Totalitarian Pedagogy in the

Tropics:
Indoctrination During
the Trujillo Era

By: José Abreu de la Cruz

 A Note:
All translations mine unless otherwise stated.

Introduction
The First Teacher and Self-Loathing
Counterinsurgent Indoctrination
Censorship
First Families and the Cult of Personality
The Goat and Traditional Gender Roles
Anti-Haitianism, Slavery and the 'Dominican Race'
Balaguer and Batlle: Race, Religion and Trujillo's Brains
Catholic Complicity
Racial Revisionism, Indigenísmo and Fascist Propaganda
Nationalistic Fervor and Anticommunism
Origins of the Trujillato
Control Tactics: Spying, Intimidation, and the Public Forum
Dissemination of Dissident Works
Plan Bienal and the Literacy Campaign
Conclusion
Images
 Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo's rise in the Dominican Republic after a military coup and

fraudulent elections in 1930 greatly changed the landscape of Quisqueya, as citizens colloquially

refer to the nation state. Trujillo's rise to power and subsequent 31 year reign (1930-1961) was

marked by several interrelated factors: vicious and violent squashing of any and all opposition to

his regime; an elaborate cult of personality built around himself and his family; and, in many

ways the modernization of certain sectors of the small Caribbean island. Before Trujillo,

illiteracy was rampant not only in urban areas but particularly more so in rural areas. He sought

to ameliorate this problem with the goal of simultaneously strengthening the support for the cult

of personality which he already enjoyed and the privileges it conferred. The publications

commissioned by his administration declared him: El Primer Maestro (first teacher), and

benefactor of the nation. Utilizing these grandiose rhetorical tactics, he inculcated an entire

generation of Dominicans with blind obedience, hatred of communists, Haitians and anyone the

regime deemed undesired. The process was so effective that even today, nearly 5 decades after

Trujillo's death, his former pupils still adore him. Indeed, his influence lasted well into the '90s

and pervades in the present with individuals loyal to the Trujillato's ideology occupying

important seats of power in all levels of government and the military. Indeed, Trujillo's

dictatorship significantly changed all aspects of Dominican political reality – most important

among these changes was the popular and official outlook toward certain elements of the

Dominican population and relations with Haiti, the island's neighbor to the west. The public

school system was the most important weapon in the despot's arsenal when it came to

indoctrinating the Dominican masses.

Junot Diaz’ Pulitzer Prize winning book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

highlights the absurd events in a particular school during Trujillo's reign. Diaz tells the story of a
girl attending school in the Dominican Republic during el jefe's reign. It anecdotally recites the

tale of a young student who informs his class, “ Trujillo’s reign is not all that it’s cracked up to

be” and subsequently disappears along with the teacher. Some time later, another student is

asked to name some of the greatest Mesoamerican cultures. He answers: “ Trujillo’s Dominican

Republic is one of the greatest Mesoamerican cultures,” and receives and 'A' – because he

mentioned Trujillo in his answer. Though literacy (a positive accomplishment) was the end-result

of Trujillo’s construction of schools throughout the nation, his end-goal was to mold the minds of

an entire generation with his political philosophy. Nonetheless, many Dominicans circumvented

Trujillo’s censorship and began reading the works of exiled intellectuals such as Juan Bosch and

Jesus de Galíndez. In the end, the skills Trujillo’s schools taught rural peasants and urbanites led

to his own undoing. This thesis seeks to explore the draconian ways in which Trujillo used

literacy and learning to further his racist and megalomaniacal objectives. Further, it will present

an insight into the backlash his regime suffered by the people subjected to his school system.

Perhaps most importantly, an observer of Dominican society will gain a better understanding of

the current worldview held by large segments of the Dominican population.

The First Teacher and Self-Loathing

By official accounts, education during the Trujillo era was highly successful and effective.

El jefe actively pushed forth the notion that great advances during his era warranted unlimited

adulation from all segments of society. A 1939 pamphlet published by the Ministry of Education

and Fine Arts titled Trujillo: Primer Maestro de la República(First Teacher of the Republic), is

perhaps one of the earliest documents chronicling the changes enacted by Trujillo's first two

administrations. In 1932, Trujillo gave a speech on the revolutionary new school code that was to
be introduced in Dominican schools. This date effectively marks the point Trujillo's grip over the

nation's schools became absolute. The pamphlet, distributed to all schools in order to

commemorate Trujillo being awarded the title of First Teacher of the Republic, is riddled with

Trujillo's megalomania, though in a slightly more subdued manner than would be seen in later

years. Trujillo is described as a Christ-life figure: “ pater, ignosce illis. Nesciunt quid faciunt” is

one of the descriptions used in reference to Trujillo showing mercy to his enemies and political

opponents. Students in this pamphlet are thereafter instructed to be one in thought and one in

spirit and action. El Generalisímo further describes the Dominican Republic as an empire of

light, where he is conceptualized as emperor. Even early on during his administration, Trujillo

was using fascistic and religious imagery to legitimize his regime. Likewise, hatred served an

important role during his government.

During its early years, the Trujillato was primarily driven by natural self-loathing. Hatred

was not only directed at Haitians but also at what Dominicans represented. U.S. Foreign

intervention heavily influenced Trujillo during its eight-year occupation (1916-1924) of the

Dominican Republic. Trujillo appears to have been influenced by U.S. racial ideology and its

capitalist world view. Likewise, many Dominican intellectuals traditionally believed that the

Dominican Republic's barbarity and instability were due to its racially mixed origins (Franco

84). Trujillo fully embraced this ideology, describing the country as, “ a nation of disgusting,

undisciplined leviathans who would rather take to the mountains with arms than work, study or

build” (93). Consequentially, he sought to restructure the Dominican Republic into a nation of

hard working individuals. Dominican independence was thereafter reimagined in the public

consciousness as the beginning of a return to racial purity and decency. Teachers taught students

that Trujillo's goal was to undo 86 years of anarchy with independence marking the beginning of
a return to Spanish and Catholic roots. Trujillo's stated goal early on was to convert Quisqueya

into a “ noble, dignified and free fatherland” (Wiarda 105).

As a school system tends to mirror the ideas and beliefs of the oligarchy, Trujillo's schools

reflected the loathing previous elites had for the Dominican masses. As a result of this

indoctrination, the Dominican multitude further developed deep-seated sentiments of self-

loathing and under appreciation during his dictatorship. El Chivo's philosophy of restoring

whiteness to the Dominican Republic would be for the most part one of the few consistent

elements throughout his rule.

Although Trujillo was heavily influenced by North American views of the world, he was

by all accounts an authoritarian leader, and according to Howard Wiarda and other political

observers, he had no true philosophy of his own (Wiarda 103). Instead, he was interested in

power simply to feed his own megalomaniacal needs. Trujillo's only philosophy was accepting

whatever philosophy was necessary at the moment to preserve his regime. To this end, the

Dominican constitution lost its usefulness as a social contract. Trujillo wrote: “ many Latin

American nations simply translated the United States constitution into Spanish and adopted it.

The translations aren't true to the Latin American reality. Dignity, liberty and democracy must be

in accord with the traditions of each nation” (107). This philosophy allowed Trujillo to remain

flexible in sculpting his social machinations of domination. Wiarda describes the basic writings

of the regime as a poorly edited, poorly organized collection of untruths, most of which are

unintelligible and have no true systematization (120). Flexibility and the ability to justify his own

rule at any point in time defined the stylistic choice of Trujillo's school system and ideology.

Counterinsurgent Indoctrination
 After the end of World War II, accordingly, traditional pedagogy along lines of self-loath

and historical revisionism took a back seat to the new social order that emerged out of the Cold

War. Victor Delancer contends that Latin America was forced by the United States to readjust its

system of teaching within a framework of counterinsurgency. Education was thus

reconceptualized in resonance with this new geopolitical situation. Traditional education was

replaced with productivist, functional education, conceived as a complex strategy of wealth

accumulation and expansionist domination (16). Indeed, history books published at the height of

the Second World War and during the start of the Cold War emphasize this productivist and

wealth-oriented policy. Economic development became the basis by which liberty was measured

during this time period. Accordingly, the Trujillo-Hull treaty of 1940, stipulating the United

States' return of custom's offices back to Dominican hands, occupies an important chapter of

books during the era (Estella 364). Likewise, material and industrial progress served as a

justification for Trujillo's rule. Consequently, even the number of books distributed by the

government was heralded as a reason for adulating the great dictator – regardless of how much

propaganda was peddled in these books.

Censorship

Although the number of books in circulation in the Dominican Republic increased

substantially during Trujillo's reign, the official government censor prevented a large number of

books from being disseminated. The level of scrutiny placed over all publications entering the

Dominican Republic was tremendous. Naboth's Vineyard: The Dominican Republic 1844-1924

by Summer Wells, a book dealing with history before Trujillo's rise to power and thus not critical

of his regime, briefly mentions the difficulty the US military had in finding qualified officers for
the National Guard in the Dominican Republic, which was created by the US military during its

occupation of the island. It was immediately censored because Trujillo had been an officer in the

National Guard and owed his seat of power to his quick rise through the ranks. His military rank,

and US training and support later allowed him in 1930 to stage a coup and forcibly take the seat

of power (Wiarda 132). Trujillo's US military training and connections with individuals such as

Major Watson of the US marines made his censorship machinery one of the most effective of its

time.

Major Watson was a close mentor of Trujillo and their relationship persisted long after

the departure of the US military from Dominican soil. William Pulliam, the general receiver in

the Dominican Republic, complained that Watson's friendship with Trujillo had interfered in state

affairs with el generalísimo, who at the time was serving his first term (Roorda 168). Trujillo's

relationship with Watson has led certain segments of the Dominican Republic's population to

theorize that the US aided Trujillo in his censorship campaign. In 1931, exiled dissident Dr. Ellis

Cambiaso sent a letter from the US to another exile in Port-au-Prince. The letter resides in

Trujillo's archives and the only plausible explanation for its existence there is that US marines

intercepted the letter and forwarded it to Trujillo as Haiti was under US occupation at the time

(Vega 44). Indeed, evidence of US support for Trujillo comes to the fore in 1942 when he received

a degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Pittsburgh (UP). A 1942 book,

Edición Homenaje (Homage Edition), commemorating Trujillo being conferred the degree

chronicles the presence of the US secretary of State for War and Navy and the Secretary of State

for Foreign Affairs during the ceremony. Unlike the University of Pittsburgh, the previous degree

conferred upon Trujillo by the University of Santo Domingo can be attributed to his control over

that institution. Although UP trustee Leon Falk Jr. credits Trujillo's improvement of public
schools and his support of the war against the axis as a reason to present Trujillo with an

honorary degree, the Trujillato legitimized itself by gaining US support largely by promoting

itself as loyal to the prevailing American world view of the time. American ideas of race and

economics were standard instruments promoted by the Trujillo regime. Trujillo had crucial US

intellectual and military support but nonetheless needed the highly important support of

Dominican first families.

First Families and the Cult of Personality

First families were those that through inheritance, wealth, or a combination of both, had

achieved a high status in Dominican society. To understand Trujillo and his system of

indoctrination, it is crucial to understand the power dynamic between Dominican leaders and

first families. Before the arrival of the US marines in 1916, political parties and professional

branches of the armed forces in the Dominican Republic were largely nonexistent. Instead,

political power was determined by powerful caudillos and alliances between first families

(Wiarda 175). Between 1844 and 1930, the presidency changed 50 times, approximately every 1.7

years. The country also underwent thirty revolutions, or one every 2.9 years (10). Santana, an

important figure to be discussed in more detail later, was the quintessential Caudillo (man on

horseback), as Latin American dictators are generally called (Kruzanek 27). Santana was a

rancher from El Seibo with a private army who sought to negotiate a protectorate agreement with

any power that would offer him a lucrative deal (27). Trujillo had been born into a second-class

family and performed manual labor during his youth. Manual labor was highly frowned upon by

first families unless it was a hobby or done after the family had already joined the first ranks.

Even though Trujillo was the chief of the Dominican army in the late 1920s, country clubs such
as Club Union frequented by first class families, rejected him and as a result he was strongly

traumatized (Bosch 38). Political scholars have theorized that this rejection made Trujillo bitter

and hungrier for power. He wanted total control – to be able to determine who was important

and who was not and above all to be able to crush those who had humiliated him.

After his rise to power, Trujillo's desire to crush any and all dissent was more than mere

megalomania, it was an all out war against the old aristocracy. Trujillo's cult of personality

developed extensively out of this dilemma and his family became the one and only first family. It

is widely known that Trujillo changed the name of Santo Domingo, the oldest European

settlement in the Americas, to honor his own kin. Likewise, he changed the name of the tallest

mountain in the nation and built statues everywhere possible. “ God, Country and Trujillo”

became the new emblem of the Trujillo state. Lesser known, however, is the fact that most of the

literary material distributed in primary schools carried Trujillo's name as the author. Trujillo

established himself in the minds of schoolchildren as a member of the great literary minds of the

Dominican Republic. Trujillo's letters, pamphlets and supposed books were placed on the same

pedestal as Ramón Lugo Lovatón and Salomé Ureña, arguably the two greatest literary minds in

Dominican history. Trujillo's wife had a newspaper column titled Moral Meditations that was

compulsory reading for all Dominican students. Moral Meditations was taught as one of the

great examples of national literature and moral philosophy. On national book day, students read

the nation's greatest works, which focused on Trujillo's writing along with his wife's (Wiarda

130). Likewise, books such as A Graphic History of the Dominican Republic distributed in

schools bore the image of Ramfis, Tujillo's son and heir apparent, or other members of the

Trujillo clan. On mother's day, children were forced to write poems on motherhood with a special

emphasis on Doña Trujillo, el jefe's mother.

 By ensuring that works produced by members of his circle were given priority over all

other works, Trujillo guaranteed himself a forceful influence over the minds of students

everywhere in his domain. The dictatorial machinery of oppression further ensured that all works

produced in the island during el generalísimo's reign focused on worshiping him. Poets, authors

and even musicians found themselves on a government payroll. The Rafael Trujillo prize was

given to the author who best lauded the government and its eternally wise leader – the winner

was paid extremely well (131). The Ramfis literary prize likewise served similar goals (Pachecho

II 14). As a result of censorship, overemphasis on propagandist literature by ghost writers, and a

willful neglect of true literature, the Dominican Republic during the reign of The Goat, as el jefe

was called for his promiscuity, endured an intellectual mini-dark age. Fiction suffered above all

as the public imagination was heavily suppressed and adulation of el generalísimo became the

new goal of every citizen of Quisqueya. In Trujillo's mobile libraries, 40% of books dealt with

agrarian topics, 20% were dedicated to subjects pertaining to elementary and middle school

classes, while more than 20% dealt with the great level of progress made during Trujillo's era

(Pacheco II 100). Ignacio López-Calvo in God and Trujillo elaborates further on the literary and

cultural representations during el generalísimo's rule. López-Calvo, through a series of

conjunctures, refers to intellectuals as rhetorical dinosaurs who bring about more damage with

their eulogies to the despot than with the regime's bullets. Indeed, López-Calvo cites the numbers

of poems, literary works and songs dedicated to the dictator as innumerable and largely

repetitive since they do little more than praise the dictator in one form or another.

It is unclear whether Trujillo himself believed all the compliments he received from his

underlings. Nonetheless, Trujillo was worshiped indirectly through creating an image of himself

as the father of the nation. Traditional caudillos in Latin America have perpetuated their power
through the ignorance of their followers, while fearing the power the populace could gain

through education. The 20th century, as an epoch of fascism in many parts of the world, shattered

the notion of education as something to be feared by rulers. Instead, astute leaders were wise to

utilize education to their own advantages. Trujillo learned from other fascist leaders in Europe

and developed school texts to brand himself as a man of genius and the nation's soul (Wiarda

129). Trujillo gave fascism a Hispanic upgrade and crafted a system where every single success

was attributed to his genius and leadership. Indeed, patriotic outpours were the norm during the

inauguration of school buildings, the distribution of books or any otherwise typical government

work. Students were instructed that only Trujillo understood Dominican reality.

The Goat and Traditional Gender Roles

Trujillo's reality, however, was not grounded on mere concepts of Dominican existence.

They were congruent with male domination ideology of the time. In Caribbean Masculinities,

Antonio de Moya argues that Trujillo's dictatorship was a “ theater-state” where hegemonic

masculinity (and its inversion) was the protagonist (139). During Trujillo's reign, the cult of El

Tiguere was at its height. El Tiguere, in popular Dominican culture, is a neighborhood antihero

who always gets the girl. While Trujillo was the Tiguere incarnate, he emasculated other

Dominican males. When Trujillo changed the name of Santo Domingo to Ciudad Trujillo he

erected an obelisk, the ultimate phallic symbol, to celebrate the name change. All Dominican

homes were forced by law to hang a plaque in the living room that read En Esta Casa Manda

Trujillo (In this House Trujillo is Boss) – the obelisk was proudly displayed on the plaque (117).

This invasion of other men's personal space was a key aspect of Trujillo's role as the alpha male

in all aspects of Dominican life: conquering women, writing books and every other task thrown
his way. The Goat also strongly reinforced gender roles.

Males and females in Trujillo's time were expected to follow traditional paths. Very few,

usually the intellectual or moneyed elite, attended college. A good portion worked in rural areas

and the rest attended technical schools. Boys were expected to attend technical schools and learn

carpentry skills, gain knowledge of electricity, or learn about the construction trade (Pacheco

77). On the other hand, girls attended “ domestic economy” schools where they received

instruction in proper ways of correctly managing homes (cooking, baking, tailoring, etc.) Indeed,

acceptance into domestic economy schools only required of women the ability to read and write,

while technical schools mandated a letter of good conduct (86). Trujillo appears to be inclined

toward creating a gendered labor force, while sharply recognizing that a letter of good moral

conduct for women was unnecessary because he did not see them as a threat. Moreover, men with

technical skills could indeed represent a threat to his power and the background checks insured

that they and their families were loyal to his regime.

El generalísimo's rise to power depended heavily on his threat assessment ability and

accordingly, his school system was highly tiered toward areas that could potentially pose a

challenge to his power. Beyond requesting letters of good conduct from students who were to

learn technical skills, Trujillo's urban schools followed an entirely different curriculum from his

rural schools. Although publicly voicing support for Trujillo today is considered politically

incorrect and an unwise decision in polite company, his policies and government still have large

support from rural areas. Trujillo recognized that large groups of like-minded individuals could

easily congregate in urban areas and oppose his regime. Furthermore, cities are often the first

place to receive and foment new social ideas. To adjust accordingly, urban schools during

Trujillo's reign were much more oppressive and less likely to show leniency towards children
(Wiarda 185). Rural students started school at age 7 and only had a five class course load, while

urban students were subjected to a six class course load and began school at age 6 (Pacheco 47).

Furthermore, Trujillo employed “ open education” , allowing special rural students to learn on

their own terms as they best could (Latorre 91). Urban schools were also more likely to employ

separation of the sexes and strictly enforce uniform requirements. The level of freedom enjoyed

by students in rural areas was unthinkable for most pupils in urban centers. The best teachers

were arguably those in urban areas as requirements were much more stringent. Urban middle-

school students were also expected to learn English, though Chapman Veloz and others doubt the

effectiveness of the teaching methods employed (Pacheco 46). Indeed, schools were mere

machines churning out individuals who could perform a task suited to the area around them. The

curriculum in rural schools promoted a link to the local agrarian economy. One of the required

courses for students in rural areas dealt exclusively with agricultural affairs (48). The argument

could be easily made that individuals were never intended by the dictator to venture far from

their surroundings. Pacheco in Trujillo's official book on Dominican education indicates that

schools were intended to maintain the “ natural mentality” of the rural child (91). Most modern

day observers would argue that “ natural mentality” was an euphemism for subservience and

ignorance – which Trujillo needed in adequate doses to maintain his base of support. Though

Trujillo had eliminated the system of caudillos allied with first families, he still enforced in the

Dominican Republic a hierarchical caste worst than had existed prior to the arrival of American

forces in 1916. Every hierarchy needs a dominant class and a subservient group of people.

Anti-Haitianism, Slavery and the 'Dominican Race'

With Trujillo and his family at the top of the pyramid, Haitians soon found themselves at
the bottom of the social ladder. Trujillo gained extensive knowledge of segregation from his US

military handlers. Likewise, the intellectuals employed under him were well versed in North

American race relations. Andrés Pastoriza, a U.S. educated intellectual, had a close knowledge

of race relations in the states. Stressing the necessity to maintain U.S. support while at the same

time creating a social pariah in the minds of most Dominicans, Pastoriza argued that Trujillo

should emphasize to the white American diplomats he dealt with his desire to maintain racial

superiority over the Haitians (Roorda 136). Pastoriza's argument became the prototypical

defense pushed forth by Trujillo to justify his massacre of more than twenty thousand Haitians in

1937, though later the self-defense argument became more acceptable to the uninformed

(McLaughlin 1). Self-defense, Dominican students were taught, was crucially necessary because

Haitians were extremely dangerous and to be feared. One particularly disturbing excerpt from an

elementary school textbook read: “ Haiti is inhabited by savage Africans. The Haitian is an

enemy. Haitians should be deported to French Guiana or to Africa. The Dominican race and

civilization is superior to the Haitian. Haiti is not important to the world. The poorest elements of

the Haitian population are incapable of evolution and progress.” (Abreu 51).

As can be deduced from the excerpt above, students were taught that Dominican was one

race and Haitian another – nationality thus became the basis for distinction between the two

peoples. Since colonial times, the influx of African slaves to the Dominican Republic was not as

extensive as to the Haitian side, but well recorded. Trujillo saw it fit to erase this history and

replace it with a sanitized version. Museums in the Dominican Republic were in no way

dedicated to mentioning slavery or the Dominican Republic's proved African heritage. Indeed,

museums proudly displayed pieces of European colonization to prove the nation's Hispanic

heritage (Abreu 57). The Dominican Republic to this day proudly proclaims to have the remains
of Columbus and boastfully displays an anchor from one of Columbus' ships as a national

treasure. In essence, the only knowledge a typical student was likely to come across during the

Trujillo era regarding Africans was the information provided on the dangers of blacks from the

Haitian side. On rare occasions, students would be taught that blacks were simply nothing more

than the descendants of slaves without a history or specific geographical origin (56). Even more

shocking, Trujillo's description of slavery simply turned common knowledge on its head. Most

textbooks did not mention the existence of slavery in the Dominican Republic. The few textbooks

that did mention slavery did so to exalt the kindness of the Spanish master in comparison to the

French (Franco 98). Most accounts of slavery in Hispaniola dealt with the greed of the French

slave-drivers which led to their eventual and brutal overthrow. If official accounts by Trujillo's

historians accused the Spanish of a crime, it was allowing Haiti to exist in the first place and

thus plaguing the Dominican Republic with its presence. Indeed, Trujillo himself, in one of his

speeches, painted colonial society as following: “ the Spanish master raised his cattle with the

help of a person who never felt the whip to his back, for the most part slaves” (Delancer 99).

With this image in mind, blackness in the Dominican Republic was acknowledged in the

context Trujillo described as that of a benevolent master and a happy slave who never felt the

slash of the whip. Worse yet, anti-Haitian intellectuals like Balaguer and Batlle, when forced to

admit the presence of people of African descent in Quisqueya, argued that blacks in the

Dominican Republic came from the African coast and were good “ negroes” , while Haitians

came from the cannibal interior 1. It was official policy for textbooks and speeches to blur the

distinction between nationality and race (Sagás 143). It was, and still is, perfectly common for

black Dominicans to consider themselves exclusively Dominican and to regard black Haitians as

1 After completion in 2008, the Santo Domingo government named a subway station after Batlle.
being of a completely different race. If the distinction between race and nationality had been

erased for purposes other than to breed antagonism with “ the Haitian enemy,” Trujillo's

achievement would have been laudable by any standards. In uniting behind a mythical idea of

Spanish tradition and religion, Trujillo was able to unite his people against what he determined

to be a deadly enemy.

Trujillo's system of control relied primarily on his ability to rally and scare Dominican

children behind him; he taught them to see him as their protector. To do this, he overemphasized

the existence of an enemy from which only he could defend the masses. Conveniently, Hispaniola

happens to be one of two islands in the Caribbean divided into two nations. To further Trujillo's

luck, Haiti had a history of antagonism with the Dominican Republic and was by and large

composed of people of a darker complexion, who spoke a different language and practiced

different religious ceremonies.

Balaguer and Batlle: Race, Religion and Trujillo's Brains

All cultural, religious and racial differences between Haiti and the Dominican Republic

became the main education points of Trujillo's school system. His two main social architects

were Joaquin Balaguer and Manuel Peña Batlle. Ernesto Sagás in his book Racial problems in

the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean, describes Balaguer and Batlle as the foremost anti-

Haitian intellectuals of their era. Their influence was extraordinary and both men served in

numerous key positions during Trujillo's thirty-one year long reign.

During the 1930s and 40s, Balaguer proved himself as an able ambassador to various

Latin American nations. Balaguer was later promoted to minister of education from 1950-53.

Surprisingly, in his 1989 book Memorias de un Cortesano de la Era de Trujillo (Memories of a

Courtier During the Trujillo Era), Balaguer only devotes a mere couple of pages to this very

important chapter in his rise to power. It was his success as a member of the ministry of

education that allowed him to later serve as vice-president of the Dominican Republic until

Trujillo's assassination and thereby essentially inheriting Trujillo's post. Balaguer's writings give

insight into the mind of man full of duplicity.

In Memories of a Courtier During the Trujillo Era, Balaguer accuses Trujillo of

ruthlessly massacring Haitians (over 20,000 in 1937) and never once repenting for his

involvement in the Caribbean's worst genocide since the Spanish circa 1500 (71). Balaguer also

scorns Trujillo for his megalomania and the cult of personality he was using to brainwash an

entire generation of Dominican citizens (75). In his 1989 work, Balaguer appears to be largely

critical of the educational 'achievements' during the Trujillo era. To highlight his disappointment

with Trujillo's martinet ways and his cult of personality, Balaguer writes of a 1932 incident,

fairly early into Trujillo's reign yet indicative of the power he held at the time and foreshadowing

the tighter grip he would later hold on the island, in which renowned civics and history teacher

Andrés Perozo at the Escuela Normal de Santiago died (78). According to tradition, the flag was

to be flown half-mast in his honor. School principal Sergio Hernández was instructed not to fly

the flag half-mast unless ordered to do so by the presidential palace. The flag remained at full-

mast and given the silent criticism of teachers and students, as well as the public questioning of

Hernández's manhood by one of the school's female teachers, Hernández committed suicide out

of shame. Though it may seem difficult for modern audiences to understand why a man would

commit suicide over such a small insult, 'manhood' was very important in this time period.

Indeed, Trujillo sought to maintain his alpha male status regardless of the consequences.

Balaguer further condemns Trujillo's historical revisionism (79). President Rafael

Santana, for his own personal benefit, decided to annex the Dominican Republic back to Spain in

1861. Historically, Santana was considered a traitor for his deeds and Gregorio Luperon's

freedom movement, which once again restored independence in 1865, made him a hero in the

eyes of most Dominicans. Luperon was black and thus could not be used to further Trujillo's

goals of ultra-nationalism and anti-Haitianism. History was consequentially rewritten to label

Santana as the father of independence because he sought to restore the Dominican Republic to

its 'Hispanic roots'. Balaguer writes that a part of him died due to this; he also faults most

Dominican historians for being complicit in this “ historical assassination.”

Beyond denouncing Trujillo's cult of personality, massacre of Haitians and his historical

revisionism, Balaguer also does not seem to be fully in agreement with the Catholic fervor which

defined Trujillo's reign. Balaguer indicates that he had deist inclinations (384). He believed that

men made God in their image and that belief in immortality was a fruit of human vanity and

pride. Overall, Balaguer uses his 1989 book to make himself appear but a mere passive and often

unwilling participant of Trujillo's government. Perhaps for this reason, his three year stint as

minister of education occupies a mere couple of pages in the near 500 page work. Balaguer

simply assesses the professionalism of the people with whom he was involved and the efficient

system already in place when he took charge of the Department of Education. Though Balaguer

accuses Trujillo of historical revisionism, his 1984 work La Isla al Revés (The Upside Down

Island), paints a picture of man on the verge of committing the very same genocide he decried

and equally guilty of whitewashing Dominican history.

La Isla al Revés is a brutally racist book which, through conspiracy theorizing, hyperbole

and historical exaggeration, seeks to promote in the Dominican consciousness hatred and fear of

Haitians. The first chapter, titled Haitian Imperialism, argues that it has traditionally been the
dream of the Haitian elite to unite the two islands. Balaguer accuses Dessalines and the 1816

Haitian constitution for setting a precedent for invasion of the Dominican Republic. Balaguer

implies that after the failed military excursion of 1849, Haitians realized that military

domination of the eastern part of the island was no longer a possibility (31). Balaguer further

asserts that Haitians thus began conspiring to gradually and passively penetrate Quisqueya in

order to undo the treaty of Aranjuez and retake Dominican borderlands. He further infers that

certain segments of the Dominican population are and have been complicit in this surreptitious

invasion to further their own financial interest. Balaguer's fear tactics were classical Trujillo

teachings regarding the borderlands.

Balaguer also goes on to defend President Santana by claiming that under Haitian rule,

violation of property rights was rampant, and Santana did well in making any minor infraction,

such as cattle theft, punishable by death (51). Not only does Balaguer defend Santana, The

former Minister of Education goes on to tarnish Luperon's image by implying that the only

reason he received aid from Haiti to defeat the Spanish forces occupying the island was because

the Haitian elite feared a strong Hispanic nation on the eastern side of the island. Haiti aided the

Dominican Republic during its war to free itself from Spanish annexation. Balaguer also

criticized the aid given by Haiti to Bolivar in his quest to liberate Gran Colombia from Spain as

a mere attempt to gain a foothold in Guyana (33). Systematically, Balaguer paints a picture of a

nation acting in unison to further its imperialistic goals.

At the time La Isla al Revés was published, the Duvalier regime in Haiti was faltering and

Balaguer saw this as a perfect opportunity to frighten the Dominican masses into believing that

were he not elected, a Haitian invasion would be certain following the fall of Baby Doc. Indeed,

this image fits well with the impression most progressive Dominican intellectuals have of
Balaguer as an opportunist who wanted power for the sake of power; his role as minister of

education extended to parroting the ideals of the Trujillato. For all intents and purposes, the

death of Trujillo in 1961 does not necessarily mark the end of Trujillismo. Balaguer's six

presidential terms after the death of the goat were largely a continuation of the same politics

experienced under Trujillo.

La Isla al Revés reads like many textbooks of the Trujillo era. Balaguer accuses blacks of

being naturally fertile, as well as capable of surviving in unsanitary conditions and warns that

they are on the verge of overrunning the island with overpopulation (35). He quotes John C.

Calhoun as the first statesman to warn of the dangers of Haitian overpopulation. Balaguer

accuses 87% of Haitians of having and spreading syphilis, corrupting the physiognomy of rural

Dominican populations, driving them to alcoholism, envy, illicit activities, hypocrisy and distrust

(43). Trujillo's former right-hand man also argues that laziness is endemic to the 'Ethiopian'

races and believes them guilty of spreading this disease by mating with Dominicans (52). This

mating, according to Balaguer in a footnote of his book, is because Dominican men, like Spanish

men, have no scruples in selecting mates; unlike Dominican women who have a natural repulsion

to Haitians (48). He continues arguing that, counterintuitively, mixing does not improve the races

but rather corrupts the good aspects of the Hispanic race (55). Balaguer states, “ The Dominican

Republic is undergoing progressive racial decadence” (45). He further insinuates that unless

drastic measures are taken, the Dominican masses would lose all traces of Spanish physiognomy.

Balaguer stressed that the solution to Haiti's problems were a series of progressive governments

led by true blacks until Christian families were the majority and barbaric practices no longer led

to sexual promiscuity and incestuous unions (39).

In the most shocking part of La Isla al Revés, Balaguer boldly proclaims that there are
not nor have there ever been racial prejudices in the Dominican Republic (188). A few pages

later a series of photographs idolize the racial traits of Dominicans living in areas isolated

during the Haitian occupation of 1821-1844 and thus free of 'Ethiopic tarnish' (191). He would

seem to imply that any antagonism between the 'two races' is merely because of distrust resulting

from Haitian massacres in the 1800s (24). Ironically, and contrary to the statements in his 1989

work, Balaguer chastises the few Dominicans who offered aid to the Haitian government during

Trujillo's 1937 massacre (48). Balaguer offers these few humanitarians up as evidence of Haitian

corruption of the sacred fiber of Dominican nationalism. Though Balaguer was a diplomat in

Central America during the Haitian massacre and thus was not involved with its execution, he

never bothered to oppose it or even acknowledge it officially.

La Isla al Revés is verily a perfect example of the anti-Haitian curriculum shoved down

the throats of Dominican children. Where it differs however, is on the question of Trujillo's

campaign to Dominicanize the borderlands. Balaguer argues that Trujillo's efforts did not go far

enough, though he largely agrees with the conclusions of Trujillo's other right-hand intellectual,

Manuel Arturo Peña Batlle (97).

Frankin J. Franco in Problemas Dominico-Haitianos y del Caribe (Dominico-Haitian

Problems and of the Caribbean) describes Batlle as the foremost interpreter of Trujillo's political

ideas (94). Trujillo was barely an educated man and it was thus primarily up to individuals like

Batlle to turn his ideas into persuasive intellectual works. Howard Wiarda describes Trujillo's

penchant for poetry and habit of promoting men who had a way with words. Batlle was one such

man. Unlike Balaguer, Batlle had been formulating his anti-Hatian rhetoric since 1928, before

Trujillo's rise to power, and was true to his racist beliefs. Ernesto Sagás in Racial Problems in

the Dominican Republic, describes Batlle as a man who considered Haitians to be racially and
intellectually inferior (105). Sagás asserts that Batlle saw Haitians as disease-ridden,

physiologically deficient addicts. Sagás infers that Batlle astutely used the fear of Haitian

invasion to defend Trujillo as a necessary evil (106). It was likely that Batlle was largely

responsible for influencing Trujillo into scapegoating Haitians as an enemy from which only a

strongman could protect the people. Without Batlle, it is unclear whether the generalissimo

would have so cunningly used Haitians as a threat to Dominican security.

In his 1954 work Origenes del Estado Haitiano (Origins of the Haitian State), Batlle

describes Haiti as a state in anarchy, without culture before the slave rebellion. To Batlle, Haiti

existed at an infra-cultural level (63). Lack of Catholic faith, Protestant decadence and white

(French) greed were to Batlle proof that Haiti was not worth the label of state (69). As speaker of

the House of Representatives, Secretary of State, of the interior and of the police, as well as

Secretary of Foreign Relations, Batlle had key access to Trujillo and his books were standard

tools of instruction for the Dominican youth. A 1942 speech by Batlle in Elias Piña lauding

Trujillo's plan to Dominicanize the border was orthodox material for the Dominican youth.

Much like Balaguer, Batlle accuses Haitians of surreptitiously planning an invasion of the

Dominican Republic. Also like Balaguer, he quotes the great memory of Columbus, and the

urgency to protect the land he so loved. Batlle's speech, published in his other 1954 work Politica

de Trujillo (Politics of Trujillo), blames Spain for plaguing the DR with the curse of living side-

by-side with Haiti. He urges Dominicans never to forget that a Haitian invasion is always

imminent (62). Indeed, one of the central points taught in Dominican schools was that students

always had to be prepared to defend their fatherland from Haitian marauders. Trujillo, posing as

a wise general, promoted himself as a selfless leader who would protect the 'Dominican race'

from these attacks.

 Balaguer's La Isla al Revés seems to draw heavily from Batlle's racial rhetoric: “ The

intellectual and economic elite of Haiti are not our problem. Those do not emigrate. Our problem

is the lowest strata of the population, the undesirables. Of purely African race, he represents to

us none whatsoever any ethnic incentive. Dispossessed of any subsistence in his own country, he

is a drain in his own nation, cannot contribute to our economy. He is weak, undernourished and

badly dressed.” Batlle's originality, however, comes in the form of religious fear mongering.

Batlle emphasizes that all great Haitian authors agree that voodoo is a racial

psychoneurosis (68-69). In La Isla al Revés, Balaguer asserts that education alone was not

enough to improve the western side of the island since racial inheritance was a crucial

shortcoming of the 'Hatian race' (99). Batlle, on the other hand, identifies racial inheritance as

being key to voodoo, which he describes as a nervous racial habit, common among paranoiacs

of the highest danger. Batlle asserts that voodoo is a cult of death exercised by a guild of witches

and sorcerers, who practice incredible ceremonies with human cadavers. Batlle further quotes

Jean Price-Mars in inferring that Voodoo is a hereditary delirium transmitted from family to

family. As members of the Dominican working class had begun to practice voodoo, Batlle

justified a strong government as the only solution to this crisis (70). “ We must be hard and

without emotions,” he stressed all the while Hitler's call to the German people to be “ cold as

ice” strongly resonated in his speech.

In one instance, Batlle cites Dana G. Murano, director of the school of public and

international affairs at Princeton, who highlighted the danger of blacks overtaking islands where

whites once flourished. Batlle concludes that “ impartial” observers have warned regarding the

dangers of voodoo and black overpopulation, thereby insinuating that the Dominican people

would be fools not to act; were the Dominican people to act, they cannot be held responsible, as
they were merely acting on the advice of “ impartial” observers (71). This conclusion by Batlle

seems to be an inference to the Haitian massacre as a mere indiscretion by the Dominican

government. Subsequently after the massacre, the government began an education campaign

against the dangers of voodoo, using Catholicism as a shield against a danger Batlle described

as a “ teomaniacal possession, which breaks the personality of its victim.”

Catholic Complicity

The Catholic Church, whose power had been in decline for decades, saw Trujillo as an

opportunity to restore itself to its former pedestal. The relationship between the church and

Trujillo was mutually beneficial and in certain ways parasitic as Trujillo used the church like a

tool to legitimize his regime – Trujillo urged his people to believe that attachment to Catholicism

would serve as a barrier against communist materialism (Pacheco 65). Though the 1844

constitution, and all constitutions thereafter, established Catholicism as the state religion, by

1929 the power of the church had waned immensely and members of congress had gone as far as

daring to introduce a bill to liquidate the churches' land holding (Wiarda 144). Trujillo single-

handedly undid what the French occupation of the island had accomplished and restored the

church to great splendor and a position as powerful as in any other Latin American nation (144).

Trujillo astutely used this new found ally to fully cement in the minds of the Dominican people the

title which he had given himself: benefactor. Trujillo commissioned a book, Trujillo y Otros

Benefactores de la Iglesia (Trujillo and Other Benefactors of the Church), in which the first 95

pages are used to dismiss the accomplishments of Charlemagne, Constantine and Justinian,

devoting the last 242 pages to himself and his contributions. Though it's doubtful if Castillo de

Aza, the author of the work, believed the outlandish claims in his book, schoolchildren certainly
knew no better. Nonetheless, Trujillo's good relation with the Catholic Church was so well

established that Pope Pius the XII bestowed a special blessing on Trujillo's family during the

marriage of his daughter Angelita (Wiarda 144).

Trujillo made religion a crucial part of the core curriculum in his public school system

(Pacheco 25). So interwoven was the Catholic Church in the daily affairs of public schools, that

bishops and their representatives were given free access to classrooms as they wished (256).

Pérez Cabral and others report that bishops traveled throughout the nation's schools preaching

that Trujillo owned the land and the water – in essence reducing God to a mere accomplice in

Trujillo's deeds. Trujillo was represented as an immortal being, one who was superior, a chosen

instrument of God with a great and noble mission to perform (Wiarda 137). In return, Catholic

schools received government subsidies, enjoyed a tax-free status and all degrees conferred by

them were recognized as equal to any public school degree. Students were instructed to believe in

God, follow religion and attend church regularly (38). Dominican education law officially based

itself on principles of Christian civilization in order to foster tradition and Panamericanism.

Indeed, a year after Batlle delivered his pièce de résistance to Dominicanization crowds in Elias

Piñas, congress enacted law 391 of Sept. 20, 1943, imposing fines on anyone found to be

practicing voodoo or Luá, thereby eliminating competition and criminalizing thoughts that

diverged from the mainstream (Sagás 145). La Obra Educativa de Trujillo (Trujillo's Educational

Masterpiece), two 1955 books by Armando Oscar Pacheco commemorating the 25th year of the

Trujillo Era, claim that parents were allowed to exclude their children from religious studies (66).

Teachers were instructed that to exclude one's son or daughter from religious studies would

certainly draw unwanted attention to the family, and since voodoo was outlawed, exclusion from

class seems to have been rarely practiced by anyone with a wish for self-preservation.
 Theoretical laws which promised leniency seem to be a staple of Trujillo's regime. A 1947

federal bulletin by the then US Office of Education, drafted with aid from the Dominican

consulate in Washington, states: “ the teaching of religious creeds and political propaganda, as

well as the employment of cruel and degrading forms of punishment, is strictly prohibited (3).”

Accounts by Francisco Chapman Veloz contradict this statement concerning corporal

punishment as a tool of indoctrination. Chapman Veloz details traditional Dominican

punishments, going back as far as the 1860s and persisting well through the Trujillo era. These

punishments included whippings, back-handed slaps, standing for long hours, forced kneelings,

etc. (144). Anecdotal accounts from survivors of Trujillo's school system further corroborate

these accounts. Abuse and religious indoctrination served crucial purposes in el jefe's

government. Some have argued that Trujillo sought to internalize low self-worth in his students in

order to make them doubt their abilities as human beings. Abuse at the hands of a near-

theocratic school system served to make students accept the system that oppressed them by

turning to religious concepts as an escape from the terrible existence they were forced to endure.

In the presence of a public consciousness that accepted oppression, attracting unnecessary

attention to oneself was not a good idea and thus parents simply allowed the schools to teach

their children religion as decreed by the Trujillato.

Trujillo's schools were run in a near theocratic fashion – he signed an agreement with the

Jesuit order to build a school in his home town, so as to forge “ good Christian morals” (Pacheco

86). Catholic indoctrination in the school system reached it peak in the 1950s, when Trujillo gave

himself the previously nonexistent title of head of religious affairs (Wiarda 34). After the

negative press resulting from the 1937 Haitian massacre, Trujillo deemed it best to rule by proxy

rather than directly as president. In 1952, Trujillo's brother Hector won the election for the
presidency or as The Onion would write the headline: “ Kid Brother Received Hand-me-down

dictatorship.” Balaguer, in his 1989 work, mentions that Trujillo trusted his brother because his

only interests were money and women, not power. Trujillo's trust in his brother allowed him to

travel to the Vatican and sign a concordat with the Holy See (Wiarda 34). The Vatican had been

given de facto control over the lives of Dominican students.

Trujillo's involvement with the Vatican allowed schools to portray him as more than a

man and somewhat of a saint. Balaguer, in a famous speech, says: “ It is [hundreds of] years

after the discovery [emphasis added] that the Dominican nation stops being exclusively helped

by the divine hand of God and receives help from the divine hand of Trujillo (Franco 91).” The

benefactor was creating an image of himself as more than a man, a divinely inspired creature

responsible for shepherding the Dominican Republic through the valley of darkness. El

generalísimo saw himself as an immortal being, going as far as measuring time as the x year

after his ascension. For example, a government document produced in 1955 in the capital would

read: printed on the 25th year of the Trujillo era, Trujillo City. El Jefe's legitimacy as a divinely

inspired leader was further cemented with the appointment of priest he was granted by the

Vatican. Most of the priests operating on Dominican soil were members of the fascist wings of

Spain and Italy (Franco 104). Religious classes became more than mere indoctrination into

religion as they crossed into aspects of right-wing fanaticism and hero worship à la Franco et

Mussolini.

Racial Revisionism, Indigenísmo and Fascist Propaganda

Trujillo's school system appears to have been heavily influenced by European fascism,

not only through the influx of fascist priests but also through popular racial ideas of the day.
Trujillo was a poor orator and most Dominicans today would not recognize his voice. As a result,

images captioned with simple language and distributed widely throughout schools served as the

primary medium through which the Trujillato conveyed its ideas of race, nationalism and religion

to the public. According to Chapman Veloz, literacy was truly defined as the ability to write one's

own name at age 10. Through disuse and other factors, the Dominican Republic was by and large

composed of functionally literate individuals whose understanding of the written word was

limited. Functional literacy, poor oral skills by Trujillo combined with limited access to radios

and other mediums of propaganda made images and brief captions the ideal format for

transmitting complex ideas about government, race and other factors.

Robert Crassweller in Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator writes of

racial relations before Trujillo. Crassweller stresses that in the Dominican Republic, the color

line barely existed (149). A preference for “ good hair” was the limit of racial awareness and

indeed it was not unusual for a very dark man to be successful and receive full public acceptance

in the highest circles of public life. Crassweller further adds that the ancient hostilities between

the Dominican Republic and Haiti were national and public, not private and personal. Trujillo,

whose own grandmother was Haitian, found it more convenient to antagonize the two peoples in

order to pose as the savior of one. Historia Gráfica de la República Dominicana (Graphic

History of the Dominican Republic) is the quintessential graphic masterpiece of Trujillo's

government.

The four hundred page work contains hundreds of illustrations, all fitting adequately with

Trujillo's ideals. As per the dedication on the book, it was sponsored by Trujillo's son, Ramfis.

Seventeen-thousand copies of the book were distributed so that school children would imitate

Ramfis' virtues. Ironically, Galíndez and other authors have written extensively on Ramfis' sexual
depravity and propensity for rape. It is thus fitting that Graphic History begins with “ the

discovery” , portraying Columbus as a sword-carrying aristocrat, surrounded by cross-carrying

friars, and frightened yet noble savages. The book, surprisingly, depicts a graphic massacre of

Taínos at the hands of faceless conquistadors. Large groups of Spaniards are represented as

greedy and malevolent warriors. Out of the ashes of these crimes cacique Enriquillo, a native

chief who defied the Spaniards, rises to become a key figure. The book infers that Dominican

history has its origins in the nobility and bravery of Enriquillo. Indigenismo, roughly translated

as nativism, is one of the chief points that defined Trujillo's rule. It should be noted that most

textbooks used in Dominican schools came from Spain (Franco Pichardo 115). These textbooks

by and large reinforced the views of Franco's Spain and bred in children a love for a mythical

Hispanic world and a yearning for the “ motherland” .

Enriquillo was a Hispanized, Christianized native who rose up against the Spanish

colonial forces (Franco 97). Indigenismo surged after an 1860s novel by Manuel Jesús de

Galván, titled Enriquillo, exalting his deeds and bravery. So influential was Galván's work for

the Trujillato, that his book became mandatory reading in Dominican schools. Enriquillo was

revived post-mortem to serve propaganda purposes for the dictatorship. Students were taught that

Dominicans were of noble Indian blood, while Haitians were of savage African blood. Dark skin

Dominicans were not identified as black, but rather as indios or Indians. Official ID cards

instructed everyone of the racial difference between Dominicans and Haitians – a person's race

was indicated in bold. The documents were to be carried at all times and served as a constant

reminder of Trujillo's imagined notion of mulatto Dominicans as being people of Native

American Taíno descent (Franco 98).

Trujillo sought to reinforce fantastical ideas of a Taíno bloodline in the Dominican

Republic, even though all historians knew fully well that most Taínos were annihilated by the

mid-16th century. If Dominicans have Taíno blood, it represents a rather minuscule and trivial

amount compared to the prevalence of African blood. Historia Gráfica also reinforces white

supremacist beliefs in its depictions of African slaves. The book chronicles the arrival of African

slaves after the Native American genocide in a disturbing manner reminiscent of minstrel shows

in the United States. In one disturbing scene, Cartoonist José Alloza draws dozens of African

slaves, disembarking from a slave ship in chains, as dreary-eyed, confused near replicas of one

another – they essentially look like animals (31). Each face in the crowd of Africans is depicted

as having extremely thick lips and exaggerated facial features that cross well into the realm of the

offensive. Indeed, many cartoonists were Spanish and had a belief of Native Americans as being

singular and similar to each other throughout the Americas. A 4th grade textbook has a cover of a

Taíno covered in a large Grizzly bear suit, completely negating the fact that the Dominican

Republic has no wild animals that resemble anything close to a bear (Franco Pichardo 118).

Alloza reserves for the same stylistic depiction for Haitians as he does for African slaves –

Toussaint L'Ouverture is rendered as a racist caricature in French military uniform (65).

Horribly, Trujillo's genocide against the Haitian people is largely neglected in Historia Gráfica.

The book mentions Trujillo's success in resolving confusion regarding the true outline of the

border between the two nations. However, there is an eerie gap as the book jumps from 1936 to

1938 with absolutely no mention of the bloodbath wrought forth on dark people near the

borderlands. In keeping with Trujillo's supremacist teachings regarding the prestige of Spanish

and the inferiority of Haitian creole, the only basis for determining which people of dark skin

were Dominican or Haitian rested on their ability to correctly roll the R in the word perejíl

(parsley). The line between race and language was brutally blurred by Trujillo's teachings.
 Dominicans, on the other hand, are portrayed as being devoid of African features, even

when history informs otherwise. Francisco Sánchez, founder of the secret society responsible for

ousting the Haitian military from Dominican soil, was a mulatto, yet he is represented by Alloza

as having neutral European features (143). Gregorio Luperón, the black freedom fighter who

freed the Dominican Republic from the clutches of annexation to Spain, also loses any

recognition as a person of African descent beyond what could be misconstrued as curly hair

(265). Indeed, Balaguer's accusation of Trujillo as being responsible for rewriting Dominican

history is fully deserved – as Spanish troops arrive to annex the Dominican Republic, they are

met by a vast crowd of white Dominicans in attire unbefitting a tropical nation (199). Rafael

Santana is also shown as an unwilling collaborator in annexing the Dominican Republic to

Spain. Though the book acknowledges that he did indeed annex the island nation to Spain, it

proclaims that he never submitted his will to them, simply forcing the annexation because it was

necessary to prevent a Haitian invasion. Santana is drawn sitting on a hammock, in his

underwear, as he mockingly refuses to show military honors to the arriving general of the

Spanish forces (217). Estella urges that though Santana fought against other Dominicans, and

defeated them, he never once insulted their honor after a victory – going so far as to correct

Spanish forces when they proclaimed that the Dominicans had lost shamefully, rebutting

“ Dominicans may lose, but never shamefully” (216).

The last third of Historia Gráfica de la República Dominicana is devoted to Trujillo and

his great accomplishments. José Ramón Estella, the author of the words accompanying the

images in the book, cites Trujillo 'superexcellent' noble blood as one of his most honorable

virtues (347). More reliable sources indicate that Trujillo's father was a regular Spanish soldier,

while his maternal grandmother was a Haitian. Indeed, there are no mentions of Trujillo's
Haitian ancestry in any government sources produced during his government. Trujillo's

biographer, Gilberto Sanches Lustrino in Trujillo: El Constructor de una Nacionalidad, focuses

on the greatness endowed upon el generalísimo by his aristocratic ancestors. Students in public

schools were instructed to believe that Trujillo was more than an average man, he was a king in

waiting. This noble king, however, decided not to run for re-election in 1938 (because of

international pressure after the Haitian genocide) even though his subjects overwhelmingly

desired so (354). Instead they voted for whomever he endorsed. Entire sections of Historia

Gráfica are devoted to Trujillo's desire to preserve the country's Hispanic culture and heritage,

stressing that those were the most important achievements of his government (369). An

uninformed observer would deduce from the drawings in this 1944 chef d'oeuvre that Dominicans

are a European people, who slightly mixed with Native Americans in the past and that have been

forced to fight off the African hordes throughout the ages in order to preserve their Hispanic

roots. Trujillo's representation of the Dominican Republic as a European nation was not only

limited to drawings in his works. A picture provided by the Dominican government to the US

office of education for its 1947 bulletin features a group of students in an outdoor sketch class

(19). Of the 29 visible students, only one (slightly obstructed by a tree) appears to have dark skin.

Nationalistic Fervor and Anticommunism

In their 1944 work, Estella and Alloza strive to develop a rationale for Trujillo's politics

of race and nationalism. However, the international image el jefe sought to cultivate is best

portrayed in Cartilla Cívica para el Pueblo Dominicano (Civic Pamphlet for the Dominican

People) under the dubious authorship of el generalísimo himself. Published in 1951 and with a

foreword by Balaguer, the pamphlet illustrates the moral man Trujillo represented himself to be.
The pamphlet had a circulation of 30,000 and was standard fare in elementary schools

(Secretaría de Estado de Cultura: Los Origenes de la Ideologia Trujillista 41). Wiarda cites it as

the most widely read publication in the Dominican Republic. In the pamphlet, pictures occupy

2/3 of each page and brief sentences describe concepts of nationalism, loyalty, freedom,

citizenship, the state, government and religion.

In Trujillo's pamphlet, students are instructed to obey the government above all else (63).

Interestingly, the pamphlet seems to be directed at two audiences: parents and their children.

One page instructs students to obey the government while the following instructs parents to teach

their children to obey God and the flag (65). Parts directed at both audiences instruct readers

that every police officer is their best defender, every member of government their best counselor

and every judge a best friend to decide in one's favor if so deserving (71). Trujillo goes farther,

however, and instructs children to martyr themselves in the name of the law and country,

“because by your death you shall make [the country] happier and freer” (84). The most

interesting aspect of the pamphlet, without question, is the part concerning communism.

In the post World War II era, Dominican students were subjected to a constant stream of

anticommunist propaganda. Conveniently, Trujillo guaranteed himself US support by becoming

in his own words, “ the most fervent anticommunist in America.” As an astute manipulator,

Trujillo began to smear all of his opposition with the label of communist. The official elementary

school curriculum covered communism in detail and described it as an economic absurdity and

negative doctrine of the human personality (Pacheco II 76). With the full backing of the church,

Trujillo portrayed communists, in essence anyone opposed to him, as being enemies of God and

civilization. Trujillo's pamphlet depicts a barefooted, torch carrying communist, shaking his fist
angrily as a traditional rural Dominican house burns in the background (82). The revolutionary,

who has claws instead of toenails, is also stepping on a Christian cross. The caption describes

the revolutionary as worst than a criminal because he seeks to kill everyone in his path and steal

from the reader and his/her neighbors. Indeed, this simple type of propaganda must have had a

powerful effect on the mind of a Dominican child in the 1950s.

Origins of the Trujillato

Though Trujillo gained crucial US support through his anticommunism, the intellectuals

in his early administration were disciples of Uruguayan political philosopher José Enrique Rodó.

In 1900, Rodó published Ariel, in which he called for the unification of Latin America on the

basis of language and culture, in order to stave off American imperialism (Los Origenes de la

ideologia Trujillista: Incháustegui 87). Rodó's political writings had a lot of influence in Latin

America and even more so in the Dominican Republic. Incháustegui doesn't specify exactly why

Rodó's Ariel had such a powerful impact among Dominican intellectuals of the early 1900s. One

can deduce, however, that the US occupation of the Dominican Republic and Haiti awoke anti-

imperialist sentiment among Dominican intellectuals. Most of the intellectuals who joined

Trujillo during his early years were thus heavily influenced by Ariel. Fortunately for Trujillo,

Rodó's language was vague and thus allowed it to be easily manipulated by the nascent Trujillo

regime. Rodó emphasized phrases such as: “ epoch of renovation” and “ era of renewal.” Trujillo

simply replaced the enemy of imperialism with the danger of communism. Rodó's work was

largely one of optimism, faith in faith and allowing deeds to speak for themselves. This optimist

air was employed in the school system as evidence of a grandiose plan. Trujillo, of course,

became the embodiment of that plan of hope and renewal – teaching students that el
generalísimo was the father of the NEW homeland. Everything was new because Trujillo had

built it that way.

Followed by Rodó, Dr. Max Enríquez Ureña was instrumental in forging the educational

policies of the nascent dictatorship. Ureña argued that education needed to be nationalistic and

that in order for students to be taught a love of nationalism from elementary school on, military

force would be required (Céspedes 26). To Ureña, force over schools was crucial to civilize the

Dominican Republic, and he believed that it was essential for an “ army of teachers to be backed

by an army of soldiers.” Ureña seems to have foreseen the Trujillo school system as he inferred

that the Dominican Republic was not in need of thought reform, but rather forced reform. Indeed,

Ureña's words mirror Americo Lugo when he described Dominican society as being semi-savage

and only capable of being governed by despotism due to its lack of notion as a nation (Franco

86). Ureña and Lugo saw a strong hand as being essential to bringing Quisqueya out of its

savage origins and elevating it to a civilized nation of nationalistic individuals. Truly, powerful

muscle was an aspect which crucially defined indoctrination during the Trujillo era.

Control Tactics: Spying, Intimidation and the Public Forum

Jesús de Galíndez, a Spanish exile in the Dominican Republic who in 1946 moved to NY

and began his dissertation at Columbia on Trujillo's government, was one such victim of el

generalísimo's powerful muscle. Simply put, all individuals who did not collaborate with Trujillo

were considered enemies and thus were imprisoned, tortured, assassinated or a combination of

all three – regardless of where they found themselves geographically. Galíndez's dissertation

struck a particular nerve with Trujillo for a myriad number of reasons. In his book, which was

revised and nearly published when he went missing in 1956, Galíndez accuses Trujillo of
nepotism, sadism, as well as the monopolizing of industries in the Dominican Republic and other

crimes. As Galíndez had an intimate knowledge of education in the Dominican Republic, his

book offers an insight into the control machinery the goat had put into place in the island nation.

Dr. Ramón de Lara was the rector of the University of Santo Domingo (USD) in 1930,

and decided not to collaborate with Trujillo's government. De Lara became the first in a long

line of Dominican intellectuals forced to go into exile due to their refusal to collaborate with the

Trujillato (Galíndez 170). Galíndez details that thereafter, all professors at the USD were forced

to join the Dominican Party (171). The Dominican Party was the only legal party during

Trujillo's rule. Professors were forced to attend party rallies, praise Trujillo as often as possible

and prove their loyalty to el jefe at every occasion. The rector of the university had to be

approved by the presidential palace itself and after Trujillo's first term, all rectors were die hard

Trujillistas. As old professors were eliminated, new ones were carefully selected to follow one

ideology: Trujillo's. So tight was Trujillo's control of the school system that in 1942 Dr. Moscoso,

a member of the faculty of medicine, made a joke regarding the overflow of oil wells in Azua. Dr.

Moscoso was imprisoned until he succeeded in proving his loyalties to the party and belief in the

excellent well-being of the nation (173).

Sadly, not all were as lucky as Dr. Moscoso with their careless statements. Wiarda in

Methods of Control in Trujillo's DR, describes the existence of student spies in classrooms tasked

with identifying students who made comments unfavorable to the dictatorship (131). Trujillo's

Military Intelligence Service (SIM) was careful to check the political leanings of students as well

as ensuring that pupils organizing or engaging in political activities be met with “ stern”

reprisals. Student groups that existed in the USD before Trujillo' s rise to power were

consolidated into a single group, Guardia Universitaria Presidente Trujillo, which was loyal to
the dictator (Galíndez 171). Spying by loyal members of the Trujillo youth served as a further

barrier against political agitators. José García in Trujillo y La Universidad describes the student

guard as a pseudo-military group responsible for regulating and observing the dissemination of

propaganda contradictory to the regime (63). Trujillo astutely used tactics of divide and conquer

to turn students against one another and create and atmosphere of fear and mistrust. Bernardo

Vega served as economic assessor to the Dominican central bank and had the fortune of being

granted access to Trujillo's archives in the presidential palace (Vega 11). Vega learned that not

only was Trujillo spying on students in the Dominican Republic, but also he was demanding that

Dominican embassies spy on students in foreign countries (96). These tri-yearly reports

guaranteed that Dominican citizens outside of the country be weary of criticizing Trujillo lest

they become the victims of extraordinary rendition after being kidnapped on foreign soil in the

same manner as Galíndez. Worse yet, Trujillo had a penchant for punishing entire families as

evidenced by the brutal murder of the three Mirabal sisters. Vega describes how the parents of all

students applying for passports to study outside of the Dominican Republic were checked against

a dissident list. The children of all dissidents were denied passports to ensure that new social

ideas not be imported into the country (Vega 10). Likewise, admission to the University of Santo

Domingo was denied to the children of dissidents. As the USD was the only institution of higher

learning in the Dominican Republic, the children of nonconformists would be denied a higher

education not only inside of Quisqueya, but also outside.

Conformity thus became a crucial aspect of student life. There was a constant fear that

everything could be taken away in the blink of an eye. As portrayed in the internationally

acclaimed book In the Time of the Butterflies, Minerva Mirabal was a law student who opposed

Trujillo and as a result was allowed to graduate from law school but forbidden from receiving her
practitioner's license, thus rendering her ordeal through law school almost worthless. Galíndez,

who was well acquainted with universities around Latin America, made an observation about

these students: “ Latin American students are rebellious, loud and party like bohemians; Political

ideas of all shapes coexist” (Galíndez 171). In contrast to life in other universities in the

Americas, Galíndez observed that the USD was more like a religious seminary. Trujillo

succeeded in turning rowdy college students into obedient creatures too afraid to voice even the

lightest criticism against anything related to his regime. With the flick of a pen or the utter of a

word, Trujillo could undo all the educational achievements of any student. Academia simply

became a machine tasked with handing out titles and nothing more. Professors teaching classes

that dealt with modern problems were careful to praise Trujillo at every moment and for the most

part, a complete silence had to be maintained on international affairs lest Trujillo's “ success” be

overshadowed by foreign players. Vega correctly describes schools as centers of indoctrination

for the youth of the nation, “ labs for the creation of fearful and docile creatures” (10).

Although the schools served as a place to strike fear into the hearts of Dominican

students, the public forum struck terror into the hearts of teachers. Early into his first

administration, Trujillo gained control of all major circulation newspapers in the island and later

developed a way to denigrate and embarrass political opponents and individuals who had fallen

out of grace. More importantly, el generalísimo could make it appear as if concerned citizens

were the ones denouncing dangerous personalities in their neighborhoods. Most of the op/eds

submitted to the forum were received anonymously or from unnamed sources within the

presidential palace. Lipe Collado in El Foro Público en la Era de Trujillo: De Cómo el Chisme

fue Elevado a Categoría de Asunto de Estado (The Public Forum During the Trujillo Era: How

Gossip was Elevated to the Category of Matter of State) describes in detail how many of these
op/eds were penned by the dictator himself and published under presumed pseudonyms. Eugenio

Maria de Hostos, who many credit as being the founding father of modern Dominican pedagogy,

observed in the 1800s how Dominicans were the only people in Latin America who had the habit

of sitting in their front porch after a certain hour to criticize their neighbors and acquaintances

(Collado 59). Trujillo seems to have been fully aware of the Dominican propensity for gossip and

developed the public forum to further his own ends. Unlike the words shared in the privacy of a

home, however, printed words in a widely circulated newspaper are much more powerful and

capable of doing significant psychological damage to a person.

In some cases, individuals were able to rebut accusations and fall back into the graces of

the Trujillato. Balaguer himself in one instance is attacked for his lack of loyalty to the state and

is forced to write a letter proving his unquestionable loyalty to Trujillo. Lipe Collado's work

contains hundreds of letters where individuals go back and forth accusing each other of often

petty and insignificant acts – college students who wear Guayabera shirts, common among

peasants at the time and now worn by political leaders in Latin America to show solidarity with

their people, were accused of dressing badly and having communist tendencies. Between 1948,

the start of the forum as a tool of controlling social and academic thought, and 1961 over thirty

thousand letters were published. Some accusations made in the forum, however, were more

serious than badly dressed students and often resulted in severe public humiliation,

unemployment or even prison time (Lipe Collado 30).

The bulletin on education in the Dominican Republic by the US office of education

describes Instituto Escuela in Ciudad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo) as one of the top three

schools in the country (9). Suspicion began to surface that anti-Trujillo sentiment was aplenty in

Instituto Escuela. Thereafter, an indignant letter was published by a concerned citizen accusing
Causa Pardo and Abigail Coiscous, two prominent teachers, of distributing communist

propaganda. The letter also demanded swift police action in deterring this threat to the safety of

Dominican society (86). Coiscous and Pardo were forced to apologize and publicly swear their

allegiance to the Trujillato. In this occasion, the letter to the forum served as a warning that the

teachers were being watched and could not trust even their students. Anti-Trujillo activity did not

fully cease as another letter surfaced, this time accusing principal Nora Nivar and administrator

Abad Henríquez of having an illicit affair on school grounds. The letter accuses Nivar of being a

hypocrite and only decent in appearance as her scandalous affair had meant that students were

no longer able to pay attention in class (88). The two professors had in other occasions firmly

opposed Trujillo and as a result, their reputations were tarnished and parents with an interest in

self-preservation likely withdrew their students from the school. In a lengthy rebuttal by

Henríquez, he swears the loyalty of himself and Nivar to Trujillo's anti-communist politics and

“ honorable” government (89-90). Thereafter, professors at Instituto Escuela got the hint

regarding the dangers inherent in opposing Trujillo as letters accusing teachers of indiscretions

ceased.

Trujillo's public forum was systematically used to intimidate individuals in sensitive

positions and people who depended on their reputation for their livelihoods. Another problem

school in which Trujillo felt the need to restore order was Ulises Espaillat high school.

Individuals in the school were known to be involved in anti-Trujillista activities and thus were

subjected to scorn at the hands of the public forum. In this occasion, teachers in the school were

accused of seducing members of the female student body (100). Esteemed teacher Juán José

Estévez was bizarrely accused of being a protestant. In that manner, Trujillo subjected teachers

and sometimes even students who opposed him to tremendous public scrutiny. Most letters
accused honorable individuals of habitual drunkenness, involvement in communist activities or

worse, denunciations as atheists, protestants or other anti-Catholic rhetoric. Astutely, Trujillo

managed to disguise the public forum as a symbol of the great level of freedom of speech allowed

during his government. As bureaucrats who had fallen out of favor with the regime were also

humiliated in the forum, Trujillo made it appear as if corruption and criminality in his

government were being publicly eliminated thanks to concerned citizens. A letter by Trujillo to El

Caribe newspaper offers his full support and gratitude to the publication for bringing to his

attention crimes committed by individuals seeking to disrupt the social order. He concludes by

stating that the forum was a symbol of the great level of freedom of speech guaranteed by the

Dominican constitution. Of course, not one iota of consideration was granted to libel laws or the

horrible repercussions his public forum had in the private lives of school teachers. The public

forum was in essence a government-backed version of a libel tabloid during its day – incredibly

ahead of its time if one considers how effective each submission was in controlling dissent.

Dissemination of Dissident Works

Although the public forum helped Trujillo maintain the public veneer of freedom of

speech, his censor kept most critical thoughts out of the popular consciousness. Nonetheless,

Trujillo's oppressive tactics led to the creation of influential exile communities of intellectuals in

Puerto Rico and New York. Though Galíndez's work was more influential internationally, given

that his death attracted enormous media attention and negative scrutiny against Trujillo, other

exiles like Juan Bosch, who would briefly go on to become president of the Dominican Republic

after Trujillo's death, were more influential inside of the Dominican Republic. Many other

intellectuals published works pertaining to Trujillo's regime, some less trustworthy. Gregorio
Bustamante's Una Satrapia en el Caribe (A Satrapy in the Caribbean), published by the

Honduran government under a pseudonym, was riddled with dubious information. Bustamante, a

former secretary in el jefe's inner circle, accused Trujillo of everything from crypto-

homosexuality to atheism. As indeed all propaganda likely contains certain falsehoods to make

the enemy seem more unlike the subject at which the propaganda is directed, Bosch and Galíndez

are but a few of the intellectuals whose published works have stood the test of time. Their

writings talk at length regarding the inner-workings of the Trujillo regime. Nonetheless, all the

material smuggled into the country planted the seed of doubt in many Dominicans who could

now read.

Trujillo's own literacy campaign, in essence, backfired. As he became unpopular, copies

of Bosch's books as well as Bustamante's and Galíndez's were widely read in the Dominican

Republic. Bosch published Quisqueya Libre which was smuggled into the country and read by

individuals whose parents would have never imagined being able to analyze the contents of a

book. In a broader sense, the international fiasco that followed the death of Galíndez over his

book was strike two for the Trujillo regime. Strike three came from the Mirabal sisters who were

quintessential members of the Dominican underground. The Mirabal sisters established an illegal

printing operation in Santo Domingo and distributed information in the academic halls of the

University of Santo Domingo as well as to average citizens – average citizens who would have

never been able to read the pamphlets distributed by them were it not for Trujillo's own literacy

campaign. Though Trujillo's propaganda machinery lauded the number of intellectuals, doctors,

lawyers and engineers that his government had produced in comparison to numbers in the era

before his arrival (this was the official party line), material distributed argued that these

increases were consistent with typical growth in other Latin American nations and Trujillo was
riding on a wave of hyperbole (132). Information that contradicted the dictatorship further began

making its way around underground circles and soon enough, large numbers of individuals were

ready to overthrow Trujillo's government. The horrific assassination of the Mirabal sisters in

1960 was indubitably strike three for Trujillo, as his domestic support diminished substantially

after their death. They were already well known in underground circles for distributing

information regarding Trujillo's assassination squads. The Mirabal sisters' death only reinforced

all the information they had distributed during their time in the capital. The international

community had also become well acquainted with the Mirabal sisters and thus suspicion about el

jefe's heinous crimes after their murder increased internationally as well.

In 1960, one year after the Catholic Church had largely withdrawn its support for

Trujillo's regime and his grip on power was faltering, dissemination of Bosch's and Galíndez's

works had reached an all time high. That same year, 44 intellectuals and students were arrested

for plotting an overthrow of Trujillo's government (Wiarda 163). Ironically, a good number of

these intellectuals and their associates, many of whom escaped prison and torture, were products

of Trujillo's academic system. Trujillo's 31 year reign of power deeply altered the conscious

mentality of the Dominican people. Naturally, individuals who had been born during his reign of

power, and who knew only Trujillo and his created reality, constituted the majority of the

Dominican population. They had been instructed that Trujillo's ideology was the only useful

philosophy in life. Nationalism, order, and stability, the organic state, material progress,

corporatism, deification of the leader and his personification as the nation's essence was the

basic teaching of elementary schools around the country (176).

Plan Bienal and the Literacy Campaign

 Falsehoods and obfuscations aside, there were indeed some positive aspects of Trujillo's

school system. In 1932, the year el generalísimo consolidated his control over the Dominican

school system, the budget dedicated to Dominican schools stood at $642,020 pesos (Pacheco

23). The exchange rate between the Dominican peso and the US dollar during Trujillo's rule

stood 1:1. As part of Trujillo's plan to reach the mind of every man, woman and child, Plan

Bienal sought to place an education center no more than 4 kilometers away from all population

centers. By 1955, spending on Plan Bienal had surged to over 10 million pesos (Pacheco II 122).

Furthermore, the budget for fiscal school year 1955 had risen to 9,420,735.27 pesos (Pacheco

23). Nonetheless, this level of spending only accounted for 7% of the Dominican GDP, while

military spending stood at 25% (Galíndez 174). Comparably speaking, level of GDP expenditures

is proportional to modern industrialized nations – specially those in a state of hostilities, as the

Dominican Republic perpetually found itself against Haiti. With the aforementioned budget on

hand, student enrollment increased from just under 51 thousand in 1930 to well over 459

thousand in 1955 (Pacheco 12). Plan Bienal was also reinforced by Trujillo's literacy campaigns.

In 1935, illiteracy in the Dominican Republic stood at a staggering 75% (Galíndez 225).

Illiterate adults in Quisqueya were forced, at the risk of being subjected to fines and legal

proceedings, to attend Escuelas de Emergencia. In 1941, Trujillo called for the construction of

5,000 emergency schools, as the illiteracy situation was of an urgent nature. By 1954, over 1,270

emergency schools had been constructed and trained over 66,800 students (Pacheco 164).

Trujillo's literacy campaign adhered to plans and guidelines established by UNESCO. Indeed,

UNESCO representative Dr. Chaney Berkowitch gave a speech praising Trujillo's efficiency and

determination to improve literacy in 1951 (Pacheco 192). Soon thereafter, Law 3400 of 1952

significantly marked a tightening of the noose around the neck of Dominican freedom – everyone
over 14 and under age 50 was forced by the SIM to attend literacy classes (167). As with most

things Trujillo, however, the literacy campaign represented an effort to eliminate competing

ideologies from the Dominican consciousness. The curriculum in emergency schools consisted

solely of conversations and readings with commentary by generalisímo Trujillo, discussion of the

most important developments during the Trujillo era and above all the meaning of patriotism

(180). By 1955, over two hundred thousand students had been subjected to this indoctrination

with graduation defined as: the ability to read a letter written to Trujillo. In this letter, students

praised el jefe for the great good he had done for the nation. They wished him good health and

that the nation continued benefiting from his benevolent leadership (188). By 1955, however,

there were still over 541,000 illiterate adults (Pacheco II 244). Nonetheless, from 1950 to 1960,

illiteracy dropped from 56.8% to 34.2% (Chapman Veloz 134).

Official statistics concerning the number of literate individuals is controversial as even

personages like Balaguer criticized the quality of education provided to students during the

aforementioned time period. Balaguer described 80% of teachers as being untrained or poorly

prepared, many having only an 8th grade education, and some being semi-literate. To many of

these instructors, teaching is only a way to survive, he added (98). Without a doubt, Balaguer

made these comments after Trujillo had died, in contrast to official statements he had made

during the era, Pacheco and others who argued that the Dominican Republic was at the forefront

of pedagogic sciences and teacher training. Overall, the school system was largely dedicated to

making students feel inadequate and unable to take the reins of their own lives. Indeed, Wiarda

and Chapman Veloz maintain that Trujillo focused chiefly on primary schools, neglecting higher

education, in order to prevent students from being exposed to more complex political ideas.

Accordingly, in 1944 there were only 11 secondary schools available in the country (US Bulletin
13). With the USD serving as the only university in the country, cumulative college enrollment

stood at a paltry 1,223 students. Yearly, the country produced merely 36 lawyers and 22 doctors

(22).

Overall, Trujillo's rule can be defined as a period of stagnation for the Dominican

Republic. Significant improvements were made in literacy rates but they came with a price tag:

nationalistic fervor, religious indoctrination, racial hatred, historical whitewashing and cult

leader worship. Cultural creativity suffered as fiction was suppressed. Likewise, curiosity for the

world beyond the shores of Quisqueya was squashed lest Trujillo's version of the Dominican

Republic as an ideal place be overshadowed by any foreign character. Trujillo's legacy has been

pervasive to the extent that today most Dominicans would have no idea that things they take for

granted can be attributed to his rule. During his reign, el jefe appropriated Fac-doc c. por a., the

national shoe company. To increase shoe sales, he dictated prison time to anyone found

wandering the streets without shoes (Bosch 136). To this day, wearing anything other than

'proper' footwear in the streets of the Dominican Republic is highly frowned upon, with unaware

tourists often being the object of ridicule and contempt. A comical aspect aside, Trujillo's most

inescapable legacy has been his imposed hatred of traditional African religions and anti-

Haitianism. Indeed, Balaguer continued El Generalísimo's hatred campaign well into the 1990s.

Balaguer, as a blind octogenarian strongman, had the full support of the Dominican

military to the extent that military incursions against “ communists” in the '70s to protect his

government were carried out without his knowledge. During Balaguer's 8 year absence from

power in '78-'86, Trujillista officers nearly came to the verge of a military coup (Wiarda &

Kryzanek 128). Had it not been for the Jimmy Carter administration, Balaguer could have

ostensibly remained in power even for those two terms. The 1984 publication of La Isla al Revés
and the racist ideas it pushed forth were quintessential in Balaguer's 1986 reelection. La Isla al

Revés continues to be an important piece of literature in the Dominican consciousness. Indeed,

Trujillo's legacy endures, as it was only 13 years ago that his main disciple ruled over the

Dominican Republic. Many Dominicans, including the author of this work, grew up during the

contested elections of 1994 between Balaguer and candidate Peña Gómez. Gómez was the son of

Haitian sugarcane cutters, the very same people who suffered under Trujillo's massacre. Attacks

against Gómez included accusations of being a voodoo priest, willful complicity in a planned

Haitian invasion, not knowing how to use a toilet and racist caricatures published on the front

page of major newspapers. The most disturbing aspect of this reality was that it all seemed

normal at the time. Though an elite education can elucidate the mind to the reality of such racial

and political injustices, the average Dominican remains unaware of the changes that need to be

made in order to undo over thirty years of totalitarian pedagogy.

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“If a man passes by your house attempting to alter the social order, have him arrested; he is the
worst offender. A criminal is to be imprisoned for he has killed a man or stolen something.
Revolutionaries want to pillage and plunder what is yours and your neighbors’; he
[revolutionary] is your worst enemy.”
Estella, Jose Ramon & Alloza, Jose. Historia Grafica de la Republica Dominicana. La Opinion,
1944
“To alleviate the curse of the indigenous race, the king Fernando authorized in the year 1504 the
importation of African slaves, which were superior to the Indians in terms of physical resistance
and adaptation capability, the reason being [physical inferiority and inability to adapt] for which
the cursed aboriginals were unable to survive.”
Estella, Jose Ramon & Alloza, Jose. Historia Grafica de la Republica Dominicana. La Opinion,
1944
“Primary, secondary, and university education was reorganized by president Trujillo, who

ordered the construction of [University City], one of the most important works in the First
American City once completed.”