Lauren H. Derby

THE DICTATOR'S SEDUCTION Gender and State Spectacle during the Trujillo Regime

In 1955, a Free World’s Fair of Peace and Confraternity was held in the Caribbeanisland nation of the Dominican Republic to celebrate the twenty-fifth year of the regime of strongman Rafael L. Trujillo (1930-1961).1 A full year of trade fairs, exhibits, dances and performances culminated in a floral promenade that showcased the dictator’s daughter, sixteen year-old María de los Angeles del Corazón de Jesús Trujillo Martínez, better known as Angelita, who was crowned queen during the central Carnival parade. One-third of the nation’s national budget was spent on this gala affair, a good portion of which was invested in Italian designer Fontana gowns for chic Angelita and her entourage of 150 princesses. Queen Angelita’s white silk satin gown was beyond fantasy proportions: it had a 75-foot train and was decorated with 150 feet of snow-white Russian ermine—the skins of 600 animals—as well as real pearls, rubies and diamonds. The total cost of the gown was U.S.

In the Shadow of the State: The Politics of Denunciation and Panegyric during the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1940-1958

80,000, not an insignificant fortune at the time. In full regalia, her costume replicated that of Queen Elizabeth I, replete with erect collar, and adorned with a brooch and scepter that totaled another

Beyond Fugitive Speech: Rumor and Affect in Caribbean History

75,000 (Crassweller 294; Ferreras, Trujillo 80; Ornes 219). For

The Dominican Republic reader : history, culture, politics

1000, two imperial hairdressers were flown in from New York to set the royal coiffure. A full army of street sweepers scrubbed by hand the central malecón or boardwalk of the capital city of Ciudad Trujillo (Trujillo City, orig. Santo Domingo), the civic promenade where Angelita’s float would process, to protect Her Majesty’s snow-white robe. Her royal entry was made on a mile of red carpet, and in the company of hundreds of courtiers. A new western extension of the city was even built for the fair, that became municipal office space after the event. This national extravaganza surpassed all other events of the regime in its excesses of magisterial pomp and spending. The fair framed the dictator’s daughter as a charismatic center of national value and the numenous totem of the regime, the nation and even, the “free” (sic) world (Geertz “Centers”). The symbolic climax of the “Year of the Benefactor,” dedicated to Trujillo, the fair was intended to highlight the achievements of the regime by placing them on display. And in this nationalist mythology, signs of progress equaled the regime, which equaled the man himself. As Trujillo stated, the Free World’s Fair of Peace and Confraternity was

The Devil Wears Dockers: Devil Pacts, Trade Zones, and Rural-Urban Ties in the Dominican Republic

the history departments of the University of California at Los Angeles, Yale University, and the University of Chicago, and benefited from the queries and comments of these audiences, especially those of Eric Roorda, Dain Borges, Friedrich Katz, and Gil Joseph. I am also very grateful for the extraordinarily rigorous and challenging commentary provided by the anonymous reviewers for HAHR, as well as Kathryn Litherland’s penetrating and adroit editorial hand. Julio César Santana and Andrew Apter inspired key aspects of the analysis; as my research assistant in Santo Domingo, Julio also helped collect much of the material on

Governing Spirits: Religion, Miracles, and Spectacles in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1898–1956 – By Reinaldo Román

This essay argues for the utility of fugitive speech forms as primary sources for Caribbean historical research. It seeks to shift the discussion from forms such as autobiography and the memoir to more ephemeral speech forms such as hearsay, rumor, and gossip on the grounds that peripheral genres enable a glimpse of subaltern agency that often evades public discourse. The essay argues that unsanctioned speech forms get us closer to everyday experience, offer a more processual understanding of the unfolding of events, and enable a glimpse at embedded affect that is often occluded from view. It thus follows James Scott’s call for research on “hidden transcripts,” including gossip, sorcery, and spirit possession as well as other anonymous speech genres that may reveal a critique of domination, an approach with particular salience for the Caribbean, a region deeply shaped by colonial biopower.

The Dictator's Seduction: Politics and the Popular Imagination in the Era of Trujillo

Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 I. European Encounters 9 II. Pirates, Governors, and Slaves 61 III. Revolutions 91 IV. Caudillos and Empires 141 V. The Idea of the Nation: Order and Progress 191 VI. Dollars, Gunboats, and Bullets 233 VII. The Era of Trujillo 279 VIII. The Long Transition to Democracy 325 IX. Religious Practices 387 X. Popular Culture 417 XI. The Dominican Diaspora 467 Suggestions for Further Reading 507 Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources 515 Index 527

Imperial Secrets : Vampires and Nationhood in Puerto Rico

AbstractThis essay examines popular narratives that a spirit demon or baca lurked in an export garment plant in the Santiago trade zone of the Dominican Republic in the early 2000s. By interpreting the baca story, and the transformation of the baca itself from a rural context to an urban factory, we unpack the changing nature and meaning of employment under neoliberal capitalism, and tease apart complex geographies of status, exploitation, technology and debt.

Gringo Chickens with Worms: Food and Nationalism in the Dominican Republic

This masterful and innovative study explores state policies and attitudes towards religious phenomena derided as superstition in Puerto Rico and Cuba in the early twentieth century. It is highly or...