With a dance show by the capital’s Malecon (Seawall), the Dominican people’s big bash –the Merengue Festival- struck up, proving why the well-known rhythm has lived out through all these years.

The Merengue Festival –as it’s known locally- is a major allure for thousands of Dominicans and visitors coming from neighboring countries around the Caribbean and elsewhere that consider the Dominican dance as their own.

In 2006, both the youth and the elderly paid tribute to Joseito Mateo –nickenamed here as the Father of Merengue- as they rubbed elbows with Johnny Ventura –The Big Horse- that’s officially retiring this year from the world scene after having made generations of Dominicans dance to his beats.

This dance show is a display of gaudiness, costumes and bands. The Queen’s garments, the horse-hauled buggies, the dancing groups and other cultural expressions come together to pay homage to the Dominicans’ national dance.

In addition to the dance shows, residents organize other activities, such as the Craftwork Fair, the Fish Fair, the Cuisine Tradeshow, the Creole Pastry Fair, Painting Exhibits, Sculptures, Masks, the National Cocktail Contest, Popular Dance Matches, Karting Contests and people’s games. “Merengue has rhythmically evolved, but it’ll always be merengue,” said Joseito Mateo to Excellences magazine, one of the most outstanding creators of the music that’s played with guira, tambora and accordion.

The Origins Merengue is not just music, but also a way of life. This rhythm saw the light of day out of the evolution of the contredanse foreigners brought to these American lands as part of the cultural invasion.

The word merengue –meringue in French and mereng in Creole- is part of a genre of dances that has reached out to every nook and cranny of the Caribbean in a variety of forms. Today, it’s the national dance of the Dominican Republic.

This kind of music came into being in the rural areas. Hicks from all regions on the island transformed contredanse their own way by using local musical instruments. What it’s currently known as Dominican merengue hails from the northern Dominican Republic, from a region called Cibao.

According to El Jeffri, a young Dominican merengue performer who also talked to Excellences magazine, “this music is the gladdest rhythm of the mainland.” His opinion matches the views of Joseito Mateo, even though there’s quite a generational gap between them.

The two celebrated merengue singers say this kind of music has certainly evolved and enriched itself, but there are elements that allow us to trace back its origins. When it comes to talking about evolution and new sounds, Joseito Mateo pointed at Juan Luis Guerra, a man –he says- who’s made great contributions to merengue.

The Ojala que Llueva Café and Bachata Rosa albums –including the single La Bilirrubina- established Juan Luis Guerra as a world-class performer who sold millions of copies in Spain, the United States and all across Latin America, thus helping put Dominican music on the world map.

Something that has truly singled out merengue in all times is its popular character. At the very onset, the rhythm was played with instruments that were within everybody’s reach: local mandolins, three-stringers and four-string guitars.

In the late 20th century, the sound of the German-origin diatonic accordion was added to replace the mandolin. Today, people shake a leg to the beat of merengue in fancy ballrooms as well as in the streets, in every city corner known as colmadones (huge bodegas that become makeshift recreational centers on Fridays and Saturdays).