Santiago Castellà presents the Permanent Seminar Professor Juan Bosch, in memory of the first democratic president of the Dominican Republic
Dr. Santiago Castellà
Santiago Castellà, director of the Tarragona Smart Mediterranean City Chair of the Rovira i Virgili University and full academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), presented on 23 November the first Permanent Seminar Professor Juan Bosch, in memory of the first democratic president of the Dominican Republic, with roots in the Catalan city of Tortosa. The event, dedicated to “La dominicanidad hoy” (Dominicanity today), was organized by the Centre for Social Conflict Studies of the Rovira i Virgili University and the Consulate of the Dominican Republic in Barcelona. The session addressed the themes “La vigencia del pensamiento del profesor Juan Bosch” (The validity of Professor Juan Bosch’s thinking) and “La dominicanidad: magia y religiosidad en la construcción de la identidad dominicana” (Dominicanity: magic and religiosity in the construction of Dominican identity).
The event was attended by the consul of the Dominican Republic in Barcelona, Adriano de los Santos; the cultural attaché of the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Madrid, Víctor Ramírez; the president of the Juan Bosch Foundation in the Dominican Republic, Diómedes Núñez Polanco, as well as the Dominican writer Farah Hallal, specialist in the literary work of Bosch, and the Catalan writer Goretti Virgili, who presented his work “Guía medicinal y espiritual de plantas tropicales” (Medicinal and spiritual guide of plants tropical), inspired during his trip to the Dominican Republic. It also highlighted the presence of Oliver Kelin, of the Centre for Social Conflict Studies, and its director and dean of the Faculty of Letters of the Rovira i Virgili University, Josep Sánchez Cervelló.
The University Rovira i Virgili already organized a decade ago in commemoration of the figure of Juan Bosch, considered one of the most illustrious writers of Latin America and the first democratic president of the Dominican Republic after the assassination of the dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in 1961. Position that assumed from 1962 to 1963 when being overthrown by a coup d’état. He is remembered as an honest founding politician of two of the main political parties in the Dominican Republic: the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) in 1939 and the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in 1973. His legacy, both literary and political, nowadays it’s a benchmark in Latin America.
From the Rovira i Virgili University, it’s planned to create a Juan Bosch Chair, a connection point of the Dominican Republic that would allow consulting and scientific contacts with all areas of knowledge and activity of the university to publicize the reality of the Dominican Republic in the academic world, with special incidence in Spain and Europe.
