For Canadians/People from To area

irishdomician said:

I go to caribana every year and you'll never guess what I see. Nothing, absolutly nothing from the Dominican front. Its possible I'm missing the Dominican contingent cuz I only go for 2-3 days out of the whole week but in 12 or 13 years of going to caribana I've never seen more than a couple of people with DR flags but thats it. To my knowledge there are no floats or any participation from Dominicans in the festivities. I've seen more Cubans and Haitians than Dominicans there. Anyhow, glad someone brought it up, maybe we (DR1ers) can make something happen in the future. After all, its kinda like Canadians not celebrating on Canada Day a little isn't it.

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Nal0whs said:

Generally speaking,

the Spanish speaking Caribbean does not ( I repeat, does not) identify themselves as Caribbean in culture.

Spanish speaking countries identify more with the other Spanish speaking countries than with the region, due to historical and cultural reasons.

Also, keep in mind that practically, the entire Spanish empire in the Caribbean was constantly attacked by British, Dutch, French, and other European pirates. In fact, most of the non-Spanish speaking islands were part of the Spanish empire (ie. Jamaica, western Hispaniola, Virgin Islands, Trinidad, etc), but were "taken" away by privateers working for other European powers.

This historical fact could explain why the Spanish speaking Caribbean has never identified itself with any non-Spanish speaking country in Latin America.

Also, if you would notice on very old maps of the Caribbean, the lesser antilles (ie. the small islands to the east and south of Puerto Rico) were originally called the Islands of the Caribbean, whereas the Greater Antilles (ie. the big 4 islands - Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico) were originally known as the Mexican Archipelago. This was the case before Jamaica was lost to the British and before Hispaniola was split between France and Spain.

This could also explain why the drift between Spanish Caribbean and the rest of the islands.

And as if that was not enough, it becomes very clear when people visit any of the three Spanish speaking islands that they differ greatly in general ambiance, culture, etc from other non-Spanish speaking Caribbean islands. In fact, the general ambiance in either Cuba, Dominican Republic, or Puerto Rico is often referred to as "more latin than Caribbean". Some writers who have written on the region have commented that the big islands of the Caribbean (especially Cuba and DR) are more comparable to Central America than smaller Caribbean islands, because of meaning things, among them being size. In the rest of the Caribbean its hard to think that you are in anything but an island. In the big islands, its hard to realize that you are in an island!

I suppose you will see an outflow of Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans in Latin oriented cultural celebrations. In the same manner, you will not see many other Caribbean peoples there.

However, in Caribbean celebrations, the big three Spanish speaking islands will be less pronounce, where as the smaller islands will be over represented in such occasions.

Edited to add: on a greater scale, you can see this drift between Spanish speking nations and non-Spanish speaking nations in the Western Hemisphere. For example, Canada and the US see themselves as European countries, but they don't see Spanish Speaking Latin countries as European, instead, they see Spanish speaking countries as Latin, end of story, despite the fact that Spanish speaking countries function according to European culture, modality, etc, much how US and Canada does.

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