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Today is the anniversary of Juan Pablo Duarte’s birthday, but what do you actually know about Juan Pablo Duarte? We celebrate Juan Pablo Duarte every year for his liberal thinking and patriotic drive without which the independence of this beautiful country never would have happened!
Here are some of the basic information that most of us know about Juan Pablo Duarte (and why we have a national holiday in his honor):
1. Juan Pablo Duarte is one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic, alongside Matías Ramón Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sanchéz.
2. Juan Pablo Duarte, with help from Sánchez and Mella, organized and founded the patriotic youth movement, La Trinitaria, on July 16th, 1838 in order to create and make the Dominican Republic a free and independent state from any foreign country. This group successfully liberated the Dominican people from the Haitian repression in the War of Independence in 1844.
3. He was exiled three times from the Dominican Republic, the last time on June 1864, and died in Venezuela on July 15, 1876.
BUT what else?
So as it turns out Juan Pablo Duarte was a pretty interesting guy, here’s 5 things we bet you didn’t know about Juan Pablo Duarte:
1. Juan Pablo Duarte traveled to many countries in Europe, as well as America. It was these trips that sparked his liberalist and visionary spirit.
2. He was fluent in several languages, he could translate from French to Spanish, as well as Latin. He also played the flute, piano, guitar and practiced fencing.
3. The highest mountain in the Caribbean is named “Pico Duarte” in his honor. Pico Duarte is located in the Cordillera Central mountains in the middle of the Dominican Republic.
4. According to records Juan Pablo Duarte was not married and had no children.
5. Although he died in 1876 in Venezuela, his remains were returned to the Dominican Republic eight years later (in 1884) to be honored as the Founding Father of the Dominican Republic.
To learn more about Juan Pablo Duarte, you can visit the Casa Duarte Museum, which was the home of this national hero, who was born in 1813 and in honor of him, his house was declared not only as a World Heritage Site, for being in the place where it is located, but also as the Museum of the Life History of the Prócer Mártire Juan Pablo Duarte. Casa Duarte is located in the Colonial Zone of the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.