The Dominican permanent delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) received the official certificate that Dominican “bachata” music and dance is inscribed in its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List. The ceremony was carried out partially in person in Paris and partially via a Zoom conference. Dominican ambassador before the UNESCO, Jose Antonio Rodríguez received the certificate. Participating were Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas Maldonado, UNESCO officials and many friends of the recently deceased brilliant exponent of the music, Victor Victor (José Victor Rojas), who has top credits for recreating the genre and enriched it and making it international.
During the ceremony, Ernesto Ottone, a deputy director general of UNESCO for Culture, noted the very special occasion. He praised the singer and composer and his music in his comments.
As part of the activity, Zobeyda Ferreras, Victor Victor’s wife, thanked the UN organization for the distinction to her late husband. She said that her husband would have deeply appreciated the recognition of his contributions to what he always called “clean bachata”.
The Official Unesco announcement:
“The music and dance of Dominican Bachata is a danceable musical expression, deriving from a fusion of rhythmic bolero with other Afro-Antillean genres such as Son, the Cha-cha-cha, Merengue, etc. The Dominican people consider the music and dance of Bachata as a vernacular cultural manifestation, omnipresent in community celebrations and social gatherings. In general, the lyrics of Bachata express deep, visceral feelings of love, passion and nostalgia. Etymologically, the term ‘bachata’, presumed to be of African origin, originally referred to a lively gathering or party, rather than a musical genre specifically. For its performance, Bachata traditionally requires a small group of musicians, who use one or two guitars as lead instruments (electric guitars are widely used nowadays), and a percussion composed of bongos, maracas and a guiro accompanied by a bass. The music has four tempos per beat and usually one of the musicians is the lead singer. The dance of Bachata is equally passionate, consisting of a couple’s dance characterized by a sensual hip movement and simple eight-step structure. Since the element is an integral part of all traditional celebrations in the Dominican Republic, the dance is learnt spontaneously from a young age, but there are also over a hundred academies, studios and schools dedicated to its transmission.”
Over the weekend, the Medina administration announced a RD$96,000 monthly pension for the widow of Victor Victor who passed away of Covid-19 on 16 July 2020.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
UNESCO
2 August 2020