Dominican people
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Dominicans (Spanish: Dominicanos) are people from the Dominican Republic. The majority of Dominicans in the world live in the Dominican Republic, but there is as well a large Dominican diaspora, especially in the United States, Puerto Rico and Spain. The population of Dominican Republic was estimated at close to 10,090,000 in 2009.[1]
     | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Dominican people 13,263,000 Total population of Dominican Republic | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Dominican Republic (2011 estimate) | 13,263,000 |
 United States | 2,000,000 |
 Spain | 120,000 |
 Puerto Rico | 100,000 |
 Haiti | 88,500 |
 Bahamas | 63,000 (in scattered places) |
 Jamaica | 49,000 |
 Curacao | 30,000 |
 Venezuela | 22,000 |
| Virgin Islands (USA or Britsh) | Unknown |
 Netherlands Antilles | Unknown |
 Cayman Islands | Unknown |
| Languages | |
| Dominican Spanish, Samana English | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholic; Protestant, Dominican Vudu, Santeria, Other African regligions. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Latin Americans (As well as other Caribbean or West Indian peoples). | |
The people and the race
It is estimated that some 894,000 enslaved Africans were brought to Dominican Republic between 1717 and 1870 (and more before 1717). The slaves came from various West African regions, but the majority came from primarily The Congo region (present-day Angola, Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon) and the gold coast/Guinean (presen-day Ghana and Guinea).
In addition, many immigrants arrived from other places around the world. After the last smuggled slave ship that arrived in 1898, many Chinese people came to the island due to the Chinese Revolution, along with the Arabs of North Africa (Morocco or Algeria) and Indians. Rafeal Trujillo brought in people from Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom due to the liking of European race and culture rather than the dominant African heritage found on the island. Now en-days, to many Dominicans, anything that's African is considered of Haitian origin, due to the brainwashing of the dictatorship of Trujillo.[2] He also brought in people from Asia (mainly Japanese) and they are concentrated in places like Bonao.
Today, well over 90% of Dominicans are of Black African descent. Arabs or African-Arabs makeup about 3%, Whites of European descent makeup 3%, and the rest are Asians and others.