I leave you the best phrases of Juan Pablo Duarte (1813-1876), thoughts of one of the fathers of the Dominican Republic, along with Matías Ramón Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez. Also some of his few known poems.
You may also be interested in these phrases of revolution.
1-Living without a country is the same as living without honor.
2-The truth does not exist, there is only the perception we have of it.
3-Politics is not speculation; it is a purest science and the most worthy, after philosophy, to occupy noble intelligences.
4-Our homeland must be free and independent of any foreign power or the island sinks.
5-I am Dominican.
6-A state of law that enables the popular and plural integration of the Dominican people as it really is.
7-It is forbidden to reward the informer and the traitor, no matter how much the betrayal pleases and even when there are just reasons to thank the denouncement.
8-There are words that, due to the ideas they reveal, attract our attention and attract our sympathies towards the beings who pronounce them.
9-The government must be fair and energetic or we will not have a homeland and therefore neither freedom nor national independence.
10-God has to grant me enough strength not to descend to the grave without leaving my homeland free, independent and triumphant.
11-Thrown from my native soil by that parricide party that, beginning by outlawing the founders of the Republic in perpetuity, has concluded by selling abroad the Homeland, whose independence I swore to defend at all costs, I have dragged the nomadic life of the outlaw for twenty years.
12-Every law supposes an authority from which it emanates, and the efficient and radical cause of this is, by inherent right, essential to the people and imprescriptible of their sovereignty.
13-The cross is not the sign of suffering: it is the symbol of redemption.
14-Any authority not constituted in accordance with the law is illegitimate, and therefore, it has no right to govern nor is it obliged to obey it.
15-For the Cross, for the Fatherland and its glory, tireless to the field, let us march: if the laurel denies us victory, from martyrdom we will reach the palm.
16-The Dominican Nation is free and independent and is not and can never be a member of any power, nor the patrimony of any Power, nor the patrimony of the family or any person of its own, much less a stranger.
17-The Dominican Nation is the meeting of all Dominicans. The Dominican Nation is free and independent and is not and can never be an integral part of any other Power, neither the family patrimony nor any person of its own, much less strange.
18-The crime does not prescribe nor does it ever go unpunished.
19-It was never as necessary for me as today to have health, heart and judgment; today men without judgment and without heart conspire against the health of the country.
20-Let us work for and for the country, which is to work for our children and for ourselves.
21-The law cannot have, nor can it ever have, retroactive effect.
22-What our freedmen do not agree on is the master they want to impose on the people.
23-All Dominican power is and must always be, limited by law and this by justice, which consists in giving each one what in law belongs to him.
24-Any law not declared irrevocable is repealed and also reformable in whole or in part of it. Any law not clearly and strictly repealed, is considered current. The law cannot and will never have a retroactive effect. No one may be tried except in accordance with the law in force and prior to his crime; nor may any other penalty be applied to him than that established by the laws and in the manner prescribed by them. What the law does not prohibit, no person, whether or not he is an authority, has the right to prohibit. The law, except for the restrictions of law, must be conservative and protective of the life, liberty, honor and property of the individual. For the repeal of a law, the same procedures and formalities that have been observed for its formation will be kept. The law is the rule to which their acts must conform,so the governed as the governors..
25-Blessed is the man whom God punishes; Therefore do not despise the correction of the Almighty; because He is the one who makes the wound, and He will bandage it; He hurts, and his hands heal.
26-The providentialists are the ones who will save the country from hell to which atheists, cosmopolitans and orcopolitans have condemned it.
27-Be happy, children of Puerto Plata; and my heart will be satisfied, even exonerated from the command you want me to obtain; but be fair, first of all, if you want to be happy. This is the first duty of man; and be united, and thus you will extinguish the torch of discord and defeat your enemies, and the country will be free and saved. I will obtain the greatest reward, the only one to which I aspire, to see you free, happy, independent and calm.
28-No matter how desperate the cause of my country may be, it will always be the cause of honor and I will always be willing to honor its banner with my blood.
29-The law is the one that gives the ruler the right to command and imposes on the governed the obligation to obey.
30-It is forbidden to reward the informer and the traitor, no matter how much they like the betrayal and even when there are just reasons to thank the denouncement.
31-Our homeland tastes like blood and a group of indolent Dominicans make our country a cave of traitors and they prepare the cannons again, here they will fight with more strength to remove the invaders.
32-Do you have friends? Prepare them, because the days are coming; try not to go astray, because the hour is going to be annulled forever, the tremendous hour of God's judgment, and the Providential will not be vindictive, but just.
33-The Nation is obliged to preserve and protect through wise and fair laws personal, civil and individual freedom as well as property and other legitimate rights of all the individuals that comprise it.
34-No one may be tried in civil and criminal cases by any commission, except by the competent Court determined in advance.
35-The hour of the great betrayal sounded and the hour of return to the homeland also sounded for me: the Lord paved my ways.
36-If I have returned to my homeland after so many years of absence, it has been to serve it with soul, life and heart, being what I always was, a motive of love among all true Dominicans and never a stone of scandal, nor an apple of discord.
37-Whites, brown, coppery, crossed, marching serene, united and daring, let's save the country from vile tyrants, and let us show the world that we are brothers.
38-No power on earth is unlimited, nor is that of the law. All Dominican power is and must always be limited by the law and this by justice, which consists in giving each one what by right belongs to him.
39-Be fair first, if you want to be happy. That is the first duty of man; and be united, and thus you will extinguish the torch of discord and defeat your enemies, and the country will be free and saved. I will obtain the greatest reward, the only one to which I aspire, seeing you free, happy, independent and calm.
40-I have not stopped and I will not stop working in favor of our holy cause doing for her, as always, more than I can; And if I have not done now everything that I must and have wanted, I want and will always want to do as a gift, it is because there is never a lack of someone who breaks with my feet what I do with my hands.
41-The predominant religion in the State must always be the Catholic, Apostolic, without prejudice to the freedom of conscience and tolerance of cults and societies not contrary to public morals and evangelical charity.
42-The love of the homeland made us make sacred commitments to the next generation; It is necessary to fulfill them, or to renounce the idea of appearing before the tribunal of History with the honor of free, faithful and persevering men.
43-We do nothing to excite the people and we conform to that provision, without making it serve a positive, practical and transcendental purpose.
44-As long as the traitors are not taught properly, the good and true Dominicans will always be victims of their machinations.
45-The little or much that we have been able to do or would still do as a gift to a country that is so expensive to us and so worthy of better luck, will not stop having imitators; and this consolation will accompany us in the grave.
46-The enemies of the Homeland, therefore ours, are very much in agreement with these ideas: destroy the Nationality even if it is necessary to annihilate the entire nation.
47-We are only ambitious people who made our people independent out of ambition and we had no talent to make the wealth of others our own; while they are honest and virtuous men because they have had the ability to do everything, even calling abroad; It shows unequivocally how much loved they will be for the justice with which they have proceeded and will proceed towards God and the country and the freedom of the Dominican.
48-If the Spanish have their Spanish monarchy, and France its French; If even the Haitians have constituted the Haitian Republic, why should the Dominicans be subject, now to France, now to Spain, and to the Haitians themselves, without thinking of constituting themselves like the others?
Poems
-Romance
It was the dark night,
of silence and calm;
it was a night of disgrace
for the people of Ozama.
Night of decline and distress
for the adored Homeland.
Just remembering her will
sadden the heart.
Eight were the wretched
that a wicked hand threw,
in pursuit of his companions
towards the foreign beach.
They who to the name of God,
Country and Freedom will rise;
they who gave
the people the independence they longed for.
They were thrown from the ground
for whose happiness they would fight;
proscribed, yes, by traitors
those who were too loyal.
They were watched as they descend
to the quiet bank,
they were heard saying goodbye,
and from their muffled voice
I picked up the accents
that wandered through the air.
-The Outlaw's Wallet
How sad, long and tired,
how anguishing path,
the divine Being points out
to the unhappy exile.
Go through the lost world
to deserve his mercy,
in deep darkness
the sunken horizon.
How sad it is to see him go by
so peaceful and serene,
and to know that there in his bosom
is the mansion of sorrow.
The soil leaves
our childhood beloved witness,
without seeing a friend
to whom I say goodbye.
For when
hope is lost in the storm, the ship of friendship
crashes in the move
And walk, wander,
without finding
the sad end that fate
brings him here in the world.
And remember and moan
for not looking at his side,
some adored object
who do you remember? say.
Arrive in a foreign land
without any illusory idea,
without a future and without glory,
without pain or flag.
-
Ungrateful, swell is your soil, What to produce has not known
But a lied traitor.
That it will be fatal, And you, Prado, that you lodge
Executioner so inhuman, Ay!… that by sinister hand
Sown you see salt.
-
Sing, merry sirens, Those of the Ozama on the shore, that for him there are no chains
nor is there any stain for him.
Do not take care of the songs
that aborts my fantasy, nor of the black regrets
that tear my soul.
Sing, sirens, sing, sing a song for me, that announces Freedom
to the ground where I was born.
-
It was the dark night
And quiet and calm;
It was a night of disgrace
For the people of Ozama.
Night of decline and breakdown
For the adored homeland.
Just remembering her
The heart will grieve.
Eight the miserable were
What a wicked hand he threw, In pursuit of his companions
Towards the foreign beach.
They who in the name of God
Homeland and freedom will rise;
They who gave the people
The desired independence.
Thrown they were from the ground
For whose happiness they fought;
Outlawed, yeah, by traitors
Those who were too loyal.
They watched them descend
To the quiet shore, You heard them say goodbye
And from his muffled voice
I picked up the accents
That they wandered through the air.
-
But there is no Benavente
Nor is there more Spain:
His mighty scepter
Take a cane
So strange and vain
What are the Bourbons:
His bell a Santana, Blazon his traitors.
-
I am a Templar, you told me one day
Jacinto a time of the beloved homeland…
I am a Templar, repeat it, yes you must
There in the sky you look nailed…
I am a Templar, we must repeat
What honor we feel on our chest…
-
Sad is the night, very sad
for the poor sailor
to whom in Pontus
fierce haunts the tempest.
Sad is the night, very sad
for the unhappy traveler
that in the unknown path
fleshed out the darkness.
Sad is the night, very sad
for the miserable beggar
what if bread, maybe, no coat
curses society.
Sad is the night, very sad
for the good and loyal patrician
who awaits the torture
that iniquity raised him.
While of the expat
rough luck does not change
and still the same raw death
seems to have forgotten him.
See how it peeks over the lintel
from your miserable shelter
inexorably banishing
the little light that was in it;
See how he spreads his mantle
of darkness upon entering
and with them increase
of the soul the deep hurt.
That comes after his footprint
everything that was and exists, and with his shadow he dresses
sad in color than her.
Heart in pain
see the night come wild
the grim covered forehead
of insomnia, anguish and rigor.
-Pleading
If your loving eyes saw me,
my sorrows would end in good,
because you will remove from my temple
the crown that girdles with thistles.
And you will return to my chest the calm
that once enjoyed pleasant,
and today denies severe fate
insensitive to the pains of the soul.
Do not imitate him, madam, I beg you,
do not take pleasure in my bitterness,
and when you look at my steely tenderness,
do not take my peace as he did.
Not in vain does my love prostrate itself
at the feet of the elusive beauty;
Don't tell me oh no! out of pity
you also have me in horror.
Well, the vehemence of this love is such
that despite the rigor of my luck,
I have sworn forever to love you…
despite your raw inclemency.
49- Politics is not speculation; It is the purest Science and the most worthy, after Philosophy, to occupy noble intelligences.
50- The slave bears his fate even though he disgraces his sad life, but the free man prefers death to the disgrace of such existence.
51- How sad, long and tired, how anguished path, indicates the divine Being to the unhappy exile.
52-… And to my chest you will return the calm that once enjoyed pleasant, and today it denies severe destiny insensitive to the pains of the soul.
53- In Santo Domingo there is only one people that wishes to be and has proclaimed itself independent from any foreign power.
54- Establish a free, sovereign and independent Republic of all foreign domination that will be called the Dominican Republic.
55- Living without a country is the same as living without honor.
56- Each party only cares about wasting state resources.
57- Dominicans and Dominicans, it is time for you to wake up from the lethargy that has you asleep.
58- Nothing in life happens spontaneously.
59- I urge my country: Let's not lose our sovereignty.
60- Let's fight en masse, let's stop being just a habitable country.
61- Let us make a gigantic leap together towards sustained progress, towards true Democracy.
62- Being fair is the first thing if you want to be happy.
63- Patriots, we must become aware of the situation in our country.
64- We must elect officials who truly represent our country and who fight for the homeland that cost us so much to recover.
65- We are convinced that there is no possible fusion between Dominicans and Haitians.
66- Our society will be called La Trinitaria because it will be made up of groups of three and we will place it under the protection of the Holy Trinity.
67- Our motto: God, Homeland and Freedom.
68- The only way I can find to meet with you is to make the homeland independent.
69- Our businesses will improve and we will not have to regret having shown ourselves worthy children of the country.
70- The sufferings of my brothers were extremely sensitive to me, but it was more painful to see that the fruit of so many sacrifices, so many sufferings, was the loss of the independence of that country.