This twentieth-century leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party served during the late 1970s and early 1980s as President of the Dominican Republic. His presidential term ended when he committed suicide in 1982.
Before entering politics, he worked as a fruit merchant and a rancher. He went on to serve as Secretary of Agriculture in the presidential administration of fellow Dominican Revolutionary Party Politician Juan Bosch.
While in office, he increased workers' minimum wage in the Dominican Republic, re-organized the military, and improved public transportation. His ability to fix his country's declining economy, however, was limited by the presence of a Reformist Party-heavy Congress.
Following their 1939 wedding, he and Renée Klang became parents to three children.
Following Fernandez's suicide, his vice-president, Jacobo Majluta Azar, completed the final two months of his term. In August of 1982, Salvador Jorge Blanco was elected forty-eighth President of the Dominican Republic.
