Juan Nouesí Laffite was a Dominican revolutionary and independence hero. He was a famous leader during the turbulent struggles for Dominican independence.
Distinguished and heroic commander of the national weapons, native of Marmolejos, rural section of the old common of Blanco, (today Luperón). His father was called Juan Francisco Laffite and his mother, María del Carmen Nouesít. He preferably used the last maternal name, that people's speech and vulgar use modified it to convert it into Nouesi or Nouezí as used today by the his descendants.[1]
He was an officer in the Dominican War of Independence. When the annexation was imposed by Pedro Santana and his henchmen, he served the new order in the position of Captain Pedáneo in his region.
Prestigious, wealthy, recognized for his gift of leadership and courage. He was one of the first to join the Dominican Restoration War, with his troops made up of peasants recruited in the western area of Puerto Plata, called Los Rancheros, who gained fame for their inexhaustible resistance and unsurpassed courage, especially in knife actions. At the head of his Rancheros, and in tactical coordination with Gregorio de Lora and other commanders, he led the 169th attack on the Spanish in Puerto Plata on August 27, 1863. The Spanish received huge reinforcements from Cuba and Puerto Rico, thanks to which they maintained control of the city and, in a vigorous counterattack, pushed the patriots into the fields. The momentary dispersion came, but the will could be recovered fight, and Juan Nouesí and his rancheros became invincible in their fields of origin.[2]
The city of Puerto Plata remained in the hands of the oppressors, but under the siege of a belt of resistance against which the material power of the enemies was never able. In the days of the siege of Santiago, Nouesí and his troops caused heavy casualties while blocking the passage of the reinforcements sent to that city from Puerto Plata. He was in Santiago, in full action, on September 6, 1863, the day that General Gaspar Polanco ordered the thorough attack on the San Luis Fortress, the last stronghold of the Spanish, and the city burned. Nouesí immediately returned to his region, to combine actions with the forces of other leaders such as Francisco Reyes Marión, Pedro Gregorio Martínez and Gregorio de Lora.[3]
Thus, it became a more painful march in defeat of the Spanish from Santiago to Puerto Plata. Roads blocked with stones and trees, ditches opened in risky defiles, heavy fire and surprise attacks in the most difficult passes, furious assaults with knives at unexpected points, turned that Spanish retreat into one of the most exhausting episodes for the invaders. Disoriented, hindered in their march by entire families of Spanishized natives who marched with them, and by other families that the Spanish forcibly took as hostages. Added to all this was the problem represented by the wounded carried in litters. Those troops could not escape the surprise and confusion of seeing the myth of their alleged racial superiority defeated and their mistaken belief destroyed that, due to their material power, their professionalism and their experience in numerous wars of conquest, they could not in any way Some will be defeated, much less by poorly armed combatants, children of a people who, in the racial prejudice of the colonialists, were considered inferior.[4]
An example of anguish that the action of the Dominicans condemned the invaders, offers it a passage that occurred to the advance guard that Juan Suero commanded in the retreat to Puerto Plata. The story goes that upon arriving at Llano de Pérez, Suero ordered to stop and take a breather in the apparent stillness of the country house and the bowers that he had in that place. And as soon as they began to arrange the women and the wounded, when a cloud of smoke began to torment them, and the fire began to surround it, because the restaurateur chief and his Rancheros guerrillas had set fire to the nearby cane fields and the fire, fueled by the burning sun and the breeze that blew abundantly, threatened the besieged caravan. Much to his regret, Suero and his harassed entourage had to continue the painful march.[5] On January 26, 1864, he was in Altamira and was called by government; on February 9th, he was appointed Commander of Weapons of Santiago. Twenty days after the government arrived, there were reports of a threat landing at La Isabela and the famous chief of Los Rancheros was transferred to that point on the North coast, which was considered in danger.[6]
As a reward for his contributions to the independence from Haiti and Spain, he was allowed to return to his position as Arms of Command in Santiago.
Already in the sovereign republic, The brave general returned to his home in Marmolejos. In February 1873, during the Six Years’ War against the anti-national dictatorship of Buenaventura Báez, the former boss of the ranchers launched an insurrection that was quickly repressed by the authorities. He took refuge with two of his children in the English consulate in Puerto Plata and the authorities trampled all norms of international relations, penetrated the consulate and they took them out. With the support of the cannons of the ship he commanded, and which was anchored in front of the city, an English commander demanded the surrender of the persecuted, the government relented and Nouesí and his children were taken to Haiti. There, they added their efforts to those of the numerous Dominicans who were fighting against Báez and their annexationist projects then.[7]
Back to the environment of his home and his possessions in Marmolejos, he lived in retirement in later years until his death on October 29, 1881. His descendants have continued to populate the fields and cities from the province of Puerto Plata, where a street designated with the name of Juan Laffite, gives honor to this gallant and legendary general of the wars of Dominican independence.