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Danilo De los Santos
groups reappear as anarchists hindering the national de los Caballeros. He was a well-known master photogra-
stability during the period of 1899-1930. Three synchro- pher, painter and sculptor, which among his many works
nized processes from the first lustre (July 1899-November were the Medallions of the Apostles of the Main Church
1916), during which seventeen short-lived governments and Peña and Reynoso’s bust in the Cultural Association
appeared, except that of President Cáceres, who created Lovers of Light. He installs the first personal atelier upon
stability between 1906-1911. The ruler was assassinated returning from Europe, where he held diplomatic post
by opponents who surprised him in his open convert- after living in Puerto Rico. His teaching guided future
ible car, during an evening outing in the capital city. His local artists: Joaquín Priego, Federico Izquierdo, Yoryi
death by conspiracy is documented in three sequential Morel…
works by Abelardo Rodríguez Urdaneta.
The arts, literature and civic oratory change their
After the bloody deed, political anarchy returns sense of direction responding to the growing respect
when several loan agreements between the Dominican towards the wounded national sovereignty. Peynado-
and North American creditors constitute a nominal Hughes Plan emerged as a strategy to neutralize the in-
hand over of the country’s sovereignty. This justifies the creased nationalism. The main result was the appoint-
imperialist military intervention ordered by Thomas W. ment of a provisional president, Juan Bautista Viccini
Wilson, U.S. president in 1916. During that time, Euro- Burgos who heads the civil government (1922-1924),
pean powers were confronted in The First World War. parallel to the permanence of a U.S. military governor.
The United States widened its interference in the Ameri- The plan also establishes the holding of general elections
cas, especially in the Caribbean region. The military in- with a new platform. The State Department from Wash-
tervention of neighbouring Haiti in 1915, preceded the ington convinces Elijah Brache, Federico Velásquez and
occupation of the Dominican country. Horacio Vásquez to form political parties in order to par-
ticipate in the elections. Horacio Vásquez was the most
Territorial control, disarmament, censorship of the recognized leader, who returns as president, though in
press, armed combat and imprisonment of nationalist limited capacity in a process which must comply with all
opponents as the poet Fabio Fiallo, were measures of a the provisions of the interventionist government, such as
military dictatorship that includes the appropriation of the debt incurred during the military occupation and the
customs and the establishment of a repressive police force. guarantee of customs control. President Vasquez’s term
However, Dominican resistance was expressed in various was limited, and plagued with opportunistic careerism
ways, including guerrillas called «gavilleros,» evicted peas- and the belief in his reelection.
ants from their communal lands that led to the growth of
sugar cane plantations and sugar mills. The mobilization In the process of the second decade of the twentieth
of citizens demanding an end to the foreign occupation century, between 1924-1928, Celeste Woss y Gil sets her
«pure and simple,» gave rise to the Dominican National Studio-School upon returning to Santo Domingo after
Union movement, headed by notable intellectuals and being trained abroad. She offers a course in drawing and
feminists. The celebration of the Patriotic Week in 1920 painting in the courtyard of the family home, then goes
is linked to the movement. It is a collective event with away to New York, where she expands her training during
slogans and fundraisers for external campaigns in the 1928-1931. Her return to the country marked the formal
United States and Latin America. establishment of the academy of arts education, which
turns her into a remarkable teachers, in association with
In 1920, Juan Bautista Gómez (b. 1870), establishes other teachers and a student body composed of young
his academy of artistic orientation in his native Santiago
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