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Dominican Republic Peasants
Traditionally the forgotten sector of Dominican
society, the
peasants were largely illiterate, unorganized, and
politically
inarticulate. Although numerically the largest group in
Dominican
society, politically they were the weakest.
By the late 1980s, however, vast changes had begun to
occur,
even in the Dominican countryside. For example, in 1960
the
country was 70 percent rural and 30 percent urban, but as
1990
approached those percentages had been reversed. In the
intervening decades, millions of peasants had left the
harsh life
of the countryside behind for the somewhat more promising
life of
the cities; many others had emigrated, mainly to Puerto
Rico and
the United States.
In addition, mobilization and organization had begun in
the
countryside. The requirement that voters be literate had
been
struck down in 1962. Peasants voted regularly and in high
numbers, usually splitting their votes between liberal and
conservative candidates. Beginning in the early 1960s,
Peace
Corps volunteers, political party officials, community
organizers, students, missionaries, and government
officials had
been fanning out into the countryside organizing the
peasants,
soliciting their votes, and generally mobilizing them.
Modern
communications--radio, even television--also reached the
countryside, and, along with numerous farm-to-market
roads, they
had helped ease the isolation of rural life.
Numerous peasant cooperatives and associations had also
sprung up. Like the unions and the student groups, most of
these
were associated with the main political parties: Bosch's
PLD, the
PRD, and the Social Christian Reformist Party, (Partido
Reformista Social Cristiano--PRSC; also referred to as the
Christian Democrats). Balaguer also attracted widespread
support
among the peasants because they associated his rule with
peace,
stability, and prosperity. In highly paternalistic
fashion, and
with great publicity, Balaguer also made a point of
handing out
land titles to peasants for lands formerly belonging to
Trujillo.
Despite the upswing in their political activities,
however, the
peasants were still not effectively organized, and they
seldom
managed to influence national policy making.
Data as of December 1989
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