Honest Citizens and a "Grave Moral Threat": Prostitution, Public Women, and Political Transition in Postdictatorial Dominican Republic, 1964–1978

Abstract

In 1966, following the demise of a brutal thirty-year dictatorship, the Dominican Republic faced a difficult political transition. President Joaquín Balaguer, collaborator in the previous regime, offered promises of democratization and progress. In response, citizens wrote copious letters decrying the brothels and women of the "licentious life" in their neighborhoods as a threat to the Dominican future. While the new regime endeavored to respond to their demands, it also sought national conciliation through the appointment of various female officials to political posts across the nation. For citizens, however, the capacity of the Dominican government to respond progressively and transparently to the "grave moral threat" of prostitution was the measure of the nation's capacity to heal and progress. In sum, citizen and government discourse surrounding the role of women in the public sphere reveals the centrality of the female body in the transition from authoritarian rule to the drama of national reconstruction.