President Leonel Fernandez inaugurated the new Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance on Calle Arzobispo Nouel 210 in Santo Domingo?s Colonial City on Saturday, 28 May 2011.
The Museum?s mission is to compile, organize, catalogue, preserve, research, disseminate and exhibit the tangible and intangible assets of national heritage related to the facts and consequences of the struggles of several generations of Dominican men and women, mainly during the 30-year Rafael L. Trujillo dictatorship.
Overall, the Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance features reconstructions and archives on the thousands who were tortured and killed from 1916 to 1978, and the struggle for freedom waged by Dominicans.
The Presidency reports that the Dominican government invested RD$104 million in the private museum.
US museum expert, Elaine Heuman Gurian was the leading international consultant to the museum, working closely with the Federation of Patriotic Foundations and the Ministry of Culture?s Museums Department. The Vicini Group donated the colonial period palace where the museum is located.
In short, the museum was designed as a valuable educational tool and is a legacy for the education of new generations and for building a culture of peace based on tolerance, non-discrimination and respect for human rights. It also represents an important contribution to the region and the world for creating greater consciousness of crimes against humanity and the right to truth and justice.
The Memorial Museum of Dominican Resistance is a joint initiative by government and non-governmental organizations and individuals with the conviction that it is important to provide access to all sources and to honor the memory of several generations that suffered lack of freedom, justice and human rights.
Presidential Decree (282-07) created the Museum, the first time in the fifty years since the end of the dictatorship that the Dominican State has sponsored a program of this kind. In 2006, the US Government?s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation contributed a grant of US$39,800 for the inventory and digitization of primary sources on the Trujillo dictatorship.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30am to 6pm on Calle Arzobispo Nouel 210 in the Colonial City. Admission for adults is RD$200, and RD$100 for children and people over the age of 65. Admission is free on the last Sunday of every month. Tel. 809 563-3463