Juan Bosch

Juan Bosch

Juan Emilio Bosch Gaviño (30 June 1909, La Vega – 1 November 2001, Santo Domingo) was a politician, historian, short story writer, essayist, educator, and the first democratically and legitimately elected president of the Dominican Republic for a brief time in 1963. Previously, he had been the leader of the Dominican opposition in exile to the dictatorial regime of Rafael Trujillo for over 25 years. To this day he is remembered as an honest politician and regarded as one of the most prominent writers in Dominican literature. He is the founder of both the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) in 1939 and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in 1973.

In 1934 he married Isabel García and had two children with her: Leon and Carolina. As Trujillo's dictatorship was getting stronger and meaner, Bosch was jailed for his political ideas, being released after several months. In 1938, knowing that the tyrant wanted to buy him with a position in the Congress, Bosch managed to leave the country, settling in Puerto Rico.