When men sing for women

One year and counting
Cat and I recently celebrated one year in country. As fast as it has passed I am old enough to know that the next year will go even quicker. I could use this entry to reflect on all that's happened, things I've seen and done, the people I've met, etc. But instead I am thinking about machismo and bachata, two things that are a daily part of my experience here.

Bachata is, by far, the most popular genre of Dominican music. Machismo, is, welllll . . .

The male animal
Machismo is the cultural pattern that defines gender relations in the DR and, indeed, much of Latin America. The word machismo derives from the Spanish macho, which means "male animal." Basically this means different behavior standards for men and women with the difference favoring men. This manifests itself in many ways but generally means that men are free to do as they like while women are expected to be responsible and "respectable" - which usually means staying at home to cook and clean and take care of children.

The double standard extends to sexual relationships as well. Dominican culture is pretty sexual: multiple partners are common, even expected. I say this with no judgement having come from San Francisco, a city in which the average person has 21(!) different sexual partners over their lifetime. (No, not me, mom). But under machismo, men can brag about their conquests while women have to keep quiet lest their reputation be irrevocably damaged. The double standard of machismo also dictates that "quiet" infidelity by men is to be tolerated, even it breaks the heart of every woman involved with the unfaithful man.

Machismo puts suffering women in another bind by restricting artistic expression. In the US woman can sing of their broken hearts and get rich doing it but Dominican popular music there is little space for female artists.

A few words about bachata
Bachata began as the music of brothels. Then it was the music of the campo, a period in which it endured a disdain similar to that urban intellectuals in the US have heaped upon country music, before eventually becoming the king of Dominican genres. It is lovely, melancholic music with a rhythm you can dance to.

A favorite old song of mine:


As the genre steadily marched toward universal acceptance it slowly changed. The rhythm stayed the same but the tempo sped up. Artists from the Dominican diaspora started incorporating pop influences from their time in Nueva Yol. Romeo Santo, the reigning king of contemporary bachata, is fluently bilingual and has cut songs with Drake.

What does it sound like now? Click, close your eyes, and listen:




If you are like me, you may have thought Romeo was a woman upon first listen. It's not just him. For the being most popular genre in a machista society, a surprising number of male bachata artists sing in a feminine style. This androgyny is present in the lyrical content as well.

To women or for them?
Some say that machismo is embedded in Spanish because the majority of nouns have gender. When speaking about a women, or to her, you use  the feminine version of a word. When speaking about, or to, a man use the masculine form.  When saying something as simple as "You are bad" you betray the gender of the object by saying either "bueno" (masculine) or "buena" (feminine). It is really hard to avoid using gender, even by accident.

Yet bachata does this all the time. Virtually all bachata is about love between men and women but it many of biggest songs refer not to men and women but just "you" and "I" in an ingeniously genderless fashion. This is not universal - the Romeo song above brims with rather grotesque, gendered expressions - but it is extremely common.

With high pitched vocals and androgynous lyrics, many contemporary bachatas written and performed by men could be sung by a woman without changing a single thing about the song. This brings me to the belatedly stated thesis of this piece: contemporary bachata, by accident or design, has evolved in such a way that the songs that best to permit the expression of female longing in a machisto society are the most popular.

Instead of singing merely to the women, male bachata artists sing in their place as well.

10 Seconds
When it comes to bachata, I prefer the old school of Leonardo Paniagua and Luis Seguro but I still appreciate the new style. My contemporary favorite  is "10 Segundos by Zacarias Ferreria." I have probably heard this song - no joke - at least 300 times in the last 365 days and still I am not sick of the melody.

Hear:


Dominicans love to sing along, out loud, in public. About 200 of the 300 times I have heard this song, there was a woman singing along, reaching for the high notes in the chorus. It goes like this:

Yo te amo pero tú
buscas sexo y nada más
yo te amo pero tú
de amar bien no eres capaz.

"I love you, but you
look for sex and nothing more.
I love you, but you
are not capable of real love."