Racism on the island of Hispaniola can appear ineluctable and ineradicable. Ever since Haiti's glorious political accomplishments at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Western world has demeaned Haiti and Haitians. In the twentieth century, the Dominican Republic's long-lasting dictator Trujillo managed to instill a logic of white supremacy in an overwhelming African-descendent population that resulted in a monumental massacre of Haitians in the Dominican Republic over 80 years ago, and, within the past decade, in political efforts to deny citizenship to Dominicans of Haitian descent.
This edited volume, primarily a product of what has become a set of conferences labeled, Transnational Hispaniola, combats these negative images and hopes to contribute to the inversion of the fraught relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic—to contravene the “nationalisms, xenophobia, exceptionalisms and racist idealizations of Dominicans and Haitians that promote conflict and exclusion and silence moments of commonalities and solidarity” (249).
The chapters offer a true diversity of material seldom seen in an edited volume. In the introduction and epilogue, Mayes and Jayaram develop the logic of what can be described as an anti-hegemonic effort to voice alternative events and frames of Haitian-Dominican discourse and interaction. They assert, and many of the chapters empirically demonstrate, “that alternative, less racist, less xenophobic, less nationalist, narratives were always present in the archives” (250).
The first three substantive chapters argue that the borders between the two states were historically often ambiguous. Bragadir demonstrates that this was due not only to the physical geography of an imperfectly created border, but also to the fact that individuals could claim citizenship either culturally, e.g. speaking French, or through jus soli, i.e. being in Spanish territory. This accorded an ambiguous dual citizenship to many individuals. Moreover, Tavárez argues that “anti-haitianismo” was not present among most of the political leaders of Dominican independence. Eller concludes the first section with what is more research notes than historical analysis as she presents a number of passport petitions made in the eighteenth century by Dominicans who wanted to visit relatives and attend to business in Haiti.
The second set of chapters consists of literary analyses of Haitian and Dominican authors. Jean-Charles argues that Haitian writers Roxane Gay, Edwidge Danticat, and Lyonel Trouillot represent Dominican-Haitian relations as a spiritual, ambivalent crossroads that contains not only tragedy, but also hope. Russ claims that at least one major twentieth-century Dominican author, Cartagena Portalatín, was not only a feminist, but also rejected her home country's racism toward Haitians through the development of an anti-imperialist, African-affirming perspective. Chetty's examination of the Dominican literary journal Testimonio in the mid 1960s reveals black-affirming statements along with intersecting class inequalities.
Two chapters address the same issue, sex tourism: Valdez analyzes novels on this theme; and Manley addresses the state and economy. They provide a historical telling of sex tourism's development out of neoliberal development strategies on both sides of the island. Manley provides a critical understanding of Hispaniola's “sexscape.” Two further chapters in the third section delve into the negative implications of Hispaniola's global links and their contribution to uneven development.
In a too-short chapter, Jayaram analyzes post-earthquake aid to Haiti under the banner of sustainable development to show that it actually benefited capital interests far more than the people of Haiti. Mayes details how the neoliberal shift beginning in the late twentieth century led to the Dominican Republic's 2013 denial of citizenship to people of Haitian descent. This chapter exemplifies the need for transnational scholarship as espoused by the editors. It details how the Haitian and the Dominican economies became increasingly linked with the Dominican Republic's growth in influence. At the same time, as the Dominican economy moved toward tourism, Haitians moved from their previous niche of agricultural work to the construction and service industries. Dominican political parties then re-energized Trujillo's anti-haitianismo to create a scapegoat for the country's ills.
The penultimate chapter is an interesting interview by April Mayes of Paul Austerlitz, a longtime musician and scholar who employs music to valorize African contributions and to demonstrate the cross-fertilization of music across the African Diaspora. Austerlitz expresses optimism that the racism, xenophobia, and nationalism will be overcome. Mayes counters with frustration at the slower than generational pace of change, to which Austerlitz retorts, “Victory is the survival.” The last chapter before the epilogue discusses a course at Barnard College co-taught by Haitianist Kalama L. Glover and Dominicanist Maja Horn that gave the students a transnational perspective on Hispaniola and gave new perspectives to the instructors.
Confronted by what is now more than two centuries of racism directed against Haiti and nearly a century of Dominican anti-haitianismo, one might hope for more than just survival. Although this volume lacks focus and often depth, its transnational framework provides insight to the historical construction of racism, and it advances the important goal of overcoming racism's legacy.
