Haiti/Dominican Republic

Haiti
For our country, For our forefathers, United let us march. Let there be no traitors in our ranks! Let us be masters of our soil. United let us march For our country, For our forefathers. For our forebears, For our country Let us toil joyfully. May the fields be fertile And our souls take courage. Let us toil joyfully For our forebears, For our country.
For our country And for our forefathers, Let us train our sons. Free, strong, and prosperous, We shall always be as brothers. Let us train our sons For our country
And for our forefathers. For our forebears, For our country, Oh God of the valiant!
Take our rights and our life Under your infinite protection, Oh God of the valiant!
For our forebears, For our country. For the flag, For our country To die is a fine thing!
Our past cries out to us: Have a disciplined soul! To die is a fine thing, For the flag,
For our country.

Dominican Republic
Brave men of Quisqueya, Let us sing with strong feeling And let us show to the world
Our invincible, glorious banner. Hail, O people who, strong and intrepid, Launched into war and went to death! Under a warlike menace of death, You broke your chains of slavery. No country deserves to be free If it is an indolent and servile slave, If the call does not grow loud within it, Tempered by a virile heroism. But the brave and indomitable Quisqueya Will always hold its head high, For if it were a thousand times enslaved, It would a thousand times regain freedom.

The Haitian and the Dominican national anthem are both war based anthems. This is not surprising seeing as both countries have fought violently to declare their independence. These two countries are also neighbors because they share geographical locations, however there themes are different.
The Haitian anthem has a religious side to it. God is mentioned throughout the anthem as a way of saying that they are righteous for willing to die for their country. The mentioning of God also displays faith which coincides with the country’s culture today where religion plays a major part of these people daily lives. The anthem places a strong emphasis on unity which I think was done on purpose to reflect that without unity their independence might not have been possible. The Haitian anthem also pays homage to their ancestors and I think again this is because their ancestor fought to free them. The Haitian anthem idolizes the Independence that they had gain approximately 100 years before the anthem was written. This anthem I think was written specifically to reflect the country’s independence that it fought so hard to attain.
The Dominican Anthem also reflects their independence, but this anthem takes a very aggressive and brash approach. Claiming that it didn’t matter how many times they were enslaved, they had the courage and strength to once again be free. You can also feel the self pride that they have about themselves for having achieved such a daunting task of obtaining freedom. However while the Haitian anthem appeals to religion and unity this anthem focuses mainly on how strong their people are for having achieved freedom. I don’t think the Dominican Republic anthem accurately reflect Dominican’s culture today because the country has a very diverse culture and war like aggression is not one of them.