During my 14 years living in Dominican Republic (and after) I always felt a sense of shame about Dominican-Haitian relations. In the poor neighborhoods of Dominican Republic (where they can barely afford to eat themselves) you could find Haitians passing by with ‘bateas’ on their heads selling home- made sweets. A gathering around whoever was selling, the joke? Haitian’s inability to pronounce the letter j, as in Aji (pepper in Spanish). Is not because they have pronunciation challenges, the same thing happens when Egyptians try to pronounce the letter y, which they replace with g. In my opinion, it was the typical case of big guy making fun of the little guy. The complex Dominican-Haitian relations have been tested throughout the centuries. First, Haitian occupation of DR, then the murder of thousands of Haitian by order of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, then the economic development of DR via tourism while Haiti was still struggling, and then of course racism. The later little understood by me since more than 70% of the population of DR is of mixed race, with few either completely white or completely black. At any rate, I hope that through this catastrophe something as positive as good relations between both countries can flourish, and Dominicans can share some of the progress they have acquired. After all, we share the same island, and we share the same fault line.
A popular website from my hometown’s website reads “Firefighters Return from Haiti, and with Them the Images”
Link: http://www.francomacorisanos.com/AlbundeImagen.aspx?ruta=Imagenes/Actividades/Sociales/Bomberosllegandehaiti&ID=5211&Imagenes=Imagenes/Actividades/Sociales/Bomberosllegandehaiti/a/portada.jpg
When a huge natural disaster like an earthquake strikes, as it has happened in Haiti, causing so much damage, killing so many people, destruction of property, injuries to tens of thousands of people, it is time for us to remember that we are neither masters of our fate all the way, nor are we victims of circumstances all the way.
ReplyDeleteHaiti and Republica Dominicana share the same island and when tragedies like that happen it is time to forget about all the rivalries ( common between any neighbors all over the world ), about language, religion, race or other absurd things that separate people many times.
What happened in Haiti has no precedent in the recent history and from what I've read and heard, the people from Republica Dominicana have done everything to help their brother nation Haiti and that showed great solidarity. Now there are fresh hopes that things could improve between these 2 countries.
well said!
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