Merengue is a Dominican folk dance that has been widely disseminated and considered by many as the Dominican national dance.

We discuss further the origin of the merengue. Among the different opinions on the subject are: It was Alfonseca who invented meringue (According to Flerida Nolasco).
Its origin and appearance are lost in the mists of the past (Julio Alberto Hernández).
It was born as a folk melody after the victorious battle of Talanquera where Dominicans won (Rafael Vidal).
It seems that the merengue comes from a Cuban music called UPA, a part of which is called merengue. The UPA came to Puerto Rico, where it arrived at Santo Domingo in the middle of last century (Fradique Lizardo).


Apparently Lizardo is close to the heart of the matter. In 1844 merengue was still not popular, but in 1850 it became fashionable, displacing the Tumba. Since that time he had many detractors.

At the beginning of the 1850s, a campaign in defense of the Tumba was unleashed in the newspapers of the Dominican capital  against  merengue,  which reflected the boom that it had gained at the expense of the Tumba.

Don Emilio Rodríquez Demorizi said: "The origins of merengue are still in the fog. They do not seem to be attributed to Haitian origin. If it had that dark of origin it would not have enjoyed some vogue in 1855, a period of bloody struggles against Haiti; even those who have repudiated merengue would have identified that source as a sufficient reason. Nor Ulises Francisco Espaillat said in his writings against merengue in 1875. "

In reality, little is known about the specific origin of the merengue. In the middle of last century, from 1838 to 1849, a dance called UPA Habanera and APPU, cruised the Caribbean Sea coming to Puerto Rico where it was received. This dance had a movement called merengue that apparently is how it was chosen to describe the dance and came to our country where not even mentioned in the early years. He was subsequently well received and even the colonel Alfonseca wrote pieces of the new music with very popular titles like "¡Ay, Coco!", "The sancocho", "The one who does not have two pesos does not dance", and "Escape to Marcos Rojas you limping the ball.”

The structure of the merengue music is the form that can be considered more representative and consisted of walking, body or merengue, and pandemonium. It was wrongly attributed to Emilio Arté to have added the ride to merengue as it existed in his time. All music is written at a rate of 2 x 4 and there are discrepancies in the number of measures that each party must be composed of, as is sometimes abused to the length “ad infinitum.”

Literary forms that accompany the merengue are the most common folk art in the “couplet”, the “row” and the “tenth”, appearing occasionally paired.

Since the beginning, the merengue is played on instruments owned by the people and that were easier to acquire, the Dominican “bandurrias” the three, and four. At the end of last century made its entry by the Cibao diatonic accordion from Germany who eclipsed the bandurria. For their limited possibilities of this melodic instrument, the music interpreted and merengue tended to be preserved as the original.

With this variant merengue entered in the Dominican society, fully integrated with certain social sectors immediately shifted to other dances such as the tumba, for example, that required their performers (dancers) to make a great mental and physical effort. The latter contained eleven different figures. It's easy to imagine why the merengue, with its choreography reduced to the simplest expression, could move all his rivals and capture the fervor of the people.

The choreography of merengue is down to this: The man and woman intertwined moving sideways in what is called "step of the fence,” they can then turn to right or left. This is the real "merengue room" in which couples were not separated at all. There is also what is known as "merengue figure" in which couples would make many changes and embellishments or "flower" as it was called, but never unhand each other.
The genuine and authentic merengue survives only in rural areas. The traditional form of merengue has changed. The walk disappeared. The body of the merengue has been dragging a bit and instead of 8 to 12 bars is sometimes made from 32 to 48. The fuss has been the introduction of exotic rhythms that have denatured it.

Despite its rise among the masses, the upper class did not accept merengue for a long time for their links with African music. Another cause that weighed on the rejection and attacks on the literary texts were merengue that accompanies it, usually in tone uploaded. For example:


Tó Løj 'leather * are from Santiago
Santiago and this' live well
and because de'sa maidita
I'm Santiago

* In the Dominican Republic leather means a woman with little dignity, a prostitute, immoral.


Other Dominican dances of black character origins were not attacked for being rituals. This conflicted with the conception that religious groups in the high class. His character was that ritual practice is restricted to a few places and days per year, with a range or spread between the very limited populations. The meringue on the contrary by their dance of joy was introduced more easily in places of celebrations and by the reaction against it while it was strong, was defeated by the taste of his pace.

In 1875 Ulises Francisco Espaillat began a campaign against the merengue that was totally useless because the dance had already taken over the Cibao where it was strong to the point that today this region is associated as the birthplace of the merengue.

Earlier this century, music became a big campaign to introduce this dance in the halls. Popular musicians joined the campaign, which was always the strength behind the vulgar language of the letters accompanying the rhythm. John F. Garcia, Juan and Julio Alberto Hernandez Espinola, were pioneers in that campaign. His success was not immediate and that although the form of merengue music, could not penetrate the merengue "society" and is regarded as a creation of the Dominican people accepted without fuss.

The picture changed after 1930, as Rafael L. Trujillo in his election campaign used several sets of "Perico Ripiao" and achieved disseminate new air to areas where it is not previously known, helps a lot in that spread the use of radio newcomer to the country before the dictatorship.

Despite this large spread propaganda merengue was not accepted in full by what was called "the good Dominican society" until a family of "aristocracy" of Santiago, on the occasion of a feast asked for Luis Alberti, who participated to entertain with his orchestra and he composed a merengue with decent lyrics. He composed for the occasion the "Compadre Pedro Juan," which not only liked, but it caused a furore, to become the anthem of the merengue. From that moment began to spread the merengue. Radio supported it generously.

To spread the merengue all over the country and produce, like any cultural event, variants. They reflect the management of the cultural elements prepared under some convenience.

As was the educated musicians to set the new musical form of merengue, popular musicians tried to imitate and follow this model, while the vulgar continued to play merengue in the same way. This gave rise to two distinct forms of merengue with each other. The authentic folk merengue is still in the fields, and in the merengue lounge. The latter is the most widely disseminated and that the vast majority of people believe that is the folkloric one.