Rosa Smester Marrero

Rosa Smester Marrero(August 30, 1874 - February 15, 1945) was a People of the Dominican Republic educator and writer. She grew to prominence for her opposition to the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924) and Feminism writings.
Her career as a teacher rended her a prolific figure in her home city of Santiago de los Caballeros, where she founded a school and the St Vincent de Paul Hospice.
== Early life ==
Smester was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, on August 30, 1874. She was the daughter of Paul Emmanuel "Pablo" Smester and Dolores Trinidad "Dada" Marrero.
Smester was self-taught, educated at home by her mother. In a later article, she recalled her mother teaching her tenths of Juan Antonio Alix and reading from her favourite book, La Historia Sagrada.
== Teaching career ==
In 1897, Smester began teaching French language to children at home, where she credited the discovery of her vocation.
By 1902, she had become a teacher at the ladies' high school of Santiago in the subjects of syntax, literature, history and French. She resigned in 1908, and founded a school in Santiago in 1913.
In 1913, Smester moved to Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic|Monte Cristi. In that city was born her son, Federico Máximo Smester, from her marriage to Juan Grullón. As a teacher of the Higher Normal School of Montecristi, a teacher training college, she prepared the first group of Normal Teachers and directed the Higher School of Ladies of Montecristi.
She was a member of the Amantes de la Luz society, the first public library in the Dominican Republic.
== Writings ==
Smester's writings are scattered across magazines and journals; she never fulfilled her ambition to write a book. Her prose conveys a deep religiosity and Christianity|Christian conviction. 
=== Opposition to the American occupation ===
With the Junta Patriótica de Damas, of which she was a member, Smester was one of many women who publicly agitated against the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924)|American occupation of the Dominican Republic, which took place between 1916 and 1924. Smester expressed her opposition in the national press, publishing in literary magazines in Santiago and Barcelona. Smester also gave anti-occupation lectures in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic|Monte Cristi at the Ateneos Amantes de la luz; at the Renovación Society of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic|Puerto Plata; in the women's action of Barcelona and in the union of French women. She was a member of these last two groups.
One of Smester's appeals for the removal of American forces read: 
To the American journalists who visit us. A simple schoolteacher speaks to you with my heart on my lips. [...] The Dominican people love, above all things, like God, their freedom and their land; that is why our pain in this unfortunate hour is infinite [...] Surprised by the American invasion, we did not prepare for death; because our leaders proclaimed from the outset that we were not at war with the United States and we trusted that that normality would be temporary [...] And it's been over five years of the Via Crucis; we have experienced every pain and humiliation. [...] We have been defenseless and have relied on the strength of patience, justice, and resistance [...] Women have had a prayer on their lips that God help us, and that the gift of justice be granted to the people who oppress us, and the shame of ignominy does not fall upon the country of Washington and Lincoln [...] The Senate Commission comes to clarify the truth of the atrocities we have suffered; it is true that there have been many. There is an unusual fact, a monster against which we will forever clamor: the landing of American troops in our country under the guise of friends and protectors, to strip us of our rights and our holy freedom. Can there be a greater atrocity?
Smester refused to speak English as a form of civil resistance, claiming that if she spoke that language, the Americans would also have occupied her mind. In May 1920, Smester donated a month's salary to nationalist cause, writing to Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, the President of the Nationalist Board, that “whenever necessary, I will give gladly”.
=== Feminism ===
In 1926, Smester wrote to Petronila Angélica Gómez, founder of Fémina, the first feminist Dominican journal, that "your magazine is the only genuine feminine, genuinely Dominican, and therefore deserving of the greatest help." In the same year, Smester requested to publish in the magazine, and so recorded her first two contributions to feminist journalism, publishing a further article in 1929. She became one of the magazine's main contributors.
Of the three articles written by Smester for Fémina, two concerned the masculine condition. Smester contributed to a broader feminist position that pacifist strategies disqualified androcentric warmongering, including female voices in war discourses, such that "honoring and glorifying enlightened men is a form of patriotic love". In her 1929 article Así es, Smester praised Henríquez y Carvajal's intellectual attributes, which lended him to being an "enlightened" feminist man. 
In her Elogio a la Madre, Smester wrote that while a woman can be unsurpassable as a teacher or pharmacist, her "highest glory and most certain triumph" is as a mother. In her Escrito Pro-Feminismo, she wrote that feminism has proven to be "essentially constructive", tending "to widen the sphere of action of the woman, to bring into play the activity of her spirit, to develop all her capacity", all without harming "the home and family".
== Later life ==
Smester chaired a chapter of the charitable Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. At her urging, in 1923, the La Caridad society, which had founded the first hospital in Santiago in 1891, established the 'St Vincent de Paul Branch' under her leadership, for the foundation of a nursing home in Santiago. Smester thus became the first director of the city's St Vincent de Paul Hospice. During this time, she lived in a Victorian house in the Calle del Sol, in front of the central park.
From 1927 to 1937, Smester lived in Paris, accompanying her son at the beginning of his career as a doctor at the Sorbonne University|Sorbonne. She offered private classes while in Paris. Smester lectured at the University of Barcelona and spoke to the newly-founded Lyceum Club (Barcelona), a women's group who called on her help as a cultural figure and influence.
Smester died on 15 February 1945.
== Legacy ==
During her life, the El Regional newspaper of Monte Cristi asked Rosa to be honoured as 'Illustrious Daughter' of the city "as a teacher, mother, and fighter". While she was in Paris, an editorial of the Santiago newspaper La Información, who cite Smester as a founding intellectual influence, said she had "one of the most outstanding intellectual capacities", and was "one of the best literary pens the Republic has". 
A street in Santo Domingo bears Smester's name. In Monte Cristi, an educational establishment is named the Rosa Smester Basic School.
Smester educated former Dominican President Joaquín Balaguer. In his memoirs, Balaguer recalled Smester's great influence on his intellectual formation. Smester also taught Dominican artist Federico Izquierdo, who was greatly pained by her death.
Category:1874 births
Category:1945 deaths
Category:Dominican Republic educators