Bachata’s African Roots

Without African influence, there would be no bachata, salsa, or most Latin genres for that matter. But where did bachata come from and where is its future?

Origin:

Born in the Dominican, bachata was developed at the intersection of African drums, the Spanish guitar, and the guira, said to have originated from the Taino. One could say that bachata came from a process that most Latinos come from, resistance in response to colonization. When Europeans colonized the Caribbean and Latin America, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was one of the systems used to oppress black and brown peoples. Separating families and communities who spoke similar languages, was one of the many strategies used to silence and divide the masses. In response, the Taino and African peoples had no other choice but to rise above and persist. They did so by overcoming language barriers and communicating via rhythms, drums and indigenous instruments to be exact, as well as the common colonized language of Spanish. 

From this, many genres of Latin music were born, including bachata. Bachata was heavily influenced by Puerto Rican jibaro, Cuban bolero and son, Mexican corrido, Dominican merengue and more, becoming a guitar based genre that incorporated African, Taino, and Spanish elements.

The main instrumental elements of bachata include:

• Requinto – the first guitar
• Segunda – the rhythmic guitar
• bass guitar
• Bongos
• Guira 

For a long time, the genre was mostly looked down upon by those of higher social classes, as they associated bachata with being rural, Black, and lower class. It reflected the anti-black rhetoric and race relations in the Dominican Republic back then, and the genre suffered in the mainstream from said hatred, but flourished amongst Afrolatino communities. In the 90’s and early 2000’s, there was a shift when the genre took the U.S. by storm, led by artists like Aventura who added an urban twist to the beloved genre and made hits like “Un Beso” that are still played today.

Today:

Today, we have a new generation of bachata artists already continuing the legacy of bachata into the 2020’s.

On Season 2, Episode 8 of Blacktinidad, we had the opportunity to speak with Chavi Leons, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, based in the Dominican Republic. He tells us how relocating from the Bronx, NY to the DR helped him to “get inspired, see the people, the music, the food, how it smells, the whole ambience of it.” During our conversation, he reflected heavily on connecting back to his roots and shared his appreciation for inspirational trailblazers in bachata and Dominican culture.

Check out the full conversation with Chavi here on LATV: