The presentation of “Salga el Mal y entre el bien, Liborio Mateo, la historia” this Saturday, February 1st, had great repercussion and significant impact on the community.

The presentation of “Salga el Mal y entre el bien, Liborio Mateo, la historia” this Saturday, February 1st, had great repercussion and significant impact on the community.
Santo Domingo, February 10, 2014

The documentary “Salga el Mal y entre el bien, Liborio Mateo, la historia” was presented with the support and collaboration of the Monina Cámpora Cultural Center (CCMC), on Saturday, February 1st. The presentation took place in the CCMC auditorium. This is a production of the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and an initiative of Dominicanaonline.org, which promotes cultural heritage, as well as personalities who had a great deal of influence throughout the history of the Dominican Republic.

To present the documentary and to exchange ideas with the audience, the following persons participated: Reydi Moreta, Dominicanaonline.org and GFDD promotion and social media consultant; Arsenia Miranda, Domincanaonline.org content consultant; Ángelo Valenzuela, Director of the Monina Cámpora Cultural Center; and Dr. Sobieski De León, a historian and expert on the Liborist culture.

Before the screening, Reydi Moreta made a brief presentation about the objective of the documentary and called for support to cultural contributions that are relevant to understanding and appreciating the Dominican culture. Dr. De León stated that the people who knew him, among them Wenceslao Ramírez who was a person with great political and economic influence in the city of San Juan, described him as a humble person who defended La Maguana peasants and was a social and religious leader in his homeland.

According to De León, the figure of Liborio Mateo is of great importance to the culture and the history of the Dominican Republic. The documentary highlighted the importance of this Dominican hero who had great influence on thousands of Dominicans in the years 1908-1922. The admiration for him was so great that he became known as “el mesías” (the messiah). He was also believed to be a sorcerer for possessing powers to perform great miracles and for having premonitions.

Liborio Mateo, a champion of his people, was a great leader of the clandestine mass, who wanted the peasants to eat well and work the land. It was a very difficult period, in which the United States sought to appropriate the land for sugar cane production. This North American desire led farmers to get evicted from their land, bringing misery and hunger to the region, and forcing Liborio to undertake the fight for the needy,” said Dr. De León.

The event had great repercussion and significant impact on the community, and had the participation of municipal and provincial authorities, among others, Leopoldo Antonio Oviedo, Deputy Minister of Culture for the southern region, based in San Juan de la Maguana; Leopoldo Figuereo, researcher and author of several books; Carlos Vicente Castillo Mateo, teacher; Gina Farías, author and folk fashion designer; as well as students of public schools, and the general public.

GFDD and Dominicanaonline.org cordially thank the Monina Cámpora Cultural Center for accepting our invitation to collaborate in this initiative, which allows us to secure and glimpse a successful joint work in the immediate future, keeping the welfare and cultural promotion of the Dominican people as the central focus.