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Throughout the ages, Dominicans have been led to believe that our independence was declared on February 27th, 1844 from the Haitian Occupation.

If you notice, we only liberated ourselves from an occupation. Our independence had technically already been declared from Spain back in December 1st, 1821. You can't declare independence twice and you can only become independent from a colonial power, not an occupation force.

It is my humble opinion, that the Dominican Republics' true and genuine Independence Day is December 1st, 1821, and not February 27th, 1844 as we have been led to believe.

Today's article in El Nacional by historian Robert Espinal Luna sheds light on this issue and I quote: "La independencia había sido proclamada mediante acta el primero de diciembre de 1821 y un mismo hecho no puede ocurrir dos veces, además de que la actual República Dominicana nunca fue colonia de Haití, como sí lo fue de España, por lo que la verdadera independencia sólo es posible concebirla frente a la Madre Patria", agregó Espinal Luna.

The first and true declaration of independence on that day was proclaimed to free our nation from Spain and named the new nation "Spanish Haiti". Its flag was very similar to the present day's Colombian flag. Upon proclamation, we made a request to become part of "La Gran Colombia" or "New Grenada", but before the approval was made, French Haiti invaded the eastern part of the Hispaniola, what is now the Dominican Republic. Our forefathers were inspired by the ongoing liberation movement being led in South America by Simon Bolivar and to that effect, we Dominicans sought our freedom from Spain by joining forces with "La Gran Colombia" composed of present day Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Panama.

So, being that we were technically never a colony of the Haiti, but rather an "occupied territory", our independence for all legal and practical purposes should be re-written in all history books as December 1st, 1821, from Spain and not from the Republique d'Haiti.