Today, March 6, you are turning 85 years old, there is a lot of time that separates you from that same day you were born in 1937 in Loma del Flaco, Valverde province, the very moment in which since childhood you had to fight against the fateful destiny that apart from your parents, and that because of the blackness of your skin you had to overcome the greatest obstacles, to be able to make a space for yourself in a society in which a part of it discriminated against you, in addition to your color, because of your humble origins, product of the great social inequity that paradoxically continues to this day.
The permanent difficulties turned you into a gladiator, because you had to fight against everything, even against those malicious citizens who eagerly sought to deny you even your own nationality, the same ones who did not understand how with the jet color of your skin you could become a leader of the majority of a town that still keeps you alive in its heart, because men like your dad simply don’t die, they just change their spiritual clothing and enter glory, where the imprint of their providential legacy prevents them from being forgotten.
It was that impetuous, firm and defiant character that made you overcome all those difficult obstacles that life imposed on you, nothing deviated you even one millimeter from your ideal, because your Spartan courage had to be your armor, to face the most devious threats and dangers, in order to build the democracy that we Dominicans enjoy today, that is why your grateful people remember you with proud affection and admiration.
You did not have to come to power to enter history and in what way, it was your own imprint that gave you a place in it, for that unfading presence of yours that, due to your heroic deeds, will keep your name for generations, simply because you became immortal, the very place you don’t need to be President to enter.
You fought tirelessly for freedom and equality for which many continue to fight today in your name, for your same ideals of a great country, there are hundreds of thousands who have collected the seeds you sowed, to demand social justice and opportunity for those deprived of fortune, but Dad is still struggling, millions of nationals trying to overcome the ignominious apartheid discriminatory to which our white minority oligarchy still imposes on us.
The worst thing, Dad, is that the same flaws still persist, that they do not enter the most abject underdevelopment as a Nation and we continue to be fed by the most petty interests of the same as always, those who only serve capital and who are at the orders of those who have imposed the international imperial agenda.
What makes me happy, Dad, is that there are many like you, who proudly expose their color as a reliable sign of improvement in all areas of national life, from the classroom, music and even sports, there are many Peña Gómez that exist today, willing to stand up to life and twist destiny to overcome disgraceful adversity with a courageous will just like you, for these you are the living example that you can fight even against nature itself and defeat it, as you do. Simon Bolivar demonstrated.
You are Dad present in every young man, mestizo, mulatto or black, who demands to be treated equally without discrimination based on the color of his skin, willing to assert his rights at any cost, to bravely defend what is by the right of citizenship is conferred by the Constitution.
Continue to be your courage, talent, intelligence and gallantry, the example to be emulated by hundreds of thousands, for which you continue to be north, and who speak to their children and grandchildren with frantic admiration and commitment, because still for a large majority of your people you are still their leader, I do not deny you Dad, the pride that those of your descendants feel, when in the mouth of a citizen who did not know you, but who by family reference, expresses himself with special affection and admiration for you.
Today, Dad, we Peñagomistas are not under the same flag, we are on various political coasts, and the main leaders of different parties declare themselves your disciples, all because your imprint is more alive than ever, and everyone fights to be like you, knowing that the conditions of the world in which you were born are very different, so your epic life is hardly to be surpassed.
Your refined honesty is still the greatest example, where today corruption has permeated everything, that’s why your humble life devoid of any economic interest is seen with astonishment, in this new society. Light where almost everything has a price.
The leaders of your lineage are so rare that they are in frank extinction, that is why your legacy raises you higher every day, the lower your remains go to your grave, these first 85 years find you in the mouths of thousands of humble Dominicans , who permanently evoke your name and persist in following your work.
Dad, you are so alive today! Like before that unforgettable and sad May 10, 1998, when you became a legend, and that gives me enormous satisfaction, since your death, that journey into the unknown, has been much lighter than how life was for you, why have you awakened more respect and admiration, after you took flight, just to show those who cursed your color, your origins and even your name, that those who enter history for the big door like you, they never die!
By: Jose Francisco Pena Guaba
