The album, meant to be a tribute to the indigenous tribes of the Dominican Republic, is named after a dance that the aboriginal inhabitants of the Greater Antilles (Taínos) accompanied with songs during their festivals and religious rites.

The album contains twelve tracks including "Cuando te Beso", interpret by Santo Domingo Philharmonic Orchestra.

However, it faced some controversy due the strong social lyrics in some protest songs, and the music video of the album's third single, "El Costo de la Vida", was banned in several countries.

The song album contains lyrics about poor conditions in many Latin American countries, the celebration of the 'discovery' of America and the double standards of first-world nations.

Despite this "El Costo de la Vida" was his first number-one hit on the Hot Latin Tracks and won Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year at the 5th Lo Nuestro Awards.

To support the album, seven singles were released from the record, five of which became top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart.

When Columbus and his men landed on the shores of what is now the Dominican Republic in 1492, they were met by a group of Taino Indians who greeted the newcomers with a song called the Areito.

For this reason, Guerra desired to honored and remember then explaining, "We only have a few stories and words left of them, in addition to the areitos, which are songs and dances.

"El Costo De La Vida" has a musical composition of the merengue with elements zairian soukous of Africa with the collaboration of Don Diabla.

Enrique Lopetegui from Achy Obejas from the Chicago Tribune gave it for 4 out 4 stars and praised the album's lyrics and wrote "Songs on Guerra's latest release, Areíto bemoan the rising cost of living in the Dominican Republic and throughout the Third World".

Areito, however, has demonstrated that Guerra is becoming one of the very few commercially successful Latino artists willing to air uncensored views about the politics of life.

[20] In the same hand, the newspaper La Opinión gave a positive review to the album and stated "It is a revealing work by a mature artist, very conscious and who has an immense future ahead of him.

However, on the same review he stated "Areito remains a cautions sequel, but Guerra is so talented that even his holding patterns often make for worthwhile listening".

[26] Areíto was also a commercial success in Latin America and was certified Gold and Platinum in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela.

[30] Guerra performed over 30 shows during the Areíto tour, making a comeback to the top 10 due to album sales surge.

attributed that one of the reasons was because Areíto did not have the same formula of mixed rhythms that caused his predecessor reached new audiences and universal acclaim.

Instead, the album musical structure was based more on traditional bachata, merengue and bolero, causing some disappointment to the most recent fans at the time.