...this moral code. The story that Alvarez has conjured is set in the Dominican Republic, where tyrant Rafael Trujillo established a totalitarian government. He leads his people with an iron fist, and is well known for not being brutally honest towards his followers. Spoken from the man himself, Rafael Trujillo once said, “He who does not know how to deceive does not know how to rule.” In the Time of the Butterflies shows the effects of Trujillo’s powerful reign on the people of the Dominican Republic, from the point of view of a middle class family. At the mention of Trujillo’s name, “they [the...
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...experienced by any human being. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is used to give the reader a taste of what the people of the Dominican Republic went through under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. She gives the reader this experience by looking at the world through the eyes of the four Mirabel sisters: Dedé, Minerva, Patria, and María Teresa. The wrath of Trujillo was shown through the use of friends and family of these sisters and what that endured during these years. Rafael Trujillo came to power in 1930 after the United States occupied the island. In 1924, the United States left Trujillo in charge...
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...media, mainstream musicians, and middle- and upper-class Dominicans, mainly because the lyrics often about hard drinking, women troubles, illicit sex, and male bravado were considered vulgar and worthless. The first Dominican bachatas were recorded immediately after the death of Trujillo, whose 30-year dictatorship was accompanied by censorship. Merengue was first mentioned around the middle of the 19th century and has locally been very popular since then. The genre was later promoted even more by Rafael Trujillo, the dictator from 1930 to 1961, who turned it into the country's national music and dance style. Up until the 1930s, the music was considered to be "immoral" by the general population. Its more descriptive and colorful name, perico...
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...Not So Wondrous: The effects of a brutal dictatorial regime illustrated by Junot Diaz The brutality of the Trujillo Regime lasted for thirty years. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was named the ruler of the Dominican Republic in 1930, and continued his tyranny until his assassination in 1961. El Jefe, as he was often referred to, (meaning “the boss”) was originally an army general, and took power as a dictator following the rule and overthrow of Horacio Vasquez. Under Trujillo’s rule, the intense violence in the country became overwhelming. Though he officially stepped down as president almost ten years before his assassination, he continued his command as an unelected military dictator (“History of the Dominican Republic”). Trujillo, in true dictator form, preformed horrible acts of violence. In the 1930’s, he developed a term of racial discrimination against dark-skinned Haitians called “Antihaitianismo,” and in 1937, he was responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Haitian cane-workers. He also abused his position by taking unfair advantage over Dominican citizens. “El Jefe” had the right to any woman of his choice, regardless of their age or marital status. These women were taken without consent, abused, and raped. In order to keep his people under control, Trujillo had a way of taking care of anyone who opposed these horrible acts. Torture and murder of all who opposed was very common, and always kept quiet. One of the only truly publicized cases...
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...corrupt authoritarian rule, and partly due to the political betrayal and moral bankruptcy of the country’s elites who failed to bring to fruition the promises of democracy.” The disparities in income and education between the richest and the poorest in this country are extreme, and there has been little true economic development in decades. The economic and social development of the Dominican Republic is continuously being hindered by the widespread corruption of the elites and the politicians. The Dominican Republic has a long history of corruption and poverty. In 1930, a military coup put Rafael Trujillo in power. Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic for over 30 years as an absolute dictatorship (Barrios & Brotherton 2004). Trujillo followed an uneven mix of repression and ruthlessness along with modernization (Barrios & Brotherton 2004). Many people suffered under his dictatorship. Trujillo was always on the look out for disloyalty and potential enemies. Anyone suspected of being disloyal was punished. However, contrary to this ruthlessness, Trujillo also promoted the development of transportation and education, but only in certain areas. For example, Trujillo refused to modernize the North Coast, and in 1946 Trujillo closed down the Puerto Plata’s harbor completely (Barrios & Brotherton 2004). The corruption and violence continued...
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...COLLAPSE HOW S O C I E T I E S CHOOSE TO FAIL OR S U C C E E D JARED DIAMOND VIK ING VIKING Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), Cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England First published in 2005 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 13579 10 8642 Copyright © Jared Diamond, 2005 All rights reserved Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed/Jared Diamond. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-670-03337-5 1. Social history—Case studies. 2. Social change—Case studies. 3. Environmental policy— Case studies. I. Title. HN13. D5 2005 304.2'8—dc22...
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