“Populism as Vernacular Practice” highlights how populism depends on local sociocultural contexts and traditions in the example of the Dominican Republic’s mid-20th century leader and dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. His regime was one of constant fear of violence, which ensured the subject's compliance with the dictator, and of forced obligations to the dictator in return for what Trujillo called gifts to his subjects. He deployed theatrical displays of military violence as well as his generosity and made sure his presence was displayed in every aspect of life. Apart from that, the distinction between his inner circle and the common people created a secrecy that became the cause of gossip that mystified his regime and enhanced the public’s perception of his power. He deployed linguistic strategies to legitimise his regime, from calling social aid “gifts” ((including the split in Dominican Spanish between dádiva and regalos) and thereby creating a feeling of obligatory reciprocity, to attributing the title Padre de la patria nueva to himself.