2023-05-10 04:00:00
Throughout history, the Dominican political scene has had the participation of a legion of politicians who somehow share the same purposes, especially reaching the position of President of the Republic.
But among these, very few have been graced with the attribute of mass leaders, and among this list, the late José Francisco Peña Gómez, one of the most popular and fiery figures known on the Dominican political scene, stands out notably.
Today, May 10, marks the 25th anniversary of the death of this great man.
Peña Gómez, despite not having reached the presidency, is considered one of the greatest mass leaders that Creole politics has had and, perhaps, the most important of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, following its founding member leader, the deceased Professor Juan Bosch.
During his political activism, Peña Gómez led gigantic rallies, with a captive mass that supported him until his last breath of life.
An example of this was his historic 1994 campaign closing, on the Francisco del Rosario Sánchez bridge (of 17), where this man vehemently invited the crowd to get up on time, “at 3:00 in the morning.” , to go “vote early”.
That was one of the many rallies that the politician organized in his walk through politics, during whose days he encountered, from early in his life due to these struggles, great obstacles that, despite everything, forged him until he became a formidable leader who came to transcend to the international arena.
Start of his leadership
At a very early age, Peña Gómez realized how hard life can punish a human being, because when he was less than two years old, in 1937, he was abandoned by his natural parents, Oguis Vicente and María Marcelina, following being forced to leave the country following the massacre of Haitians ordered by the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. However, his adoptive parents, Regino Peña, a small farm owner, and Fermina Gómez, a fruit vendor, were concerned regarding providing him with a good education and managed to get him to finish his first studies at the rural school in Hato Nuevo. Later, he completed his secondary studies at the Eugenio María de Hostos School, in Santo Domingo.
Although he ended up a prominent politician, as a young man he dreamed of becoming a lawyer, so he enrolled at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the academy that gave him his doctor of law degree.
political career
His foray into the world of politics began in 1961, following the fall of the Trujillo regime and the arrival in the country of the high leadership of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). Under these circumstances, he appeared before Ángel Miolán and other senior officials of that party.
Thus began his political career in which he fit in perfectly, quickly gaining followers due to his great command of oratory.
The April Revolution
One of the most emblematic moments of Peña Gómez was on April 24, 1965, when he announced, through the radio program Tribuna Democrática, the uprising of the military camps August 16 and Juan Pablo Duarte, an action that marked the beginning of the patriotic feat.
political leadership
Over the years, the PRD leader consolidated his political leadership until he became a presidential candidate for the PRD in the 1990, 1994 and 1996 elections, mobilizing thousands of people during the electoral campaign.
Peña Gómez combined his gift of oratory with the humility that characterized him, resulting in a genuine leader of the masses, something that he demonstrated in every PRD demonstration while he was at the helm.
In his walk through politics, he reached the syndicate and aspired to the presidency three times, without reaching his goal.
The twilight of the leader
The leader of the masses left this world on May 10, 1998, at 10:30 p.m., as a result of pulmonary edema in the midst of a political campaign. He also suffered from pancreatic cancer.
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