As a child, I lived in Bani, Dominican Republic on an expansive and tranquil ranch just 4 hours from the border of Haiti. I traveled back and forth to this island all through high school and college. As a young adult I went twice a year to see my grandmother and family in Santo Domingo until Mama Lina died in 2006. I knew the struggles the Haitian people endured but I was always concerned for my people who cared for us and for my grandmother, the Dominican people of the campo “who struggle like the haitians” I would always say.
I turned a blind eye to Haiti in church, in the news because once you’ve live in the middle of abject poverty you become immune to it. Or that is what I would say when friends would travel to the DR and talk about the children begging for food at every traffic light in the capital.
Also the Dominicans and the Haitians have a long history of discord. You have surely seen the post earthquake news about Haiti turning away Dominican troop support… But when I met tommy who was born in Puerto Rico but whose family is from the french caribbean island of Dominica I started studying. About the creole language which his family speaks and which originated in Haiti. About West African tribes that came through Hispañola (now Haiti and DR) during the slave trade and then were funneled out to the other islands and then sold back and forth, their ancestry cut away with every trade. I had heard there are ways to repair the cuts and trace ancestry. I wanted to see if I could undo the tangle of Tommy’s ancestry for our babies that don’t even exist yet so that I can tell them the story of their heritage on a more personal note.
I know mine. I am descended from Europeans on both sides who had lots of spare time to talk about and write down where they came from. Even though Tommy was not born in Haiti and his people do not come from Haiti, Tommy’s ancestors live in the spirit of every living and dead human soul in Haiti.
His ancestors and ALL ancestors of every Afro Caribbean in all the islands of the Caribbean had ancestors who passes through the island of Hispañola. If we live in America, North, Central or South, it is because Hispañola was the ideal treasure that Europe lusted after. It is the foundation of the New World and it needs our attention and continued support. It is both sides of my heart and soul even if I shunned one side for much of my life. As an international community, we can come together and help the foundation of the New World heal and solidify. It took an Earthquake and hundreds or thousands of deaths to see the beauty that was right next door all along. I will do my part to help make up for all this lost time.





Yesterday, South Carolina governor, Mark Sanford, announced, after being out of touch for a week, that he had been with his Argentinian mistress in Buenos Aires. Once the news broke, media began to speculate about his career in politics. This morning, The Today Show interviewed the former governor of New Jersey, Jim McGreevey, about this latest gubernatorial scandal.
