Projecting Modernity: Visual Culture and Dominican Youth in the 1920s

This presentation explores how Dominican youth perceived US culture during the 1910s and 1920s, a period marked by growing US involvement and culminating in the eight-year US occupation (1916-1924). Amid elite concerns about Americanization, Dominican youth embraced flapper hairstyles and other popular US cultural trends, contrasting sharply with the local elite’s emphasis on hispanidad and their use of European culture as a form of resistance to US imperialism. Elites sought a “modernized traditionalism” that would centralize the nation and increase its economic output while maintaining traditional socioeconomic hierarchies and patriarchal family dynamics. However, elites feared that US involvement meant Dominicans would replace classical and Christian traditions with the materialistic and pragmatic values associated with the US. Like other Latin Americans in the period, Dominican elites encouraged resistance to US influence through the strength of a unified Latin American identity and the defense of high culture. Youth were seen as especially vulnerable to moral corruption and Americanization, with their young minds considered fragile and moldable. Elite Dominicans feared that the popularity of US dances like the foxtrot and two-step would overshadow traditional dances such as the danzón, leading to the erosion of Dominican customs. Analyzing photographs and advertisements from the Dominican magazine La Opinión reveals that Dominican youth had notions of modernity influenced by their own cultural references. Unlike literary magazines like Letras and Blanco y Negro, which depicted women in conservative clothing, La Opinión featured young women with short hairstyles and sleeveless dresses, appealing to a youthful audience. These images and articles challenge the bourgeois ideals expected of the upper classes, such as modest femininity, showcasing the impact of 1920s US flapper culture. They illustrate how Dominican youth gravitated toward US styles, negotiating their roles and projecting their ideas of modernity, thereby challenging the dominant narratives imposed by Dominican adults.