You Can't Stop the Beat

Nor can I, as much as I try to. You see, there are these songs, well, there’s one whole CD of songs, but 2 in particular that Dominicans just can’t get enough of. They are sung by one guy, who don’t tell any of the locals, but I don’t even think he has that good of a voice, nor do I think the songs are that catchy. They are called “Vete” and “Es tan dificil,” and let me tell you I want those songs to vete but it es tan dificil.

I thought that I might experience a bit of a break from those 2 particular songs when I headed off into the mountains to visit a Peace Corps volunteer. Oh how much that was wishful thinking. You see, no matter how poor, remote, dirty, hungry, or sick, these Dominicans just can’t get enough of the meringue and the bachata. So believe me, no matter how much I’d like to stop these 2 beats, I will be unable. Perhaps someone will release another CD to take the place of the one we’re listening to now, but I don’t anticipate that happening anytime soon.

Those songs played at least 3 times each the night we went out to the car wash, and when I visited the volunteer for the weekend, you better believe they played at the dance hall we went to, again, multiple times. The dance hall was quite interesting. Like a lot of the places she and I visited, there was just one light bulb to light the entire room, which was pretty big. It hung above a bar which was serving up 2 things: Brugal rum and Presidente beer. Those are definitely the 2 preferred drinks here in La Republica Dominicana.

The hall was filled with old men mostly, probably about 50 of them, although there was a handful of men in their 40s or 30s. Also there were about 5 kids, one of whom, who couldn’t have been older than 5, picked up a cigarette at one point and was smoking it until the volunteer went over and grabbed it from her, telling her that those things could kill her. Of course there were us 2 white American women, and perhaps 3 or 4 local women. So, as you can tell by this ratio, I did a fair amount of dancing. Problem is, I’m really not any good at meringue or bachata yet, despite trying to dance with my host brother and having a lesson with the other volunteers. The problem, as I’m sure many of you women already know, is that each partner I dance with has a very different way of leading. And then there’s the discomfort factor which exists as soon as I look up and see a large group of local men looking, scratch that, starring right at me. What happens next is I lose track of the beat and my feet, and ultimately step on his feet or just generally mess up. I’ll get it sometime though. I’ve got over 2 years to learn.

If you’d like to download some music to know what exactly it is I’m hearing 24 hours a day, and believe me, I mean 24 hours, you can try to look up those 2 songs, though I’ve been told they are sung by a few people so I don’t have the artist name to give you. The other song that plays pretty frequently that I wish would play more often as it is super beautiful is La Travesia by Joe Veras and the album name is the same. There’s one part (which plays twice in the song) that is my absolute favorite, and I’ll let you guess what that might be.