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Teresita Martínez-Vergne, PhD,
Univertsity of Texas at Austin, USA.
Author of book:
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"NATION AND CITIZEN IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, 1880-1916"
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" is surprising that it took so long for the Dominican historiography come to take its rightful place alongside the other American countries "
TMV.
(Teresita Martínez-Vergne just put into service in the United States the book "Nation and Citizen in the Dominican Republic, 1880-1916 "and was immediately contacted for this interview from Madrid, Spain, Rocío Rodríguez-Reyes. The author is a distinguished scholar born in Puerto Rico who has spent his career teaching and research in the United States. As indicated its title, the book was written in English. Of course we look forward to the relevant English-language edition).
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Interview
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Rocío Rodríguez-Reyes:
How did the idea to write this book?
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Teresita Martínez-Vergne:
This book stems from my experience researching and writing Shaping the Discourse on Space for several years. I realized then that control the space in which subaltern groups could act was another way to restrict their actions in a political way, in the sense that has to do with the exercise of power. From this, to build citizenship ideologically had a very short distance. Dominican investigative entered my picture because I've always thought that the Hispanic Caribbean is repeated, as he says Antonio Benítez Rojo, and for that reason there is much to learn using comparative methods. Having already written for years about Puerto Rico and denied entry to Cuba, I went to taste Quisqueya, the beautiful.
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What were your starting hypotheses or questions?
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I looked for signs of nationality according to express different social groups at the time of the death of Lilís allowed to rethink the trajectory of the country. There were several books on this subject for other countries in Latin America, and all showed great conflicts between the expectations of the upper class and the aspirations of men and women of working class. My surprise in the Dominican Republic was to find the bourgeois values \u200b\u200bof the elite (the inviolability of private property, the value of education, work ethic, the obsession with honor) within the working class.
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How does the search for information? Did you visit Santo Domingo for this purpose? What he found there not looking for (regarding the subject of the book)?
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I went to Santo Domingo many times between 1994 and 2003, and lived there for seven months in 1996. Several friends historians, notably Robert Cass and Raymundo González, guided me in the Archivo General de la Nation, where I consulted magazines and books, and documents of the municipalities of San Pedro de Macoris and Santo Domingo.
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This type of research can be very boring, reports on the distribution of urban land, lists of stray animals, discussions on the collected Garbage, complaints about the lack of teachers, until one comes across a story that gives color to the urban life of the working class that has so far been studied from an institutional perspective.
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This is the case with, for example, documentation on the breaking of the engagement between Lucila Abreu and Manuel Ortiz, whose separation and division of property ended up being public events and outrageous. The lives rebuilt in my book I very much like the lives of the people among whom I lived during my stay in the capital.
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His research focused, it seems, in the study of the cities of Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris (not in Santiago de los Caballeros second largest city). What sociological characteristics found in the former than the latter did not find?
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The reason to focus on San Pedro de Macoris and Santo Domingo is one born and one was reborn in the wake of the departure of the sugar industry. Santiago, the stately city, did not seem the ideal place to study modern notions of citizenship.
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Broadly speaking, how would the Dominican society in the late nineteenth century?
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Broadly speaking and in two words, in transition. Of course, no society is static. I do believe that the convergence of several circumstances (political openness, progress in education, economic development) contributed greatly to the idea that it was time to move beyond the obstacles of the past and look toward a promising future, the aptly called "discourse of progress."
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What were the core ideas (inclusion / exclusion) that supported the notion of nation / citizenship "of the urban elite Dominican early twentieth century?
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The European definition was bourgeois, and was based on the enlightened ideas of the late eighteenth century. It favored the right to property, freedom of expression, the value of education, access to the labor market, and political participation, among other things. Insofar as citizens to exercise these powers, the country and each of the individuals composing the nation saw on the road to modernity.
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In everyday relationships, do you perceive any particular tension between "Dominican" and people of color and / or Haitian? Could it get any evidence?
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Yes, like today. The adjective "black" is applied exclusively to Haitians, Dominicans when the same color. The social construction of race is something that interests me a lot. In our countries, a "white out" and get social status according to level of education, the family name, their behavior, the money you have. It is troubling that color, a quality so subjective, is used to calculate the value of a full persona.En debate today, is the definition (re-definition) of the "Dominicans", by our intellectuals.
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What would, in their opinion, the necessary elements to end to form this definition? What aspects "cohere" have been (are still) missing? How to integrate diversity and representation of common objectives?
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The Dominicans, any concept of nationality is, I seem somewhat fluid, which is suitable for applications that society, various levels of it, want to give at any time in history. The day is fixed or concretized, never to change, never come, and thankfully, in my opinion. One of the most interesting aspects of my research is the notion of national identity as a creation of different social groups with their respective agendas and interests defined, conflicting or collaborating with other groups, deliberately or unconsciously.
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I think the concept of "ethno-nation," as Frances Negrón-Montaner used to refer to the Puerto Rican population has been established in the United States, applies equally to the Dominican exodus, including Europe, in recent years. According to this historian, where they are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and by extension, on the island or abroad, has little to do with his ability to be understood as part of the national community Puerto Rican (or Dominican).
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Do you continue to address the Dominican elite, a century later, "divorced" from reality?
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Only in the sense that is not recognized, because it is not, there are many social forces contributing to definitions that any dominant group wanted total control. The Dominicans made every day, not imposed from above and once and for all.
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Do you think there is a greater social cohesion, a better defined idea of \u200b\u200b"being Dominicans during the first half of the nineteenth century, while the Dominican society was still basically rural? How did this concept during the process of urbanization and industrialization from the end of the century?
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Good question. I do not think there are two Dominicans, one rural and one urban, one behind the other modern, democratic one another strongman, one traditional the other contemporary. I think the same conflicts, the same divisions, existed and exist in one and the other, if that should or can be distinguished. The notion of modern citizenship, bourgeois, and Western was in Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris presented, as similar concepts in the field, differences of class, race and gender that existed and exist in environments urban and rural.
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In recent years we have seen an unprecedented interest from researchers and American professors in the study of our history and the construction and the conflicts in our society, as expressed in books such as "Why the cocks fight? " of M. Wucker, "Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic" by Ernesto Sagas, "The dictator next door: The good neighbor policy and the Trujillo Regime in Dominican Republic" by Eric Roorda, et cetera. What is that? Dominican society Is an "outlier" in the historical and sociological on the region?
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is surprising that it took so long for the Dominican historiography come to take its rightful place beside the other American countries. These authors mention (and many more, both Americans and Dominicans) studied same processes, the same personalities, others in Latin America. And for some reason, there has never been a conversation, an exchange in both directions between the Dominican Republic and the rest of Latin America in the writings coming out of the United States.
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Dominican is not an anomaly, is another example, with different circumstances, in the same historical trajectory we observe in the rest of America. These recent studies, like previous ones, serve us well to Latin American scholars to make comparisons, and thus better understand the processes and events characterize our country. Given the quality of collective scholarly work that originates in Dominciana, there is nothing that I explain to me why the interest is recent, as you well note, and not historical.
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Teresita Martínez-Vergne, PhD.
Teresita Martínez-Vergne, PhD.
Curriculum Vitae:
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