Born: 28 June 1820, Dominican Republic
Died: 26 October 1888
Country most active: Dominican Republic
Also known as: Rosa Protomártir Duarte y Díez
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
She was the daughter of a Spaniard named Juan Jose Duarte, and her mother, Dona Manuela Diez, was a Dominican. They had seven children, one among them called Juan Pablo Duarte, who later was to become the founder of our country and the initiator of our independence. Rosa was the sister preferred by that illustrious man; and like her brother she possessed spartan virtues and purified patriotic sentiment. She followed her brother in his cavalry as founder of the nationality, and her generous interest in spending her father’s inheritance in plots to shaken off the Haitian dominion, as she was encouraged by the plans of liberation that her brother secretly contrived. She prepared with her own beautiful white hands five thousand projectiles which were discharged during the war for Independence that started in 1844. In her home patrotism was a cult that the mother inspired in the heart of all her children. So it was, that not only Juan Pablo, but also the eldest brother, Vicente Celestino, was “procer” in that war and also in the war of Restoration. But the Apostle, ‘’Our Washington,” was condemned by the enemy to perpetual exile, and the whole family, that so generously had spent all their inheritance for the sake of liberty, after going through infinite suffering, had to emigrate to Caracas, Venezuela, where Rosa and her beloved brother lived devotedly to the endearing memory of their Country. Finally the illustrous name of this heroic family was nearly extinguished.
Rosa survived her brother twelve years, and during that time she wrote, although without literary talent, several volumes dedicated to the memory of her brother “Apuntes para la Historia de Santo Domingo, and Biography of the Dominican General, Juan Pablo Duarte y Diez.” Her relative, C. Ayala, says of her:
“She was slender and talked emphatically; had she been born in earlier times she could have served as model of women to Calderon de la Barca.” Felix E. Mejia, who met her in Caracas when the saintly woman was paraletic, and nearing death, describes her thus, with the youthful emotion of her twenty years:
“Of noble countenance; eyes soft and gentle; hair drawn over her brows, hair now as white as snow, that must have been gold, pure gold as her soul; her speech easy, correct and womanly; the effusion with which she manifestated an opinion and her self-command, gave her such a majestic air, that I must confess, I felt abashed.” This beautiful and noble lady died at Venezuela: “the same great, wonderful soul of her brother, wrapped in feminine garb,” as a professor said of Rosa Duarte.