Francesco Gregorio Billini

Francesco (Francisco) Gregorio Billini y Regla (born May 25, 1844 in Santo Domingo ; † 1898 ibid) was a Dominican writer , politician and President of the Dominican Republic .

biography

Billini began his political career early on as a resistance fighter during the occupation of the Dominican Republic by Spain from 1861 to 1865 and as such took part in the battle of La Canela and the battles of Pizarrete in 1864 under the command of José María Cabral , which is why he took part was captured by the Spanish occupation forces and only released in 1865. After the restoration of the Republic (Restauracíon) he was therefore a respected, aspiring politician.

Between 1868 and 1874 he was one of the leading opponents of the rule of Buenaventura Báez, alongside Cabral, Gregorio Luperón and Antonio Pimentel , and was also the founder of a newspaper that opposed Báez's plan to annex the republic to the United States . After all, he was one of the signatories of a militant appeal by the Blue Party (Partido Azul) to overthrow Báez. In 1879 he was the founder and until his death editor of the newspaper "El Eco de la Opinión", the leading newspaper of the Dominican Republic of the 19th century , but also of other newspapers such as "El Nacional", "El Cable", "Letras y Ciencias ”,“ El Mensa-jero ”and“ El Patriota ”involved.

After the fall of Báez, he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados) in 1874 and belonged to the government of Fernando Arturo de Meriño as War and Navy Minister (Ministro de Guerra y Marina) from 1880 to 1882 . In 1882 he was President of the National Congress (Congreso Nacíonal) consisting of the Senate (Senado) and Chamber of Deputies.

On September 1, 1884, with the support of the Blue Party, he succeeded Ulises Heureaux as President of the Dominican Republic . His reign was marked by national measures to promote literacy and the adoption of by the liberal parliament, which brought him in contrast to his predecessor "Lilís" Heureaux and Luperón. One of the first measures taken by his government was the public announcement of a general amnesty that enabled the return of Cesáreo Guillermo , the greatest opponent of the ruling Blue Party. This led to the fact that he was already on May 16, 1885 under pressure from the Blue Party in favor of the previous Vice President Alejandro Woss y Gil . In his resignation speech he stated:

“When I climbed the steps to rule the fate of our motherland, even though I was on the last step in front of the top floor, I mistrusted my fame because I had to achieve so much good for the republic. Today, after little has been done by circumstances, it seems to me that this degrades my fame. The immortal great republic diminishes my vanity and shortens the rise of my personality. I was created to set an example of voluntarily giving up control and going down in the shadow of the houses with no poor aspirations for the future. "

After the death of his uncle, Father Billini, in 1890 he became director of the "Colegio San Luis Gonzaga" school founded by him.

In addition to his political career, he was also active as a writer . In addition to dramas , “Baní o Engracia y Antoñita” was published in 1892, a story with novella-like features in which he describes the customs and social characteristics of the town of Baní . As early as 1882 his play "Amor y expiación" appeared.

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Background literature

Hostos, Eugenio María de : "Dos Cartas a Francisco Gregorio Billini" (PDF; 106 kB)

Individual evidence

↑ Frauke Gewecke: The Caribbean: On the history, politics and culture of a region . Iberoamericana Editorial, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86527-314-7 , pp. 176 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

predecessor	Office	successor
Ulises Heureaux	President of the Dominican Republic 1884 - 1885	Alejandro Woss y Gil

personal data
SURNAME	Billini, Francesco Gregorio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Francisco Gregorio Billini y Regla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	President of the Dominican Republic
DATE OF BIRTH	May 25, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH	Santo Domingo
DATE OF DEATH	1898
Place of death	Santo Domingo

[1] Frauke Gewecke: The Caribbean: On the history, politics and culture of a region . Iberoamericana Editorial, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86527-314-7 , pp. 176 ( limited preview in Google Book search).