week 4, day 2, Bonus Activity: Shake it Off

Bonus Activity: Shake it Off

The Merengue 

Merengue was made the official music of the Dominican Republic by Rafael Trujillo. In one version, the dance originated from the enslaved laborers working in sugar beet fields. These workers were connected to one another by a chain strapped to their ankles and had to walk in such a manner as to drag one leg.

By the 1940s and 1950s it was performed with accordions

Merengue was first mentioned around the middle of the 19th century and has locally been very popular since then. The genre was later promoted even more by Rafael Trujillo, the dictator from 1930 to 1961, who turned it into the country's national music and dance style. In the United States it was first popularized by New York-based groups and bandleaders like Rafael Petiton Guzman, beginning in the 1930s, and Angel Viloria y su Conjunto Típico Cibaeño in the 1950s. It was during the Trujillo era that the merengue "Compadre Pedro Juan", by Luis Alberti, became an international hit and standardized the 2-part form of the merengue.^[3]

^{This information was taken from the internet.}