Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

730 Popular Music and Identity since the Nineteenth Century merengue típico cibaeño belies the conventional notion that all típico music is rural. The borrowing of stylistic elements across class lines, a process stimulated by urban life, typifies all the contredanse transformations and was central to their appeal. Merengue cibaeño is danced in the ballroom dance position. In spite of references to hip motion in nineteenth-century merengue, evidence suggests that merengue cibaeño was danced with little such motion in the early twentieth century. 51 Songs commented on every-day life and world events, employing a witty, light-hearted, tone. Sometimes made up on the spot, they could speak to the immediate context. Most merengues, however, were pre- composed, and Ñico Lora is credited with creating over 500 songs. 52 Many of Ñico Lora and Toño Abreu’s pieces are still played today. Lora composed « La libertad de Cuba» in 1899, « El aeroplano» in 1903, and « La guerra mundial» in 1914. 53 Just as nineteenth-century merengueros had commented on the caudillos of their day, twentieth-century singers praised or denounced current leaders. Julio Alberto Hernández affirms that merengue was integral to political campaigns: There were political leaders who said that politics is nothing more than merengue and rum, because they used to give peasants lots of rum so that they would vote for certain candidates. For example, Desiderio Arias was a leader whom many merengueros and other country people were crazy about. 54 A merengue composed in honor of Desiderio Arias is still popular today. Merengue sometimes served as a forum for discussing taboo topics; perhaps its light-hearted tone undercut the restrictions placed on such subjects. Ñico Lora’s song entitled « La protesta» celebrates two manifestations of Dominican resistance to the occupation: the guerilla war and the diplomatic program of protest led by statesman Henríquez y Carvajal. La protesta Primera parte En el año diez y seis llegan los americanos, pisoteando con sus botas, el suelo dominicano.