Ramfis Trujillo

General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Martínez (5 June 1929 – 27 December 1969 in Madrid, Spain), better known as Ramfis Trujillo, was the son of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (some historians, like Jesús Galíndez, claim that he adopted him, and that Ramfis was María Martínez’s son from her previous marriage). Like his close friend (and for a time brother-in-law) Porfirio Rubirosa, he was regarded by most as a reckless and spoiled playboy, though he is also remembered for his ruthlessness and cruelty. He took control of the Dominican Republic on 30 May 1961, after his father was assassinated.

Though Ramfis’s paternity was legitimately recognized by his father, it was rumored at the time that La Españolita ("the little Spaniard"), as María de los Ángeles Martínez Alba was affectionately called before she met Trujillo (because both of her parents were from Spain) conceived Ramfis with a Cuban man named Rafael Dominici, who then disappeared (some say killed). The story goes that Dominici was María Martínez’s lover before she met Trujillo, thus explaining why Ramfis’ physical features are more Caucasian than Trujillo’s who was of part African descent from his grandmother’s side. Some others say that the Cuban man was her first husband.

Jesús Galíndez in his famous book La Era de Trujillo testifies to the following:

"Ramfis", Rafael L. Trujillo Molina, Jr., the oldest son of Trujillo, was born in 1929 when his mother was married to a Cuban, who rejected him as his son. Subsequently, Trujillo recognized him as his own. While still an illegitimate child by an adulterous union and with his father still married to his second wife, (...). In 1935 Trujillo married the mother of "Ramfis", Maria Martinez Alba, and (he) became legitimized."

By the age 14, his father had made him a colonel, with equivalent pay and privileges. Some say he received this appointment aged just four and that he had become a brigadier general by the age of nine.

In the early 1950s, he married his first wife, Octavia Ricart, they had six children.

In the mid-1950s, he was sent to study at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. While there, and with Rubirosa as his liaison, Ramfis skipped class and took off for Hollywood, eventually embarking on an affair with actress Kim Novak. Ramfis became notorious for buying luxury cars, mink coats, and jewelry for beautiful girls during his stay. Ramfis's flashy gift-giving made the national news and members of the United States Congress were openly questioned by the press about what real use was being made of foreign aid given to the Dominican Republic. At one point a bumper sticker began appearing on the cars of girls in Los Angeles that read: "THIS CAR WAS NOT A GIFT FROM RAMFIS TRUJILLO".

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Wikipedia