Reconocidos: Haitian and Haitian-descendant Peoples’ Experiences in the Dominican Republic

• In Event: Resisting Erasure and Reclaiming Identity in Ayiti: The History and Experiences of the African Diaspora in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Description for Program

In 2013, the government of the Dominican Republic issued a law called TC 168-13, widely known as “La Sentencia,” which stripped over 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent of their legal status as citizens, rendering them stateless and politically vulnerable. The legislation followed upon the heels of decades of colonially-derived racism and anti-Haitian sentiment. The seed for anti-Haitian legislation was planted in the island with the arrival of the first enslaved Africans on Caribbean soil, and exacerbated during the regime of white nationalist dictator Rafael Trujillo, who committed genocide against countless Haitians and embedded racial discrimination of Afro-descendent people into Dominican education and society in a profound and devastating way. Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic continue facing unique obstacles as they battle for recognition as citizens and respect as human beings. Over the course of 3 weeks, our three researchers conducted six oral history interviews with Dominicans of Haitian descent and Haitian immigrants living in the Dominican Republic in Haitian Creole and Spanish. The presentation aims to share the six oral history interview videos, along with subtitles provided by the researchers’ transcriptions and translation. The presentation aims to do so through oral history interviews, along with captions to accompany the shortened videos and links to access to full interviews and context descriptions. The purpose of the presentation is to shed light on the perspectives and stories of Haitian and Haitian-descendant people living in the Dominican Republic, bringing their perspective to a conversation from which they are often excluded.

Authors

• Diana Rodriguez, University of Florida

• Medgine Michel, University of Florida

• Sophia De La Cruz, University of Florida