[ohomem_t]

I agree with Mr. Lu that the natives of the New World weren't called Dominicans, Americans, or any other name given by Europeans. I know that there is much Taino influence in the culture of D.R., as well as people who have Taino ancestry. However, there are so many ignorant people nowadays that believe only what they want to believe, that Dominicans are either only Black, or a mix of African & Spanish. These people want to believe that Dominicans make up the Taino theory just to cover up the fact that they're ashamed of their African ancestry, which isn't the case. For instance, when I post on Yahoo Answers and ask a question about Dominicans and Taino ancestry, I get answers saying that they only have African and Spanish roots. The dark-skinned people of D.R. could be either ones with Native Caribbean or Taino roots, or those with African roots, or it could be a mix of the two. There are people in my family who appear to have Native Indian or Caribbean roots, but not African, since they have straight hair.
People should understand that the D.R. is a mix of all three ethnicities, not just two. If you go to a Caribbean island called Dominica, then you can expect to find a majority of African-based people with no connection whatsoever to the Spanish culture. But if referring to the Dominican Republic, there are three or more ethnicities, with a culture and language that originates from the Spaniards.

Tony