Culture of the Dominican Republic Festival. During four days each December, independent films, shorts, and documentaries are screened. "Notes": Culture of the Dominican Republic The culture of the Dominican Republic is a diverse mixture of different influences from around the world. The Dominican people and their customs have origins consisting predominately in a European cultural basis, with both African and native Taíno influences. The Dominican Republic was the site of the first European settlement in the Western Hemisphere, namely Santo Domingo founded in 1493. As a result of over five centuries of Spanish presence in the island, the core of Dominican culture is derived from
Women in the Dominican Republic the reason is that most women tend to wear skirts instead of Jean either because of religious beliefs or do to culture. Women in the Dominican Republic have an average life expectancy of 72 years. Women who live in the rural areas of the Dominican Republic usually engage themselves in the manufacture of "macramé" hammocks, bags, baskets, products of palm weaving, and the creation of jewelry using coral, seashells, amber, and the semiprecious ocean-blue gemstone known as larimar (a gemstone that is native only in the country). Women in the Dominican Republic Women in the Dominican Republic have equal constitutional