"Nothing More Than Birds without a Nest": Prostitution and the Creation of a "Civilized" Society in Postdictatorial Dominican Republic, 1966–76

In 1966, the citizens of the Dominican Republic faced a difficult political transition.  Having weathered over three decades of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, followed by five years of political instability leading to civil war and U.S. occupation, the Dominican polity watched wearily as the internationally monitored elections ushered in the former Trujillo functionary Joaquín Balaguer as the country’s new president.  Returning to the presidential palace, Balaguer simultaneously promised peace and stability for the Dominican “family” and attempted to give a makeover to Dominican – dictatorial style – politics through the utilization of women as conciliators.  In giving precedence to the issues of domesticity and maternalism, Balaguer created a gender politics that leaned on the presence of women in the polity to create the hoped-for future.  Yet the problem of prostitution – not only legal during the thirty-year dictatorship, but encouraged through the involvement of several regime and family members – loomed large over the new “democratic” regime.  As the thirty-year regime had defined appropriate and inappropriate behavior, particularly in reference to gender codes, the political vacuum following the assassination of the dictator left an uncertainty relative to individual mores and values as well as how people connected these values to their status as citizens. Prostitution proved a key intersection between acceptable behavior and government responsibility. This paper looks at the processes of negotiation between the Balaguer government and their attempts at reform in the realm of prostitution, and the growing voices of protest from citizens regarding the presence of “mujeres de vida alegre” in their neighborhoods.  I argue that prostitution became an integral arena for debate over the government’s ability to create a stable, civilized, and democratic society.