Undoubtedly the Dominican character who has been represented the most On the big screen he has been Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, the dictator whofor 31 years maintained a regime of terror in the Caribbean country. There are many national and foreign actors who have had to play the tyrant.
The fascination with his figure, the mythology created around him and the entire era in which he was an almost omnipresent being in all aspects of Dominican Republic society in 1930 until his violent exit from the scene, executed on the night of May 30, 1961., have moved seas of ink.
Fiction and documentary cinema, both local and international, has been produced based on the infamous character born in San Cristóbal on the 24th of October 1891.
René; Fortunato, in his series of documentaries on the history of the 20th century in the Dominican Republic, dedicated three of them to the dictator.
In the trilogy “Trujillo: El poder del Jefe”, edited between 1991 and 1996,and in which, aided by film material of the time, narrates the trajectory of the tyrant, from his rise to his fall. These works, which reached movie theaters at the time, can now be purchased on DVD.
Other fiction films or series that have dealt with the subject of Trujillo have not been released. limited to local productions and actors from different latitudes have embodied “Chapita”,derogatory nickname used to refer to the dictator.
An example of this is the American of Mexican descent, Edward James Olmos, who plays him in “In the time of the butterflies” (Mariano Barroso, 2001), a film whose story is based on the homonymous novel by the Dominican writer Julia Álvarez.
It was released in 2003 “The Galíndez mystery”, a Spanish film directed by Gerardo Herrero, and based on the novel “Galíndez”, by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. In this film, the Spaniard Enrique Almirante got involved. in the skin of Trujillo, to tell the story of the Basque nationalist writer Manuel de Jesús Galíndez, kidnapped by henchmen of the Dominican dictatorship in New York, and later murdered. The scenes in which Santo Domingo is represented were shot in Havana, Cuba. It can be viewed, albeit in poor quality, at :
There are many more signs of interest in the history of Trujillo and the era that touched him. to be the most hated, admired and feared character of the Dominican Republic in the 20th century. The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize for Literature, presented his vision of what that time was like in his novel “La fiesta del Chivo”, published in 2000.< br />
His nephew, the filmmaker Luis Llosa, was the one who What is narrated in this work is brought to the cinema, with the Cuban actor Tomás Milian as Trujillo. Shooted in Santo Domingo and released in 2005, this film can be appreciated by the most recent audiences on the channel
In the year In 2007, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (Funglode) produced the documentary “From the bottom of the night”, whose title is inspired by a part of the poem “There is a country in the world”,by Pedro Mira. Directed by the Spanish filmmaker Javier Balaguer, it has beautiful photography by the Dominican Claudio Chea.
In this audiovisual work, which can be enjoyed in very good quality, on the channel The Youtube of the entity that made it, is the Dominican actor Víctor Checo, who plays Trujillo. Focused on the story of the sisters, Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal, anti-Trujillista fighters who were assassinated on November 25, 1960, is available at
In 2010 he touched him It was Juan Fernández’s turn to play Trujillo in the film “Trópico de Sangre” Juan Deláncer, and in him, Hollywood actress Michelle Rodríguez, played Minerva Mirabal.
The comedies made for the big local screen have not escaped the presence of Trujillo and on more than one occasion the infamous tyrant has made his appearance. The first time was in 2013, in the film “Arrobá”, by José María Cabral. In this one, the actor, director and playwright Giovanny Cruz was in charge of bringing the dictator to life, in a scene that represented a dystopian future.
That In the same year Trujillo was also played by the Puerto Rican Efraín Figueroa, in “Lieutenant Amado”, by Felix Limardo, and which focuses on the life of Lieutenant Amado García Guerrero, one of the seven men who executed the tyrant on the night of March 30 May. Also Puerto Rican of Dominican descent, Amaury Nolasco, interpreted to García Guerrero, in this film that is available at:
The following year, in 2014, it was released. “El Chivo”, a soap opera produced by RTI Television and Televisa for UniMás and Caracol Television, in Colombia, and which also followed the work of Vargas Llosa. The Mexican Julio Bracho was the one who gave life to Trujilloin this series that is an adaptation for television by the writer Kiko Oliveri. Some chapters can be seen on some YouTube channels, such as Events and:
A special case is that of theater director Mario Lebrón. The also actor has had the opportunity to play Trujillo seriously and playfully. This because he was the tyrant in the biographical drama & ldquo; Del color de la noche & rdquo; (Agliberto Meléndez, 2015), and in the comedy “The ghost of my girlfriend” (Francis Disla “El Indio”, 2018).
The also Mexican,Damián Alcázar, was the dictator in the series “Rubirosa”, by Hugo Rodríguez; Carlos Moreno, and which was produced in 2018. With the Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa (Manolo Cardona) as the central character, it has 12 episodes that, despite the fact that it was released in local cinemas, in three parts, was designed by ada to be seen in “streaming” in Claro Video, Amazon Video, among others.
Another series in which Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina is represented is “The cry of the butterflies”, a series of 13 chapters that will be broadcast by the Disney streaming service for Latin America, and whose production was announced in August of last year.
Directed by the Spanish Inés Paris, and the Argentines Leandro Ipiña and Mariano Hueter, it has a script written by Juan Pablo Buscaini, who is also the producer. In this series it is the Cuban Luis Alberto García, who acts as Trujillo.
In addition, other documentaries are published on YouTube that deal with the figure of the dictator and his time , such as the work done by the journalist and writer Víctor Grimaldi, which can be seen at:
Or on the Misunderstood Story channel:
Or those made by the General Archive of the Nation (AGN):  ;
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