The History of Bachata Urbana is Presented in New York

The former president of the Dominican Association of Art Critics (ACROARTE), Máximo Jiménez, launched his latest book on the bachata, one of the most popular Latin American musical genres that originated in the Dominican Republic in the 20th century.  Published by Funglode, the book launching event took place before a relaxed and enthusiastic audience that gathered at the Dominican Commission of Culture in New York.

The event –
which is part of GFDD’s initiative “Dominican-Get-Togethers in the Big Apple” – opened with the showing of the organization’s institutional video.  Welcoming remarks were delivered by the director of GFDD’s New York office, Yamile Eusebio Paulino, who also presented a video of the professional trajectory of Dominican journalist Máximo Jiménez.  The video was produced by the institution’s audiovisual department.

The attending public, which was held in an open-discussion format, learned interesting details on the professional career of journalist Jiménez. During his participation, he spoke on his latest publication La gran aventura de la bachata urbana (The Great Adventure of the Urban Bachata, non-official translation), published
by Funglode.  The book tells the story of the popular group Aventura, from its very beginnings to its final breakup in 2011.

Jiménez related that journalism entered his life “in a most surprising way in the mid-nineties when he worked for morning dailies Listin Diario and El Caribe as a typesetter (the person who typed the incoming opinion articles), and where he began to learn and gain experience in the field.” He then began his formal journalism
studies at a local university in the Dominican capital.

“We were able to witness the beginnings of the urban bachata.  We were deeply involved in our journalism career and, as editor of newspaper El Siglo – and in charge of the Entertainment section – I had the space to write about this popular phenomenon.  I had the opportunity to cover Aventura’s first concert, on September 1, 2007, at the Madison Square Garden, and I was
truly impressed by the performance.  I was just as shocked when I learned of their breakup in 2011.”

Dominican artists, journalists, and other personalities representing the Dominican diaspora in New York participated in the book launching event.

About the Author
Máximo Jiménez was born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, in 1972. He began to cover films right from the very start of his career, in 1997,
as a reporter for morning daily El Siglo. He was content editor for the enel.net website in the late nineties, and simultaneously worked as a reporter for Noticias en Antena (Antena Latina). As a reporter in morning daily Diario Libre and weekly news magazine Rumbo, in 2005 he began to write opinion articles on the musical scene.

Between 2005 and 2006 he published, along with journalist Emelyn Baldera – current president of ACROARTE – the book Anuario Discos:
Memorias del acontecer musical de República Dominicana (Memoirs of the Music Scene in the Dominican Republic, non-official translation). Between 2006 and 2012 he was Entertainment editor for daily El Caribe and president of ACROARTE between 2011-2013.

In October 2013 he began to coordinate the “Music Between Books” discussion group at Funglode’s Juan Bosch Library. Beginning in September 2012 he heads the online daily
photonews.do and currently publishes his musical critic articles in newspaper Listín Diario.

On Dominican-Get-Togethers
As a part of its mission to promote the understanding and appreciation of Dominican culture, its values and heritage, and to create opportunities for discussions of contemporary issues relevant to the Dominican society in the homeland and abroad, GFDD reaches out to the Dominican community living in the New York Metro
Area – and to all those interested in Dominican culture – by organizing ongoing events known as “Dominican Get-togethers in the Big Apple.”