Information about Dominican Culture needed

Some of them call themselves "Quisqueyanos" from the Taino word 'quisqueya' which referred to the island.

Others just say Dominicanos.

Still others might refer to their region like, Cibaeño, or Sureño, or even their local town or city. Usually like "mocano", "santiaguero", "vegano" or "banilejo"

Regarding the phrase you used: "native dominicans (sic)" . First off, you should capitalize Dominicans. And secondly, there are no "native" Dominicans. They either died out or were absorbed into the general population many centuries ago. They are just "Dominicans."

HB

Now that you mention it... I have never heard any name besides quisqueyanos... but I am sure that doesn't work for you. RAE dictionary says that word does not exist...

For dominican spanish, check this thread:
http://www.dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39827

Jess

The Indians in Dominican Republic where there only the first 50 years after the colonization began. Due to European desease and force breake-up of family units. When Spain awarded land and x-female and x-males to work the land, Padre the la Casa saw what was happening to the Indians in an efford to save them. introduction of slavery(black) to the new world.

Hillbilli is wright, Quisqueyanos is correct, it?s a taino word and mean mother of all lands. Our Himno start Quisqueyanos valientes alcemos, and sometimes people says Quisqueya la bella too.

Among Spanish speakers it always been Qisqueyano/a. WE only used the Anglonize Dominican when dealing with English speakers.

A Little Extra Info

Often, the native names of Haiti/Quisqueya are confused by people.

Haiti is the native name of the island that the ARAWAK indians used.

Quisqueya is the native name of the island that the TAINO indians used.

Also, Bohio is the native name of the island that LUCAYAN indians (from modern Bahamas) used. This was documented by Columbus in his logs, which are available today. The book "The Log of Christopher Columbus" by Tavianni (forgot his first name) has been written in various languages from its native Italian. You should be able to get a copy of this book where ever you are, I suppose.

BTW, Haiti means mountainous land, Quisqueya means the mother land, and Bohio means the great land in their respective languages according to anthropologists who deal with the study of these peoples.

Also important to note, Arawak indians used to inhabit the western coastal areas of the island (ie. Haiti), where are Tainos inhabited much of the northern parts, the southern parts, much of the east, and their epicenter of culture, population, and the sort was the Vega Real where an estimated 1 million Tainos were living at the time of Columbus arrival.

In modern day Punta Cana and Bavaro there was a small colony of Carib indians who had already conquered Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles and were working on their conquest of Hispaniola. Their progress was stop short by the European conquest.

La Española is the name Christopher Columbus gave to the island, because the mountainous terrain and the vegetation reminded him of Spain. Even though today the vegetation between this island and Cuba are about the same, Columbus did noted that the trees of Hispaniola were very different from those of Cuba.

Later on, La Española became Hispaniola, which is the Latin version of the name adn means The Spanish Island, since Spain in Latin is Hispania.

For many years, even during colonial times, the entire island was referred to as Santo Domingo and even today, many hispanics and Dominicans alike refer to the Dominican Republic as Santo Domingo, rather than its formal name.

When in the country, the city of Santo Domingo is simply la capital.

-NAL