I would day that SAJOMA would be the greatest example of Cibao living and culture

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Take a look at this French made Map of the entire island and notice how far the Plains o Llanos de la Vega Real expanded. All the way to Samaná Bay Again, I think that what is "El Cibao" is subject to time and place. And the areas or sectors/divisions once large and over encompassing have gained more differentiation as modernization and development has progressed.

We had a vaery heated discussion on this before...I don't want to ruffle any feathers..but again, If you live near the beach, not from the cibao...if you live near the border, tampoco...if you live south of Bonao (la puerta del Cibao entrando por la capital), eres sureño.

As with other developing nations and indeed the whole modernization process, people reconstruct their idea of what is the meaning of identity to a region, town, nation, etc. The Map above points you to the plains of Santiago, what we call La Linea. If you look at the "Department Du Cibao" it was vast and encompassed Monte Cristi, Puerto Plata and Samaná It was huge but with low population density and few, for the time, developed cities with international connections and commerce. Only Santiago, tobacco and Puerto Plata-the port, had some vitality at the time.

The "Department Du Cibao" was a concoction made in Port-Au-Prince and as such something that I would hardly use to make a final determination as to who is a Cibaeño. BTW regional and culutral identities PRECEDE modernization and are actually blurred by the process.

In many ways SAJOMA is the mother town of Cibaeño culture...it amazes me at how many Cibaeño families have at least some origins in that town. Per si quiere ver un pueblo mas pequeño pero progresista y autenticamente cibaeño visita mi pueblo natal, Baitoa!!

"The "Department Du Cibao" was a concoction made in Port-Au-Prince and as such something that I would hardly use to make a final determination as to who is a Cibaeño. BTW regional and culutral[sic] identities PRECEED[sic] modernization and are actually blurred by the process."

Whether regional and cultural identities PRECEDE modernization, your second point of the blurring of identity caused by modernization was my point. Time and space have changed and will continue to change what we consider "real" to a specific region or area. And BTW, El Cibao Adentro is not the same as El Cibao. The former I take to be the so-called heartland of a given area. And in that consideration, those areas closest to the city of Santiago de los Caballeros are likely, not a given, the areas where the closest approximation to El Cibao Adentro resides.

Thanks everyones for their replies.

Does this video look like the urban cibao?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYB7x3ns2dk

RIGHT ON BROTHER !!!!!!!!!! You are so right........It takes one to know one..........

Only Cibaeños know what we are talking about. You can bring a map, point to any location and say it is the Cibao. However, that in and of itself does not automatically converts it into Cibaeño territory. Just because some dude in the map department got orders from a higher up and wanted to change and make it that way, has nothing to do with who, what or where we are as an authentic Cibaeño region.

People forget that we are not simply talking about some territorial demarcation lines. We are referring to a very specific geographical location, which identifies a very specific group of people, who have a very specific cultural identity, autochthonous only to this region of the Dominican Republic. There is nothing nebulous about that. WE STAND FIRM ON WHO OR WHAT WE ARE.

It is not sufficient enough that some person of authority for geopolitical motives wanted to expand the territory and make Samana or any other area of the DR as part of the Cibao, it does not make it, qualifies it to be a bonafied Cibaeño location. Plain and simple.

They still do horse back riding in those areas