The Dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina

Nicola WarmuthEspañol 230 Presentation

As Junot Díaz puts it:“For those of you who missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican history: Trujillo, one of the twentieth century's most infamous dictators, ruled the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961 with implacable ruthless brutality. A portly, sadistic, pig-eyed mulatto who bleached his skin, wore platform shoes, and had a fondness for Napoleon era haberdashery, Trujillo (also known as El Jefe, the Failed Cattle Thief, and Fuckface) came to control nearly every aspect of the DR's political, cultural, social, and economic life through a potent (and familiar) mixture of violence, intimidation, massacre, rape, co-option, and terror; treated the country like a plantation and he was the master.

At first glance, he was just your prototypical Latin American caudillo, but his power was terminal in ways that few historians or writers have fully captured or, I would argue, imagined. He was our Sauron, our Arawn, our Darkseid, our Once and Future Dictator, a personaje so outlandish, so perverse, so dreadful that not even a sci-fi writer could have made his ass up. Famous for changing ALL THE NAMES of ALL THE LANDMARKS in the DR to honor himself … for making ill monopolies out of every slice of the national patrimony (which quickly made him one of the wealthiest men in the planet); for building one of the largest militaries in the hemisphere (dude had bomber wings, for fuck's sake); for fucking every hot girl in sight, even the wives of his subordinates, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of women; for expecting, no, insisting on absolute veneration from his pueblo (tellingly, the national slogan was "Dios y Trujillo"; for running the country like it was a Marine boot camp; for stripping friends and allies of their positions and properties for no reason at all; and for his almost supernatural abilities.

Outstanding accomplishments include: the 1937 genocide against the Haitian and Haitian-Dominican community; one of the longest and most damaging US-backed dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere (and if we Latin types are skillful at anything it's tolerating US-backed dictators, so you know this was a hard-earned victory, the chilenos and argentinos are still appealing); the creation of the first modern kleptocracy (Trujillo was Mobutu before Mobutu was Mobutu); the systematic bribing of American senators; and, last but not least, the forging of the Dominican peoples into a modern state (did what his Marine trainers, during the Occupation, were unable to do).” (Díaz, 2-3).

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina

Born in San Cristóbal, DR in 1891 Son of Jose Trujillo Valdez and

Altagracia Julia Molina 3rd of 11 children

Grandmother was Haitian First wife Aminta Ledesma in 1913 - two

children Second wife Bienvenida Ricardo in 1926

- one child a year after the divorce (affair) Third wife Angeles Martínez Alba - two childrenLina Lovatón Pittaluga - debutant - two childrenBasically: There were many women

Coming into Power Joined the military US occupation of the DR from

1916-1924 - loans defaulted Policia Nacional Trujillo was promoted to commander

Launched a coup against Horacio Vásquez on August 30th, 1930 “Elected” president 95%!!

In power from 1930 - 1961 when he was assassinated

Trujillo and the US Favored because of anti-communist policies and

economic system Cordell Hull - US secretary of state 1933-1944: “He

may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he is our son-of-a-bitch” Worked with the US military for 28 years - cut

off relationship after abuse of foreigners The Good Neighbor Policy

Military training, economic and cultural expansion, Export-Import Bank loans, political subversion, and monetary supervision.

El Corte El corte “The Parsley Massacre” - October 1937 -

ordered troops to kill all Haitians in the DR and the Chibao (region of Haiti) perejil vs. pési Army, civilian recruits killed people for five days - burned

the corpsesUnknown how many ethnic Haitians were killed with machetes (~15,000) Dominican elites vs. Dominican peasants

Peasants - bilingual and detached/opposing DR’s nationalism

Counterrevolution Servicio de Inteligencia Militar - Secret police Sharks? 1949 - opposition builds Movimiento de la Liberacion Dominicana - rebels caught and tortured June 14th, 1959 Movimiento del Catorce de Junio - again

the rebels were caught 1950s lost support from the Catholic Church, the US, and

Dominican elites Tuesday, May 30, 1961 - assassinated - CIA?

Martyrs Jesúse Galídez - Basque delegate

Did doctrinal research in the DR - criticized gov Forced to flee to the US in 1949 March 12th, 1957 was disappeared in Manhatten

Las Hermanas Mirabal Students at Inmaculada Corazon Minerva was introduced to the brutality of the regime Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa, married anti-trujillistas & were

part of the June 14th movement All three of them were brutally murdered on Nov 25, 1960

And then what? Joaquin Balaguer became president - Trujillo’s VP Juan Bosch - member of the Partido

Revolucionista Dominicano attempted reforms -> during an uprising LBJ had to send

in troops Joaquin Balaguer was re-elected w/ help from US!

Held onto power until his death in 2000 Leonel Fernandez - current president

Some reforms

¿Any Questions?

Further Reading Mario Vargas Llosa - The Feast of the Goat Junot Díaz - The Brief and Wondrous Life

of Oscar Wao Julia Alvarez - In the Time of the Butterflies Eric Roorda - The Dictator Next Door: The

Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic

Works Cited "Contemporary Dominican Republic: Women & Reform, Revolution and Counterrevolution.”

Duke University. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. <http://www.duke.edu/~eec7/reformrevcounterrev.html>. Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead, 2007. Print. Madison Smartt Bell. A Hidden Haitian World, Volume 55, Number 12 (July 17th, 2008 ed.).

New York Review of Books. pp. 4039 words. Roorda, Eric. The Dictator next Door: the Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the

Dominican Republic, 1930-1945. Durham: Duke UP, 1998. Print. Turits, Richard Lee. "A World Destroyed, a Nation Imposed: The 1937 Haitian Massacre in the

Dominican Republic." The Hispanic American Historical Review 83.3 (2002): 589-635. JSTOR. Web. 10 Apr. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40268278>.

Photos: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/dominican/trujillo-3.gif http://www.duke.edu/~eec7/trujillo.gif http://www.chshub.com/files/groupFiles/media/image/trujillo.jpg http://thequickanddirtydirty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/shark-attack1.jpg http://bonoc.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/galindez.jpg http://ana.guzman.8k.com/hermanaMirabal.jpg