Maria de la Concepción Bona Hernández, Mother Founder (December 6, 1824July 2, 1901) was a nursery school teacher and a campaigner for the independence of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. Together with María Trinidad Sánchez, Isabel Sosa and María de Jesús Pina, she took part in designing the Dominican flag.

Birth and childhood

Concepción Bona was born in Santo Domingo on 6 December 1824. From a young age, she showed love for the country and kept up to date with all independence events at all times. Her early years and youth were spent in a house located on Palo Hincado Street, almost on the corner of El Conde, a street that appears in the history of Santo Domingo as the place where most of the independence movements were incubated. She was a daughter of Ignacio Bona Pérez, one of the signatories of the Manifesto of January 16, 1844, and Juana de Dios Hernández, who was the eldest daughter of Josefa Brea Hernández, wife of the independence leader,

Matías Ramón Mella Matías Ramón Mella Castillo (25 February 1816 – 4 June 1864), commonly known as Ramón Mella, was a Dominican revolutionary, politician, and military general. He was a central figure in proclaiming the First Dominican Republic and advanc ...

. She was also niece of a famous citizen Juan Pina, the father of

Pedro Alejandro Pina Pedro Alejandrino Pina García (November 20, 1820 – August 24, 1870) was a Dominican politician and military man considered one of the heroes of Dominican independence. He was the co-founder of the Secret Society La Trinitaria and first cousi ...

, who was prominent in the national independence movement and co-founder of the La Trinitaria secret society. The

Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo The Haitian occupation of Santo Domingo (; ; ) was the annexation and merger of then-independent Republic of Spanish Haiti (formerly Santo Domingo) into the Republic of Haiti, that lasted twenty-two years, from February 9, 1822, to February 27, ...

began two years before her birth, and she grew up under Haitian rule. When

Jean-Pierre Boyer Jean-Pierre Boyer (; 15 February 1776 – 9 July 1850) was one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and the president of Haiti from 1818 to 1843. He reunited the north and south of the country into the Republic of Haiti in 1820 and also ann ...

took possession of the Dominican territory in 1822, the result was a political and cultural clash between the two countries, since the cultural base of the Haitians was Franco-African, while that of the Dominican people was

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

. For this reason the country was placed under military repression under Jérôme-Maximilien Borgella, who set about recruiting youths for the military service of the Dominican Republic.

Heroine for Dominican independence

Bona grew up in a family fully committed to the patriotic cause that followed the ideas of

Juan Pablo Duarte Juan Pablo Duarte y Díez (January 26, 1813 – July 15, 1876) was a Dominican military leader, writer, activist, and nationalist politician who was the foremost of the Founding Fathers of the Dominican Republic and bears the title of Father ...

. Young and brave, with her family she unconditionally adopted the Trinitarian ideas. Thus it was that together with her cousin, María de Jesús Pina, Isabel Sosa and María Trinidad Sánchez, using fine fabrics she made the tricolor flag that was hoisted by the independence supporters in

Puerta del Conde La Puerta del Conde (The Count's Gate) was the main entrance to the fortified city of Santo Domingo (in present-day Dominican Republic), named to honor Governor Captain-General Bernardino de Meneses Bracamonte y Zapata, 1st Count of Peñalva, wh ...

on February 27, 1844. This marked the birth of the independent Dominican Republic. According to Dominican historians, it was Bona herself who brought the flag to

Francisco del Rosario Sánchez Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...

, who would fly the flag above the altar following the capture of the Ozama Fortress. Concepción Bona was aged 19 at the time and her cousin was 16.

Personal life and death

Bona married Marcos Gómez y Carvajal, who was from

Baní Baní is a capital town of the Peravia Province, Dominican Republic. It is the commercial and manufacturing center in the southern region of Valdesia. The town is located 65 km south of the capital city Santo Domingo. Baní is the headquart ...

, on June 2, 1851. The couple had six children: Marcos Antonio, Manuel de Jesús, Eloísa, Rafael María, José María, and another José María. Concepción Bona died on July 2, 1901, in Santo Domingo. She was 76 years old. Her remains are preserved in the National Pantheon. A

metro station A metro station or subway station is a train station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the syste ...

in Santo Domingo is named after her.

References

External links

Bilirrubina.com

Wiki Dominicana (La Enciclopedia Virtual)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bona, Concepcion 1824 births 1901 deaths People from Santo Domingo Dominican Republic women educators Dominican Republic revolutionaries Dominican Republic independence activists Dominican Republic people of Spanish descent Flag designers White Dominicans People of the Dominican War of Independence Women in the Dominican War of Independence 19th-century Dominican Republic women 19th-century Dominican Republic people

Birth and childhood

Heroine for Dominican independence

Personal life and death

See also

References

External links