A brief history of the Dominican Independence

Today in Cap Cana we commemorate the 172th anniversary of the independence of the Dominican Republic, at the Eden Roc’s Beach Club drinks were decorated with a flag, Little John had a special menu of traditional Dominican food and a merengue group, the brunch at La Mona included a tasty Dominican platter and L’Stella Cigar and celebrated with a night of run & tobacco.

The Dominican flag was raised at the beach as a tribute to commemorate the heroic act of a group of young intellectuals that on the night of the 27th of February 1844 proclaim the independence of the Dominican Republic rising for the first time a Dominican flag.

In the 1830s Juan Pablo Duarte (1813-1876) known as one of the founding father of the Dominican Independence” organized a secret society known as La Trinitaria A a group of Dominican nationalists, who successfully liberated the Dominican people. For their courage founding “La Trinitaria” Juan Pablo Duarte, Matías Ramón Mella and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez are considered the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic.

The island of la Hispaniola was occupied by two colonies, a Spanish and French one. The French colony was the first of Latin America to obtain their freedom in 1791 becoming the Republic of Haiti. The Spanish part was a colony until 1821 but a year later, in 1822 was military invaded by the Republic of Haiti for 22 years. It was until the night of the 27th of February 1844, when Matías Ramón Mella fired a shot, event known as the “trabucazo” at the “Puerta del Conde” and Francisco del Rosario Sánchez raised the Dominican flag for the first time shouting the words “Dios, Patria y Libertad!” (God, Country and Freedom), moment in which the Dominican Republic was founded.

For the next 12 years, a group of patriots came together through a manifesto that indicated separation from the Easter part of the island, and fought 14 battles for the cause of independence.

The first Dominican flag was designed and created by María Trinidad Sánchez, Sánchez’s aunt, where she included blue, representing God’s blessings over our nation, red representing our liberators’ blood and the white cross symbolizing our Independence as an inheritance from those who fought for our freedom. A curios fact is that the Dominican flag is the only flag in the world to incorporate in its coat of arms and the Holy Bible.