EDUCATION AND LITERATURE
Education in Spanish times.--Work of Hostos.--School
organization.--Professional institute.--Primary and secondary
education.--Literacy.--Libraries.--Newspapers.--Literature.--Fine Arts.
As in other Spanish colonies, it was not the policy of the Spanish
government in Santo Domingo to foster popular education. Learning was
confined to the clergy and the aristocracy and was imparted only by
servants of the church. As early as 1538, the Dominican friars
obtained a papal bull for the establishment of a university, and in
1558 the institution known as the University of St. Thomas of Aquino
was inaugurated by them in Santo Domingo City, with faculties of
medicine, philosophy, theology and law, the principal branch being
theology. This university acquired considerable celebrity, but
practically disappeared during the colony's decline, being revived by
royal decree of May 26, 1747, which gave it the title of Royal and
Pontifical University of Santo Domingo. The cession of the island to
France and the wars which followed weakened the famous institution,
which was definitely closed by the Haitians when they assumed control
of the government. The Haitian occupation and the civil disorders of
the first forty years of the Republic were not propitious for the
spreading of education. Beyond a theological seminary founded in 1848,
there were only a few humble public and private schools, leading a
precarious existence. An eminent Porto Rican educator, Eugenio M. de
Hostos, was responsible for the intellectual renaissance of Santo
Domingo. This remarkable man was one of those talented dreamers
produced by Latin-America, a lover of the abstract ideal in
government, philosophy and pedagogy, erudite, eloquent, with an
enthusiasm which fired his pupils and hearers. Early in life he
conceived the idea which he preached unceasingly: that of a
Confederated West Indian Republic, in which the principal states were
to be Cuba, Santo Domingo and Porto Rico. Inspired by the Cuban war of
independence of 1868 to 1878, he wrote and spoke throughout Spanish
America in behalf of the union of the Spanish speaking peoples of the
West Indies, the first step to that end to be the independence of
Cuba. In 1880 he arrived for the third time in Santo Domingo, where he
was then less known than in South America. Having obtained from the
government a commission to found normal schools in the Republic, he
was appointed director of the normal school of Santo Domingo City. He
came as the right man at the right time. His teachings touched a
responsive chord in the hearts of the Dominicans; his unsparing
condemnation of old pedagogical methods and eager advocacy of new ones
gave rise to discussions which awakened a general interest in
education and letters; and his aggressive enthusiasm smote the rock
which held Dominican literature bound. A prominent Dominican
historian, Americo Lugo, says: "I believe that what may be called
national literature does not begin until after the arrival in the
Republic of the eminent educator Eugenio M. de Hostos."
Hostos labored in Santo Domingo for eight years, during which time he
had as pupils many who have since become prominent in the councils of
the Republic. The baneful policies of Heureaux forced his departure,
and he settled in Chile with his family, being appointed professor of
constitutional law at the National University. Upon the conclusion of
the Spanish-American war, when it became apparent that Porto Rico
would be American and his ideal of an Antillan Confederation
definitely shattered, he journeyed to Washington to labor in behalf of
Porto Rico, returning later to his native island in the hope of
uniting the Porto Ricans in a demand for autonomy. There political
passion ran high, and Hostos, disappointed, went back to Santo
Domingo, where his entry was almost triumphal. He again assumed charge
of public education though the civil disorders filled him with
sadness. In 1903 he died in Santo Domingo, but the seed he sowed lives
and flourishes and his memory is revered by Dominicans.
In 1884 a general school law was passed, repeatedly modified since,
according to which primary instruction is a charge upon the
municipality, while the cost of secondary instruction is to be
defrayed by the state. Supreme inspection over educational matters was
given to the Minister of Justice and Public Instruction, who was
assisted by a superior board of education with school inspectors in
the various provinces. There were further special boards of education
in each province, presided over by the governor, and school boards in
the communes which are not capitals of provinces and in the cantons.
Owing to the difficulty of finding competent personnel, the inspection
of the educational institutions has generally been perfunctory and the
teachers have done pretty much as they pleased. Unfortunately the
financial limitations of the country have not permitted the
development of the schools in the measure desired. Since the middle of
1917 numerous changes in the school system and curriculum have been
decreed by the Department of Public Instruction and the system is
undergoing a general reorganization.
In 1882 a "Professional Institute" was founded, the name of which was
in 1914 changed to "University of Santo Domingo," and it is now called
the Central University of Santo Domingo. It occupies the same building
in the capital, adjoining the church of St. Dominic, where the old
university was located. It confers degrees in five branches: law,
medicine, pharmacy, dental surgery and mathematics and surveying.
Practically all the lawyers of the Republic have graduated from this
school. Most of the native pharmacists, also, have studied here. With
reference to instruction in medicine and surgery, and in dentistry,
the institution is handicapped by the lack of a suitable hospital and
clinic. As a result those who wish to adopt any of these professions
pursue their studies abroad, if possible, and all the best known
physicians are graduates of foreign universities. The entire annual
appropriation for the University is only about $24,000. A similar
institution, on a smaller scale, is the Professional Institute of
Santiago, founded in 1916. In several cities there are high schools
called normal schools, and other institutions called superior schools,
and the capital has an academy of drawing, painting and sculpture.
With the exception of a few private schools, primary education is in
the hands of the municipalities, which are assisted by small
subventions from the national government. In the municipalities there
is more enthusiasm for education than in Congress, if we judge from
the figures presented by the budgets. Every little town takes pride in
making its budget for education as large as possible, year after year.
The total amount spent for educational purposes, however, including
salaries, rent, supplies, subventions and teachers' pensions, is only
in the neighborhood of $500,000, contributed about in equal shares by
the state and the municipalities.
The total number of scholars enrolled is only about 20,000. The
schools are generally located in rented houses, there being no
buildings erected expressly for school purposes. Their equipment is as
a rule deficient. The teaching force is handicapped by lack of
facilities and training. The salaries of the elementary teachers are
very small, and while some municipalities are prompt in their
payments, others lag far behind, and the Spanish saying "as hungry as
a schoolmaster" has not lost all its meaning.
If the amounts expended for education are not large, it is due to lack
of money and not to lack of realization of the advantages of learning.
The interest manifested in education and the eagerness of parents to
furnish their children as much schooling as possible, are among the
most hopeful signs for the future. In the towns and villages where the
schools are located, most children learn at least to read and write,
but out in the country illiteracy and ignorance reign supreme. In the
absence of statistics it is not possible to determine the proportion
of illiterates; there is no doubt, however, that it is very large, and
I have heard it estimated at all the way from seventy to ninety per
cent of the population over ten years of age.
Some of the best schools are private institutions, one of the best
known being the institute for girls and young ladies, founded by Santo
Domingo's foremost woman poet, Salomé Ureña de Henriquez. It is the
custom also for well-to-do families to send their children abroad for
study and to travel themselves, and the Dominicans are not few who,
besides their native Spanish, speak other languages, acquired abroad.
Within the country, too, there is a predilection among the upper class
for the study of foreign tongues, and many learn English and French in
the family circle or by association with persons speaking these
languages.
As a result of the educational limitations, the population of the
country may be divided into three groups: first, a number of persons,
small in comparison with the whole number of inhabitants, who compare
in culture, education and accomplishments with members of the best
society in any country; second, a much larger group of persons who
possess knowledge more or less rudimentary; and third, the great
majority of the inhabitants, who are unlettered and unlearned.
One obstacle to the spread of information is the lack of public
libraries. There is a public library in Puerto Plata, and various
clubs in the larger towns have libraries, for their members or the
public, but they are all very small and limited. The newspapers,
therefore, furnish the only source of reading for the majority.
Practically all the papers are published in the cities of Santo
Domingo, Santiago and Puerto Plata, and all are of modest dimensions.
Many newspapers have been founded in the Republic and after leading an
ephemeral existence have succumbed, some because their editors were
persuaded by threats or rewards on the part of the government to cease
publication, and the greater portion because of financial
embarrassment. Notwithstanding the constitutional precept guaranteeing
free speech, editors of the opposition have generally found it more
healthy to withdraw to the neighboring countries and conduct their
campaigns at long range. On the other hand, it must be said that
several governments have honestly endeavored to allow the press full
liberty, but that the privilege has always been abused. The principal
daily newspaper of the Republic, and the one having the largest
circulation is the "Listin Diario" of Santo Domingo. It is a four-page
sheet and its daily edition is about 10,000 copies. It is the only
paper having a cable service, and it receives its cablegrams from the
French cable company, whose line crosses the island. It is also one of
the oldest of the existing newspapers, having been founded in 1889,
and maintained itself by constantly observing a prudent attitude. In
the capital there also appear the "Gaceta Oficial," in which the laws
and governmental decisions and announcements are published; the
"Boletín Municipal," containing municipal announcements; several
reviews whose character is indicated by their title: "Revista Médica,"
"Revista de Agricultura," "Revista Judicial," "Boletín Masónico"; two
small humorous papers; two commercial sheets; an illustrated paper,
"Blanco y Negro," and a well-known literary monthly, "Cuna de América"
(Cradle of America). Santiago also boasts a daily paper, "El Diario,"
as also several smaller papers and literary periodicals. In Puerto
Plata "El Porvenir," the oldest of existing Dominican newspapers, is
published, as well as three less important sheets.
Especially interesting among these publications are the "Cuna de
América" and others devoted to belles-lettres. They constitute a
reflection of current Dominican literature, being given over to poems,
lyric compositions, biographic, historical, philosophic and other
articles, and extracts from new plays and books. In these periodicals
most of the poems which have brought fame to Santo Domingo
have appeared.
Before the intellectual awakening incident to the labors of Hostos the
number of Dominican writers was small. Little was done in colonial
times. In the turbulent period following the cessation of Spanish
sovereignty at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the situation
of the country was not favorable for the cultivation of the muses, but
scions of the families who then emigrated have made their names
immortal in the literature of Cuba and other neighboring countries.
Juan Pablo Duarte, the liberator, Antonio Delmonte y Tejada, the
historian, and a small group of others who flourished shortly before
or at the time of the establishment of the Republic, may be said to
initiate the literature of the country, but their fame is mostly
local. The first generation of Dominican citizens furnished a somewhat
larger proportion of literary men, among whom may be mentioned the
venerable Emiliano Tejera, the late Archbishop Fernando A. de Meriño,
Francisco X. Amiama, Francisco Gregorio Billini, Mariano A. Cestero,
the historian Jose G. Garcia and the novelist Manuel de J. Galvan,
though it is significant that the best productions of some of these
appeared after 1880. It is since that year that literature has really
flourished. So fecund have Dominican writers been, and so excellent
their productions, that Santo Domingo occupies a proud place in the
beautiful field of Latin-American literature, where only a few years
ago it was practically unknown. There is an abundance of poets,
essayists, historians and novelists worthy of mention, and an attempt
to single out a few might lead to unjust distinctions. A number of the
best writers are women, and all prominent newspaper men are also
distinguished in literature.
In poetry, especially lyric poetry, the Dominican writers excel. They
show great depth of feeling and a full command of the sonorous
Castilian tongue. A favorite theme is, of course, the old story which
is ever new. The civil wars have inspired many pathetic compositions,
and poems like Salomé Ureña's apostrophe to the ruins of colonial
times, Bienvenido S. Nouel's elegy on the ruins left by the late
revolutions, and Enrique Henriquez' "Miserere!", gems of verse, are
veritable cries of anguish at the desolation wrought by fratricidal
strife. Perhaps it is the poets' sorrow at the misfortunes of their
country which is the cause of the note of sadness so often to be
remarked in Dominican writings. Some writers are classed as poets
though they have versified little or not at all; of these Tulio M.
Cestero, one of the most popular of the younger writers, is an
example, it being said of him that "he writes his poetry in prose."
The love of poetry is by no means confined to persons of higher
education, but is general throughout the country. It has been said
that if there were one engineer in Santo Domingo for every hundred
poets, there would be fewer mudholes in the roads. The productions of
some poetasters are characterized by an abundance of rare adjectives,
which are introduced as well to give an impression of depth of thought
as to advertise the author's erudition. However, there are so many
good poets that forgiveness is readily extended to the others.
The national song of Santo Domingo, an ode to liberty, was written by
a school teacher, Emilio Prud'homme. The music was composed by José
Reyes, who died several years ago, and is agreeable and almost
majestic. Reyes occupies probably the most prominent place among
Dominican composers. Others have also obtained prominence, and their
number is constantly increasing; among them special mention may be
made of José de J. Ravelo, one of the younger men whose work has
attracted attention and gives promise of even better things.
In painting and sculpture several Dominicans have attained prominence
of late fears. The principal artists are Arturo Grullon, a prominent
oculist; Luis Desangles; and Miss Adriana Billini, whose paintings
have received prizes in Paris, Porto Rico and Havana respectively.
Desangles painted the picture "Caonabo," which hangs in the session
hall of the City Council of Puerto Plata and shows the Indian chief in
chains. The sculptors are few, and their fame so far is only local,
The foremost is Abelardo Rodriguez U., a photographer of the capital,
who is something of an artistic genius. His photographs can compete in
artistic merit with the best produced anywhere, and he is also a
painter of no small merit. His best known sculpture is the figure of a
dying guerilla soldier, significantly entitled, "Uno de tantos"--"One
of so many."
Powerful assistance has been given to education and artistic
development by various clubs and literary associations, especially
women's clubs, throughout the country. Though at times eclipsed by
revolutionary turmoil, their work has continued undaunted and has had
gratifying results. The educational plane attained by Santo Domingo in
spite of all obstacles, and the general recognition of the supreme
importance of public instruction, justify confident predictions of
advance in the future.