Like every true community my community has events and in summer when all the kids are on vacation they have to have things to amuse them. Let me tell you about one of these the Miss Verano pageant. Literally translated it is Miss Summer.
This was a really truly amazing local experience. I bought the tickets from a neighbour’s child who was entered and I took some of my neighbour’s kids with me. Heaps of people were going and supporting their niece or grandchild or neighbours brothers wife’s third cousin. They had banners and posters with photos of the girls as support. The girls were between 6 and 10 years old. They did a whole pageant. Complete with interviews and bathing suit competition. It was quite funny even if it was quite disturbing. I was reminded again of the vanity in this country. Every woman is expected to know how to do her hair just so, and how to wear makeup. They wear girly shoes everyday even for a back yard gathering.
I was surprised of course as usual to see the variety of people who were out to support it and the sensuality of the dancing. In Australia such young girls using such sensual moves in a public display would raise questions about encouraging promiscuity and letting them grow up to soon. There would also be the thought of paedophiles who might get ideas. It all seems so tainted and yet very real. The concerns here are not like that. Many of the mothers encouraging their daughters to act his way and the crowd cheering and laughing at these types of moves. Not knowing the culture but knowing the kinds of rates of teen pregnancy and the statistics on education levels generally I wonder will this all change in the future as this country develops. I do not think all Dominican’s would let their children act in this manner but many would allow them in pageants. There is a clear divide between men and women here from very early on. Girls and boys do not play together or at least not the same kinds of things. Girls and boys would never be on the same baseball team because well girls wouldn’t play. I am sure that as class level changes here some of these things change but even something simple like bike riding is done separately. You rarely see mixed sexesflying kites together or socialising in the younger years at all in my neighbourhood.
