By Nelson Santana and Amaury Rodriguez
September 29, 2021
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Much has changed since we published our last research question series. A vaccine now exists to combat the virus and make our everyday interactions safer. The world seemed to slow down for a while but now crowds are out again. We have learned (well some of us) to live alongside a deadly virus and realize there is no turning back. Meanwhile, we at ESENDOM came up with five thematic research ideas to shed light on the Dominican Republic by investigating the persistence of conservatism and the evolution of Dominican cultural and political life.
Note: At the time of editing, the pandemic continues to spread. We encourage those interested in research and study to use online academic sources for the time being.
1
Los Panfleteros de Santiago
The printed word whether in books, newspapers, pamphlets, or graffiti all can have immense impact. Political graffiti and panfletos are enough to rattle even the cruelest of despots, including Rafael Trujillo, who feared dissemination of anti-Trujillo messages. Los Panfleteros de Santiago were a group of young people who defied the dictatorship of Trujillo. Among their main strategies to distribute information about the crimes and abuses committed by the Trujillato, Panfleteros created pamphlets and distributed them as part of their social activism. Upon discovering the organizing by the Panfleteros, Trujillo’s forces captured, imprisoned, and tortured members of the groups, much like Trujillo’s forces did to members of the Movimiento 14 de Junio, Las Hermanas Mirabal, and many more. Although some books and documentaries have been written and produced regarding this group of rebels, more research is needed.
2
Diógenes Céspedes and the Persistence of el caliesaje cultural
Image source: Cauce de Letras.
Mockingly described by fellow Dominican satirist and critic Pedro Conde Sturla as an “error-free literary critic,” Diógenes Céspedes has used his pen as a sword to inflict deep wounds on writers in a number of essays and other public interventions riddled with inaccuracies, pomposity and narcicism. Céspedes has also employed his machista arsenal to attack women writers who defy traditional ideas and interrogate conservative ideology including machismo, racism and homophobia. Clearly, Céspedes’s disdain for these women writers is rooted in the fact that they challenge the male-dominated cultural establishment. And while some male writers who challenge conservatism had also bore the brunt of Céspedes’s attacks, it has happened less frequently and, in all truth, with less intensity, animosity and verbal violence. Céspedes not only plays the role of gatekeeper of sorts but the role of an informant who denounces the heretic, the radical and the troublemaker.
Reproducing el caliesaje cultural (cultural social repression) put into operation by conservative intellectuals who backed the Trujillo dictatorship, Céspedes might be the heir (but not the sole heir) of that authoritarian practice since it is not coincidence that, according to feminist poet Chiqui Vicioso, Céspedes was once a calié (informant) during his youth. Examining how caliés gathered data through gossip and literary surveillance to entrap, silence, ostracize and destroy opponents of the regime including anti-patriarchal voices, researchers will dissect social repression, authoritarianism, class, race and gender as well as the persistence of macho intellectuals and machista physical and verbal violence in times of rising feminist struggles worldwide.
3
Trujillo's Pantheon: An Ethical Dilemma
A megalomaniac, one of Trujillo's aims saw him commission monuments in his honor. As a matter of fact, for nearly 30 years, Trujillo preserved his legacy by renaming Santo Domingo into Ciudad Trujillo; he founded Provincia Trujillo, later renamed to San Cristobal Province after his death; he even built numerous monuments such as the Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración (originally named Trujillo's Monument to Peace).
One of the most difficult questions historians, archivists and information professionals must contend with involves the ethics behind preserving the legacy of controversial figures such as Trujillo. Would a museum that bears the name of Trujillo pay homage to the dictator? Should Dominican society erase Trujillo's legacy? It has been rumored that there once existed a public museum where one could peruse the dictator's personal items. However, the first article of Ley 5800, promulgated 3 May 1962, states that anyone who praises or invokes the name of Trujillo or the regime will be charged with committing a crime, judged among a group of peers, and face possible imprisonment and/or a fine. On the other hand, there are repositories such as the Archivo General de la Nación and Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana that provide much information on Trujillo's legacy. The central question of this thesis centers on the ethical implications regarding the preservation of Trujillo’s legacy.
4
From Merengues Trujillistas to Tokisha: Dominican Music, Social Change and Psicoledia Barrial
During the Trujillo dictatorship, merengue took center-stage as representative of “Dominican culture” when in reality it was just one aspect of a multilayered musical identify. By the 1970s, a new crop of musicians revitalized merengue, adding political and anti-authoritarian lyrics and expanding the musical palette via experimentation. Over time however, the commercialization of merengue led to the domestication of a number of musicians (most of whom came from precarious working-class homes) and to a certain degree, the public. These days, merengue is no longer the dominant musical genre in the Dominican Republic as most of the younger generation has embraced electronic-fueled music where speed and sudden outbursts of noise (embellished with malas palabras, absurdism, Dominican Spanish and frequent paeans to recreational drug use) take precedence over slow-motion dance and sentimentality. At the same time, sexual innuendo has been replaced by open sexuality, gender-fluid and queer-friendly in a country where the Catholic Church used to set the tone for morality and social interaction. Leading this new urban movement is Tokisha, a young rapper/singer songwriter that is difficult to pigeonhole as she sets the tone for most of this generation’s social interaction, music and dance. And while conservatives insist in censoring her music the kids continue to embrace Tokisha and her rebellious aesthetics.
In this study, researchers will explore the music of rap and trap artist Tokisha, the evolution of Dominican merengue and its offshoots as well as the emergence of Dominican trap and its intersection with hip hop, rap, punk, dembow among others.
5
Politics, Utopia and Creation in Santo Domingo (1970-1986)
A women’s collective leads a protest against hunger in the 1980s. Source: Archivo General de la Nación.
The electoral defeat of the right-wing Balaguer regime in 1978 opened up a new political cycle in the Dominican Republic. The seeds of rebellion planted in the 1970s ushered a new era of political freedom and creativity the following decade. The early 80s in Santo Domingo represented a welcome respite from a suffocating political era that saw the physical annihilation of much of the Dominican left. At the onset of this new democratic spring, artists, intellectuals, poets and writers began to re-imagine new ways of engineering social life via public interventions, print, radio and television. As independent/critical thinking was no longer persecuted—after the government of President Antonio Guzmán (from the nominally center-left Dominican Revolutionary Party-PRD) freed all political prisoners— radical ideas became hegemonic, setting in motion the formation of a number of Marxist nuclei, feminist collectives, popular organizations and writer’s workshops (talleres de escritura) whose contributions would have far-reaching consequences.
In 1984, a spontaneous popular uprising over rising food and gas prices set into motion a series of political debates, alliances and realignments within the Left that would mark its agenda, orientation and identity for years to come. In addition, international political trends (the Cold War loomed large in the background) would impact left-wing theory and practice. This research will look into the new discursive practices that emerged in the 80s, its publications, social movements, new political subjects, bohemian life and artistic practices as well as the overall legacy of that period of democratic opening as the political forces of the right took power again in 1986 with Joaquín Balaguer as head of state.
Related
Trujillo’s Machinery of Terror
Dominican Republic’s Desaparecidos Are Not Forgotten
Tokischa, Rochy RD y el surrealismo dominicano
Imágenes de la Marcha de las Mariposas en contra de la violencia machista
The Lives The New York Times Didn’t Care About—Until Now
Cardi B Continues to Break Barriers & Shatter Glass Ceilings
The Borders of Dominicanidad—Interview with Lorgia Garcia Peña
Another March against Patriarchal Violence in the Dominican Republic
The Paradox of Paternalism—Interview with Elizabeth Manley