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by Kim Ives
 Some
200 people gathered in the border town of Dajabón, in
northwestern Dominican Republic, from October 4-6 to commemorate
the 75th anniversary of the “Parsley Massacre” in 1937, when
Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the slaughter of some
20,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent in an ethnic
cleansing along the Dominican-Haitian border. The massacre took
place over the course of about five days.
The three-day event marking the
bloodshed was entitled “Borders of Light.”
The massacre’s name comes from
how its victims were targeted. The Dominican army and
conscripted civilians asked dark-skinned Dominican residents to
identify a sprig of parsley, “perejil” in Spanish. If the person
pronounced the word with a Haitian Kreyòl accent, they were
often murdered.
Among the notable artists
supporting and attending the gathering was Dominican author and
activist Julia Alvarez and Haitian author Edwidge Danticat.
"Many Dominicans in the
diaspora and in the country have been waiting for an opportunity
to acknowledge a shameful event in our past, the 1937 massacre
of thousands of Haitians, ordered by the dictator Trujillo, and
carried out by Dominicans,” Alvarez said. “We feel compelled to
do what our governments and our treaties, our accords and our
conferences, have not done: to express our sorrow for this
shameful crime. We would also like to celebrate our many
collaborations, our brotherhood and sisterhood. We look to the
future and our shared hopes for this whole island and small
planet.”
“Border of Lights supports and
encourages strengthening a new understanding of border,” said
Father Regino Martínez, who is director of the Dajabón-based
Solidaridad Fronteriza and led the vigil ceremony at the border.
“Not one that is expressed with confrontation or isolation, but
rather side-by-side so they may culturally enrich each community
of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Our diversity, enriches us,
strengthens us and does not erase our identity.”
The three-day gathering began with a peace walk and
candlelight vigil on Oct. 4 with community members on both sides
of the border. The following day volunteers spent the day
cleaning and beautifying a park in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, across
the Massacre River from Dajabón. The event culminated with a
series of teach-ins and an art installation in Dajabón, with the
theme of unity. |
