Francisco del Rosario Sánchez (March 9, 1817 – July 4, 1861) was a Dominican revolutionary, politician, and former president of the Dominican Republic. He is considered by Dominicans as the second prominent leader of the Dominican War of Independence, after Juan Pablo Duarte and before Matías Ramón Mella. Widely acknowledged as one of the Founding Fathers of the Dominican Republic, and the only martyr of the three, he is honored as a national hero. In addition, the Order of Merit of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella is named partially in his honor.
Following Duarte's exile, Sánchez took leadership of the independence movement, while continuing to correspond with Duarte through his relatives. Under Sánchez, the Dominicans would successfully overthrow Haitian rule and declare Dominican independence on February 27, 1844. With the success of the separation from Haiti, Sánchez took office as the Dominican Republic's first interim president before ceding his position.
But his ideas of an independent state were fiercely challenged by many within the sector who felt that the new nation's independence was only a temporary success. Because of his patriotic ideals, Sánchez, like many of his peers, would be on the receiving end of these political struggles. His main political rival was none other than the military general, Pedro Santana. His status as a patriot came with many unfortunate consequences, including incarceration, deprived of his assets, exiled throughout the Caribbean, and worst of all, the death of his companions.
By 1861, his worst fears of the end of the republic came to reality upon learning that the pro-annexation group led by Santana agreed to reintegrate Dominican Republic back to Spanish colonial status. With no time to waste, Sánchez rushed back to his homeland to challenge this decision, but was lured into a trap by the very same people who allied with him, leading to his unfortunate death on July 4, 1861. His death triggered a national outrage throughout the island, and marking a new era of struggle for independence, which was eventually achieved in 1865.
Background Family origins Sanchez was born on March 9, 1817, in the city of Santo Domingo, during the years of a 12-year era known to Dominicans as España Boba. This period was plagued into an economic and cultural crisis, when Juan Sánchez Ramírez managed to get the "Junta de Bandillo" at the end of 1808 to decide to return to Spain or reincorporate it after defeating French general Jean-Louis Ferrand, in the Battle of Palo Hincado, who applied the Treaty of Basel in 1804, through which Spain ceded the eastern part of the island to France in 1795. Spain was under the Napoleonic invasion, which prevented meeting the requirements of the reacquired colony.
Sánchez was the son of Olaya del Rosario Belén (1791–1849), a free woman of color,Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación. Volumen 14. 1951. Pages 413-417, and Narciso Sánchez Ramona (1789–1869), a tall man who was a descendent of slaves. (According to a marriage certificate, which lists both of his parents as free people of color, it is presumed that Narciso may have been a freedman). Because of their different racial and social-economical status (hers being superior to his), Narciso Sánchez and Olaya del Rosario married after a special authorisation given by the mayor.
His mother was a hairdresser who produced combs, while his father worked in the meat trade, selling, butchering and raising cattle. Narciso inherited the occupation from his father, Fernando Raimundo Sánchez, (who was part of the free black population) of which mostly took place in the east, an area where livestock production was concentrated. This job placed him in an intermediate situation between the urban and rural world, which was very common at that time. Much of the herd owners preferred to live in the cities, so they appointment administrators. In the cases of Narciso Sánchez, despite being a resident of Santo Domingo, he spent much of his time in the mountainous life of ranching. According to historian Ramón Lugo Lovatón, his professions allowed him to achieve a certain level of social advancement. However, in his will, he clarified that the couple did not bring property to the marriage, indicating that his professions did not bring fortune to the family.
A detail that illustrates the social status of Sánchez's parents is that their initial relationship was concubinage, despite the fact that the mother had Canarian ancestors. Sánchez had an older maternal brother, Andrés, who was adopted by his father. The same hero was born out of wedlock, and although his final last name was Sánchez, he kept his mother's last name as a middle name. (His surnames are inverted because his parents were not married at the time of his birth, marrying in 1819). His father had a pro-Spanish position, according to Lugo Lovatón, due to the damage that the Haitians had caused, since 1801, to the livestock activity and its owners, the whites of colonial society, who were his employers. These different political positions between father and son portray the changes in mentality that the young liberal founders of La Trinitaria carried out.
Marriages, children, and descendents
Francisco del Rosario Sánchez had children with various women, the first being Felícita Martínez, with whom he fathered Mónica Sánchez Martínez, who was born on January 30, 1838. Some years later, he fathered María Gregoria (Goyita) with María Evarista Hinojosa. who was born on November 28, 1841. Goyita had a daughter named Mercedes Laura Sánchez. In exile, Sánchez fathered with Leoncia Leydes Rodríguez (b. September 15, 1846/47), a daughter whom they named Leoncia Sánchez. This she, in turn, had two daughters: Emilia Mercedes and Manuela Dolores Sánchez. With Mercedes Pembrén Chevalier Sánchez procreated Petronila Sánchez Pembrén, who was born on February 22, 1852, who married León Güilamo, they later procreated Mercedes, Rafaela, Micaela, Alicia, León and Asunción Güilamo Sánchez.
Following the death of his mother Olaya del Rosario, he decided to marry Balbina de Peña, daughter of Luciano de Peña and Petronila Pérez, on April 4, 1849, in front of witnesses Román Bidó, Minister of Justice; Jacinto de la Concha and Pedro Alejandro Pina. From this union Juan Francisco was born (b. April 3, 1852) and Manuel de Jesús, (b. February 16, 1854), who died young. Balbina de Peña died at the age of 70 on April 26, 1895. The only surviving son of the Sánchez Peña household was Juan Francisco (Papi) Sánchez Peña, who held the rank of General, was Minister of Finance of the President Ulises Heureaux and was part of the government cabinet of President Morales Languasco. Juan Francisco Sánchez Peña thus fathered two sons named José and Carlos with Caridad Fernández Soñé, granddaughter of the independentist Francisco Soñé. Despite Juan Francisco having recognized them, due to family problems related to his mother, neither of them used the surname Sánchez for most of their lives. In the case of Carlos Fernández, it is likely that he adopted it as a second surname later. He later married Eudocia Maggiolo, who produced Francisco del Rosario, Filomena, Fernando Arturo, María, Flérida and Manuel A. Sánchez Maggiolo. Later he married his niece Emilia Mercedes Sánchez, with whom he fathered Manuel Antonio Francisco, María Patria, Manuel Emilio, Héctor, Carlos Augusto, Emilia, Marina Altagracia, and Juan Francisco Sánchez y Sánchez.
Of this generation of grandchildren of the Father of the Nation, there were several who stood out in national life. Carlos Augusto Sánchez y Sánchez was an illustrious jurist, diplomat, historian and literary critic. His brother Juan Francisco (Tongo) Sánchez y Sánchez, a notable Dominican professor, dedicated mainly to the study of philosophy, and a self-taught pianist. With his notes he usually enlivened the clubs and gatherings of which he was a fervent enthusiast. On the side of his grandson José Fernández, he married Juana Roselia Brea Sánchez, a distant descendant of the Spanish conquistador Rodrigo de Bastidas and the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo. In this way they had as one of their children the writer, doctor and later history professor at the UASD, José Aníbal Sánchez-Fernández (originally born José Aníbal Fernández Brea). He would end up adopting "Sánchez" as his main surname due to a decree issued by Rafael Trujillo which dictated that all the descendants of the patrician change their main surname, if they did not have it, to that of his distinguished ancestor. During the 1980s, he would end up getting involved in a debate with the historian and later president of the Dominican Academy of History, Juan Daniel Balcácer, about the actions of several national figures, including his great-grandfather. José Aníbal in turn was the father of the famous Dominican poet, intellectual, narrator, essayist, professor, columnist and advertiser, Enriquillo Sánchez Mulet.
Education, early years and influences
His childhood was spent in the framework of the period of Haitian rule in Santo Domingo, which began in 1822 after the failure of the independence initiative of the enlightened José Núñez de Cáceres, which historians refer to as the "Ephemeral Independence." In spite of his humble origins, Sánchez grew up in a very nationalistic family. He first received his education from his mother, and later by the Peruvian priest Gaspar Hernández, a patriot who encouraged the young Sánchez to follow in his family's footsteps. He was also influenced by his father and aunt, Maria Trinidad Sánchez, both involved in the movement Revolution of Los Alcarrizos, an early resistance that attempted to challenge the dictatorship of Jean-Pierre Boyer, who was the main architect of the regime. This conspiracy was eventually discovered by Boyer, who order all those involved to be executed. Narciso, however, was imprisoned. This action not only caused Olaya to suffer, but it also accumulated into a long lasting fear and worry for her children and husband, who by now was marked as an enemy by the Haitians. And as the young Sánchez grew up emulating his father's revolutionary footsteps, her bitterness and concerns would transcend into the future.
In his youth, Sánchez used to accompany his father in the work of managing agricultural properties, which allowed him to interact with people of different social classes. Beyond what was instilled by his family, Sánchez maintained an effort to educate himself, which was key to his outstanding patriotic action. He was self-taught, like almost all of his classmates. He had a love for culture; he was fascinated with the Bible and even enjoyed reading material by Greek and Roman authors. Historian Juan Daniel Balcácer described Sánchez as tall, with dark skin, a thin build, and extremely circumspect. Possessing a fine sense of humor, he stood out among his friends for his constant smile, always on his lips. He played various musical instruments and enjoyed reciting poetry. According to Eugenio María de Hostos, while educated and having taught himself Latin, English, and French later in life, he is mostly remembered as a man of action.
Rise to Leadership Recruitment to La Trinitaria