Merengue, vudú y nación: el panteón rayano de Marcio Veloz-Maggiolo

This article analyses the role of merengue and voodoo in El hombre del acordeón (2003) by Marcio Veloz-Maggiolo. I argue that the representation of music and religion serves to complicate traditional accounts of Dominican culture. Special attention is paid to the patriarchal and authoritative components of official Dominican culture in the Trujillo era (1930-1961), particularly the massacre of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian near the border between the two countries in 1937. Another critical aspect examined in this article is the “rayano” subject as representative of the cultural intermingling between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which is studied through the notions of “paradigm” (Agamben) and “quasi-object” (Latour).