Juan Pablo Duarte

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Duarte and the second or maternal family name is Díez.

For the Chilean farmer killed and beheaded in 2012, see Murder of María José Reyes and Juan Duarte.

Juan Pablo Duarte
Born	(1813-01-26)January 26, 1813 Santo Domingo, Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (later the Dominican Republic)
Died	Caracas, Venezuela
Nationality	Dominican
Occupation	One of the Founding Fathers of the Dominican Republic
Known for	Visionary and liberal thinker

Juan Pablo Duarte Díez (January 26, 1813 – July 15, 1876) is one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. He was a visionary and liberal thinker, who along with Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Matías Ramón Mella, is widely considered to be the architect of the Dominican Republic and its independence from Haitian rule in 1844. He would help create the political-military organization La Trinitaria to fight against the Haitian occupation, achieve independence, and create a self-sufficient nation established on the liberal ideals of a democratic government.

Duarte helped supervise and finance the Dominican War of Independence, paying a heavy toll which would eventually ruin him financially. His then radical views would also make him a controversial figure among fellow Dominicans of the time, and he would be exiled at various occasions after the founding of the new nation. His liberal views went against the conservative elites who sought for heavy-handed control of the nation, and wanted to maintain the traditional regionalisms of the past. Duarte had strong disagreements with Pedro Santana in particular, who he saw as a tyrannical figure directly opposed to his ideals of liberty and independence. Ultimately, he would spend his last days away from the nation he helped shape and would die in exile, this made him a political martyr in the eyes of subsequent generations.

The highest mountain in the Caribbean is named Pico Duarte in his honor, as are Juan Pablo Duarte Square in New York City, and many other noteworthy landmarks, suggesting his historical importance for Dominicans. His democratic ideals, although never fully fleshed-out, have served as a guiding principle for most Dominican governments of the present day.

Early years

Duarte was born in Santo Domingo, Captaincy General of Santo Domingo during the period commonly called España Boba.

Duarte’s father was Juan José Duarte Rodríguez, a Peninsular from Vejer de la Frontera, Kingdom of Seville, Spain, and his mother was Manuela Díez Jiménez from El Seybo, Captaincy General of Santo Domingo; three of Duarte’s grandparents were Europeans. In 1802 Duarte and Díez migrated from Santo Domingo to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. They were evading the imposition of Haitian rule over Santo Domingo. This transformation of the island’s colonial experience became apparent the previous year, after the majority black Haitians in the French occupation army revolted and expelled and killed (it is considered a genocide) all Europeans or whites in the western side of the island. when Toussaint Louverture, governor of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), a former colony of France located on the western third of Hispaniola, took control of Santo Domingo, located on the island’s eastern two-thirds. At the time, France and Saint-Domingue (the western third of the island), were going through exhaustive social movements, namely, the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. In occupying the Spanish side of the island the European hating governor was using as a pretext the previous agreements between the governments of France and Spain in the Peace of Basel signed in 1795, which had given the Spanish area to France.

Upon arrival in Santo Domingo, Louverture immediately restricted slavery, although complete abolition of slavery in Santo Domingo came in 1822, and in addition began converting the old Spanish colonial institutions into Haitian Revolutionary venues of government. Puerto Rico was still a Spanish colony, and Mayagüez, being so close to Hispaniola, just across the Mona Passage, had become a refuge for people from Santo Domingo like the Duartes and other native born on the Spanish side who did not accept Haitian rule. Most scholars assume that the Duartes' first son, Vicente Celestino, was born here at this time on the eastern side of the Mona Passage. The family returned to Santo Domingo in 1809, however, after the Spanish reconquest of Santo Domingo returned Santo Domingo to Spanish control.

Family of Juan Pablo Duarte

16. José Duarte               8. Cristóbal Duarte Gil                       17. Catalina Gil               4. Manuel Duarte Jiménez                             18. Andrés Rodríguez               9. Catalina Jiménez                       19. Beatriz García               2. Juan José Duarte Rodríguez                                   10. Juan Rodríguez                       5. Ana María Rodríguez de Tapia                             11. Tomasa de Tapia                       1. Juan Pablo Duarte Díez                                         24. José Díez               12. Agustín Díez Rojo                       25. Juana Rojo               6. Antonio Díez Baillo                             26. Tomás Baillo               13. Ángela Baillo Fernández                       27. Magdalena Fernández               3. Manuela Díez Jiménez                                   28. Manuel Jiménez Badillo               14. Manuel Jiménez de Reyna                       29. Petronila de Reyna               7. Rufina Jiménez Benítez                             30. Juan Benítez               15. Lorenza Benítez Vásquez                       31. Francisca Vásquez             Source: Dominican Institute of Genealogy

The struggle for independence

La Trinitaria was the organizer of the formation and independence of the Dominican Republic.

In 1821, when Duarte was eight years old, the Creole elite of Santo Domingo proclaimed its independence from Spanish rule, and renamed the former Spanish colony Haití Español. The most prominent leader of the coup against the colonial government was one of its former supporters, José Núñez de Cáceres. The group of individuals that he represented were tired of being ignored by the Crown, and some were also concerned with the new liberal turn in Madrid. Their deed was not an isolated event. The 1820s was a time of profound political changes throughout the entire Spanish Atlantic World, which affected directly the lives of petite bourgeoisie like the Duartes. It began with the conflictive period between Spanish royalists and liberals in the Iberian Peninsula, which is known today as the Trienio Liberal.

American patriots in arms, like Simón Bolívar in South America, immediately reaped the fruits of the metropolis' destabilization, and began pushing back colonial troops, like what happened in the Battle of Carabobo, and then in the consequential Battle of Ayacucho. Even conservative elites in New Spain (like Agustín de Iturbide in Mexico), who had no intention of being ruled by Spanish anticlericals, moved to break ties with the crown in Spain. However, the 1821 emancipatory events in Santo Domingo were to be different from those in the continent because they will not last. Historians today call this elite’s brief courtship with sovereignty the Ephemeral Independence. Although he was not much aware of what was going on at this time because of his young age, Juan Pablo Duarte was to look back at this period as a learning experience for the future.

The Cáceres provisional government requested support from Simón Bolivar’s new republican government, but it was ignored given the internal conflicts of the Gran Colombia. Neighboring Haiti, a former French colony that was already independent, decided to invade the Hispanic side of the island. This tactic was not new. It was meant to keep the island out of the hands of European imperial powers and thus a way to safeguard the Haitian Revolution. But at the same time to preserve the Haitian black elites ideal that the island was one and indivisible and it should belong to Haiti. Haiti’s president Jean-Pierre Boyer sent an invasion army that took over the eastern portion of Hispaniola at a very high human costs for the Spanish criollos. Cities were leveled, women rape, men and children hung, etc. Haiti then abolished slavery there once and for all, and occupied and absorbed Santo Domingo into the Republic of Haiti. Struggles between Boyer and the old colonial helped produce a mass migration of planters and resources because the Haitian government would not allow whites to own any of the means of productions, if before you weren't killed. It also led to the closing of the university by sacking it and eventually, to the total elimination of the colonial elite, criollos, and the establishment of a new bourgeoisie black Haitian dominant class in alignment with the Haitian government. Following the bourgeoisie custom of sending promising sons abroad for education, the Duartes sent Juan Pablo to the United States and Europe in 1828.

Statue of Duarte in Juan Pablo Duarte Square, New York City

On July 16, 1838, Duarte and others established a secret patriotic society called La Trinitaria, which helped undermine Haitian occupation. Some of its first members included Juan Isidro Pérez, Pedro Alejandro Pina, Jacinto de la Concha, Félix María Ruiz, José María Serra, Benito González, Felipe Alfau, and Juan Nepomuceno Ravelo. Later, Duarte and others founded a society called La Filantrópica, which had a more public presence, seeking to spread veiled ideas of liberation through theatrical stages. All of this, along with the help of many who wanted to be rid of the Haitians who ruled over Dominicans led to the proclamation of independence on February 27, 1844 (Dominican War of Independence). However, Duarte had already been exiled to Caracas, Venezuela the previous year for his insurgent conduct. He continued to correspond with members of his family and members of the independence movement. Independence could not be denied and after many struggles, the Dominican Republic was born. A republican form of government was established where a free people would hold ultimate power and, through the voting process, would give rise to a democracy where every citizen would, in theory, be equal and free.

Duarte was supported by many as a candidate for the presidency of the new-born Republic. Mella wanted Duarte to simply declare himself president. Duarte never giving up on the principles of democracy and fairness by which he lived, would only accept if voted in by a majority of the Dominican people. However, the forces of those favoring Spanish sovereignty as protection from continued Haitian threats and invasions, led by general Pedro Santana, a large landowner from the eastern lowlands, took over and exiled Duarte. In 1845, Santana exiled the entire Duarte family. After more but unsuccessful Haitian invasions, internal disorder, and his and others’ misrule, Santana turned the country back into a colony of Spain in 1861, was awarded the hereditary title of Marquess of Las Carreras by the Spanish Queen Isabella II, and died in 1864.

Duarte's family in Venezuela did not do too badly, they lived and worked in an affluent area. Duarte's cousin Manuel Diez became Vice President of the country and helped shelter his kinsman. Duarte's family was known to produce candles, this was a major retail and wholesale product since lightbulbs for lighting had not been invented yet. While not luxuriously rich an income was available for the Duarte's. Juan Pablo being a man of action as well of a high level of curiosity went off to live in the Venezuelan countryside, there he had some contacts and he made off to meet with them. The Venezuela of this period was wracked by a series of civil wars and internal dissentions. Duarte even though he and his family were already by this time time residents of the country, still felt ambivalent about openly participating in the country's political life, all this despite the fact that the aforementioned cousin Manuel Diez from the Vice Presidency, went on to become President of Venezuela in an Ad Tempore capacity.

Duarte travels in Venezuela involved studying the indigenous people's and learning from the black and mulatto communities as well as observing as much as he could of the Venezuela of his time. Duarte was an extremely educated man, fluent in many languages, he was a former soldier and teacher. These abilities helped him survive and thrive in those places he travelled. It also marked him as an outsider, since he came from a caribbean country he probably sounded much different than most of the Spanish speakers around him. However Santo Domingo and the Republic that he had helped father were also highly likely always close to his heart and his mind. So he was very much a man divided, excited and deeply moved by the current surroundings, people's and events around him, however very much thinking about his beloved land and people whom he sacrificed so much for. A man in a contemplative mood, wounded by the drastic expulsion such as he suffered, would have very little time for a longterm wife, children or true stability.

Duarte, then living in Venezuela, was made the Dominican Consul and provided with a pension to honor him for his sacrifice. But even this after some time was not honored and he lost commission and pension. He, Juan Pablo Duarte, the poet, philosopher, writer, actor, soldier, general, dreamer and hero died nobly in Caracas at the age of 63. His remains were transferred to Dominican soil in 1884—ironically, by president and dictator Ulises Heureaux, and given a proper burial with full honors. He is entombed in a beautiful mausoleum, the Altar de la Patria, at the Count’s Gate (Puerta del Conde), alongside Sanchez and Mella, who at that spot fired the rifle shot that propelled them into legend. His birth is commemorated by Dominicans every January 26.

See also

• History of the Dominican Republic

External links

• "Haiti and Santo Domingo". Dominican Republic: A country study (Haggerty, Richard A., editor). Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress of the USA (1989).