Tuesday, January 26, marks the 208th anniversary of the birth of Juan Pablo Duarte, one of the nation’s fathers and the founder of the Dominican nation. The date marks the beginning of the national holiday of the national homeland, which runs until National Independence Day, February 27.
Juan Pablo Duarte Diez was born in the city of Santo Domingo on January 26, 1813, in the historical period known as La España Boba. He was the son of the Spaniard Juan José Duarte Rodríguez, originally from Cádiz, and the Dominican Manuela Diez Jiménez, originally from El Seibo.
He was only eight when José Núñez de Cáceres proclaimed ephemeral independence in December 1821, and nine when Haitian General Jean-Pierre Boyer occupied the eastern part of Hispaniola in February 1822.
One of the most famous episodes in Duarte’s life, for what it meant to his thinking and to the country in which he was born, was the trip he undertook to Europe in 1829 for study purposes. Democratic ideals had such a strong influence on the teenager that, when he returned to his island, he did so with the determination to start a movement to end the Haitian occupation.
To achieve his goal, he founded, together with other young conspirators, the secret society La Trinitaria (1838). He and the other conspirators also created La Filantrópica and La Dramática, which used the theater to spread their ideals of freedom.
As a leader of the movement, he suffered persecution and was off the island when the National Independence was proclaimed.
The hero suffered harassment from conservative sectors who accused him of being a traitor and expelled him from the country just months after the birth of the new Republic in 1844.
Then, the Father of the Nation disappeared from public life for 20 years and entered the Venezuelan jungle. When he left anonymity and returned to the Dominican Republic in March 1864, he did so under the orders of the Restoring Government and brought with him the money and weapons he had collected for the cause.
However, again, he had to leave the country. The restorative government has appointed a Dominican representative abroad to raise funds.
Duarte would not return to the country. At least not in life. In 1876, at the age of 63, he died in Venezuela.