Rudecindo de León

Rudecindo de León was a Dominican independence activist. He was a native Neyba, and was a fighter of the Independence campaigns. He was a soldier of the anti-annexation expedition led by Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and José María Cabral at the end of June 1861. He was arrested when an attempt was made to retreat across the border. Tried on July 3, he was among those executed alongside Sánchez the following day in San Juan de la Maguana. Historian Rufino Martínez tells of this martyr of the Restoration that until the last moment he retained the jocular temperament that characterized him. When he walked towards the scaffold, he was smiling and in front of the public who witnessed that scene full of anguish, he took off his hat and said, as if in farewell: “Well, gentlemen, it is true that half the world is over!” If it has always been said that the last thing that the Dominican loses is hope, in this case, at least, with all hope already lost, the last thing to be lost was humor.