THE HAITIANS - HISTORY

"In Haiti the world is upside down, and there is no progress for this world right now." Desilus Nicolas

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Haitians lived under the oppression of two dictators named Duvalier, known as "Papa Doc" and his son "Baby Doc." In November, 1985, protests against "Baby Doc" took place all over Haiti, part of a popular movement called dechokaj (uprooting). By 1986, the instability there was so bad that the Reagan Administration feared the problems might spread to other Caribbean nations, so the U.S. helped force Jean-Claude into exile. During the three years after Baby Doc left the country, five different governments ruled the country, all military or military-backed. These rulers were as brutal as their Duvalier predecessors. The people longed for peace and a government that cared about their needs, but all they saw was violence.

There was one presidential candidate whom they thought could save them: a poor priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his political party Lavalas, meaning "cleansing flood" of promised reforms. He was elected President, sworn in in February 1991, and on September 30 of the same year was ousted by a military coup. He later returned and finished his term.

Aristide ran again for president in 2000 and won, but this time things were different. It looked as if the elections may have been rigged-by Aristide himself. And gradually, many Haitian people became disappointed with the man they saw as their country's savior. There was a sign of his changed personality in 2001. He gave his acceptance speech in French, the language of the aristocracy, not Haitian Creole, as he did when he won his first election. In response to criticism of the electoral process, the United States, the European Union, and other lenders held up some $500 million in aid and loans, charging that Aristide's government and Lavalas party had failed to reach a compromise with opposition parties. As time went on, it appeared that Aristide may have become as corrupt as the dictators who ruled before him.

Many of Aristide's promises to reduce poverty, feed the hungry, and provide jobs had not taken place. The country remained filled with poverty, starvation, unemployment, and lawlessness. In 2003, rebel armies threatened a coup, and the United States helped Aristide leave his country.

Today Haiti remains in flux, and its desparate people wonder what the future holds for them. The land can't support even small crops because the trees were logged out and erosion took away the topsoil. It's so bad that, if you look at some satellite weather maps, Haiti is brown. Rural Haitians tried moving to their capital city where a whole community of people in Port-au-Prince today lives in shacks they built on top of a garbage dump. The place is called Cite Soleil - "City of the Sun."

Haiti is the poorest country in our hemisphere. Many of the Haitians made their way across the waters of the Caribbean to find jobs and safety. They came to Immokalee and other places in the U.S. because there was work here, and peace.

THE HAITIANS - STORY

Celine Simeus is an older Haitian lady who used to come early for the Haitian Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe, therefore joining the last part of the English Mass. A girl named Evelyn and her little brother Marvin came with her. Evelyn told me Celine came to the end of the English Mass because she liked to hear me sing. Celine lived in a tiny apartment in a building on Immokalee's south side, not far from the Indian Casino. The first time I visited her, a teen-aged girl named Yves came with me to be my translator.

Celine greeted Yves and me with a delighted, happy smile, apparently thrilled that I had come to visit her. The room she lived in was about ten feet by twelve feet. There was a small hot plate on a counter in the back, serving as a stove, and a refrigerator stood next to the counter. She had a bathroom but I did not use it so I could not tell if it has a shower or not. A double bed filled most of the room, and there was a dresser where she had placed a small fan. There was no air conditioning and I doubt there was heat.

When we arrived, Celine asked Yves to position three chairs between her bed and the wall. Two of the chairs were small, like those used in schools for students in first or second grade, and the third was an adult-sized card-table chair. Celine put one of the pillows from her bed on the card-table chair, and motioned me to sit on that one. Then she and Yves sat on the child-sized chairs, facing me. There was very little room to move in there even without visitors, and we were close enough to touch, the whole time. I faced the side of her bed, looking at the wall behind it. Hanging there were her dresses for church, and her hats.

I had brought her some vegetables, and three scarves. She took these presents from me and gave me presents, too: a watermelon and a large bag of tomatoes. I protested about accepting them, but she insisted. Then she asked Yves to bring me a pot that was sitting on the little hot plate on the counter; it was left over, something made of pork and green vegetables, maybe turnips. It was her way of serving her guest something to eat. I took one bite from the pot with my fingers because she had not offered a plate or a fork. It was good, but a little bitter. I smiled and told her I liked it and Yves put it back on the stove.

Now we had completed the formalities of the visit: I had been given the best chair; we had exchanged presents; and I had eaten some of the food she offered. Celine sat facing me on the little grade-school chair with her hands folded in her lap, and told me about her life in Haiti.

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