Haitian Horrors

Haiti must be the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, and one of the most unluckiest. I read two more Danticat books back-to-back which left me numb and angry.

The damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and other natural events is one thing. The pain inflicted by government abuse is outrageous. This isn't news, of course, but it's amazing how easy it is to turn a blind eye. Maybe it's impossible to keep your eyes wide open.

The Farming of the Bones is a novel that takes place straddling the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both countries are well-known for their dictatorships, many propped up by the U.S. government. Drownings, murders and starvation are the fate of the dirt-poor migrant workers who go to the DR for work. When they attempt to return to Haiti, the same horrors are perpetrated by Haitian forces.

Brother, I'm Dying is a memoir that follows Danticat from her early childhood in Haiti, where her family was relatively well-off, to her new life in the U.S. when she was 12. Her father went to the U.S. to find a better life,  her mother joined him a few years later, and the author and her brother made the journey years after that. While her parents were in the U.S., she and her brother lived with her uncle, to whom she became very close. It's the last part of the book that's heart-wrenching and anger-provoking. Read it and weep.