Evening star., 1960-05-25
Gentlemen:

Gentlemen:
Last Friday, I received a visit from a priest who is
friend of mine. He said to me: Il have come to
you before your departure for Santiago have heard
that Monsgnor Polanco is to invite you to Te
Deum. I ask in God to prepare a speech
that YOU may deliver it then" and 1 replied
Father, will do whatever I can"
I wish to commence by thanking the Bishop of
Santiago, Monsgnor Polanco, for the opportunity he
gives me of speaking in this sacred edihce and I
willingly accept because the Christian feelings which
fill my heart must find vent even if it is away from
political platform and under the ceiling Of Cath
olic church in which Gods ministers speak
Sometimes people forget history and at Others they
totally ignorant of it and it is for this reason
that I would like to make certain comments of
historical nature.
Lugo in 1899 These are the words of the great
writer:
lone must not create illusions for oneself regarding
the moral values of the Dominican people. Moral
values always attain the limits of intellectual ca
pacity and our intellectual capacity is almost nil.
"The great majority of citizens know neither how
to read write; for them there true neces-
sites only caprice and passion; barbarians who know
no other law than that of instinct, no other right
than might other home than the thatched hut,
other family than the woman of easy virtue, no other
school than the cockpit. There is very small minor
ity that know how to read and write and among
which, certainly there outstanding personalities
of great worth.
"Such are the Dominican people half savage the
hand and educated on the other; generally apa-
thetc, beicose cruel and disinterested. But to
like is to be: The Dominican people are not de-
generate since. if they incapable of persisng in
virtue, they have strong tendency toward 1t; II
they are lacking in intellectual vigor and fancy they
still have the necessary talent and strength to be
able to stand up and dominate a great part of the
celestial arch; if still prostrate and miserable they
lirahip haF nil
mountain where the eagle of civilization builds its
nest"
Despite the frai hope which emerges from this last
paragraph. it is very obvious that the author, in
1899 when he wrote his notes politics. did not
have many illusions as to the moral fiber OF the
Dominican people At that time Lugo not yet
the historian he later became, and he not
fully aware, he later, of the historical con-
ditions Of the formation Of his people.
In September 1901 addressed to the ladies of Puerto
Plata, Lugo wrote his reflections Religion and
Educational Reform In this work, he showed him.
self imbued with the ideas of his teacher and nat
uraly breaches the education system of Mr.. Hostos
antitraditionalist, naturalist and nationalist Re-
ferring again to the Dominican people, he said.
Ignorant people cannot be religious; they cannot
be- The difference between the Righteousness of one
of our peasants and any of the educated conserva-
tves who preach REFORM is more than difference
in intellectual degree Ignorant people will be super
stitious. fanatcal, intolerant and nquistors: but
they cannot be religious in any sense OF the word"
On the eve of the great tragedy of 1916 Lugo wrote
his most controversial work: THE Dominican State
and the Rights Of the People" He read it in the
Santo Domingo University in order to obtain his
degree The conclusions he arrives at in this work
desolatingly pessmistic Were it not for the high
confidence in the destnies of the country he showed
shortly after, in face of the military occupation it
could be said that in his 1916 thesis, he wanted to
write the epitaph of Dominican national life.
Lugo then set out this somber conclusion:
"Fron the lesson of history it. must be concluded
that the Dominican people do not constitute nation.
Rather, it is spiritual community united by Ian
guage, customs and other ties; but lack of culture
does not allow the necessary political development
needed by all groups of people to convert themselves
into nation.
"The people to whom he refers, although not con-
stituting State about to become one, to found
one. That in which such thing has not occurred,
although proclaiming itself State and establishing
and organizing itself such, will become
Infancy cannot become adult because it so wishes.
The Dominican State reflects what it can, the vari-
able will of the popular masses; in way public
desire that does not exist here,
THE Dominican people are not nation because they
have no swareness of what constitutes one, because
their political activities have become sufficiently
generalized Not being nation, the State that pre-
tends to represent this, is not true State
To this negative conclusion arrived the sated hope
Of the great Dominican when nearing his 46th birth
day. He had had no opportunity to observe in his
country one single moment of national sanity. About
this same time in 1916, Don Francisco j. Peynado
also delivered his famous speech at the Floral Games.
He then travelling along the pathways of
desperation and skepticism that moved Lugos soul.
It not then possible in that mournful year to
be able to give satisfied smile regarding the future
of the Republic. Every bad and no one could
feel happy
However, we frankly believe that both Lugos and
Peynado's theses were incomplete. We Dominicans
have been solely responsible for the national
incapacity of our country. Foreigners are as much
to blame ourselves. In 1916 we were paving
for apart from administrative errors, the Mig
gardlness and the absolute lack of spirit of inter-
national cooperation by which the Government Of
Washington negotiated the 1907 Pact In 1916 we
we're reaching the vortex of the political and social
storm which meant in the life of this country the
twenty-five years of Haitian occupation.