Speech delivered by generalissimo doctor Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, benefactor of the nation and father of the new nation at San Juan de la Maguana, on the 22nd december 1959, on occasion of the 104th Anniversary of Battle of Santomé

Abstract

I have returned to San Juan to visit my oíd and loyal friends in this región, as I did on that dav long ago when the inhabitants of the south gathered beneath the Santomé sun to pledge me their support and friendship. San Juan, the whole of this beautiful valley on which mother nature has showered her blessings, was always a site for outstanding events which have carved a permanent place for themselves in history. Frorn here, the brave leader Caonabo, defender of the independence of his island horne, left to destroy the Navidad fort, the first beach-head of the Conquest in the New World. These plains witnessed the smiles and the tears of that queen, a dreamer and a martyr, who immortalized Ovando’s cruelty. From here, Enriquillo, scourged by the oppression and evilness of the tyrant emissary, left to set up in Bahoruco the. standard of redemption of his race