Tag: Dominican Republic stamp

Today is one of those stories of a badly remembered leader who built many things that his successors couldn’t keep going. 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.

The stamp today features a newly built beach front resort. The kind of all inclusive beach and spa resorts that the Caribbean is famous for. The Hotel Hamaca was one of the first. Yet the angle of the photo and the poor printing makes the hotel look like an airport terminal. A failure.

Todays stamp is issue A100, a 1 centavo stamp issued by the Dominican Republic in 1951. The stamp features the Hotel Hamaca in Boca Chica. It is part of a 7 stamp issue that features the hotels of the Dominican Republic. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Rafael Trujillo was the strongman leader of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. This is not completely true as during times of unpopularity with America he stepped back and let an aged vice president and his brother be his puppet. In 1955 he celebrated 25 years of rule with much public celebration even though he was theoretically not in power at the time. He tried to rename the capital Santo Domingo Trujillo City in honor of his rebuilding efforts after a hurricane. He even had a stamp issue for his mother for Mother’s Day.

Trujillo did much infrastructure building and regained control of the countries customs duties which were being seized by USA in lieu of debt repayment. He also worked to better control the border with desperately poor Haiti. He offered to take up to 100,000 Jewish refugees at the time of the Holocaust. In the event, only 800 came and most moved on quickly to the USA. Trujillo was assassinated while in his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air by military leaders. His family was able to remain in power long enough to have the conspirators tracked down and killed but soon there was a second revolution and the family was forced to leave the country going initially to France.

The Hotel Hamaca in Boca Chica was quite the landmark when it was built. It lies on the largest lagoon in the Caribbean. There was a Trujillo vacation home in the bay that included a private zoo. In early 1959, Nearby Cuban strongman Batista left the country with his family and close advisers. He also allegedly made it out with many millions. Trujillo took a large financial tribute from Batista and allowed them to stay at the Hotel Hamaca. Denied entry into USA or France, they later went on to Portugal.

The Hotel Hamaca was closed very shortly after Trujillo left power. Resorts of it’s type are very successful in the Carabean so a quick closing is a rather stinging indictment of the countries future leaders. The most basic function of government is to keep things going. The hotel was eventually reopened in the early 90s and today operates as the Be Live Experience Hamaca Gardens. According to the online reviews it is not in a good state with much intrusion by locals panhandling the guests. In the old days Trujillo would have done that for the people, and only the important guests like Batista.

Well my drink is empty leaving me wondering why it is so hard to find a waiter in an all inclusive resort. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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.

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. 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. We have an interesting story to tell of when a country, through it’s stamps, signals a future desire.

The stamp today is from Latin America and it shows very strongly on this stamp. Dominican Republic after all sits on Hispaniola, Spain’s Island. Christopher Columbus himself gave it that name. But there is more to the country than Spain and perhaps that explains why the historic site on the stamp was in ruins.

The stamp today is issue A29, a one half centavo stamp issued in 1928. It displays the ruins of the Alcazar de Colon. This was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations and colors all displaying the same view. The stamp is worth 35 cents used. The stamp in this issue to look out for is the mint 1 peso, which is worth $35.

Christopher Columbus landed on Hispaniola in 1492 claiming the island for Spain. There were some Indians already there but life was very difficult in the new colony and few Indians survived the early days. The tobacco and sugar production required much labor and the King of Spain authorized the importation of large numbers of black slaves to be imported from Africa. This was also being done by the French settlements on the western half of the island. Soon Blacks and those of mixed race were the majority in the whole island. The decline of empire lead to Spain and France to give up trying to hold on to colonies in Hispaniola in the early 19th century. The newly freed French speaking back Haitians conquered the Spanish settlements and for 20 years ruled the whole island. This did not work well, the Haitian constitution did not allow white people to own land and the government tried to force the growing of only export cash crops that tanked the economy. Spanish settlers rebelled and were able to regain the eastern half of the island then known mainly as Santo Domingo. They tried to obtain protectorate status from the USA, Spain, Great Britain, and France. They were offering a natural port in return for the protection.

Spain agreed to this in the 1860s during the American civil war but this did not go well either. They announced the intention to reintroduce slavery which to say the least did not go over well with the majority black population. The rejuvenated Catholic Church also tried to stamp out the rampant out of wedlock relationships. Spanish rule was short lived. What followed were a string of strongman leaders,  most of Spanish decent that ruled with increasing help of the USA. The white population grew as new arrivals from Cuba and the Canary Islands came in. The blacks and the mixed race peoples are divided by those of Spanish, French, and English, with some of the latter arriving from British islands nearby to work on ships, railroads and sugar mills. The economy today is mainly tourism and remittances from the many Dominicans in the USA.

The ruins on the stamp, Alcazar de Colon, are quite historic. It was constructed under the son of Christopher Columbus as the colonial governor’s mansion. The architecture of Spain at that time had a strong flavor of the Moors in Spain and that was reflected in the stone structure. The mansion was sacked by Francis Drake in 1586 and the place was under slow decline until by the early 20th century it was a ruin. This is what is depicted on the stamp. In the late 1950s, a particularly long lasting strong man named Trujillo, got to work restoring the site. The reconstruction was only about half the size of the original but a collection of European art and tapestries were acquired to display in it. It is now a UNESCO historic site and the busiest museum in Santo Domingo.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. The struggle between the peoples of various ethnic heritages over centuries in the Dominican Republic shows the banality of the original decision by the Spanish King Ferdinand to import slaves into the colonies. I doubt he considered it a big decision at the time. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.