Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina
Born October 24, 1891 - Died May 30, 1961
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was born October 24, 1891 in the city of San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic. His parents, very poor, were Jose Trujillo Valdez, into retail sales, and Altagracia Julia Molina, was a housewife who was always considered to be a kindhearted and dear woman. His family was of Spanish, Haitian and Dominican descent.
Trujillo was considered to be a typical kid and was an exceptionally involved in his studies at school. When he was 16 he got a job as a telegrapher (thanks to his Uncle) and worked in offices near Bani and also in Santo Domingo.
The young Trijillo started changing by getting into trouble. He even spent time in jail. Around 1910 he started to be interested in politics and joined with the National Party of Horacio Vasquez. He partook in many protests of the then president, Don Isidro Jiménez and his government.
During the United States occupation (1916-1924), Trujillo enlisted in the National Guard, trained by the United States Marines to maintain order after the occupation. Quickly rising to high rank, Trujillo became brigadier general and commander in chief of the Dominican Republic's army by 1927.
During the Revolution in Santiago in 1930 he and his followers overthrew the government causing the president, Horacio Vásquez, to resign. Since Trujillo was in the military he had to run his takeover concealed from sight so as not to be charged with treason. On May 16, 1930 he was chosen to be president without opposition.
* During this time in history there are so many conflicting stories as to what really happened becasue Trujillo rewrote so much of his own history much was lost. How he was elected? Who killed whom? Who was behind the take over? If you want to study more on this your on your own, it is way to political and involved for me to cover here.
The following year Trujillo organized the Partido Dominicano (Dominican Party), which controlled Dominican politics for the next three decades. During that time Trujillo was an unconditional dictator. He was called “El Benefactor” and “El Jefe”. He was General of the Army and president from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952 and foreign minister from 1953 to 1961. The Trujillo era gave economic soundness to the country yet it did not sanction the people's freedom.
After a ravaging hurricane wracked much of Santo Domingo in 1934 Trujillo concocted a rebuilding plan to revamp the city. His new promotional slogan was ''el culto al jefe''. He renamed Santo Domingo Ciudad Trujillo (Trujillo City). He also changed the name of the highest mountain of the country, Pico Duarte to Pico Trujillo (Trujillo Peak) after himself. He renamed towns and streets, had statues of himself erected throughout the country and held many celebrations, parades and holidays, all commemorating himself. In 1955 he claimed January 11 to be "The Day of the Benefactor" (''Año del Benefactor de la Patria''), Trujillo used his political control to acquire great personal wealth. He received much support from the United States by becoming one of Latin America's leading anti-Communists.
The way Trujillo presented himself generated indignation thus started conspiracies in many parts of the country by those who did not agree with Trujillo and his policies. To stop this from happening the government formed a strong secret system to watch for these people. Once found, they were nabbed and fated to torture or death. In this way, he kept control of his people.
In October 1937. Trijillo had made agreements with the Haitian president, Stenio Vincent; during meetings they had, stating that he would permit Haitians to cross the border. Then he changed his mind and again wanted control of the border. It was decided that if a person could not pronounce the letter r in "perejil", the Spanish word for parsley (the R is difficult for Haitians to pronounce), they would be killed. Thus entailed a great slaughter of the Haitians in Dominican Republic.