Colloquium on Anti-Trujillo Resistance Held at Book Fair

Colloquium on Anti-Trujillo Resistance Held at Book Fair
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, 05/11/2011

As part of the extensive programming of this year’s XIV International Book Fair, a colloquium on “Anti-Trujillo Resistance and the Effects of the Struggle” was held in the Juan Lockward Bar of the Eduardo Brito National Theater. One of the commanders of the June 1959 expedition, Delio Gómez Ochoa, participated in the colloquium along with other opposition figures.

Gómez Ochoa talked about the June 1959 expedition saying that it lefts its mark Dominican society and the national conscience. From that time on, the battle to overthrow Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was unstoppable.

Others on the panel included José Rafael Lantigua, Minister of Culture; Cuban Ambassador, Juan Astiasarán; Tomasina Cabral; Porfirio Rodríguez, the son of José Horacio Rodríguez who commanded the Maimón expedition of 1959 and Carmen Imbert Brugal, whose father was assassinated while in La Victoria Jail. The moderator was Raúl Pérez Peña.

Gómez Ochoa talked about the June 1959 expedition saying that it lefts its mark Dominican society and the national conscience. From that time on, the battle to overthrow Rafael Leónidas Trujillo was unstoppable.
 
He pointed out that the 1950s was one of the bloodiest decades of the Trujillo reign of terror. Although they gave amnesty to some political prisoners, the crimes and disappearances of leaders continued unabated. Anti-Trujillo rebels and their supporters  were kidnapped and disappeared not only within the DR but also in friendly nations who took them in as exiles.

Ochoa said Trujillo was guilty of genocide and that sentiment against him was strong in Cuba where many exiles, like Juan Bosch and other dissidents ended up. He explained that solidarity also came from people way beyond the region and the Caribbean.

The Constanza, Maimón and Estero Hondo Expeditions may not have had wide popular but that social support and an Anti-Trujillo sentiment was on the rise and the time had come to confront and put an end to the regime.

Tomasina Cabral talked about the beginning of the opposition movement against the tyrant. She recounted her experiences in the formation of different cells of the June 14 Movement and the role played by Manolo Tavárez Justo, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal with whom she shared a cell in different jails.

She related her experiences of being moved from one jail to another, from La Victoria and La 40, the brutality of the interrogations, being condemned to 30 years of public labor then later being released only to be arrested again by the Trujillo intelligent services. 

At the point, she said her rage and indignation were so strong that if they had killed her, she wouldn’t have cared. She said she didn’t shed a single tear though and was proud to add that, even under torture, she never named names nor was the cause of anyone ever getting arrested.

In the meantime, Porfirio Rodríguez noted that since the beginning of the Trujillo tyranny, there was always opposition. He told the audience that in 1930 when Trujillo came to power, he made all the members of the Central Electoral Council resign.

Rodríguez complained that there is a lot of ignorance about the different activities and resistance against the dictatorship, an idea already put forth by historian Roberto Cassá.

He reiterated that there were 29 years of resistance in the country against the Trujillo reign of terror. He said there is a summary, from 1959, recording all the moments of the struggle against Trujillo and that, in some way, the effort made that year brought together all of those who were later excluded from different places around the country.

Imbert Brugal declared that Tomasina Cabral belongs to a group of women who have won a place on the altar of the homeland for her valor, her bravery and her service to the best causes of the country.

Porfirio Rodríguez, Tomasina Cabral, Raúl Pérez Peña, Delio Gómez Ochoa and Carmen Imbert Brugal.