God and Trujillo: Literary and Cultural Representations of the Dominican Dictator

218 Pages·2005·0.777 MB·English

by  Ignacio López-Calvo

“God and Trujillo”
Literary and Cultural Representations
of the Dominican Dictator
Ignacio López-Calvo
university press of florida
“God and Trujillo”
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

“God and Trujillo”
Literary and Cultural Representations
of the Dominican Dictator
Ignacio López-Calvo
University Press of Florida
Gainesville / Tallahassee / Tampa / Boca Raton
Pensacola / Orlando / Miami / Jacksonville / Ft. Myers / Sarasota
Copyright 2005 by Ignacio López-Calvo
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-0-8130-2823-1 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-0-8130-3617-5 (eBook)
A record of cataloging-in-publication data is available from
the Library of Congress.
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency
for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M Uni-
versity, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida
International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida,
University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North
Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
To Mariano Gaíl Blázquez

Contents
Foreword by Gene H. Bell-Villada ix
Preface xv
A Note on Translation xix
1. Latin American Caudillos and Dictators 1
2. From the Praetorian to the Gendarmist State: Trujillo, the Church,
the United States, and Fidel Castro 15
3. The Goat, the Patriarch, and Other Trujillos:
Condemning or Abetting Dictatorship? 25
4. The Novel as History/Historical Documents as Fiction 58
5. Women, Class Resentments, and the Politics of Revenge 83
6. After Trujillo: The Ideologeme of the Leftist Militant
and the Collapse of the Left 112
Conclusion 137
Notes 149
Bibliography 185
Index 193

Foreword
“Trujillo . . . “ When I was a boy being raised in three Hispanic-Caribbean
countries, the very word struck fear, suggested something sinister. In Puerto
Rico, many adults seemed to know of someone-who-knew-someone who had
been harassed, imprisoned, or worse by the evil Generalísimo’s henchmen. In
Cuba, in 1956, Batista military officers openly speculated about the possibility
of an attack by Trujillo on their island’s soil. And in Venezuela, in 1960, the
Dominican despot actually came close to assassinating the reformist, demo-
cratically elected president Rómulo Betancourt with a car bomb. (Betancourt
suffered hand burns; an officer in the car and a pedestrian were killed.)
It was from the lips of my mother, Carmen Villada Bell (then a reporter for
the San Juan Daily Journal), that I first heard about the Galíndez affair. Jesús
de Galíndez, an exile from Franco’s Spain (via Santo Domingo) and a law
professor at Columbia University, had been flagrantly kidnapped from the
streets of Manhattan, presumably by Trujillo’s thugs. Galíndez, who had writ-
ten his Columbia dissertation on the dictatorship, was never seen again, dead
or alive. My mother, understandably appalled, would allude casually to the
Galíndez case years after that, speculating that the sordid, internationally vis-
ible episode might well be Trujillo’s downfall.
A young boy, of course, scarcely understands these things. Yet, for us callow
youths, Trujillo and his misdeeds seemed somewhat more menacing than did
the threat of communists. Communism, after all, was Over There, while Tru-
jillo was on the island next door. Moreover, one could hardly forget the occa-
sional encounter with the regime’s extreme “style.” Travelers arriving at the
airport at Ciudad Trujillo would soon catch sight of a set of enormous block
letters atop the terminal, saying, “DIOS EN EL CIELO, TRUJILLO EN LA
TIERRA” (God in his heaven, Trujillo on earth). To raw adolescents, a mega-
lomania so bald seemed mostly comical, as did the reports and gossip about
the Trujillo clan’s sexual escapades, such as the legendary womanizing of the
dictator’s physically well endowed son-in-law, Porfirio Rubirosa, or the red
Mercedes convertible sent in via chartered plane by son Ramfis to movie star
Zsa Zsa Gabor.
The tyrant was gunned down on a country road in 1961 by disaffected army
officers (with CIA support). Throughout the Americas there was amazement
coupled with unease. Celebrations were minimal and cautious; indeed, the
Dominican people’s woes were far from over. Meanwhile, the broader Latin
American continent was entering a time of unique ferment. The 1959 revolu-
tion in nearby Cuba held out the ultimate promise—however illusory—of al-