Especially interesting among these publications are the "Cuna de América" and others devoted to belles-lettres. They constitute a reflection of current Dominican literature, being given over to poems, lyric compositions, biographic, historical, philosophic and other articles, and extracts from new plays and books. In these periodicals most of the poems which have brought fame to Santo Domingo have appeared.
Before the intellectual awakening incident to the labors of Hostos the number of Dominican writers was small. Little was done in colonial times. In the turbulent period following the cessation of Spanish sovereignty at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the situation of the country was not favorable for the cultivation of the muses, but scions of the families who then emigrated have made their names immortal in the literature of Cuba and other neighboring countries. Juan Pablo Duarte, the liberator, Antonio Delmonte y Tejada, the historian, and a small group of others who flourished shortly before or at the time of the establishment of the Republic, may be said to initiate the literature of the country, but their fame is mostly local. The first generation of Dominican citizens furnished a somewhat larger proportion of literary men, among whom may be mentioned the venerable Emiliano Tejera, the late Archbishop Fernando A. de Meriño, Francisco X. Amiama, Francisco Gregorio Billini, Mariano A. Cestero, the historian Jose G. Garcia and the novelist Manuel de J. Galvan, though it is significant that the best productions of some of these appeared after 1880. It is since that year that literature has really flourished. So fecund have Dominican writers been, and so excellent their productions, that Santo Domingo occupies a proud place in the beautiful field of Latin-American literature, where only a few years ago it was practically unknown. There is an abundance of poets, essayists, historians and novelists worthy of mention, and an attempt to single out a few might lead to unjust distinctions. A number of the best writers are women, and all prominent newspaper men are also distinguished in literature.
In poetry, especially lyric poetry, the Dominican writers excel. They show great depth of feeling and a full command of the sonorous Castilian tongue. A favorite theme is, of course, the old story which is ever new. The civil wars have inspired many pathetic compositions, and poems like Salomé Ureña's apostrophe to the ruins of colonial times, Bienvenido S. Nouel's elegy on the ruins left by the late revolutions, and Enrique Henriquez' "Miserere!", gems of verse, are veritable cries of anguish at the desolation wrought by fratricidal strife. Perhaps it is the poets' sorrow at the misfortunes of their country which is the cause of the note of sadness so often to be remarked in Dominican writings. Some writers are classed as poets though they have versified little or not at all; of these Tulio M. Cestero, one of the most popular of the younger writers, is an example, it being said of him that "he writes his poetry in prose."