Synopses & Reviews
The dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, was one of the longest and bloodiest in Latin American history.
The Dictatorandrsquo;s Seduction is a cultural history of the Trujillo regime as it was experienced in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Focusing on everyday forms of state domination, Lauren Derby describes how the regime infiltrated civil society by fashioning a andldquo;vernacular politicsandrdquo; based on popular idioms of masculinity and fantasies of race and class mobility. Derby argues that the most pernicious aspect of the dictatorship was how it appropriated quotidian practices such as gossip and gift exchange, leaving almost no place for Dominicans to hide or resist.
Drawing on previously untapped documents in the Trujillo National Archives and interviews with Dominicans who recall life under the dictator, Derby emphasizes the role that public ritual played in Trujilloandrsquo;s exercise of power. His regime included the people in affairs of state on a massive scale as never before. Derby pays particular attention to how events and projects were received by the public as she analyzes parades and rallies, the rebuilding of Santo Domingo following a major hurricane, and the staging of a year-long celebration marking the twenty-fifth year of Trujilloandrsquo;s regime. She looks at representations of Trujillo, exploring how claims that he embodied the popular barrio antihero the tandiacute;guere (tiger) stoked a fantasy of upward mobility and how a rumor that he had a personal guardian angel suggested he was uniquely protected from his enemies. The Dictatorandrsquo;s Seduction sheds new light on the cultural contrivances of autocratic power.
Review
andldquo;Lauren Derby has written a fascinating cultural history of the brutal, three-decade-long Trujillo regime, illustrating the complex and complicit relationship between the dictator and the Dominican pueblo.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Derby has written a provocative book that will certainly find many readers. In addition to the insights it gives in recent Dominican history, it can also be read as a plea for a new kind of cultural studies. . . . [H]er book provides us with a very original, adventurous and highly readable analysis of a crucial period in Dominican and, we may add, Latin American history.andldquo;
Review
andldquo;What is fascinating about Derbyandrsquo;s study is her ability to pull from a variety of primary sources to support her methodology and topics addressed throughout text. Her study draws on several important and untapped archival documents from international and domestic repositories in addition to oral histories that reveal the voices of the popular masses.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The Dictatorandrsquo;s Seduction is an outstanding and original book that is surprising in its originality and depth and displays a clear command of this period in Dominican history. Experts and beginning students of Dominican affairs will find this book a worthy read.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Derbyandrsquo;s cultural history of the Era of Trujillo is a valuable contribution to the study of the regime. Her research, which is enhanced by her use of anthropological tools, should serve as a guide to historians as they reevaluate other twentieth-century Latin American dictatorships. An engaging and well-written study, The Dictatorandrsquo;s Seduction will benefit scholars and students of Dominican history.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Lauren Derbyandrsquo;s book changes our understanding of Rafael Trujilloandrsquo;s infamous dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. . . . This is a creative, original, and ambitious book. It is full of insights and wonderful ideas. . . . Derby turns received historical interpretations upside down. She does not shy away from controversy; indeed, she seems to seek it. In my view that is what it takes to be a very good historian.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Beautifully written and meticulously researched, The Dictatorandrsquo;s Seduction is essential reading for scholars of repressive regimes and the machinery of violence that keeps dictators in power. Rafael Trujillo insinuated himself into his citizensandrsquo; public and private lives. Lauren Derby connects Trujilloandrsquo;s backstage political machinations and private obsessions with his public image and spectacles.andrdquo;andmdash;Denise Brennan, author of Whatandrsquo;s Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic
Review
andldquo;Lauren Derby turns much of the conventional wisdom about Rafael Trujillo on its head, and she backs up her revision with powerful archival evidence. This fascinating book will also be regarded as a masterwork of comparative research on authoritarianism and the politics of innuendo, spectacle, and symbolism.andrdquo;andmdash;Eric Paul Roorda, author of The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930andndash;1945
Review
andldquo;The character of dictatorshipandmdash;with its paradoxical reliance on coercive excess and pandering to the demosandmdash;has fascinated generations of Latin Americaandrsquo;s most exciting fiction writers, from Miguel andAacute;ngel Asturias and Alejo Carpentier to Gabriel Garcandiacute;a Mandaacute;rquez, Jorge Ibarganduuml;engoitia, and Mario Vargas Llosa. The Dictatorandrsquo;s Seduction is an historianandrsquo;s counterpart to this literature. Lauren Derby develops the ideas of these writers, takes further insights from anthropologists who have worked on state magic, and produces a methodologically innovative and entirely fresh history of the Dominican Republic under Rafael Trujillo. This is one of the most exciting works in contemporary Latin American political history.andrdquo;andmdash;Claudio Lomnitz, author of Death and the Idea of Mexico
Review
andldquo;[T]his is an ambitious historical ethnography of the state by an accomplished cultural historian cum anthropologist that opens new paths to studying dictatorships and other political regimes. It is notable for the authorandrsquo;s extraordinary grasp of social theory and comparative cases from the Caribbean, Latin America, and elsewhere, which she uses to make sense of this particular regime in its social and cultural context. . . . Not least important, it is engagingly written.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Analysis of the Dominican dictator Trujillo's influence on Dominican political culture, claiming that authoritarian rulers can mobilize support in ways that have even more to do with social class formation and cultural transmission than with terror and br
Synopsis
An analysis of the ways that General Rafael Trujillo s dictatorship (1930and#8211;1961) pervaded everyday life in the Dominican Republic s capital, Santo Domingo.
About the Author
“Beautifully written and meticulously researched, The Dictator’s Seduction is essential reading for scholars of repressive regimes and the machinery of violence that keeps dictators in power. Rafael Trujillo insinuated himself into his citizens’ public and private lives. Lauren Derby connects Trujillo’s backstage political machinations and private obsessions with his public image and spectacles.”—Denise Brennan, author of What’s Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic“Lauren Derby turns much of the conventional wisdom about Rafael Trujillo on its head, and she backs up her revision with powerful archival evidence. This fascinating book will also be regarded as a masterwork of comparative research on authoritarianism and the politics of innuendo, spectacle, and symbolism.”—Eric Paul Roorda, author of The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1945“The character of dictatorship—with its paradoxical reliance on coercive excess and pandering to the demos—has fascinated generations of Latin America’s most exciting fiction writers, from Miguel Ángel Asturias and Alejo Carpentier to Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Ibargüengoitia, and Mario Vargas Llosa. The Dictator’s Seduction is an historian’s counterpart to this literature. Lauren Derby develops the ideas of these writers, takes further insights from anthropologists who have worked on state magic, and produces a methodologically innovative and entirely fresh history of the Dominican Republic under Rafael Trujillo. This is one of the most exciting works in contemporary Latin American political history.”—Claudio Lomnitz, author of Death and the Idea of Mexico
Table of Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction. Populism as Vernacular Practice 1
1. The Dominican Belle andEacute;poque, 1922 25
2. San Zenandoacute;n and the Making of Cuidad Trujillo 66
3. The Master of Ceremonies 109
4. Compatriotas! El Jefe Calls 135
5. Clothes Make the Man 173
6. Trujillo's Two Bodies 204
7. Papandaacute; Liborio and the Morality of Rule 227
Conclusion. Charisma and the Gift of Recognition 257
Notes 267
Bibliography 353
Index 393