Spanish is the Country’s official
language. Nevertheless, in some
communities that have a foreign origin
and in tourist hubs English, German,
French, Italian, Dutch and other
languages are spoken.
It is important to point out that the
Dominican way of speaking is the result
of our collective experiences and the
wisdom of rural farmers and peasants.
Our Spanish comes with a rustic accent
and hinterland flavor and in our country
each region has its own accent, charm
and peculiar expressions, which usually
identify the speaker from the very moment
he or she opens his or her mouth.
This unique form of expression has been
a source of inspiration for renowned
writers, both native and foreign. It is
not known precisely when the common
country parlance started to be used in
literary writings. Nevertheless a rustic
poem written in 1635 by Tirso de Molina
earned a literary award— the rustic lilt
10
had been immortalized thanks to his
sojourn between 1616 and 1618 at the
Convent of Las Mercedes in the colonial
zone of Santo Domingo.
Despite the preponderance of Spanish
culture, several words from the Taino’s
melodious and sweet language remain
in use and have become a part of
the everyday lingo. Nearly all these
terms preserve their original meaning.
For example:ají (pepper), barbacoa
(barbecue), batea (trough or small tub),
bija (anatto fruit), bohío(hut), burén (flat
griddle), canoa (canoe), carey (tortoiseshell),
caribe (Caribbean),casabe
(cassava), coa (sharp wood rod), conuco
(a plot of land for cultivation),guanábana
(soursop), guayaba (guava), hamaca
(hammock), higüera (calabash tree),
Place of the flag, Santo Domingo.