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

Session Submission Type: Panel

Description for Program

Our panel consists of four Haitian-American and Dominican-American Black women, with three undergraduate and Master’s students serving on the panel and a doctoral student serving as the panel chair. All of our papers focus on African descendant peoples’ lived experiences in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The papers focus on the following: Afro-Dominican women’s resistance during the Trujillato; “Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas" and the preservation of Haitian women’s identities in a Dominican context; and the embedded racism in the Dominican political system that perpetuates anti-Haitianism and prevents the legal recognition of Haitian descendants and immigrants as Dominicans. Panelists have varying prior experience in the fields of history, youth education, archival research, oral history research, interviews, documentary filmmaking and political activism that informed our collective approach to the panel topic. Researchers’ paper topics come together under the theme “Resisting Erasure and Reclaiming Identity in Ayiti: The History and Experiences of the African Diaspora in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.” All of our research addresses themes of resistance to erasure, preservation of African identity in the Caribbean, and the transformation and evolution of the African Diaspora in the island previously known as “Ayiti” over decades. Through mixed methods such as online research, archival research and oral history interviews, our panelists address areas of focus within the overall theme. Our discussant, Sophia Monegro, is a scholar of Afro-Dominican women’s archival history. With extensive experience in archival preservation and research as a Fulbright Scholar and doctoral student, she will guide the panel’s focus on historical resistance, reclamation, women’s identities, and the role of Black Studies in these topics.

Sub Unit

• ASWAD

Chair

• Sophia Monegro, Washington University in St. Louis

Individual Presentations

• Mujeres Mariposas: Lessons from Afro-Descendant Women’s Histories in the Time of the Butterflies - Sophia De La Cruz, University of Florida

• Dismantling “Otherness”: How Dominico-Haitianas Preserve their Identities - Medgine Michel, University of Florida

• Patriotism and the Racial Project: The Racialized Politics of Haitian Migration in the Dominican Republic - Diana Rodriguez, University of Florida

• Reconocidos: Haitian and Haitian-descendant Peoples’ Experiences in the Dominican Republic - Diana Rodriguez, University of Florida; Medgine Michel, University of Florida; Sophia De La Cruz, University of Florida