Counter-hegemony and the sociology of place: A preliminary study of new social movements at Parque Duarte in Santo Domingo

This paper is part of an ongoing research project on new social movements in the Dominican Republic. In spite of and quite often, in direct opposition to the conservative hegemonic project led by the Dominican Catholic church and the extreme political right, there has been a marked resurgence of new progressive social movements led by young activists. This has taken place mainly in the capital including environmentalists, feminists, LGBT activists, Haitian-Dominicans, as well as members of cultural collectives.

The paper focuses on the spatial and symbolic strategies deployed by those groups by looking at the case of Parque Duarte, a small yet incredibly important public space in the colonial center (Zona Colonial) of Santo Domingo where most of these movements concentrate. The paper starts with an overview of life at the park during the last 20 years and how it became a vibrant icon of cultural resistance and political inconformity after having been neglected by the authorities. According to several interviewees, two movements, the erranticistas (“the wanderers”, a group of radical cultural activists), and the LGBT community were key in creating the conditions that allowed others to feel safe in this abandoned public space.

However, the increasing visibility of the LGBT community prompted calls for repression by several public figures including the Cardinal, a controversial figure in Dominican politics, who resides a few blocks away from Parque Duarte, which is located in front of two churches. Police repression was in effect for two months until the beginning of 2011. The paper looks at these developments by combining insights from the sociology of place, Gramsci’s hegemony framework, and cultural and social movement studies. Fieldwork consists of interviews with movement members and leaders, journalists, Zona Colonial residents, and academics and participant observation of people and events at Parque Duarte.