Copyright by Lynn Marie Selby 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Lynn Marie Selby Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “Let Us Forge One Path Together”: Gender, Class, and Political Subjectivities in a Haitian Popular Neighborhood Committee: Edmund Tayloe Gordon, Supervisor Pauline Turner Strong João Helion Costa Vargas Jennifer Margaret Wilks Jossianna Arroyo Martínez “Let Us Forge One Path Together”: Gender, Class, and Political Subjectivities in a Haitian Popular Neighborhood by Lynn Marie Selby, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2015 Dedication Yon gwo remèsiman pou tout fi ak fanm ayisyèn ki te akonpanye m (a great thanks to all the Haitian girls and women who accompanied me) and in memory of Jean Marie Bony Prou (Dec. 30, 1953-August 2, 2013), host, mentor, and friend. Im nasyonal fanm ayisyèn Haitian Women’s National Anthem (konpoze pa yon delege fanm peyizan (composed by a female delegate to celebrate pou selebre okazyon Premye Kongrè the occasion of the First Women’s Congress Fanm Mouvman Peyizan Papay, 8 of the Peasant Movement of Papaye on March mas 1988; vèsyon Solidarite Fanm 8, 1988; Haitian Women’s Solidarity’s Ayisyèn) version) Nou menm Fanm ayisyèn nou jire We Haitian women, we swear before the devan lemonn world Nap goumen jouk sa kaba pou peyi We will struggle to the finish to liberate our nou ka libere country Nou di devan lemonn nou pa vle We declare before the world that we do not esklav ankò want to be slaves anymore Toupatou sou tout latè, nan pwen ti There are no people on earth that are worth pèp nan pwen gwo pèp. less or more than others. Refren : Chorus: Ann fe yon sèl chimen, menm si nou Let us forge one path together, even if we are diferan different Pa gen yon lòt sinas ki pi klere pou fè There are no clearer reasons why konnen n Than the hardship, political conspiracies, and Se sinas lamizè, konplo, imilyasyon humiliation Ki rann nou kokobe depi ayè jouk That have been crippling us from the past to jodi a! the present! Ann fè yon blòk solid, ann mache men Let us form a solid alliance, let us walk hand- dan lamen in-hand Tras zansèt yo te make fò n pa kite yo Our ancestors made their marks and we disparèt cannot let them fade Ayiti se pou nou fo yo pa di n pa mele Haiti is our own, they cannot tell us not to meddle Okontrè si n libere se yon viktwa se Indeed, if we are liberated, it will be a victory yon lonè. and honor for us all. Fanm kou gason, jèn kou timoun Women, men, youth, and children alike Ann mete vanyan sou nou pou lòt Let us shore up our courage so that all nations nasyon ka respekte n will respect us Se pa vye sinistre ni se pa vye We cannot let that lousy relief aid and discarded zagribay scraps Ki pou fè n pa rekonnèt ki vye sistèm Keep us from recognizing the systems that are k ap toupizi n. weakening us. Acknowledgements I would like to express the deepest of my appreciation to the people, institutions, and communities who made this dissertation possible. To my committee members Edmund T. Gordon, Pauline Turner Strong, João Helion Costa Vargas, Jennifer Margaret Wilks, and Jossianna Arroyo Martínez, I asked you to serve in my committee as I found your teaching and mentorship exemplary among the many talented faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin. Ted, thank you for your level-head, ability to identify the core of my arguments, and your compassion as I struggled to write the dissertation. Through the tumultuous events during my research period and the rough adjustment period back in the United States, I found solace in the fact that nothing would likely take you off guard and you have successfully shepherded so many of us through this process. Polly, I deeply appreciate the care you have for students and meeting us where we are in our development as scholars. I think that you provided the best advice on how to navigate the academy and relate seemingly disparate threads of theory to a coherent feminist genealogy. João, from grading my papers through acting as the second reader for my master’s report and then serving on the Ph.D. committee, you have taught me a great deal about writing and the process of decolonizing oneself and theory. Thank you for reading so thoroughly. I hope to convey some of the great love and honesty you demonstrate for Afro-diasporic peoples in your writing and activism in my own work. Jennifer, your breadth of knowledge and analytical skills of the multi-lingual Black Atlantic inspires me. Thank you for your kindness and enthusiasm as I tackled a small area of this dynamic world and fretted about representation. Jossianna, you exposed me to a huge body of literature, theory, and film that I could not have tackled on my own. You seem to vi navigate such a large corpus of work and high levels of abstraction with ease. Thank you for introducing me to the application of the master/slave dialectic and coloniality of power in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thank you for making learning fun and being the first person to see publishing potential in my writing. Ayibobo. I matriculated in the fall of 2003 in the Department of Anthropology's African Diaspora Program, a program linked to the Warfield Center for African and African American Studies that was significantly reconfigured after I started my Ph.D. in 2005 as its linkages with other departments deepened and its faculty developed a graduate-degree granting Department of African and African Diapora Studies (AADS). Throughout this process, I received multiple grants from the Warfield Center for travel and benefited from the plethora of events offered by different entities that are now part of Black Studies at the University of Texas that deepened my understanding of the discipline. A grant from the Center for Latin American Social Policy (CLASPO) in the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies (LLILAS) supported my exploratory research for the dissertation in 2006. Multiple awards from the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) supported presentations of my research to academic conferences thereafter. One of such awards was granted jointly by OGS, the College of Liberal Arts, the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, and the Warfield Center. The Department of Anthropology offset the costs of tuition during my doctoral fieldwork with a David Bruton, Jr. Graduate School Fellowship (2007-2008). The Inter-American Foundation supported the first year of my field research with the Grassroots Development Doctoral Field Research Fellowship (2008). After my return from Haiti, I received a Fernea Graduate Anthropology Fellowship from the Department of Anthropology (2010-2011), a McIlhany Endowed Presidential Fellowship (2011-2012), and a Women's and Gender Studies Dissertation Fellowship (2012-2013). These were critical supplements to the vii research assistant, teaching assistant, and assistant instructor appointments I had with the Department of Anthropology and AADS from the Spring of 2011 through the Spring of 2013. Additional faculty in AADS and Anthropology who supported me throughout the dissertation process were Fehintola Mosadomi, Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Maria Franklin, Lok Siu, Sam Wilson, and Katie Stewart. Thank you for encouragement, interest, and advice as I settled back into Austin after my evacuation from Haiti after the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Thank you to faculty in the Departments of Radio-Television-Film and Journalism who supported my audio-visual production before and after dissertation research, especially Nancy Schiesari and Eli Reed. I depended heavily on help and sound advice from current and former staff in the departments of Anthropology, AADS, and Women's and Gender Studies; the Benson Latin American Studies Library; and the Perry-Castañeda Library and am thankful for the often unacknowledged hard work they do: Sergio Acosta, Alan Baker, Chris Cooke, Janeice Connors, AJ Johnson, Stephanie Lang, Jin Lee, Chris McNett, Anne Merrill, Missy Nelson, Anna-Lisa Plant, Shelette Paulino (née Williams), Jackie Salcedo, Andi Shively, and Jasmine Vallejo. Great thinkers, community organizers, and fictive kin kept me on the long path to graduate school and a dissertation based on fieldwork in Haiti. I offer a very special thanks to the women of Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (Haitian Women’s Solidarity) and many guides of popular democratic mobilization and Matisan. I hold the memories of those who passed dear to my heart and extend my gratitude to their surviving family members. Mil de mil remèsiman (thousands and thousands of thanks) to Lise-Marie Déjean; Tibebe (Maria Alina Cajuste); Roselaure, Magalita, and Karen François; Rica Louis; Marie- Yvrose Edouard; the late Ilna Ulysse; Eveline Larrieux; Olga Benoît; Marie-Frantz viii Joachim; Jean Gardy Souverain; Guirlène and Richecarde Dorsainville; Hollica Louis and Toussaint Delice; and Jean Mary Dorsaint. Yon gwo remèsiman (a big thanks) to my big brothers Yves and Henri-Claude Voltaire who probably did not foresee my adopting them as my own siblings after we first met in Haiti in 1995. Kenbe fèm, pa lage, (hold tight, don’t let go) and thank you for continuing to advise me on my scholarship, angajman (commitment),and growing up. Additionally, faculty and students at the Université de l'État d'Haïti, Facultés d'Éthnologie et des Sciences Humaines (FE and FASCH at UEH, Schools of Ethnology and Social Sciences at the State University of Haiti), Sant Ekimenik Devlopman ak Edikasyon Popilè (SEDEP, Ecumenical Center for Development and Popular Education), and Plateforme Haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un Développement Alternatif (PAPDA, Haitian Advocacy Platform for Alternative Development ) opened my thinking and made me feel very welcome: Djonn Blot, Roseline Lamartinière and James Wah, Louise Carmelle Bijoux, Nixon Boumba, Walex Pierre, Sandro Rossy Jean, and Camille Chalmers.