Historia General del Pueblo Dominicano Tomo VI

Historia general del pueblo dominicano 755 The great Dominican saxophonist Crispin Fernández once said that Afro-Dominican religiosity is «mute culture»; while it is ubiquitous, it is rarely discussed. 126 While public discourse often ignores Afro-Dominican traditions, they flourish in private spaces, and while they are rarely the subject of verbal discourse, their secrets are expressed through the language of music. And while its traditional locus is rural, Afro-Dominican ritual music is also practiced in urban areas both within the Dominican Republic and in Dominican communities in the United States. In spite, then, of Eurocentrism, urbanization, and globalization, Dominican music explicitly associated with Africa has thrived in rural as well as urban contexts both on the island and in the diáspora. Dominican music , however, transcends European languages, using non-verbal channels to communicate a counter-narrative of negritude. In spite of the Eurocentrism of public discourse, the strong African influences on popular music in the Dominican Republic speak their language.