The heat of the climate makes a liberal use
of powder necessary, and it almost seems as if the darker the color of
the woman the greater is her fondness for powder, so that some of the
negresses assume an almost grayish hue. The Dominican woman is very
domestic, she rarely goes out except to church, to an occasional dance
or to the band concerts on the plaza. Before her marriage she is
carefully chaperoned and guarded; all courting takes place in the
presence of her mother or some other near relative.
Notwithstanding the large mixture of African blood and long isolation
of the Dominican race, the strong personality of the Spaniard has
survived unmodified and the population is to-day as thoroughly Spanish
in character, customs and mode of thinking as the people of Cuba and
Porto Rico. How completely the Spanish consciousness pervades the
country was illustrated by a remark made to an American naval officer
by the mayor of an inland town of Santo Domingo; he was a very black
negro, but in the course of a discussion observed: "Your arguments
will fit Anglo-Saxons, but _we Latins_ are a different people.
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