Many expected the President to announce new cabinet members at the mid-term point of his four-year presidential term on Saturday, 16 August 2014. Instead, President Danilo Medina delivered a message on the occasion of the 151st anniversary of the restoration of Dominican independence from Spain.
In his message, the President urged Dominicans to work to overcome illiteracy and in this way contribute to a better nation. He also paid tribute to the heroes of the War of Restoration.
President Medina told the Dominican people:
“The War of Restoration was, according to Professor Juan Bosch, the most momentous war in the history of the Dominican Republic. Because it was a war of national liberation but also a social war involving the core of the Dominican people, its impact was such that public opinion at an international level favored the Dominican cause.”
On occasion of Restoration Day that was celebrated on 16 August 2014 nationwide, El Dia newspaper editors interviewed the director of the National Archives (AGN) historian Roberto Cassa. As President Danilo Medina did to commemorate the day, Cassa also highlighted the importance of the heroic war. He said that the independence proclaimed in 1865 is the true Dominican independence, more so than that gained from Haiti in 1844. He said the nation had returned to Spanish rule because there was the idea that the Spanish would bring trains and great capital, which didn’t happen. Instead the Spanish imposed their domination that was rejected by the Dominicans. Cassa commented that at one time there were 40,000 equipped Spanish troops here, but Dominicans united against them. “At the time of the Restoration Dominicans showed that it is better to be poor and free than prosperous slaves,” he told the newspaper.
The War of Restoration broke out on 16 August 1863 and ended with the Spanish troops’ departure following Queen Isabella II’s annulment of the annexation on 3 March 1865. The country’s third proclamation of independence was signed on 14 September 1863. The leading hero of the restoration wars is Puerto Plata’s Gregorio Luperon. A museum in the city commemorates his memory.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/08/15/i747661_presidente-medina-rinde-tributo-los-hroes-restauracin.html