Re-Envisioning History: Memory, Myth and Fiction in Literary Representations of the Trujillato

RE-ENVISIONING HISTORY: MEMORY, MYTH AND FICTION IN LITERARY REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRUJILLATO By CHRISTINA E. STOKES A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2009 1 © 2009 Christina E. Stokes 2 In Memoriam Alvaro Félix Bolaños Luis Cosby 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to all the people who have made this study possible. I deeply thank Dr. Efraín Barradas who has been my mentor and advisor during my years as a doctoral student. His guidance and insight have been invaluable. I also want to the thank the rest of my committee, Dr. Félix Bolaños, Dr. Tace Hedrick, Dr. Reynaldo Jiménez, and Dr. Martín Sorbille, for their help in contextualizing my work and careful reading of this study. I thank Dr. Andréa Avellaneda, Dr. Geraldine Cleary Nichols and Dr. David Pharies for being wonderful teachers and mentors. Many thanks go to the staff of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, especially Ann Elton, Terry Lopez, and Sue Ollman. I also thank the staff of the Latin American Collection of Smathers Library, Paul Losch and Richard Phillips for their invaluable help in obtaining texts. I would also like to express my gratitude to my mother, Consuelo Cosby and my sister, Angela O’Connell for their encouragement and enthusiasm. Finally, I thank my husband, John and stepdaughter, Shelby for their love and support. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................9 Historical Amnesia .................................................................................................................10 The 1937 Massacre of Haitian Migrants ................................................................................13 Las Mirabal.............................................................................................................................14 The Trujillo era.......................................................................................................................15 Classification of Narratives ....................................................................................................16 Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina ............................................................................................17 The United States Intervention of 1916 - 1924 ......................................................................22 The Role of the United States in Trujillo’s Regime ...............................................................23 Narrating the Nation ...............................................................................................................26 A Matter of Perspective in Narrating the Trujillo era.............................................................27 Turn Towards History: New Historicism & Cultural Materialism........................................29 Fiction, History and Truth ......................................................................................................29 The Burden of History............................................................................................................34 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................35 2 LITERATURE AS MEMORY: THE 1937 MASSACRE OF HAITIAN CITIZENS AS NARRATED IN EL MASSACRE SE PASA A PIE AND THE FARMING OF BONES...37 Introduction.............................................................................................................................37 Narrating Horror .....................................................................................................................40 The Official Word: Silence.....................................................................................................42 A Witness Testifies: Freddy Prestol Castillo.........................................................................44 A Survivor’s Tale: Edwidge Danticat....................................................................................48 Exile, Solitude & Sterility.......................................................................................................53 Victim or Perpetrator? ............................................................................................................56 Haitian Response to the Massacre ..........................................................................................61 Dominican Reaction to the Massacre .....................................................................................64 Racism as Official Discourse: Antihaitianismo.....................................................................65 Haitians as Thieves.................................................................................................................71 The Dangers of Nationalism...................................................................................................72 Imagining Trujillo...................................................................................................................76 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................77 3 CHALLENGING “EL JEFE” IN LAS MIRABAL AND IN THE TIME OF THE BUTTERFLIES ......................................................................................................................82 5 Introduction.............................................................................................................................82 The Mirabal Sisters – Historical Background ........................................................................83 Las Mirabal: A Dominican Interpretation of the Sisters .......................................................85 In the Time of the Butterflies: The Voice of the Dominican Diaspora. .................................87 Las Mirabal and In the Time of the Butterflies: Providing Testimony ...........................89 Resisting the Reader in In the Time of the Butterflies. ..........................................................91 Narrative Structure in Las Mirabal and In the Time of the Butterflies ..................................93 A Matter of Perspective..........................................................................................................95 A Cure For Historical Amnesia ..............................................................................................96 Narrating the Dominican Republic.........................................................................................98 Dominican Men: Too Afraid to Fight Tyranny? ...................................................................99 The United States Military and Trujillo: The Weakening of the Dominican Male......102 Racism in the Dominican Republic...............................................................................104 Dominican Nationalism and United States Imperialism ...............................................107 Resisting Patriarchy in the Dominican Republic..................................................................111 Feminism and Patriarchy in the Trujillo era..................................................................111 Trujillo, The Dictator: The Second Level of Patriarchy................................................115 The Heroine and the Tyrant...........................................................................................117 Minerva Mirabal: Narrating A National Heroine ................................................................119 The Mirabal Family.......................................................................................................119 Motherhood and Love of Country.................................................................................121 The Mythification of Minerva.......................................................................................122 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................126 4 PORTRAIT OF A DICTATORSHIP: “THE ERA OF TRUJILLO” IN CEMENTERIO SIN CRUCES AND LA FIESTA DEL CHIVO ..................................................................131 Introduction...........................................................................................................................131 Writing to Correct a Wrong: Andrés Requena ....................................................................137 Dictators and Cowards..........................................................................................................139 Requena’s Cry for Help: Cementerio sin cruces .................................................................141 Cementerio sin cruces: Providing testimony .......................................................................146 An Outsider Looks In: Mario Vargas Llosa ........................................................................147 Re-imagining the Dominican Republic during the era of Trujillo .......................................150 The role of women during the era of Trujillo.......................................................................155

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