Abstract

This essay, of a bibliographical nature and inductive procedure, argues that in the Dominican Republic, the population experiences an Antillean version of the “clash of civilizations”, given the socio-cultural and institutional impact of irregular immigration, mostly from Haiti. It is no longer a question of the generic Western idea, as Samuel P. Huntington put it, but of the presumption of ‘Hispanicness’ and Western modernity that the Dominican people voluntarily adopt, challenged by the supposed barbarism present around them behind their image of the Haitian. Just as the distinguished professor argued that nationalism inevitably leads us to barbarism, this barbarism is resented, every day, on the Antillean island, due to the presence of immigration in irregular conditions coming from a Haiti, immersed in its own agony. The process studied includes the main cultural and historical milestones that configure, at an anthropological level, the conscience and understanding of the Dominican regarding his other, the Haitian. Once the evaluation is complete, what remains to be answered, given the uncertain future of both ethnic groups, is what is here called the Cartesian question underlying the capacity for civilizing response of the Dominican people.

Keywords:
immigration; transculturation; civilization; cultural clash; national identity