So why do people of differing phenotypes, based on your response, find themselves in different socio-economic spaces. Given that mulato is a broad term and encompasses a wide range of phenotypes lets think of people who look like Sammy Sosa.
Historical circumstance.
Through out Dominican history going back to Columbus to today, the general rule of thumb on migration pattern has been as follows:
- The whites that moved to the colony/country tended be motivated and in search of wealth. There were some influxes of whites, particularly in the 1700s with the Canary Islanders, that many were forced to move to the island; but in general, whites arrived on their own desires with ambition and success in mind.
- The blacks during the early part of the colony were imported as slaves. There was no division between those who were motivated or not, whether they had aspirations or not; they were brought against their will and then forced to work. However, the influx of slaves into the colony lasted a rather short period of time and afterward, influxes of new slaves was very sporadic, usually tied to a Spaniard or criollo living in nearby islands (especially Cuba) for whatever reason decided to move to Dominican soil and brought all their property, slaves included.
- The mulattoes are 'natural' to the island, often were given their freedom, had greater privileges, etc. By the time of the Haitians invaded and liberated the slaves in the Spanish side of the island, most of the population was already free and the slave population had considerable freedoms due to the nature of their work and the colony (a poor colony based on cattle ranching, a different story took place in Haiti, Jamaica or the US which were much more prosperous and based on the plantation system. That resulted in much harsher treatment of their slaves and greater ethnic tensions that simply didn't materialized on Dominican soil).
During the French and Haitian invasions, the white Dominican population suffered the most, especially in 1805. Many were massacred, while others chose to leave. By the time the exodus ended, the population on Dominican soil was reduced to a plus or minus 60,000 individuals.
Once the Dominican Republic was established in 1844 until the early 20th century, the country experienced a massive immigration flow of Europeans (one could consider that their have been three massive -relative to previous influxes- European immigration, in the era of the conquest, then in the 1700s with the Canary Islanders and then in the early years of the republic). This new wave of European immigrants was characterized by young men and often time couples/families migrating in search of economic opportunities in the entrepreneurial sense.
The bulk of the population was mulatto, a small minority was black and in the Cibao there was a great presence of white's descendants of Canary Islanders; they were overwhelmingly rural folk living a life of subsistence farming. In the mean time, the European immigrants arrived into the coastal cities (especially Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo, and then others settled in varios Cibao towns) and they focused more in the merchant/entrepreneurial activities. The Arabs also arrived in that time and became known for being shrewed business people that went from town to town selling all sorts of things directly to the people and much cheaper than the stores. The influx of Cuban (and Spaniards that had settled in Cuba and then moved to the DR once the war of independence broke out - this is when the Brugal family makes its first appearance in the country by establishing in Puerto Plata and restarting the rum business that had been started in Cuba). Germans establish themselves in the main cities (mostly Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and a handful of Cibao towns), the Americans also arrived etc. All of these people arriving were white, and did so with the intention of developing a certain economic sector. The Americans were the wealthiest and most powerful, hence their interest (ie. Sugar) took tremendous precedence, especially in the then almost completely uninhabited eastern plains.
The upsurge in economic development in that time period (mostly based on export-oriented agriculture such as Cacao, Sugar, Coffee, tobacco etc) was impulsed by white immigrants. This is when some of the most successful white Dominican families of today (Brugal, Le?n Asensio (aka, Le?n Jimenes), Pellerano, Vicini, Read, etc) settled in the country.
Of course, there's no economic development without a labor force, and this was mostly extracted from the rural areas of the Cibao (mostly mulattoes and blacks) for the cacao, tobacco, etc. agribusinesses that were established there. In the eastern region, due to its scarcity of people and the reluctance of Cibao countrymen to work the sugarcane fields for the pay being offered (and there were not enough manpower to fulfill the demand anyways), the sugar planters relied on imported labor from Puerto Rico and British West Indies and, later on, from Haiti. These workers (except for the Puerto Ricans who were mostly mulatto), mostly settled in the eastern plains, were black and they arrived in search of employment.
This is a key aspect to understand, the whites arrived into the country in search of developing a segment of the economy while the blacks that arrived did so in search of work, but not to start their own companies. The mulatto rural folks were gradually absorbed to supply the new demand of workers in the new agribusinesses created by the whites. Many of these white people were single men that later married local Dominican women, many were of the landed aristocracy from the Cibao and were white while others were mulatto women themselves.
Until this moment in Dominican history, the only source of 'wealth' was the government, which was already highly diverse with whites, mulattoes and black doing their share in, basically, living off the coffers of the state. The new economic boom was promulgated by white foreigners or white families that were two or three generations born on the island, in other words, very new families.
Now, keep in mind that Dominican society is not as numerous as it is today. The DR didn't brake the 1 million mark until the 1920s or 1930s; by the time Trujillo was killed in 1961, the country barely had 3 million people. This was a very tiny group of people.
Then came the Trujillo years. As a general rule of thumb, with the except of the Trujillo family itself, which was mulatto and by the end of the dictatorship concentrated 60 to 70% of the Dominican economy, the bulk of the other business people that didn't had their companies/land expropriated by the dictator, were white. The mulattoes and blacks formed the rank of the employees, albeit most of the population was still rural and lived from subsistence farming, remaining completely outside the moneyed economy. During the Trujillo years some white families arrived that focused on building businesses from scratch (the Bonarelli's arrived from Italy in the 1950s and established Restaurante Vesuvio, the first Italian restaurant on Dominican soil; the Ramos family arrived from Spain and bought a small shop on Avenida Duarte that with the years, dedication and hardwork has been converted into the Multicentros La Sirena - Dominican version of Wal-Mart -; so on and so forth).
The same process that took place from the moment the country gained its independence continued through the Trujillo years, namely arrivals of whites with the purpose of starting their own businesses that employed an every increasing percentage of the subsistence farming mulatto country folks and/or imported foreign black labor.
Once Trujillo is killed and his family is expelled from the country, his entire estate became property of the Dominican government (most of the land, most of the sugar plantations, most of the factories, the national airline, most of everything became government property). Trujillo's companies were reorganized into State owned and controlled conglomerates.
During Balaguer's first 12 years, many of Trujillo's enterprises were sold to interested parties (mostly white capitalists), other firms Balaguer gave as gift to some of his closest friends (ie. the El Caribe newspaper), the most lucrative remained in the hands of the state (ie. Consejo Estatal de Az?car, the sugar cane plantations which Trujillo had expanded into various areas of the sourthern region - Barahona, Peravia, etc) while some sugar mills were later privatized. Many white Dominican families that had developed businesses prior to Trujillo and/or during Trujillo, but later found themselves exiled due to being at odds with the dictator once he expropriated their businesses/properties decided to return and re-establish their former businesses (the Barletta's return and re-establish Santo Domingo Motors, etc).
Balaguer's 12 years were characterized by the Import Substitution Model, which means that the government put in place many incentives to foster the formation of a locally owned, based and oriented industrial base. This is why today the Dominican Republic produces almost everything it consumes except for oil and large machinery. From stoves, microwaves, refrigerators to toothpaste, furniture, cement; all the way to shoes, mattresses, clothes, the list goes on and on. Many of the owners and investors were white Dominican families, the same that had already been established between independence and the end of the dictatorship. Many of these families also invested in creating many important institution like most of the universities, cooperatives, etc.
Politics remained as it always had been, a mixture of all sorts of people from the darkest to the lightest, but business for the reasons explained here was mostly the domain of white investors/business developers and mulatto/black workers.
In the 1980s the import substitution model ran into problems, and by the early 1990s Balaguer started to implement the liberalizing of the economy. During this boom is when a large percentage of mulattoes and greater numbers of blacks begin to enter the business world and began to have certain level of success. This process continued during the first administration of Leonel Fern?ndez and pretty much continues today, albeit right now the country is gradually being shifted into a new development model that keeps the high growth level but also encourages greater human development. This shift in paradigm is suppose to be fully implemented by 2030.
To conclude, the white segment of Dominican society had a head start and were focus on business development, more so than the mulatto or black segment, or even the white's descendants of the Canary Islanders who tended to be subsistence farmers as well, primarily in the Cibao Valley and later were absorbed into the developing economy as salaried workers.
Hence, historical circumstances.
There are no major ethnic identities among Dominicans because Dominican identity is based on
Dominicanidad, not race or ethnicity. The more you become acquainted with Dominican society, the more you will notice the lack of major ethnic identities.
