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Disagree, I'd say Haiti has more in common with Francophone Africa especially Benin, over the Spanish Caribbean. Haiti has almost nothing in common with DR despite sharing a land mass.
Haiti is similar to the French Carribean nations (Martinique, Guadeloupe, etc) - not Francophone Africa.
Disagree, I'd say Haiti has more in common with Francophone Africa especially Benin, over the Spanish Caribbean. Haiti has almost nothing in common with DR despite sharing a land mass.
This is hard for many people to accept, but the Haitians themselves in the DR comment of how different one side is from the other. With that said, there are some similarities, just not as many as people that are not acquainted with both countries think. Along the border region there are the usual similarities among any two bordering countries with a sizable border community. But even there the differences are glaring as wuickly as you cross the border in either direction. Even things lime the way rural farming is done is different (while driving through the Haitian countryside you don't see how the more commercial farming is done in the DR ranging from size and slso the way the land is distributed. I think it's something that has to be seen to be believe.
Obviously, the Haitian community in the DR has plenty of similarities with Haiti, but they are themselves either Haitian or of recent Haitian descent. It shouldn't be a mistery that this exist in that community, but this is a minority community in the DR. Mainstream Dominican culture is its own thing.
There are other things that Dominicans take for granted that Haitians notice right away, such as the highways (despite most are not US/Canada/Europe types) to something as inconsequential as tunnels and overpasses, especially in Santo Domingo and Santiago. These are things that pops out to them when they first arrive. In general, Haiti lacks in quantity in mostly middle class and wealthy areas of Dominican cities, so these also pops out to them. I say that once most Haitians make it to Dominican towns and cities, it's very unlikely they will go back to Haiti to live. This is taking into account that the DR is a developing country, but wealthier than most and the development gap between the two countries is larger than on the borders of any other two countries in the Americas with perhaps the exception Colombia/Venezuela. Not even the USA/Mexico contrast is comparable despite this is one between a developed country and a developing one. Imagine how much more it would had been if the DR was a developed country.
A few years ago the World Bank or the UN or some international organization managed to get rich countries to agree pardoning the debt of poor countries. The DR didn't qualify for this, though neighboring Haiti did.
I am not Latin American and even I realize the region is divided like this.
Mexico / Central America not including Panama.
Colombia / Panama / Venezuela
Cuba / Puerto Rico / Dominican Republic / Haiti
Brazil
Peru / Ecuador / Bolivia
Paraguay / Uruguay / Argentina
Chile is Peru mixed with Argentina
Do yourself a favor ... never say this to a chilean "Chile is Peru mixed with Argentina"
Argentina and Uruguay, hands down, not even close to any other pair of countries. Mostly Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and the other Argentine provinces close to Uruguay (RÃoplatense region). The accent, the Argentine soft power in Uruguay (music, tv etc) among many other things.
Colombia and Venezuela, not much. Colombia itself isn't an homogeneous country at all, the Pacific is completely different from the Caribbean, and the Andes has many cultural regions. Venezuela is another country, and it also have a very different political and legal traditions from us.
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Originally Posted by AntonioR
Putting Panama & Colombia in one sentence, while not much of a big deal with Colombians, you simply don't do that with Panamanians. Just don't. lol
Venezuela has more similarities with Caribbean coastal Colombia than say the area surrounding Bogotá (with Venezuelan immigration this could be changing). Certainly, Venezuela has a similar Andean culture, but most of the Venezuelan population lives near the coast while most Colombians are in the Andean part. For example, most Colombians come through as a more reserved people, particularly in Bogotá. Venezuelans are more like people from Puerto Rico, DR, and Cuba; much more expressive and extroverted. One of the things Venezuelans say when they move to Santo Domingo is that the idiosincracy feels so much like Venezuela that they feel as if they never left Venezuela, simply moved to another area within the same country. That is not always what is transmitted by Colombians living in Santo Domingo (Caribbean Colombians see greater similarities with the idiosincracy of the DR than more inland Colombians). Given that, there should be more similarities between Caribbean Colombians and Venezuelans than with say Bogotá Colombians and Venezuelans.
Panama is just not that similar to Colombia. It has some resemblances to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, but we are separated by the Darien gap to have that much in common.
Not even Caribbean Colombians acknowledge being very close to Venezuela, culturally speaking.
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Originally Posted by Travel4Food
Not Really Ecuador is more andean and native than you might expect. Ecuador has the most common with Peru and Bolivia.
Demographically speaking, Colombia is the most Andean country, with over 75% of people living in the Andes region. That's like 35 million people, and more than all the people living in the Andes of the other countries combined.
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Originally Posted by Dopo
I'm familiar with Venezuela and Colombia
They were once part of one country in the early 1800s
that was very shortlived (11 years only). And it was not only Venezuela, but also Ecuador and Panama. It was something merely on paper, there never was a real union between these countries, or a smooth trade between them. Not even between Colombian departments... it wasn't for anything Colombia fought so many civil wars between regions, and even became a federative state for a few decades, Estados Unidos de Colombia.
Quote:
Before Hugo Chavez, it was estimated that 10% of the population in Venezuela was born in Colombia
There were 700k born Colombians in Venezuela according to Venezuela's 2011 National Census, that's much less than 10%, it's less than 3%. And most of them were from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and Santanderes.
Quote:
Don't know about the other countries, but Venezuela/Colombia have ALWAYS called each other "Sister nation"
No Colombian would seriously call Venezuela that way, for many reasons (political, effects of immigration, etc).
Last edited by joacocanal; 01-17-2022 at 06:46 PM..
Demographically speaking, Colombia is the most Andean country, with over 75% of people living in the Andes region. That's like 35 million people, and more than all the people living in the Andes of the other countries combined.
That's true, but to be Andean in Colombia vs in say Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia even Chile I think are two different things. The main Colombian culture is in the Andeas, but that is a much more mestizo culture than the very obvious more indigenous culture of the Andes of those other countries. The people too have a peculiar look where in Colombian Andes it's definitely a balanced mestizo and at places a slightly more European look. In Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia/Chile Andean is synonimous with a very heavy indigenous look. In the case of Ecuador, the country's capital is in the Andean area and it has a greater mestizo look than say in Cochabamba, Bolivia or even in Cuzco, Peru. Most people that live in Chile's Andean region look very amerindian, markedly different from how the bulk of Chileans look down near and on the coast. In Peru it's well known that Lima, a city on the coast, was more European looking before took place the great migration of "Serranos" (Andean people) who, naturally, increased the indigenous look in the city.
People should be aware that the first platain trees in the Americas was taken by a Spaniard from the Canary Islands to Santo Domingo in the early 1500's. From there it spread everywhere the Spanish settled in the Americas.
The things most Latin Americsn countries have in common is dueto the Spanish and how it incorporated in different places. It's a given that anything the Spaniards introduced in the now DR almost all of it was introduced sbd much of it became widely accepted/practiced/consumed everywhere they went.
People shouldn't be surprised that platains are widely known in Latin America and widely eaten in its various forms.
It's like asking what Spanish American countries have their own dulce de leche? Uh, literally all of them. Now, lets take a wild guess what country invented dulce de leche. Hint: It's on theIberian Peninsula in Europe.
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