He was born on January 26, 1813 in the city of Santo Domingo.
He was baptized in the Church of Santa Bárbara on February 4, 1813.
Son of the Spanish merchant Juan José Duarte and Manuela Díez, a native of El Seibo, Dominican Republic, daughter of a Spanish father and Dominican mother.
When the troops of the Haitian Toussaint Louverture arrived in the country in 1801, the Duarte traveled to Puerto Rico, where their son Vicente Celestino was born. The family returned after the War of the Reconquest in 1809, when the country returned to be a Spanish colony.
Being young he traveled to the United States and Europe.
He studied in Spain and became the leader of the Trinitaria, a secret society of independence ideas.
In the year 1843, when the war of Independence against the Haitian domination began, he led the insurgents. Failed rebellion, liberal progressive, exiles in Venezuela.
In 1844 he returned after the call made by the leaders of the movement initiated on February 27, Bobadilla and Santana, to fight for the independence of the Dominican Republic.
He came to the presidency of the new Republic, but for a short time, since the disagreements with Francisco del Rosario Sánchez led him to relinquish power after the triumph of the insurrection of General Pedro Santana. The conservatives wanted to submit the nation to the colonial powers. Expelled from the country, he took refuge again in Venezuela.
With the triumph of the Dominican separatists, he offered his services to the new leaders, who entrusted him with the performance of diplomatic functions.
On March 24, 1864, he returned to Santo Domingo to place himself under the orders of the restoration government in arms of Santiago de los Caballeros, who appointed him as his representative with the mission of obtaining support from Venezuela and other countries in the fight against Spain.
Juan Pablo Duarte died on July 15, 1876 in Caracas. He is recognized as Father of the Nation along with Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Ramón Matías Mella.
