Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

728 Popular Music and Identity since the Nineteenth Century century. Songs often commented on local andworld events, andmany focused on the respected regional caudillo. The following merengue clearly endorses Ulises Heureaux (Lilís) and disparages Benito Monción and Casimiro N. de Moya, although its exact meaning is cryptic: Generai Benito, yo se lo decía, qu’en ei Aguacate ei Cuco salía. Cayó Moya, ganó Lilí; yo... poi mí! 44 The music’s role in Dominican politics was to grow in the twentieth century. M erengue and R esistence to the U.S. O ccupation During the first United States occupation of the Dominican Republic, uneasy interactionwith theMarinespermeatedall facets of social life, including musical activity, and the development of merengue during the occupation was intimately tied to the reaction to North American domination. Resistance to the occupation was waged on military, diplomatic, and cultural fronts in several regions of the country. In the East, gavilleros (insurgents, bandits) led by local caudillos engaged the Marines in guerrilla warfare. Meanwhile, a program of diplomacy and propaganda, aimed at swaying international opinion against the occupation, was waged by upper-class Dominicans in the Cibao region. Bruce Calder writes that the program of protest eventually forced the U.S. « to abandon the occupation». 45 This campaign worked hand in hand with a cultural movement that celebrated Dominicanness and embraced merengue as a national symbol. Although merengue had once been performed in elite ballrooms, by the beginning of the twentieth century it was entrenched as a típico form played only by campesinos and those who dwelled in barrios . It was noted in 1930 that campesino customs « seem as strange to the average Dominican of the city as