The development of literary blackness in the Dominican Republic

The concept of Dominican racial identity presents a problem in the investigation of Afro-Dominican literature. While Whiteness may be the cultural and physical standard for the Dominican, people of African descent have always been the majority in the Dominican Republic. This demographic and historical reality helps explain why Afro-Dominican literature has evolved despite efforts to erase their African ancestors from official history. Nineteenth-century Dominican literature forged the definition of Dominicanness that is still accepted today. By establishing the native Indian woman as the mother of Dominican identity, the nation's foundational writers gave darker Dominicans a racial background that replaced their African, and therefore, "inferior" past. Consequently, much of contemporary Dominican culture and history reflect the nineteenth century's literary campaign of denial.