Page 330 - Arte e Historia

Danilo De los Santos
Republic, which will have a tricolor flag of red and blue quar- dawn of its history one of the most exciting human experiences of
tered crossed with a white cross».
The three primary colors of the Dominican flag is
linked to the image of Our Lady of Altagracia. Juan Pablo
Duarte was inspired by «the faith of the Virgin full of
grace» for his plan for liberation. «The memorable July 16,
1838, which by the way was Monday, day of the Triumph of
the Holy Cross celebrated in Spain, the mother of the founder
of our nation, Dona Manuela Díez Jiménez, put a medal on
his chest with the image «of the Virgin Mary dedicated to Alta-
gracia, and dressed with the same colours that were going to be
incorporated in the national flag».
The ideal that attaches Altagracia with the home-
land is linked to Duarte’s concept of nationality, whose
liberating project culminated in February 27, 1844 when
the Trinitarian hero Francisco del Rosario Sánchez
hoisted the tricolour flag in the bastion of San Genaro
or Conde. Also, he hoisted the flag in various towns of
the nascent Republic. The flag is charged with meaning
and symbolism, extracted from the abstract notion of the
Virgin of Altagracia as a figurative icon. Flag and Vir-
gin are emblematic art representing the collective feeling
of devotion in a Republican territory where ideological
mentalities, conservative and liberal are not discussed in
Dominican-Haitian battles, but doctrinally. The conser-
vatism of the traditional ruling class retains constitutional
and governmental power, excluding the nationalist class
lead by the Trinitarians. The young Republic reaches life
for seventeen years (1844-1861), taking a step back to the
Annexation to Spain, an anachronistic and colonialist
act represented by the warlords Pedro Santana and Bue-
naventura Báez, being the first one who concretizes such
an unpatriotic action.
Ricardo Pattee considers the Dominican country as
the first territory that represented a «mandatory link» of
the routes that spread the Western world. Pattee visual-
izes the country as a «triangular» zone of a shared island,
and as a «multi component» on its development as a na-
tion. Pattee says: «The Dominican nation has lived since the
all time, the coexistence and assimilation of different races and
cultures that seem to be mutually exclusive (…).The Dominican
case is absolutely unique in the world, as it has been developed
on a land strictly limited by the close proximity to other people
whose bases are fundamentally different and in many respects
antagonistic (…) Its own independence (…) is sui generis in
Latin American history of separatism, since it does not coincide
with any other and it does not fit any of the movements, both in
the Southern Continent and in the other Antilles.»
The uniqueness of the independence concocted by
Duarte and the Trinitarians is alien to the liberation of
the European domains (Spanish, French, Portuguese …),
but fruit of the struggle against the dominance of Hai-
tians for twenty years. It was not a colonial rule, but rath-
er politically integrated into an absurd republican system
by the different historical nature of two countries sharing
the same territory, but with different cultural identities:
afro-French in the Haitian context and afro-Hispanic,
in the Dominican case. The separation from Haiti took
place on February 27, 1844. The independence procla-
mation was transcendental in defining what it meant to
be Dominican, a nation, a Republic. The setback caused
by the annexation to Spain led to the revolutionary
movement of Restoration, which expressed a collective
consciousness growth of various social sectors: peasants,
merchants, intellectuals and owners. The war between
Dominicans and Spaniards divided the country govern-
mentally, and bloodied the homeland, but restored the
honour of national emancipation. The Republic was re-
born raising the flagpole with the tricolour shades of the
Virgin of Higüey.
The restored republican state from 1865 did not
mean, according to Pattee, that the classic rhythm of Do-
minican history was changed or modified, considering
that there were ideological tendencies and major prob-
lems. I addition, the country was «divided between those
who believed in its capacity for autonomy and those who viewed
such position with pessimism». Several factors affected the
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