DOS “Anthology of the Thoughts of Juan Bosch” to be Launched in New York

The Anthology of the Thoughts of Juan Bosch, by Justo Pedro Castellanos, Rector of APEC University, will be introduced into the Dominican community in New York, in a ceremony supported by Dominican cultural societies and university authorities of the city of New York.

“Dominicans, all Dominicans, not just members of the (ruling) PLD, not just politicians, but all of us would do well to get to know the work of Juan Bosch. His work is profoundly humanistic, profoundly popular, created with the best interests of all in mind.”

The book will be presented by Ramona Hernández, Director of the Institute of Dominican Studies of City University New York, CUNY. The event will take place in the Dominican Commission for Culture in the United States, located at 545 West 145th Street, between Broadway & Amsterdam, on the second floor.

APEC University (UNAPEC) Rector, Justo Pedro Castellanos, will present this third edition of his book, Anthology of the Thoughts of Juan Bosch which includes a selection of his economic thoughts and sixty new biographical profiles on historical personalities.

Starting from the conviction that Bosch’s work is extraordinary, his range of writing, topics and wisdom is perfect for an anthology of this type which also serves as a legacy for all Dominicans. Castellanos has put this anthology together as a testimony of admiration of the work of this distinguished Dominican as well as a contribution to the diffusion of Bosch’s knowledge.

“Dominicans, all Dominicans, not just members of the (ruling) PLD, not just politicians, but all of us would do well to get to know the work of Juan Bosch. His work is profoundly humanistic, profoundly popular, created with the best interests of all in mind.”

Initially published in 1994, five years later another edition came out that included a selection of texts about what Juan Bosch thought of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD in Spanish). In that both of these publications were quickly sold in view of the centenary year of Bosch’s birth, Castellanos is now introducing a third version which includes selections of Bosch’s writing on the economic role of the government, capitalist economy, commerce, negotiations with banks, currency, oil and its influence on the world economy, the war economy of North America, growth and development, among other topics.

In addition, this edition includes sixty new biographical profiles of historical personalities, religious as well as cultural and political. In previous editions, Castellanos had included some fifteen profiles, the majority of them people linked to the world of culture. However, now he has included another sixty from the world of religion and politics including such outstanding personalities as Judas Iscariot, King David, Antonio Maceo, Francisco de Miranda, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Gregorio Luperón, Gaspar Polanco, Juan Pablo Duarte, José Martí, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and Simón Bolívar.

Castellanos said that “if anything good is to come from this small contribution I have tried to make, it is that it should be useful in that it is a book that can be understood easily and read quickly to get to know the thoughts of Juan Bosch on a variety of topics.”

He added that with this book he intends “to continue contributing to the diffusion of [Bosch’s] thoughts,” especially now in the centenary of his birth which gives us an opportunity to “rediscover his work, his thoughts, his legacy which is the heritage of all Dominicans, not just one sector of society.”

He said that to put this anthology of Bosch’s work together, he worked with all the books written by the author, including narratives and political essays. And although Bosch, he added, was a leader and founder of the Dominican Liberation Party, his thoughts and ideas transcend the organization and appeal to the collective Dominican national consciousness.

The book includes a prologue written by Pedro Vergés. Introductions in the first and second editions of the book were written by Leonel Fernández and Jaime David Fernández Mirabal, respectively.

In the prologue, the well-known, award-winning Dominican writer and intellectual, Pedro Vergés stresses that the book gives us the opportunity “to seize in all it dimensions, the personality of a man who as we see in this anthology, in the first place, is a fulltime, top intellectual and, secondly, is an indefatigable worker who had time to think about everything.”

Vergés underscores the way in which Castellanos “fulfilled the two basic demands of a work like this: selection of the work and a rigorous classification of it” which confirms that “there is no doubt that, in this sense, Castellanos did his job only too well.”

In the introduction of the first edition in 1994, Leonel Fernández recognized that Castellanos “proceeded with admirable methodological rigor.” In 1999, the introduction to the second edition written by then Vice President David Fernández Mirabal wrote that the author “understood that this was the best moment to bring to light the thoughts and ideas of Juan Bosch”.