Constructing Borders, Creating Consequences: Tracing the Racial, Economic, and Legal Factors

of Anti-Haitian in the

Audra Brulc

Originally prepared for: IAS 3313 Dr. McPherson December 15, 2016

Brulc 1

Introduction

Since Europeans’ first contact in 1492, the island known as has endured a troubled relationship with the cultures that subsequently colonized it. Hispaniola now contains two separate states— to the west, the Dominican Republic to the east—and each embodies a distinct culture with common roots. While the both Spanish and French occupied the island at different times and have each made significant cultural impacts, some characteristics have continued to define Haitian and Dominican Culture down to the languages that are spoken on different sides of the same island — Haiti’s official languages are French and Haitian Creole, while the Dominican Republic operates in Spanish.1 The Dominican Republic in particular leans heavily on its Spanish heritage and elevates Spanish culture in its monuments and architecture, reflecting its status as “a troubled melting pot of Europeans, Africans and native people … deeply ambivalent about the country’s relation to its black past.”2 Since the Trujillo regime’s of living in the Dominican Republic in 1937, anti-Black , economic , and revocation of ethnic Haitians’ Dominican citizenship have all contributed to ongoing anti-Haitian sentiment, or “antihaitianismo,” in the Dominican Republic.

The Origins of Division

In order to fully understand the origins and impact of contemporary anti-Haitianism, it is important to understand the history of Hispaniola leading up to the 1937 massacre and beyond.

European contact with the island first occurred in 1492 with the arrival of Spanish colonizers.

The Spanish soon established a colony in Santo Domingo, the modern-day capital of the

Dominican Republic.3 In 1697, French pirates took over the western part of the island, and

1 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Black in Latin America, (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 119. 2 Ibid., 120-1. 3 Mariano Castillo, “Faces of a divided island,” CNN, April 13, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/12/world/dominican-republic-haiti-immigration/. Brulc 2 established the colony of Saint-Domingue. From 1680 to 1776, over 800,000 Africans were brought to the colony as slaves. Following a successful slave revolt in 1791, the Haitians eventually came to occupy both sides of the island from 1822 to 1844, creating some of the first inclinations of anti-Haitian resentment among Dominicans.4 Even today, Dominicans celebrate their Independence Day in memory of independence from Haiti, not Spain.5

While the Haitian occupation created enduring resentment among citizens of the

Dominican Republic, by the 1900s, tensions had thawed in communities along the Haitian-

Dominican border. Though the capitals of each country remained politically and culturally divided, “oral histories reveal how ethnic Haitians and ethnic Dominicans living in the northern frontier region had mixed fluidly and often formed families together.”6 At that point, the border between the two countries was formal but porous, and “Haitians settling in the Dominican frontier helped constitute what was to a large extent the original society of this part of the country. From the start, that society was a bilingual, bicultural, and transnational one spanning the Haitian and Dominican sides of the border.”7

However, frontier coexistence failed to spread to wealthier Dominicans. According to historian Richard Lee Turits, Haitian influence was seen as universally threatening by wealthy,

Europeanized elites.

“The ways of life and cultural complexity of the Dominican frontier collided with an elite

and urban ideal of a Dominican nation excluding and reviling everything Haitian.

4 Castillo, “Faces of a divided island.” 5 “The Dominican Republic and Haiti: one island, two nations, lots of trouble,” The Economist, May 14, 2016, http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21698805-one-about-hold-elections-other-has-not-had- proper-government-months. 6 R.L. Turits, "A World Destroyed, A Nation Imposed: The 1937 Haitian Massacre in the Dominican Republic,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 82.3, 596. 7 Ibid. 594. Brulc 3

Dominican intellectuals represented the Haitian presence in the Dominican frontier as a

“pacific invasion” that was endangering the Dominican nation. This “invasion” was

supposedly “Haitianizing” and “Africanizing” the Dominican frontier, rendering popular

Dominican culture more savage and backward, and injecting new and undesirable

African admixtures into the Dominican social composition.”8

Sensitive to the discontent brewing among Dominican elites, the state began to push for a rigid border to combat “the Haitian ‘pacific invasion.’”9

Tensions came to a head during the regime of , who came to power as dictator of the Dominican Republic in 1930.10 Trujillo, who would soon be responsible for the slaughter of over 10,000 ethnic Haitians living in the Dominican Republic, was trained in counter insurgency and other military practices by the United States National Guard from 1917 to 1930, when he made himself dictator.11 Trujillo began a campaign of legal discrimination against Haitians, forcing them out of agricultural jobs and authorizing the publication and inculcation of racist propaganda.12 By October 1937, however, Trujillo’s strategy transitioned to outright physical violence. At least 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians—including some who were probably only suspected to be ethnic Haitians—living in the Dominican Republic were murdered by the Dominican Guardia.13 The Guardia acted under direct orders from Trujillo, who was entering the final stage of a formerly “semi-formalised policy to remove Haitian migratory labour and settlers from Dominican territory.”14 The campaign, which lasted from October 2 to

8 Turits, "A World Destroyed,” 599. 9 Ibid. 601 10 Castillo, “Faces of a divided island.” 11 Edward Paulino, Dividing Hispaniola (Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh, 2016), 49, 55. 12 Michele Wucker, Why the Cocks Fight (New York: Hill and Wang, 2002), 104; Ernesto Sagás, Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic (Gainesville: U of Florida, 2000), 61-62. 13 Howard 733 14 Ibid. Brulc 4

October 8, 1937, is now referred to as “el corte (the cutting) by Dominicans and as kout kouto-a

(the stabbing) by Haitians,” as the soldiers’ primary weapons were machetes, bayonets, and clubs—quiet weapons that were intended to avoid the panic caused by gunfire.15 Haitians were loosely identified by accent and skin color — ethnic Haitians were assumed to be anyone with obvious African ancestry. For this reason, the massacre is also known in English as the “Parsely

Massacre,” as suspected Haitians’ accents were evaluated based on their pronunciation of the word perejil.16

Regardless of heritage, the victims were “mostly small farmers, many of whom had been born in the Dominican Republic (and thus were Dominican citizens according to the Dominican constitution) and some whose families had lived in the Dominican Republic for generations.”17

While approximately two thousand Haitians managed to flee at the beginning of the massacre, escape was not an option, as the Guardia did not allow any targets the opportunity to run before threatening death.18 Haitian corpses were hung in public locations as a warning to both ethnic

Haitians and Dominicans, who were expected to give up their neighbors to the Guardia; however, though “some [Dominican civilians] assisted the army by identifying and locating

Haitians … others helped Haitians hide and flee.”19

The massacre was racial in both intent and consequence. Looking to promulgate dominicanidad, Trujillo contended that Dominicans and Haitians “are so radically incompatible on religious, political, and social grounds that the 'two cultures' can never exist in the same

15 Turits, "A World Destroyed,” 590, 615. 16 Castillo, “Faces of a divided island.” 17 Turits, "A World Destroyed,” 590. 18 Ibid. 614 19 Ibid. 591 Brulc 5 spatial context without tension and the ultimate subversion of Dominican civil progression.”20 It is possible that class played an equal role as race in the massacre; while elites envisioned a cultured, Europeanized society, “the frontier population, however, was unable to make sense of, or find a place for itself in, this elite formulation of a monoethnic Dominican nation radically distinct from Haiti.”21 While there were considerations of economic class at play, the Trujillo regime’s portrait of Haitians as an “imminent biological, economic, and political threat to the security of Dominican society” was undeniably racialized by the targeting of dark-skinned, creole-speaking Haitians.22 Though Trujillo was assassinated in 1961, antihaitianismo did not disappear — rather, it thrived, if dressed up in slightly different forms of discrimination. Dr.

Ernesto Sagas, a researcher of antihaitianismo from a historical and ethnic studies standpoint, argues, “Contemporary or post-Trujillo antihaitianismo has stronger nationalist and cultural overtones, while downplaying the racial issue. The civil rights struggles of the 1960s discredited overtly racist thought, forcing anti-Haitian ideologues to resort to subtler approaches.”23

Contemporary Hispaniola

As Haiti and the Dominican Republic have continued to grow apart culturally and politically since the 1960s, their economic situations have followed similar trends of divergence.

While the two countries’ populations only differ by about 200,000 people, the stark differences between contemporary Haiti and the Dominican Republic become obvious with an examination of economic and human development statistics. In terms of GDP, one of the most frequently- used methods of assessing economic prominence, the Dominican Republic outpaced Haiti in

20 David Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination in the Dominican Republic,” Development in Practice (2007), 733. 21 Turits, "A World Destroyed,” 594. 22 Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination,” 733. 23 Sagás, Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic, 70. Brulc 6

2015 with a GDP of $67.1 billion, as opposed to Haiti’s $8.9 billion. The poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines was 32.4% of the total Dominican population in 2015; in 2012, it was

58.5% of Haitians. The average life expectancy for a Dominican citizen is 73.5, while it is 62.7 for a Haitian. Finally, the adult literacy rate for residents age 15 and older is 92.5% in the

Dominican Republic. It is only 60.7% in Haiti.24 What happened to create such a pronounced difference between two countries that inhabit the same island?

There are several reasons for the stark development divide between the Dominican

Republic and Haiti. The neoliberal economics and authoritarian control of the Duvalier regime in

Haiti did far more damage than good. The Dominican Republic also has a sizeable tourism industry, and takes in twice the amount of remittances as Haiti.25 Meanwhile, the devastation cause by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake which destroyed Haiti in January 2010 has continued to delay progress. 1.5 million Haitians are still homeless or displaced, and by January 2011, the country only received 38% of pledged relief aid.26 Neglected by the international community and beleaguered by natural disasters, Haiti still suffers from a rocky relationship with the Dominican

Republic. Antihaitianismo has transformed, but it has never fully disappeared, and is still visible in the present day. , economic marginalization, and harsh citizenship laws in the Dominican Republic have all contributed to ongoing antihaitianismo, keeping Haitians a marginalized ethnic and cultural group.

Racial Repercussions

Amidst these economic disparities, racial affiliation—not necessarily origin—is one of the most prominent and enduring factors Dominicans wield against Haitians. Over 90% of

24 "Dominican Republic." Data. The World Bank Group, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2016. 25 “The Dominican Republic and Haiti.” 26 Gates, Jr., Black in Latin America, 151. Brulc 7

Haitians have some African ancestry. 82% of Dominicans, meanwhile, identify themselves as indio, and only 4.13% self-categorize as Black. Meanwhile, Dominicans overwhelmingly identify Haitians as Black, or negro.27 However, these carefully socially constructed distinctions do not necessarily reflect reality. According to anthropologist Juan Rodríguez,

“85 percent of the residents of the Dominican Republic have African ancestry, 9.4

percent Indian and less than 0.08 percent European! And on the father’s side, through Y-

DNA, we now know that only 1 percent of us descend from an Indian male and 36

percent from an African male. Yet the average person here describes their race as

indio.”28

So what exactly does indio mean? Despite its literal meaning, the phrase’s use in the

Dominican Republic does not refer to a singular, defined tribal identity. Rather, it is a way for

Dominicans to avoid classifying themselves as Black while acknowledging that they are also not the product of pure European ancestry.29 As illustrated by the ways Dominicans and Haitians construct their relationship with one another through race, “It is widely recognized that the construct of ‘race’ in the Dominican Republic and other Latin American and Caribbean nations is not nearly as dichotomous and absolute as it is in the Anglo-Saxon nations of North

America.”30 Just as Trujillo constructed the Dominican national identity on a basis of opposition—not being Black—the use of indio indicates a negative conception of race. The important thing is not what you are, it is what you are not—Black, in the case of the Dominican

Republic.

27 Ibid., 122. 28 Rodríguez quoted in Gates, Jr., Black in Latin America, 122. 29 Paulino, Dividing Hispaniola, 156. 30 Jim Sidanius et al., "Inclusionary Discrimination: Pigmentocracy and Patriotism in the Dominican Republic." Political Psychology, 845. Brulc 8

Since the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti was solidified almost a century ago, so was the social stratification indicated by racial divisions. “Dominican identities have been constructed vis-a-vis Haiti, most notably with respect to race and nation,” relying on the making darker-skinned Haitians the “other” to interpret “territorial and historical association.”31 Racial identifiers are tied to perceptions of national origin, and there exists “an often overtly spatialised notion of race -- the understanding of which in crude terms is frequently essentialised in a discriminatory union of alleged biological and national convergence.”32

Academic studies have confirmed the existence of a perceived racial hierarchy, both explicit and subconscious in manifestation, in the Dominican Republic—a phenomenon researchers have coined a “pigmentocracy” effect.33 According to Siandius et al., this effect reflects a racial hierarchy assigned to physical features and perceived racial differences. Research found

“Dominicans are apparently able to make reliable status differentiations among people with very subtle phenotypic ‘racial’ differences [and] these subtle distinctions in skin color, and perhaps other phenotypic features (e.g., hair texture), arrange themselves in a clear and consensually agreed-upon hierarchical pattern.”34 Moreover, subjects were more likely to draw qualitative distinctions between these perceived racial differences, illustrating once again that among

Dominicans, “there is strong and nearly universal agreement that it is better to be European than

African in appearance; the more European, the better.”35 This is consistent with the hyper-

European focus of the Trujillo regime, and suggests a self-perpetuating cycle of racial hierarchy and subjugation.

31 Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination,” 731. 32 Ibid. 729 33 Sidanius et al., "Inclusionary Discrimination.” 34 Sidanius et al., "Inclusionary Discrimination,” 845. 35 Ibid. Brulc 9

The implications of anti-Black racism in the Dominican Republic are not just ideological in nature. Haitians are often the target of racial violence in the Dominican Republic, leading researcher David Howard to treat the Dominican Republic as a case study in racial violence and power construction. Violence against Haitians has spiked in the last decade and a half, and in

2005, “2000 people were deported from the country, primarily on the basis of ‘looking Haitian’ rather than due to a verified lack of legal documentation. During this period, 13 racially motivated murders of Haitian-Dominicans were reported in the media.”36 Howard partly attributes this violence to the nature of the Haitian-Dominican border; the border represents a territorial boundary upon which Haitians infringe when they come to live in the Dominican

Republic. In the Dominican Republic, ethnic Dominicans hold social power, but fear of losing that power can cause defensive aggression and violence.37

While socially constructed in the sense that most residents of Hispaniola are not white and do possess measurable African ancestry, the hierarchy assigned to different racial characteristics have created a pervasive anti-Black racism in the Dominican Republic. Since these features are associated, fairly or not, with Haitians, discrimination and violence is thus enacted upon Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.

Citizenship and Discrimination

Along with increased violence, racism has both been the product of and created discriminatory policies against Haitians. Despite the hostile environment many Haitians find across the border, “close to 1 million Haitians are estimated to be living in the country out of a population of 10 million.”38 However, Haitians are far from accepted and integrated into the

36 Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination,” 726-7. 37 Ibid. 729 38 Paulino, Dividing Hispaniola, 162. Brulc 10 country. Securing the Dominican border is seen as a matter of security, and again adopts a defensive mindset.39 Additionally, following the Trujillo regime, “the 1937 massacre legitimised subsequent state acts of racialised violence against the Haitian-origin population in the

Dominican Republic. Each successive government since has forcibly removed thousands of

Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans in the now routine round-ups and expulsions by the military.”40

While the Dominican government is not indiscriminately slaughtering Haitians in the streets as it was in 1937, legal discrimination has continued in various ways.

Again using the Dominican Republic as a case study, Stacie Kosinski has extensively studied the effects of forced statelessness of ethnic Haitians in the Dominican Republic. While any Haitians born in the Dominican Republic are considered citizens, native children of immigrants are often not recorded in the country’s official birth registry.41 The issue of legal citizenship came to a head in 2013 with the introduction of the Plan de Regularización de

Extranjeros de la República Dominicana. Under the plan, ethnic Haitians and the descendants of migrants in the Dominican Republic were told they were no longer legal citizens if they could not produce a cédula,or government identification. A cédula can only be obtained if a person is part of the birth registry, which presents an immediate challenge to Haitians who were unfairly absent from the registry.42 The plan then immediately put the legal citizenship status of 180,000 of the Haitians living in the Dominican Republic, who were suddenly threatened with deportation.43 While the Dominican government did slightly roll back the initiative and allow

39 Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination,” 731. 40 Ibid. 733 41 Kosinski 382 42 Castillo, “Faces of a divided island.” 43 Natalia Guerrero, “¿Qué Pierde República Dominicana Si Expulsa a Los Haitianos?,” BBC, June 18, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/06/150618_economia_republica_dominicana_haiti_plan_migr atorio_ng. Brulc 11 unregistered Haitians to register with proof of birth and ancestry, less than a third of the estimated 210,000 left stateless successfully reclaimed their citizenship. Figures provided by the

Dominican government last year show about 64,000 people benefited from the law. About 70% of those who qualified to have their citizenship restored didn't or weren't able to seek a legal remedy.”44 Between July 2015 and March 2016, at least 17,000 ethnic Haitians were deported from the Dominican Republic.45 International organizations have widely decried these proceedings, and “Black populist leaders and those who have defended the rights of Haitian migrants have been labeled un-Dominican, and their nationalism has been questioned.”46

Economic Discrimination

As Howard’s analysis of violence and society shows, “the assertion of dominance through aggressive social action creates violent and fearful landscapes that undermine the full participation of segments of the population in mainstream social, economic, and political activities.”47 Over the past few decades, has become a de facto reality for Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. As of 2013, 87% of immigrants living in the

Dominican Republic were Haitian, and constituted 7% of the Dominican Republic’s workforce.

Many are agricultural or service workers, and rely on their positions to send remittances back to the United States.48 However, while Haitian immigrants constitute a significant portion of the

Dominican workforce, they are frequently exploited and illegally denied full wages. While the problem has increased in severity, it is not a new problem:

44 Castillo, “Faces of a divided island.” 45 “The Dominican Republic and Haiti.” 46 Sagás, Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic, 125. 47 Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination,” 727. 48 Guerrero, “¿Qué Pierde República Dominicana.” Brulc 12

“The experiences of Haitian-origin migrants and settlers in the Dominican Republic first

came to international attention in 1978, when the UNESCO Commission on Human

Rights proclaimed that 12,000 Haitian cane-cutters were effectively sold to government-

owned and privately leased estates every year. The migratory flow and labour patterns of

Haitian migrants have changed over the past ten years, as sugar-cane plantations have

given way to construction and fruit harvesting as major sources of employment.

However, international concerns over the treatment of Haitian migrants and their

offspring have not subsided. It is estimated that up to 12,000 people suspected of being

Haitian are forcibly deported each year from Dominican territory. Since 2000, the

government has intensified formal military and police round-ups of migrants and settlers

suspected to be of Haitian origin.”49

Legal discrimination, as seen through the deportation scare that has stretched from 2013 on, has been exacerbated by a default undervaluing of Haitian labor and, ultimately, presence in society.

Conclusion

From the European colonization of Hispaniola beginning in 1492 to the massacre of

15,000 Haitians in 1937, early Dominican and Haitian history set the stage for intense ethnic and economic strife. While the two countries have had periods of harmony and cooperation, continued racial and class-based discrimination have plagued Haitian attempts at integration into

Dominican society. The consequences of this conflict are far from theoretical—as violence and discrimination have spiked, Haitian lives are at stake, as is the future flourishing of the country of Haiti as a whole.

49 Howard, “Development, Racism, and Discrimination,” 727. Brulc 13

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