"The People of the D.R.

are of Spanish origin, and their ideology, their customs

,their traditions, their feelings,and their ideas correspond to those of country
of the Spanish race"
Letter sent from Rafael Trujillo letter to American Bishop Thomas Reilly
1959
Source Una Carta Historia page 12-13
secondary source
Peasants and Religion " a socioeconomic study of Dios Olivorio and the Palma Sol
o movement in the DR
Jan Lundius. Mats Lundahl
page 594
=======================
Stressing the importance of whiteness, Trujillo himself initiated the practice w
ithin the military of disavowing African ancestry. The enlistment record of the
Guarda Nacional Dominicana discloses that Trujillo described himself as white
, when in fact he was a mulatto. According to Trujillo, his geneaological profil
e included a family tree that linked him mostly to his “noble Spanish lineage of h
is surnames Trujillo and Molina” . the name Trujillo came “Extremadura, as those of
the great conquistadors, Cortes y Pizarro...and Molina, the name that alongside
that of Vizcaya is borne by the Spanish kings”
The Militarization of Culture in the Dominican Republic, from the Captains Gener
al to General Trujillo
Valentina Peguero
page 131
================
“Consequently, there is no reason of justice nor of humanity that can prevail over
the right of the Dominican people to subsist as a Spanish nation and a Christia
n community.”

Joaquin Balaguer
7 Time president of the DR
Dominican Reality
1947, 123-125].
========i=
Modern DR literature has developed through 3 literary movements, since the late
19th century.Indigenismo, hispanidad, and criollismo.
The hispanidad movement emphasized the DR's White, spanish and Catholic heritage
. Both Trujillo's and Joauquin Balaquer's regimes supported Hispanidad. Works of
this style view non catholics and non whites as inferior.Balaguer who was a pro
lific writer, as well as a powerful leader wrote two important Hispanidad books
"history of DR literature" & Dominican Reality:Biographical Sketch of a country
and a Regime"
Dominican Republic in pictures
Christine Zuchora-Walske
page 48
=============
Trujillo, a mulatto from a lower class, came to power through his U.S. connectio
ns, over the objections of the white Cibao elite. He parlayed his appointment to
head the new "apolitical" National Guard into a thrity-one year dictatorship th
at began in 1930. During
those three decades, the Cibao aristocracy would lose power to a new urban bourg
eoisie, most of them mulattos linked to the dictator and the expanding captial c
ity. Yet, paradoxically, it was under Trujillo that the construction of race and
nationality forged by that white elite during the struggle against Haiti would
be extended and consolidated.
Trujillo might have been looked down on by the white elite and blackballed from
their clubs, but he shared their racial beliefs and Hispanophilia. Instead of re
defining the DR as a mulatto nation-as Mexico's post revolutionary meztizo elite
had redefined that country as a mestizo nation- he surrounded himself with whit
e sycophants and Hispanophile intellectuals like Joaquin, and transformed the wh
ite elite's identification with Spain into a national ideology of hispanidad, wh
ich defined Dominicans as "the most Spanish people of America"
In Spanish America, it was not unusual for people of mixed descent to identify w
ith the European side of their ancestry,in view of its greater power, wealth, an
d status since the Conquest. It was also common for mulattos to associate with w
hites and try to pass for white themselves. What was peculiar in Trujillo's cons
truction of Dominican identity was to deny the existence of African strains in b
oth the population and its culture, this required a reworking of racial identiti
es, a rewriting of history, and a whitening of culture.It also entailed a massac
re of Haitians and a whipping up of anti-Haitian hatreds.Under Trujillo, Dominic
an mulattoes and blacks were redefined as "Indians," presumably descendants of t
he Tainos, who had been extinct for nearly four hundred years.
Enriuillo, a sixteenth century Taino chief, became the nation's founding father,
and a noble Indian statue appeared alongside that of a heroic European outside
the natural history museum. Even Hispanophile intellectuals who know better than
to deny the presence of African slaves in Santo Domingo have attempted to justi
fy this racial myth."Our slaves were not blacks from
Sub-Saharan Africa as in Haiti. They were Berbers from North Africa," claimed Ca
rlos Dobal, offering a revision of Dom. history with no documentary base."That i
s why our people have the skin color of Indians."
Trujillo's policies were a classic case of the official promotion of racism for
political purposes.
Trujillo's anti Haitian racism outlived the dictator's assassination in 1961, ai
ded by the political longevity of his Hispanophile collaborator and successor,Jo
aquin Balaguer, seven times prsident. With Balaguer's support, the definition of
the DR as "Spanish, Catholic, and white" was consolidated. Domincans of African
descent remained "Indians" on their identity cards and "Black" remained a term
of disdain reserved for Haitians. For mulattos, particularly those with "white f
eatures", many of whom have moved into positions of wealth and power during rece
nt decades, this construction of race and nationality meant ideological support
for their social ascent. Mulattoes with white features may be defined as "Inidan
s" but they are "more or less
part of white society". It is the darker mulattos and the Dom. blacks who pay a
higher price
for their country's denial of it's African roots. This myth may allow tem to den
y that they are black and to consider themselves superior to Haitians, but despi
te their public idenity as "dark Indians", in private other Dom. regard them as
"black". As a result,they have to confront the racism that flows from the prejud
ice in their daily lives and careers, reinforced by the national equation of bla
ck with Haitian.
Americas:the changing face of Latin america and the Carribean
Peter Winn
===========================
But the racist state project went further. Traces of Blackness among Dominicans
were ELIMINATED when the color of their skin became Indian on all of their offic
ial documentation (IE passport, national ID card).Dominican dolls, dressed in ty
pical attire, made for export became light skinned blue or brownish eyed, and ha
d long hair that was light or dark silky.
African Caribbeans a Reference Guide
Alan West-Duran
page 81-84
================================================
Balaguer extended Trujillo's racist policies.Bal. wrote “Dominican Republic..an is
land turned on it's head-Haiti and dominican destiny" . in which he stated "the
Dominicans are "hispanic white and christian"
The rise of Trujillo, led to a revaluation and reconstitution of the DR.Two key
intellectual progenitors of trujillisimo were Manuel Arturo Pena Battle and Joaq
uin Balaquer.
the Trujillist ideoloogy re-stressed the DR as an Hispanic white and catholic na
tion.
The Other African Americans:contemporary African and Caribbean immigrants
Yoku Shaw-Taylor, Steven a Tusch
page 29
page 31
=====================================================================
In La Realidad Dominicana (Balaguer 1947), considered the most brilliant defense
of the Trujillo regime, Balaguer justifies Trujillo's Haitian policy as part of
the natural and inalienable right of the Dominican people to defend their cultu
re and way of life.
“Consequently, there is no reason of justice nor of humanity that can prevail over
the right of the Dominican people to subsist as a Spanish nation and a Christia
n community.The problem of race is, by consequence, the principal problem of the
Dominican Republic. If the racial problem is of great importance for all countr
ies, for Santo Domingo, by the reasons already mentioned, this issue is of an im
mense significance, since on it depends, in a certain way, the very existence of
the nationality that for more than a century has been struggling against a more
prolific race” [Balaguer 1947, 123-125].
=============================================
Balaguer's "new" brand of antihaitianismo is detailed in his controversial best
seller La Isla al Revés (The Upside Down Island). La Isla al Revés is basically a mo
dified and updated version of his 1947 apology of the Trujillo Regime, La Realid
ad Dominicana, from which entire sections have been copied. In this new work, Ba
laguer once again defends the Dominican case. The Dominican Republic, he argues,
has had the historical misfortune of living next to Haiti. Still, the Dominican
Republic has been miraculously able to maintain its Hispanic-Catholic culture i
n the face of Haitian penetration (Balaguer 1984, 63). Balaguer then goes on to
offer some distorted views of Dominican history:
The extinction of the indian race gave way for the population of Santo Domin
go to be integrally constituted by European families, especially Spanish and Fre
nch. Before the Treaty of Basel (1795), the colony's population was formed by th
e best of the families that had migrated to America, attracted by gold or by the
fascinating mystery of remote expeditions [Balaguer 1984, 59].
=====================================================================
After the massacre of Haitians and Black Dominicans in 1937 was reported in the
international press, Trujillo sought to change the global perception that he was
a dictator.
Dominican Minister Andres Pastoriza looked for common ground with the (American
)State department. Pastoriza, educated in the United States and entering his thi
rd year at the Dom. legation, was an experienced observer of American social con
ditions and class attitudes. Gauging the circumstances of race relations in the
United States and the likley perspective of the elite white diplomats he knew, P
as. suggested a different tack for Trujillo to take in his response to the offer
of mediation. He thought the response should emphasize that "illegal Haitian pe
netration seriously obstructed the Dom. goverment's aim to improve te low Dom. s
tandard of living; to defend the clean,traditional customs of our citizens; to p
rotect Dom. property on the frontier from Haitian bandits; and to preserve our R
ACIAL superiority over them"
.
Feb. 1940 New York Times"
The Dominican version of the event was restated in an article on the Sosua settl
ement published in the New York Times in Feb. 1940, and implicitly linked the is
sues of Haitian and Jewish residence in the domician Republic. The account noted
that " olive skinned Dominicans are outnumbered, three million to one and a hal
f million, by the black and mulatto Haitians. (The Dominicans) are mostly of Spa
nish blood, with slight Indian and Negro strains"

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20F1FF93F54157A93C3A81789D85F44
8485F9&scp=1&sq=%22olive%20skinned%20Dominicans%22&st=cse
"The dictator next door-the good neighbor policy and the Trujillo regime in the
DR 1930-1945
Eric Roorda
Chapter 5
Genocide Next Door
The Haitian Massacre of 1937 & The Sosua Jewish Refugee Settlement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
These projects coalesced during the regime of Rafael Trujillo, when the Dominica
n state fully
instituionalized anti-Haitianist national identity formations and began to circu
late in the United States its own travel narrative accounts of Dominican’s racial
identity. Largely organized and distributed through the regime’s propaganda machi
ne, these narratives legitimized both the Trujilloist states’ policies-in particul
ar its 1937 massacre of thousands of Haitians-and the U.S.’s policies towards Truj
illo. Simultaneous with the foreign propaganda circuits was the increasing atte
ntion paid by the Dominican state to protecting and preserving the national patr
imony through public history projects. After all , a national patrimony reliant
on pre-Columbian artifacts and Spanish colonial architecture and ruins together
offer evidence for the nation’s claims of Indo-Hispanicity.
The institutionalization of the Indio designation found its apogee during the Tr
ujillato through mechanisms such as the cedula de identidad nacional, a nationa
l i.d. card that citizens became legally required to secure and carry beginning
in 1947. a decade after the 1937 massacre of tens of thousands of Haitians, Do
mincans of Haitian descent and Black Domincans, through the cedula de identidad
nacional, were further disappeared by fiat under the state’s official classicatory
system. Carlos Dore-Cabral had argued that during the Trujillo era and its afte
rmath, “Indio” has come to be an affirmation of Domincan whiteness and as well as
non-Blackness. Meindart Fennema and Troetje Loewenthal, have further argued tha
t “Indio” is a neutral “unmarked” term that excludes Blackness as it affirms a Hispanic
ity of a different hue and (hair) texture. As Peter Roberts put it “Officially the
re are no native-born negroes in the Dominican Republic”
Black behind the ears:Domincan Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops
Ginetta E. B. Candelario
page 19
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Regardless of the exact demographic composition of the Dom. Republic, the domina
nt discourse on national idenitity defines it as white,Hispanic, and Catholic. S
cholars have traced the origins and developments of a racist and xenophobic ideo
logy in the DR since the mid 19th century. This ideology has produced an idealiz
ed view of the indegenous elements
in Dom culutre, a systematic neglect of the contribution of african slaves and t
heir descendants,increasing animosity toward Haitians and other black immigrants
(such as the so called cocolos from the Eastern Caribbean), and a marked prefe
rence for Hispanic customs and traditions.
As in other Hispanic Caribbean countries, racial prejudice and discrimination h
ave been central features of the conventional wisdom on Dominican identity.
Meanwhile, Dominican politicians and intellectuals associated with the regime of
Trujillo associated Haiti as the antithesis of the D.R. This binary oppositio
n represented Haitians as the other-as inferior, foregin and savage. The categor
y “Black” disapeared altogether from the official and popular discourse on race in
the D.R. , except in reference to foreigners.
Latino Thought
Francisco H. Vasquez
page 443
====================================================
Jackson adds that somatic ostracism of Blacks in Latin America is even more seve
re than imagined. The dominant cultural heritage is that of a white or light ra
cial consciousness-transmitted by a collective sentiment where Black is equated
with negative qualities.
The immigration policy of blanqueamentio during the regime of Trujillo. White
immigration aimed to develop a pigmentocracy in which social status correlated
with skin color and body aesthetics
Coloring the Nation: Race & Ethnicity in the Dom. Rep.
David Howard
page 132

Current articles with comments from Black Domincans about reality in D.R. and th
e residual effects of hispanidad, blanqueamiento.
http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/afrolatin/part2/index.html