what would you call an area like this one along the river in Sosua?
if not a bayete, then what...and what describes a bateye most...poor housing for farm workers??
bob
This has been explained already, a Batey is a collection of huts/shacks/barracks in sugarcane plantations where sugarcane workers live. Hence, if a village that looks like a batey exist, but is not in a sugarcane field; then its not a batey. Batey's are owned either by the government or sugarcane companies. Most villages outside of sugarcane country are owned by the individuals that own their respective home(s).
What is seen in the picture above is simply a barrio marginado or simply a barrio, which translates to a marginalized neighborhood or I guess, I could say Ghetto too. In such neighborhoods, which tend to occupy banks of rivers and other marginalized areas, the poorest tend to live right along the riverbank while those who live along the road are better off, in terms of the quality of their homes relative to the worst off.
Keep in mind that just because a house has zinc roof (when oxydated creates that corrugated look) doesn't automatically makes it a shack or a poor house. While you will not find a single upper class primary residence with a full zinc roof; many, if not, most lower middle class homes DO HAVE ZINC ROOFS. In fact, lower middle class homes tend to line the streets that pass through and go near the edge of marginalized neighborhoods.
Often times, the difference between an poor house and a lower middle class house has little to do with the actual house, and more to do with the maintenance of such and the type of furniture that can be seen in the home. Many homes that many foreigners think of as being poor, are not truly poor.
This is especially true with lower middle-class neighborhoods where most buildings are not painted, but are made of cinder block, have zinc roof, and the homes are filled with modern furniture such as sofas, dining table, a kitchen or kitchenette with stove, refrigerator, a television set, etc.
The truly poor only have some of that stuff, more often than not lack such.
-NALs
