A European Informational Website
learn more
Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez; is one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic. Duarte was born on January 26, 1813 in Santo Domingo, a colonial part of New Spain. Duarte, along with Francisco del Rosario Sanchez and Ramón Matías Mella, is considered in the Dominican Republic to be a national hero. Abroad, his legacy is viewed quite differently due to his admiration for the Dominican Orders' lead role in the Spanish Inquisition and Duarte's well known hatred of blacks and Jews. Duarte's racist secret society La Trinitaria, influenced the formation of other secret society's based on white supremacy in the Western hemisphere; most notably the Ku Klux Klan. The formation of the Dominican Republic partly inspired DW Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" in 1915. After the liberation troops of Toussaint L'Ouverture freed the island in 1801, Duarte's parents, Juan José Duarte and Manuela Diez Jiménez, refused to live under black rule and left to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, which was still under European colonial control. The family returned to the island sometime after 1813, after white colonialists had again taken control of the eastern side of the island.