A little known fact were the parents of Juan Pablo Duarte.
I'll let you do the math.
The father was born in Spain in 1768. Moved to the DR (then a Spanish colony) after 1790 but before 1795. He was the godfather of a baby baptised in 1799 in SD.
Get this. The mother was born in El Seibo in 1786. Yep, you read that right but there is more.
Both the father and the mother left SD during Toussaint Loverture invasion which was complete by January 1801. They got married in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico in 1800. Completely miss the invasion of Dessalines in 1805.
Do the math, 2+2 is always 4. Ahem…
Another interesting detail is that they never return while the French were ruling SD, but in 1809 the married couple with kids in tow return to SD after the Reconquista War against the French in 1809 when SD was again ruled by Spain, Boyer invades in 1822 and they didn't leave. Probably age (especially of him) and all their family/kids were in the DR contrary to the invasion of Toussaint.
He witness one of his skn take a leading role in founding the Trinitaria. The family life long created fortune (which was still modest, fortune because most people were broke and they barely weren't but...) is devoted to his son and the Trinitaria for the liberation of the Dominicans. He dies in 1843, the year before the DR became independent. Never saw Dominicans take charge of their destiny again and, perhaps more important, never saw the treason against his family when Pedro Santana, the DR's first president, expelled the entire family from the DR. Each and every single one of left for Venezuela with one of his son's (not Juan Pablo Duarte) was so affected by this that he literally became insane but one thing never forgot was his swear to never return to SD. Years later another DR government undid what was done by Santana, but he was crazy but adamant he would never return to "that land of ingrates." Thus, the rest of the living Duarte family was ready to leave Venezuela wnd return to SD, but because of his adamant desire to step again on Dominican soil and their desire not the break up the family, they decided to pass on the DR government offer and stay in Venezuela. They all died near Caracas.
I think had the father not died in 1843, he definitely would had died from something after the expulsion of the entire family. The family's fortune was devoted entirely to the creation of the DR and much of that was his own creation since a young man. As far as I can tell, the Duarte were the only family to put everything they ownee on the line to create the DR only to be expelled by the first president. Ouch!
