Peace, work and progress sound pretty good on paper. Except perhaps to the man who must spend his life toiling behind the cow. How to convince him that his work will be rewarded. Strongman Rafael Trujillo went pretty far to do this, and some will never forgive him. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp looks so foreign to modern eyes. A leader describes himself as a benefactor and then shows a man of simple means performing what must be hellish work. Yet what is our farmer/hero supposed to do after his cow is stolen. This was happening a lot because poor Dominican Republic bordered even poorer Haiti and the border was porous. Trujillo instigated an eviction that Haitians would call a massacre. Either way, maybe our hero’s toil might now lead to rewards. Progress?
Todays stamp is issue A64, a 3 Centavo stamp issued by the Dominican Republic on September 18th, 1937. It was a single stamp issue marking the eighth year of the rule of Rafael Trujillo, who is presented as the benefactor. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.
Trujillo early life was modest. His early adult years saw his unable to find steady work and resorting to crime. The USA had invaded the DR to try to assure repayment of debts defaulted on. As part of this, the USA established a new constabulary that Trujillo joined and rose quickly in. Soon he was head of the official DR army and running successfully for President. Unlike most Latin strongmen leaders he had sensibilities that seemed of the left. He required the middle class to join his political party. He required government workers to tithe 10% of their salary, not to the church, not even to himself personally, but the national treasury. Party membership gave you a card with a palm tree on it, a palmita. If you were without it, police were to assume you a vagrant. Everything was renamed for the leader, the capital, the biggest province, the tallest mountain. Car license plates said viva Trujillo on them. Sounds almost Soviet or even Maoist.
The DR had a problem with desperately poor Haitians crossing their border and committing crime. The army was sent to evict the Haitians. Since there was race mixing on both sides of the border. skin color was not determinative. The two peoples did speak different languages but literacy was low. The army hit upon holding up a sprig of parsley and have the suspected Haitian describe it. If he pronounced it in the French creole way he was done for. There are people that claim that wrong pronunciation was fatal and not just leading to deportation. Haitians at the time claimed a bizarrely exact number of 12,168 killed in the parsley massacre. In the way of the modern dragging out and inflating grievances, the currently claim is 35,000 killed.
Trujillo ruled the DR until 1961 when he was assassinated. Whether you admire the infrastructure and economic progress of his time or resent his tough guy methods depend on your politics. Either way, it can’t be easy to share a small island with Haiti, one of the poorest countries on earth.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast our hero toiling behind the cow. I hope his cow was not stolen and he was able to enjoy the rewards of his work. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.