Biographies

Poet, politician, lawyer and essayist, he was born in Navarrete on September 1, 1906 and died in Santo Domingo on July 14, 2002. He was President of the Dominican Republic seven times. He was the son of Puerto Rican Joaquin Balaguer Lespier and Dominican Carmen Celia Ricardo. He completed his primary and middle school at the Escuela Paraguay, in Santiago de los Caballeros, under the mentorship of Juan Tomas Lithgow, and his secondary school at the Escuela Normal Teorica, in Santiago.

 He graduated from high school in 1922, and seven years later, in 1929, he received a law degree from the University of Santo Domingo.  In 1924, he completed his doctoral studies in law at Sorbonne University in Paris, where he also studied Political Economy. 

He entered public life at a young age as a public high school teacher. He was a State Attorney at the Tribunal de Tierra (Land Court) in 1930, Secretary of the Dominican Delegation in Madrid (1932-1935), Undersecretary of the Presidency (1936), Undersecretary of Foreign Relations (1937), Special Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister to the Colombian and Ecuadorian governments (1940 and 1943), Ambassador in Mexico (1947), Secretary of Education and Fine Arts (1949 and 1955), Secretary of Foreign Relations (1953 and 1957), Secretary of the Presidency (1956) and Vice-president of the Republic (1957). In 1960, when Hector B. Trujillo resigned the position, Balaguer became the President of the Republic and, in 1962, he presided the State Council. After Trujillo’s assassination, Balaguer founded the conservative Reformist Party (which later became the Christian Social Reformist Party) that took him to the presidency of the Republic six times (1966-1970, 1970-1974, 1974-1978, 1986-1990, 1990-1994 and 1994-1996).

He developed his literary career along with his political career, although, he started on the former earlier during his adolescence. His literary work includes poetry, essay, history, literary critique, speeches and biography. Historical and biographical essays stand out above the rest of his work. For several decades, his “Historia de la Literatura Dominicana” was utilized as the official senior year Literature text book in high schools across the country.

Active Bibliography

Poetry

• Salmos paganos. Santiago: Editora Franco Hermanos, 1922.
  
• Claro de Luna. Santiago: Linotipografía La Información, 1922.
  
• Tebaida lírica. Santiago: Editora Franco Bidó, 1924.
  
• Cruces iluminadas. Santo Domingo: s.n., 1974.
  
• La cruz de cristal. Santo Domingo: s.n., 1976.
  
• Huerto sellado. Versos de juventud. Barcelona: Industria Gráficas M. Pareja, 1980.
  
• Galería heroica. Barcelona: Industrias Gráficas M. Pareja, 1984.
  
• Voz silente. Santo Domingo: Amigo del Hogar, 1992.
  
• La venda transparente. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1987.
  
• Antología poética bilingüe (español-francés) Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1995.
  
• Poemario. Santo Domingo: Editora de Colores, 2001.

Novel:
Los carpinteros. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1984.

Essays:

• Nociones de métrica castellana. Santiago de los Caballeros: Imprenta J. M. Vila Morel, 1930.
  
• Heredia, verbo de la libertad. Santiago: Editorial El Diario, 1939.
  
• Azul en los charcos. Bogotá: Editora Selecta, 1941.
  
• El tratado Trujillo-Hull y la liberación financiera de la República Dominicana. Bogotá: Consorcio Editorial, 1941.
  
• Guía emocional de la ciudad romántica. Santiago de los Caballeros, Editorial El Diario, 1944.
  
• Letras dominicanas. Santiago: Editorial El Diario, 1944.
  
• Palabras con dos acentos rítmicos. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1946.
  
• Los próceres escritores. Buenos Aires: Gráficas Guadalupe, 1947.
  
• Semblanzas literarias. Buenos Aires: Imprenta Ferrari, 1948.
  
• El Cristo de la libertad. Buenos Aires: Editorial Americaleé, 1950.
  
• Litera-tura dominicana. Buenos Aires: Editorial Americaleé, 1950.
  
• Apuntes para una prosódica de la métrica castellana. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1954.
  
• F. García Godoy. Ciudad Trujillo: Librería Dominicana, 1951.
  
• El pensamiento vivo de Trujillo. Santo Domingo: Impresora Dominicana, 1955.
  
• Historia de la literatura dominicana. Ciudad Trujillo: Librería Dominicana, 1956.
  
• Cristóbal Colón: precursor literario. Buenos Aires: Artes Gráficas Bartolomé V. Chiesino, 1958.
  
• El centinela de la frontera, vida y hazañas de Antonio Duvergé. El Cristo de la libertad. Buenos Aires: Artes Gráficas Bartolomé V. Chiesino, 1962.
  
• Reformismo: filosofía política de la revolución sin sangre. Santo Domingo: s. n., 1966.
  
• Con Dios, con la patria y con la libertad. Santo Domingo: s. n., 1971.
  
• Conjura develada. Santo Domingo: s. n., 1971.
  
• Ante la tumba de mi madre. Santo Domingo: s. n., 1972.
  
• La marcha hacia el Capotillo. México: Imprenta Fuentes, 1973.
  
• Martí, crítica e interpretación. Santo Domingo: s. n., 1975.
  
• Juan Antonio Alix, crítica e interpretación. Santiago de los Caballeros: Biblioteca Popular Dominicana, 1977.
  
• La isla al revés. Fundación José Antonio Caro, 1983.
  
• Semblanzas literarias. Editorial de la Cruz Aybar, 1985.
  
• Memorias de un cortesano en la “Era de Trujillo.” Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1988.
  
• Romance del caminante sin destino (Enrique Blanco). Santo Do-mingo: Imprenta R. M., 1990.
  
• De vuelta al Capitolio 1986-1992. Santo Domingo: s. n. 1993.
  
• Discursos, mensajes y opiniones sobre el Quinto Centenario. Santo Domingo: Banco Nacional de la Vivienda, 1993.
  
• De vuelta al Capitolio 1986-1992. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1993.
  
• Antología Poética Bilingüe, Prefacio, traducción y selección por Claude Couffon. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1995.
  
• Yo y mis condiscípulos. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1996.
  
• España infinita. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1997.
  
• Grecia eterna. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 1999.
  
• La raza inglesa. Santo Domingo: Editora Corripio, 2000.

Related Links

The Twelve Years of Balaguer