Political violence in the periphery: the Haitian massacre of 1937

Graham Greene , The Comedians, (London, 1976 (1953)), pp154-5.

This term is used reservedly, as it implies more properly ethnocentrism and the destruction of alien culture through assimilation rather than physio-biological liquidation. Dominican policy towards Haitian migrants did have this goal, though the massacre itself belongs more generally to the category of 'genocide'. For clarification of the distinction see Pierre Clastres, 'De I' éthnocide', L'homme, (Vol XIV, juil - dec, 1974), pp101-10.

Jules-Jean Pierre Ardoin , Espanola, Samt-Domingue, Haiti: panorama histórico (Mexico , 1961), p74.

Rayford Logan , Haiti and the Dominican Republic (London, 1968), pp39-46, 143-5; see also David Nicholls , From Dessalines to Duvalier: race, colour and national independence in Haiti (Cambridge, 1979) and Patrick Bellegard-Smith , In the Shadow of Powers: Dantes Bellegarde in Haitian social thought (Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1985).

Robert Rotberg , Haiti: the politics of sgualor (Boston, 1971), pp152-6; Robert and Nancy Heinl , Written in Blood (Boston , 1978), pp525-30.

Giovanni Caprio , 'Hispanola, Saint-Domingue, Haiti: brèves consideracions aux quelques cinq siècles d'histoire économique', Revue de la société haitienne d'histoire, géographie et de géologie (Vol XXXVIII, mars, 1980), pp31-8; John Lobb , 'Caste and Class in Haiti', American Journal of Sociology (Vol. XLVI, 1940), pp23.-34.

Heinl, op cit., pp500-32.

Ibid.

Ibid

'Social life in the Caribbean', in Tad Szulc (ed.), The United States and the Caribbean ( New York, 1971), p51.

See Mervin C. Allyne , 'Communication between elite and masses', in Fuat Andic and Tom Mathews (eds), The Caribbean in Transition ( Rio Piedras, 1965), p17; Albert Valdman , 'Haiti', in Joshua Fishman et al (eds), Language Problems of the Developing Nations (New York, 1968), pp434-45; Remy Bastien , 'The role of the intellectual in Haitian plural society', in Social and Cultural Pluralism in the Caribbean, Vol. LXXXIII, no.5 (New York, 1960), pp123-35.

See discussion by Wilfred Cartey , Daniel Racine et al, on Pan-Africanism and literary négritude in Plantation Society, (Vol. 1, no.3, 1980)

Dirección general de estadística: censos nacionales: 1970 (Santo Domingo, 1971), pp140-42; F.W. Fraser , 'Economic conditions in Haiti', Commercial Intelligence Journal (Vol. LII, 1935 (Ottawa)), pp689-90; Orlando Patterson , 'Migration in Caribbean societies', in William H. McNeill (ed.) Human Migration: patterns and policies (Bloomington, Indiana, 1978); Ansmendi Diaz Santana , 'The role of Haitian braceros in Dominican sugar production', Latin American Perspectives (Vol. III, no. 1972), pp12-132.

Rafael Formoselle , Politica y color en Cuba: La guerrita de 1912 (Montevideo, 1974).

Emilio Betances , 'Agrarian transformation and class formation in the Dominican Republic, 1844-1930', Latin American Perspectives (Vol. X, nos 2-3, 1983), pp60-75; Jacques Roumain , Masters of the Dew (Les gouverneurs de la rosée) (New York, 1971) (1947) is a gripping fictional depiction of workers returned from Cuba; also, Rómulo Lachatanaré , 'Some aspects of the Negro problem in Cuba', Negro Quarterly (Vol. II, Summer, 1942), pp45-54; Jean Price-Mars , La république d'Haiti et la république dominicaine (Port-au-Prince, 1953), Vol. II, pp309-16, 331.

William Pickens , 'Will Vincent imitate Machado?', Crisis, (No. 42, June, 1935), pp71-7; Juan Manuel Garcia , 'Matanza de Haitianos: La prensa amordazada minimizó incidentes en la frontera' , Ahora (Vol. XX, no. 935, 1981), pp40-45; Donald B. Cooper , 'The withdrawal of the United States from Haiti, 1928-1934', Journal of Inter-American Studies (Vol. V, 1963), pp83-101.

Jean Price Mars , 'L'unité politique de l'île d'Haiti, c'est-elle operée en 1822 par la violence ou par la libre ralliement des dominicaine à la république d'Haiti?', Revue de la société d'histoire et de géographie d'Haiti (Vol. VIII, no. 27, 1937), pp1-2

Lil Despradel , 'Les étapes de l'antihaitianisme en république dominicaine: le rôle des historiens', Revue de l'institute de sociologie (Vol. XXIX, 1978, Bruxelles), pp13-20.

Betances, op. cit., pp72-4; Howard J. Wiarda , Dictatorship and Development: the methods of control in Trujillo's Dominican Republic (Gainesville, Fla, 1968), pp44-67, passim.

Juan Bosch , Composición social dominicana (Santo Domingo, 1970), p123; Carlos Maria Gutiérrez , El experimento dominicano (Mexico, 1974 ), Chs 1-3; Robert Crassweller , Trujillo: the life and times of a Caribbean dictator (New York, 1967), pp123-6.

Tom Watson , Elie Lescot: le diplomat et l'animateur (New York, 1944), pp1-46; Rotberg, op. cit., p158.

Crassweller, op. cit., p120-30.

Adriano Miguel Tejada , 'El Folklore como mecanismo del control politico en Heureaux y Trujillo', Eme Eme: Estudios Dominicanos (Vol. VI, no. 34, 1978), pp19-39; Juan Bosch , Trujillo: causas de una tirania sin ejemplo (Caracas, 1959), p.88; Mercedes Acosta , 'El contenido económico y politico del racismo antihaitiano', Ahora (No. 12, 1973); Pérez Cabral, op. cit., pp26-9.

Bosch, op. cit., p133.

Listín Diário , 1939, ejemplares ... in Roger Plant, Sugar and Modern Slavery: a tale of two countries (London, 1987 ).

Joaquin Balaguer , La frontera de la república dominicana con Haiti (Santo Domingo, 1946), pp157-58.

The most reliable but scant accounts of what transpired are those of missionaries. Two of the eye-witnesses I located were elderly and confused in their recollections. Published accounts are scarce indeed. Useful are L. Bonnaud, Apostolat en Haiti: journal d'un missionaire ( Paris, 1938), pp54-9 and Monseigneur Jean-Marie Jan , Collecta: Diocese du Cap Haitien. Documents, 1920-1960 (Rennes, 1967), Vol. IV, p79.

Gerardo Gallegos , Trujillo: cara y cruz de su dictadura (Madrid, 1968), pp110-13; Mats Lundahl , Peasants and Poverty (New York, 1980), pp626-27; Freddy Prestol del Castillo, El masacre se pasa a pie (Santo Domingo , 1973), p71; Crassweller, op. cit., pp 160-61.

Heinl, op. cit., pp526-8; Logan, op. cit., pp134-6.

M. Lemoine , Azúcar amargo: Hay esclavos en el Caribe (Santo Domingo , 1983), pp122-48. Manuscript accounts in papers of Father Jan, in possession of his order in Pans, would require thorough investigation to illuminate this event.

Quentm Reynolds , 'Murder in the Tropics', Colliers (22 January 1938); Carleton Beals , 'Caesar of the Caribbean', Current History (Vol. XLVIII, January, 1938), p31; Crassweller, op. cit., p154; Harold Courlander , 'Not in the cables: massacre in Santo Domingo', New Republic (24 November 1937), was the only contemporaneous story authored by an area expert.

Beals, op. cit., pp29-31.

Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 3rd Session (3-27 January 1938), Vol. 83, Part I, pp751-72.

Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (Vol. V, 1937), pp133-41; Cong. Rec., 75th Cong., 3rd Sess., Senate (Appendix, 19 January), pp750-72; idem., House of Representatives, pp2039-204; 2043.0.

Congressional Record, 75th Congress, 2nd Session , Vol. 82, Part II, pp2040-43.

Cong. Rec., 75th Cong. 3rd Sess. (2 January-28 March 1938), Vol. 83, Part 9, House of Reps (8 February 1938), pp501-2.

Ibid.

Rotberg, op. cit., pp141, 152-6; Frank Marino Hernández, La inmigración haitiana (Santo Domingo, 1973), pp68-70.

Ibid., p155.

Demosthenes Petrus Calixte, The Calvary of a Soldier (New York, 1969 [1939]), pp58-62.

Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse (New York, 1938 ), p109.

S. Vincent , Efforts et resultats (Port-au-Prince, 1939).

Elie Lescot in Price-Mars, La république... , op. cit., Vol. II, p312.

S. Vincent , En Posent les jalons (Port-au-Prince , 1939). In his intellectual history, David Nicholls presents a portrait of Vincent quite different from that given here: 'The regime of Vincent owed much of its success to this critical approach tothe tradition of mulatto elite ideology and to his shrewd assessment of the role which the black middle class was beginning to play', op. cit., p179. Not surprisingly, Nicholls ignores the massacre, the migration phenomenon and elite profiteering from the traffic.

Heinl , op. cit, p529; Pan American Union , 'Settlement of Dominican-Haitian controversy', Bulletin of Pan-American Union (March, 1938, Washington, DC); Juan Manuel García , 'Matanza de Haitianos; La prensa amordazada minimizó incidentes en la frontera' , Pt 4 Ahora (Vol. XX, no. 935 1981), pp40-5. The Indemnity is set forth in Bulletin des lois et actes (Port-au-Prince, année de 1938), Vol. I.

La République... op. cit, Vol. II, pp177, 310-16; also Jesus Galíndez La era de Trujillo (Santiago de Chile, 1956), p380; Ian Bell , The Dominican Republic ( Boulder, 1981 ), p45.

Dantes Bellegarde , 'Public education: special reference to Haiti', in Angel del Rio (ed.), Responsible Freedom in the Americas (New York, 1955), pp431-45.

John Lloyd Mecham , The United States and Inter-American Security, 1889-1960 (Austin, 1963 [ 1961]), pp174-76.

Elie Lescot , 'Address', Negro Quarterly (Vol. I. Spring, 1942), pp33-6.

M. Lemoine , Azúcar amargo: Hay esclavos enel Caribe (Santo Domingo, 1983), pp122-48; Caribbean Contact (June 1979 (Bridgetown, Barbados)), p18, reports some 300,000 Haitians living in crowded baracoons or batelles (bateyes) near sugar mills. The writer surveyed the province of Ouanaminthe, Haiti, during field work in 1979, observing activity along the then-militarised border, and learned from officials on both sides, including the Dominican consul at Cap Haitian, that as long as migratory flow continues, border crossings of the normal sort cannot be established, nor the border de-militarised. Powerless to affect the larger dynamic, diplomatic and military personnel in both countries were hyper-sensitive to references to the border issue.

Galindez , op. cit, p380; Osorio Lizarazo , Birth and Growth of anti-Trujillism in America (Madrid , 1958), pp26-30, 143.) Albert C. Hicks , Blood in the Streets: the life and times of a Caribbean dictator ( New York, 1946), pp103-13.