Spirituality in Hispaniola

The island of Hispaniola was, as we know, first discovered and conquered by Colombus and the Spanish in the late 15th Century and then the island changed hands to the French later on. Both Spain and France were heavy Catholic nations who influenced the island and the Spanish succeeded in converting many of the Taino natives to the Catholic faith with the issuing of the Requiermiento. After the forced conversion and years of Native-European intermarriage and cultural mixing, the Catholic faith became the dominant religion on the island.
The Taino and the Europeans were not the only racial groups on the island however. When the Europeans discovered that Hispaniola, especially the Saint-Domingue (present day Haiti) side of the island had land highly suitable for cash crop production (especially sugar), they brought in large amounts of African slaves to Hispaniola to work these large plantations. These slaves brought with them many African traditions of their own from their various parts of the continent. Among these traditions was there religious practices, namely, the practice of Voodoo.

Voodoo (also known as Vodun, Vudun, Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou and Vudu) is a African based religion practiced in Benin, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Ghana, Togo, New Orleans and other American cities with large Haiti populations. Unlike many religions, it has no specific texts, scriptures, or formal theology, but relies more on the oral traditions of the African tribes of its' birth. Voodoo was important to the slaves from Central and West Africa who brought it with them because they leaned on their beliefs as a way to help them cope with the harshness of slave life. The voodoo practice became so widespread in Hispaniola that it did not go unnoticed by the French who ruled the island at the time of its largest popularity. Because the slave and voodoo population on the island had become so large, the French felt intimidated and placed the Les Code Noir in effect in 1685 which removed all Jews and non-Catholic believers out of the French colonies and prohibited the practice of all non-Catholic religions in the French lands as well. The code also called for all slave masters to be of the Roman Catholic faith and made it mandatory for them to convert their slaves to the faith as well. Slaves did not want to abandon their original faith however and began to practice voodoo syncretism in which they combined and disguised their voodoo deities as saints and figures of Catholic beliefs so if they were ever caught worshipping or in prayer and caught by their masters, it would look like were praying to, for example, the Virgin Mary instead of Erizulie. This method worked well for slaves and with the increasing riches from sugar planting, came a constant growth of the Hispaniola slave population and a larger group of voodoo believers.

In the Dominican Republic, Voodoo is practiced but in a different way than that of Haiti. Dominican Voodoo believers believe in one main creator god, Papa Bon Dye while Haitians believe in the main god Gran Met (the Great Master). The Dominicans refer to their religion as Las 21 Divisones. Both sets of beliefs rely on priests known as mambo (female priests) or hougans (male priests) for leadership and healing. Healers use natural herbs for healing and can also interpret dreams. Believers value the "good vs evil" struggle as a key point in fate. Dominican Voodoo is less strict than Haitian Voodoo. Dominicans call on their spirits by reading palms, tarot cards, and shells. It has no specific doctrines or temples for ceremonies. It is a common Voodoo belief that spirits can be called through music, but Dominicans do not have specific songs for specific spirits to be called.

Today, in Haiti, voodoo is a key inspiration of Haitian culture and art and is still widely practiced in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti's constitution nationally recognizes both Voodoo and Roman Catholism as the official religions. In Haiti, after the massive earthquake that rocked the country in 2010, many Haitians reverted from their Catholic worship back to that of Voodoo in order to make sense of and find relief from the disaster. Religious leaders believed that the divide between Catholisim and Voodoo was one of the main reasons the disaster struck them. Voodoo is one of the most enduring African religious practices in the world and in Hispaniola, one of the main staples in their society.

Sources

1. Sengupta, Kim. "Voodoo: The Old Religion Rises from the Rubble in Haiti." www.independent.co.uk. The Independent Co. February 2010. 18 November 2012. Web. 
2. Brictson, Robert C. "Voodoo: Spirits in Haiti Art." www.2webster.edu. 18 November 2012. Web. 
3. "Voodoo, Las 21 Divisiones, and Los Misterios." www.dr1.com/articles/voodoo. DR1 Co. 18 November 2012. Web. 

Cultural Blending in Hispaniola: The Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic side of the island of Hispaniola as previously explained was first inhabited by millions of Taino Indians before the Spanish discovered and conquered the area. The Taino people had a rich cultural history which is still evident today in the use of the canoe, the eating of barbecue meat and referring to devastating tropical storms as hurricanes. All of these terms and the things they describe all originally come from the Taino people.

The Taino people on their early canoes 

Hurricane or "huracan" as called by the Taino

As with many early Caribbean areas under Spanish colonial rule, many native cultural staples became extinct, replaced or blended with that of Spanish culture. The first of these to native cultural identifiers to be replaced by that of the Spanish was the Taino's pagan religion. The Spanish government made the forced conversion of the Taino natives to the Catholic faith an official law in 1513, by enforcing the Requiermiento doctrine issued by the Catholic church and the Spanish crown. In addition the forced religious conversions, the landscape of Dominican and Taino culture was further changed by the slave trade. Unlike its French neighbor Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), Santo Domingo and the Dominican Republic did not make a large profit from becoming a plantation society. Because profits were not high on Dominican plantations and more relaxed slavery laws imposed by the Spanish, many of the slaves on the Santo Domingo side of the island bought their own freedoms, resulting in a very large freeman population. By the time the African population really began thriving in Santo Domingo, many of the pure blooded Taino people had been decimated by disease. Those who remained intermarried with Spaniards and Africans causing a large population and cultural mix. Pirates, like Sir Francis Drake and his company also found Santo Domingo to be great hiding and docking place. In addition to the people and their culture, The Dominican Republic changed hands from the Spanish, to the French, back to the Spanish and then under the control of the new Haitian country all before it declared independence in 1844. 
Today the mixing of different cultures in Santo Domingo helped to shape its culture of today. Like the original Taino, many root plants like sweet potatoes and cassava are large staples in the Dominican diet. Also, the Dominican Republic is still very racially diverse. The Dominican upper class are usually descendants of European ancestry and are lighter skinned, the lower class is usually black and descendant of the early African slaves or Haitians and mulattoes, a mixture of African and African or Indian descent make up the largest, middle class. These mulattoes identify themselves as either indio claros (those with lighter skin) and indio ocsuros (those with darker skin). They refer to themselves as "indios" because many Dominicans identify with their native Indian and European roots but not their African roots. The largest bit of European influence still evident today is the large devotion to the Catholic religion and Spanish as the national language. The way people pattern their marriages trace back to the colonial times as well. Many of the lower class, darker skinned people agree to common-law/ consensual marriages like the slave women who married European men illegally before them. Lighter skinned, more elite members of society tend to have civil or church marriages like the European elites before them. 
The Dominican Republic has a rich cultural history which dates back to the day of the Taino people. Those others who came to the island contributed their influence as well, resulting in a diverse culture and history today. 

Sources

1.) Castillo, Jose del., Murphey, Martin A. "Migration, National Identity, and Cultural Policy in        the Dominican Republic." Journal of Ethnic Studies. (1987). 49-69. Web. November 2012. 

2.)"The Dominican Republic." Every Culture. Advameg Inc. n.d., Web. November. 2012