Edwidge Danticat-In Honor of Caribbean American Heritage Month

Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian born, now United States citizen author known by many for her written work Krik Krak (a sound used by many francophone Caribbean Island story tellers), a book of short stories, The Dew Breaker published in 2004, Breath, Eyes, Memory published in 1994, memoirs of her immigration from Haiti to Brooklyn, NY. But, most notable for me, was her work The Farming of Bones, published in 1998. Ms. Danticat tells the story of the massacre of tens of thousands of Haitians at the hands of their sister islanders the Dominican Republic.

In 1937 Rafael Trujillo, then president of the island nation of the Dominican Republic ordered his army to massacre Haitians living in the Dominican Republic on the basis that Dominican citizens complained of Haitian thefts (sounds a lot like the WMD selling to the U.S. citizens on Iraq). In fact, President Trujillo wanted to garner the favor of the United States, that recently occupied Haiti, and to ensure a complete separation between the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in effect “lightening” (the skin tone) [of] his country. Tens of thousands of Haitians were killed, primarily by machetes even while the Haitians were crossing the border back into their country.

Unfortunately in 2004, Ms. Danticat’s Uncle Rev. Joseph Dantica at 81 years old fled Haiti to the United States seeking asylum and was immediately detained/arrested. Two days after his detention in Miami, Rev. Dantica was attending his asylum hearing and fell deathly ill. He passed out on the floor, the attending Physician’s Assistant ignored Rev. Dantica’s convulsions stating “he is just faking.” After four hours past, they finally got outside medical assistance for Rev. Dantica who died a day later.

Ms. Danticat’s goal in writing The Farming of Bones was to never let the memory die concerning the 1937 massacre by the Dominicans. Yet, we will always be reminded of the ill treatment of Black people in her uncle's death.