In the Shadow of the State: The Politics of Denunciation and Panegyric during the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1940-1958

This essay examines the politics and practice of official discourse during the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, one of the longest dictatorships in modern Latin America (1930–61). I focus here on two official oratorical genres: denunciation, and a highly stylized form of “panegyric,” or praise speech, to Trujillo that became pro forma in all public arenas by citizens and state officials alike. These speech forms were most important in the capital of Trujillo City, the central theater of government and Trujillo’s dominion, and most relevant to the emergent public sector of state employees that resided there. This group expanded more than fourfold under the regime and formed the basis of a new urban middle class, particularly in the capital, by the 1950s.¹ Denunciation and panegyric were institutionalized in the Public Forum (Foro Público) column of the newspaper El Caribe, the main organ of the Trujillo regime in...