Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

724 Popular Music and Identity since the Nineteenth Century that the « lewd and contemptible» merengue had displaced the stately tumba , a contredanse-derived group dance, in the ballrooms. Galván was greatly troubled by the fact that dancers swung their hips to merengue. In the eighth stanza of the « Complaint of the Tumba against the Merengue», he expresses outrage that Euro-Dominican sisters and daughters should act so lewdly. Decid, merengueadores, no os enfada cuando dáis con parejas sandungueras, pensar que alguna hermana o hija amada a otro prueba que es ágil de caderas? No tenéis corazón, no tenéis alma para sufrir ese aguijón en calma. 19 Hip motion characterizes much African-influenced dance. For example, the yuka , a fertility dance associated with the Congolese-Cuban Palos religion, and its descendant, the rumba guaguancó , employ a pelvic thrust that mimics the sex act. Euro-Americans have often misinterpreted African-influenced choreographic expression of fecundity as lewdness; African-American dance provoked censure in the United States during the popularity of jazz in the 1920s and rock ‘n roll vogue in the 1950s. It has also given some Euro- Americans an impression of excessive agitation. A New York State pastor’s 1922 opinion that « [j]azz may be analyzed as a combination of nervousness... and savage animalism» 20 is comparable to Ulises Francisco Espaillat’s opinion that merengue had a destructive effect on the nervous system: When do you plan to start dancing merengue again?... When the medical profession learns to cure attacks of the nerves. 21 The writings against merengue themselves indicate that the music must have had followers in the ballrooms; Espaillat noted that he had engendered anger among local ladies for « condemning the favored merengue without appeal». 22 Apparently, while African influences offended some Dominicans, they appealed to others. This conflict was inherent to the futile project of forging a Eurocentric identity in an Afro-Caribbean country. A paucity of historical evidence on nineteenth-century salon merengue precludes definitive statements about its musical style. Nevertheless, Dominican merengue was likely similar to its cognate forms elsewhere in the Caribbean. As elsewhere, merengue dance used hip motion and was performed by independent couples. In mid-century, musical ensembles