Gazcue or Gascue barrio of Santo Domingo gets its name from the official financial inspector of an early Spanish government in the Dominican Republic. Francisco de Gascue y Olaiz. Gascue, flaunting rules established by the Spanish government in the 1780s that prohibited government employees from entering real estate transactions on Hispaniola, purchased from Diego Camarena a large estate next to the walled historic city. Gascue was a native of Navarra, Spain and lived in the estate for around 40 years.
Engineer Antonio Jose Guerra Sanchez shared the details of the Gazcue’s past with those attending the “Miercoles de Gazcue” event, which celebrates the history of the legendary barrio. The event takes place on Wednesday evenings at the Academia Dominicana de Historia.
During the talk, the Guerra explained that Gascue and Raymond de Esparza Sastre were in charge of the finances of the colony in 1767. Esparza purchased lands on the eastern side of the Ozama River. Both became involved in the issuing of fake paper money to facilitate trade in which Gascue and Esparza had the most to gain. Guerra explained initially the money was issued provisionally as the officers waited for cash to arrive from Spain, but this then degenerated in the landowners becoming speculators and money lenders to others. Eventually, Gascue was arrested on 21 October 1789, and was forced to forfeit his assets. He would later be able to recover the assets that were in his wife’s name, and thus could be inherited by his offspring. When Esparza died he left his assets to the Spanish crown because he had not had children or a wife.
Guerra Sánchez attributed to British banker and vice consul Henry Hunt Gosling Smith being the pioneer who in 1904 built the first “cottage” in his estate in Gascue, where today the Central Bank is located. Gosling would marry Dominican Blanca Petronila Peregrine Ricart Perez. The architectural style was later followed by many others.
The next talk will be by Mauricia Domínguez on “Modern Movement Architecture in Gazcue” on Wednesday 9 May 2018 at 8pm at the Academia Dominicana de la Historia.
Over the past two decades, the historical area is under siege by real estate developers that have been replacing the hacienda-like houses with high rises.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
7 May 2018
