PUERTO PLATA.- The splendid mixbetween our first settlers, the inventiveness of young hands and the creativity that the muses awaken between a sea of ​​silver and a mountain motivate the people of Puerto Plata every year to celebrate their carnival by presenting their fabulous Taimáscaros.

The Taimáscaro, as defined by its creator and promoters, is a clearly cultural character, "conceived of that process of miscegenation that has resulted in the Dominican people, where a tribute to our culture is made extinct and silenced, but always present in our be collective, which has been the taína. That's why we call our character: Taimáscaro ", says Jacinto Beard, creator of this proposal and character.

Every year, they are gestated around this proposal, which suggests elements of the Spanish cast, Afro-Antillean black and aboriginal Taíno, numerous groups that have contributed to the evolution of this character, enriching and contributing to the costume and its unparalleled mask, They certainly make it exotic and different.

"Unlike other peoples who keep the Diablo Cojuelo as a character, ours is totally an invention that had a different conception and evolution but that preserves an accepted history of our first characters that motivated us to create something as a greater cultural essence and a character distinctive of our province, "says Beard

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The reports on the celebration of the carnival in the city of Puerto Plata date back to the end of the 19th century, and its festivity was enriched by the arrival of Cuban immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century.
The central character is the cojuelo devil, who in Puerto Plata becomes Taimáscaro, who produces Taíno deities in his masks, with a beautiful suit where elements of Spanish culture and African essences are symbolized, in multi-colored ribbons in his arms, and all this is complemented by the snails of the Atlantic Ocean, as natural elements of the Puertoplateño people's identity.

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