A01429 - Hugo Tolentino Dipp, A Dominican Historian, Politician, Lawyer, and Educator

Hugo Tolentino Dipp (b. August 28, 1930, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – d. July 15, 2019, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) was a Dominican historian, politician, lawyer, educator, former Minister of Foreign Relations and President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Dominican Republic from 1982 to 1986.

Born on August 28, 1930, the day on which General Rafael Trujillo was sworn in as President of the Dominican Republic, within an upper-class family of mixed-race background.  His father, Vicente Tolentino Rojas, an intellectual and politician, who was minister and a friend of the recently ousted President Horacio Vasquez, had his residence in the National Palace. His mother, Catar 'Caterina' Dipp Attie, was a Lebanese-born socialite. 

Dipp did his secondary studies at the High School Eugenio María de Hostos in 1948, and later graduated as a Juris Doctor at the University of Santo Domingo in 1953. In addition to another title of Juris Doctor from the Central University of Madrid in 1954 and specializing in Public Law at the University of Paris in 1959 during his exile in Europe.

In 1960, Dipp started as an assistant professor of history and taught a course entitled "History of the West Indies during the nineteenth century" for the University of London.  On his return in 1963 to the Dominican Republic, he was appointed professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo after getting through competition the chair of international law.  From that time, Dipp became an important pillar in the academic and administrative reform of that institution. In 1966, he was a member of the Committee on University Reform; in 1968 he was elected Academic Vice President; from 1970 to 1974 he was Professor of Sociology and Dominican Social History; and from 1974–1976 he was rector thereof.

Dipp married Evangelista Ligia Bonetti Guerra, sister of businessman Jose Miguel Bonetti Guerra, with whom he fathered his only child, Beatriz Micaela. Thereafter they divorced.  His second marriage was to Sarah Bermúdez.

Hugo Tolentino Dipp died on 15 July 2019, at the age of 88.

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