Gregorio Luperón (September 8, 1839 – May 21, 1897) was a Dominican revolutionary, military general, businessman, liberal politician, freemason, and statesman who was one of the leaders in the Dominican Restoration War.
Born in Puerto Plata in 1839, Luperón spent his early years as merchant, where he learned French to access a merchant's library. His revolutionary career began in 1857, during the Cibaeño Revolution against Buenaventura Báez. Luperón opposed the reincorporation of Santo Domingo into the Spanish kingdom and rose to prominence in the Dominican Restoration War. He became the commander-in-chief of the due to his strong patriotic sentiment and valor. Luperón was an active member of the Triunvirato of 1866, In the years after the Six Years' War, he assumed power in 1879 after the successful coup against Cesareo Guillermo, reorganizing the government according to liberal principles. During his government, he incentivised secularism in the Dominican Republic with the help of the General Captain of Puerto Rico and Eugenio María de Hostos. However, Luperón was exiled multiple times for opposing Ulises Heureaux's despotic government, leading to regret and disappointment. He later assumed the presidency of a provisional government in Puerto Plata, where peace, freedom, and progress prevailed.
Luperón is remembered for his famous last words. Because of his contributions, he is often considered the fourth founding father of the Dominican Republic.
Early life
His family origin reveals the man who excels through his own efforts and transcends disadvantageous conditions. Born in Puerto Plata on September 8, 1839, he was not recognized by his father – Pedro Castellanos, from the urban middle class – so he received the surname of his mother, Nicolasa Duperron, of humble condition, descendant of a Frenchman established in Santiago de los Caballeros, at the beginning of the 18th century, and of manumitted slaves who received that surname. It was Luperón himself who made the decision to change the surname, which translated a symbolic desire for self-affirmation. He was of mulatto ancestry; his mother was a black immigrant from the Lesser Antilles (possibly Martinique), and his father was a Dominican of Spanish descent. (The Cohabitation outside the bond of marriage between white men and black women constituted one of the keys to the process of miscegenation, in turn particular component of the formation of the conglomerate Dominican). As was common, he grew up in his mother's home environment, and his childhood was that of a poor child who had to work to help support the family. Himself, in the first pages of Autobiographical Notes and Historical Notes, he remembers having carried out jobs as a water bearer, baker, fisherman and seller of sweets and fruits. The above did not prevent him from being able to attend one of the few schools in Puerto Plata, run by an English subject, where he learned to read and write and received the rudiments that motivated him to improve himself culturally. Since 1844, when Luperón was around five years old, the atmosphere surrounding his environment was engulfed in revolutionary fervor, as his childhood took place in the midst of the Dominican War of Independence, a time in which the national identity was shaped through the struggle against invading forces.
Due to the precocity resulting from his early incorporation to work, at the age of 14, he was appointed foreman of a mahogany cut by the Frenchman Pedro Dubocq, in Jamao, not far from Puerto Plata. It so happened that the owner was a cultured man, who had left books in the hut of the court, Vidas parallelales, by Plutarco, being the one that most influenced the formation of the young Goyito, as he was known to everyone. His personality ended up being defined in the wild life of Jamao, where he made a living for six years. Even as a teenager he had to face, machete in hand, to a group of scoundrels, which gained him celebrity and already revealed bravery as the first attribute of his personality. While working there, he displayed a strong strength of character and a knack for getting any job assigned to him completed in the best possible fashion. Because of this, Mr. Dubocq promoted Gregorio to a management position. Mr. Dubocq also allowed Gregorio to spend time in his personal library because Gregorio wanted to enrich his intellect. He was fluent in English, he had a gift for oratory, and in his employer's library he was able to begin solid self-taught training.
In 1857, when he was 18 years old, he joined the Cibaeño Revolution against the second government of Buenaventura Báez; he took part in the fighting in Samaná, the only place outside of Santo Domingo where the Baecistas managed to entrench themselves. From then on he became fixated on an insurmountable aversion to that character, who would form part of the plot of his political actions. In the midst of the conflict he received his first appointment; assistant commander at the Rincón post. It can be inferred that in 1857, Luperón was sufficiently educated to identify with the democratic proposals of the leaders of Santiago. His military vocation is also observed, as well as a recurring attitude: he did not last long in military and administrative functions, but decided to establish himself as a small merchant in Sabaneta de Yásica, the town closest to Jamao. Before the age of 20, he began the career that would lead him to be a wealthy bourgeois of Puerto Plata.
Masonry He began his masonry studies in the Logia Nuevo Mundo No. 5, in the province of Santiago de los Caballeros where he would reach the highest 33rd Degree of Masonry.
On September 25, 1867, Luperón became a sectarian member of the Installation Commission of the reputable Masonic Restoration Lodge No. 11 in Puerto Plata, becoming a founder himself, becoming the Lodges first Orator. His guide and mentor was Venerable Master Don Pedro Eduardo Dubocq, who was a friend of Juan Pablo Duarte.
During Luperón's government in 1879, he widely incentivized Secularism with the help of a Spanish Captain General of Puerto Rico, Eugenio Maria de Hostos.
Hero of the Dominican Restoration War Beginnings of a revolution
While its existence was going on without major disturbance in the midst of small-scale commercial operations in Sabaneta de Yásica, the annexation of the Dominican Republic to Spain took place on March 18, 1861. Not long after this, revolts against the implemented Spanish regime erupted. In June of that same year, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, one of the three leaders responsible for the 1844 proclamation of the First Dominican Republic, led an armed uprising to challenge the Spaniards. Unfortunately, his rebellion was suppressed, and he, along with his companions, were shot on the orders of the occupying Spanish forces on July 4, 1861. The execution caused ripples throughout the nation, further intensifying the regime, which gave rise to more anti-Spanish plots.
Luperón, like a bolt of lightning, decided to register his absolute opposition to the political change. He made a bold call not to hand over weapons, as they would serve to regain freedom. The young rural shopkeeper, thanks to his readings in the inhospitable wood cutting, already had a good defined a personality that included a belligerent national conception. When he was presented with a copy of the manifesto supporting the annexation, he refused to sign it with high-sounding expressions. He was immediately subject to the persecution of General Juan Suero, the Black Cid, chief from Puerto Plata and until then his personal friend. Serum there was evaluated well, so he harassed him until he was forced to leave the country.
Suero told the then governor, Pedro Santana, the that he had to kill Luperón, since he anticipated that, if he did not do so, he would be his victim in combat. This forced Luperón to flee into exile and wander through the United States, Mexico and Jamaica. In this last country he met a homeopathic doctor, who died on a sea voyage. Luperón took his name, inherited his instruments and posed as a doctor, which gave him the necessary coverage to return to the country. Taking on the name Eugenio, he settled in Sabaneta, a town near the northern border, where he cultivated the friendship of the commander of weapons, Santiago Rodríguez Masagó. In that remote town – he records in Autobiographical Notes and Historical Notes – there were no revolutionary concerns. Patiently, Luperón added people to a propaganda action with the purpose of unleashing armed insurrection. When the extortion measures of the Spanish regime began to generate discontent among important sectors of the population of Cibao, Luperón agreed with other conspirators of the Northwest Line to start the rebellion. Lucas de Peña was appointed chief and a council composed of Norberto Torres, Ignacio Reyes and Gregorio Luperón was formed. They, as leaders, decided to appoint themselves generals.
As a result of Norberto Torres' precipitation, military operations began on February 21. Quickly, the conspirators formed contingents that proposed to expel the Spanish troops. of the Northwest Line. The population of Sabaneta spoke out against Spanish rule and remained the main center of the uprising. Luperón was sent to extend operations in the direction of San José de las Matas, but he ran into resistance from the “serranos,” a term used to designate the inhabitants of the foothills of the Central Mountain Range. This attitude showed that, in February 1863, a considerable portion of the population still had neutral or favorable attitudes regarding the annexation, which led to the rapid failure of the insurrectional attempt in Santiago. Reserve troops remained loyal to the Crown throughout Cibao. As the days passed, the government took the initiative and routed the rebels.
Some took refuge in Haiti, others hid and the majority chose to appear and take advantage of the guarantees offered by the rulers. Some of those presented were shot, which inaugurated the reign of terror established by General Manuel Buceta and Colonel Campillo, the two Spanish military leaders in the region. Luperón did not care about the population's attitude towards the rebels, since the only thing that counted was his attachment to the principles of good causes, even at the risk of being left alone, as was the constant norm for the rest of his life. Still young, he strengthened the will to rigorously observe the principles, with absolute independence from the prevailing circumstances. Hence he decided not to surrender or leave the country.
For him, the annexation entailed a state of legal and social inferiority for the Dominicans and contravened the right to sovereignty. He followed closely to the ideals left behind by La Trinitaria. Independence, he believed, was the only system that could guarantee the dignity and happiness of the people. Their duty could not be other than to continue working with all determination to restart the struggle, until freedom was achieved. He was convinced that if the majority of people thought otherwise, it was due to ignorance or the influence of shady interests, which is why he was obliged to oppose such a point of view. Sentenced to death in default, he had to abandon the area and take refuge in La Jagua, a rural section near La Vega. He again established contact with patriots, waiting for the conditions for rebellion to ripen again.
Raids from Haiti