Last Wednesday, the Haitian American Cultural Society and the Consul General of Haiti recognized non-Haitians of merit in a very special way: with honorary Haitian citizenship. Among the honorees, most notable were Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, and Congresswoman Carrie Meek. For Meek, the recognition has added historical significance.
The dramatic vision and delicate balance of composition found in Adona's photographic works were developed while working with painter Rozzell Sykes. Her vision was literally changed. The awareness of light, shadows, colors, textures, tones and balance had changed. Soon she began creating with paint, stark images with the feel of Japanese simplicity. [Alisa Adona]'s paintings showed a freshly textured view and an exciting new eye in the Los Angeles art world. Over time, she was compelled to capture what she saw through the lens of a camera, ultimately making photography her new love.
Ms. [Adona] is a photographer utilizing the visual medium to tell stories of cultures from around the world, with the hope of creating a better understanding of diverse people through the visual arts. Last summer Ms. Adona introduced "CUBA, Reflections of Life" during a speech at the United Nations in Geneve, Switzerland, where she spoke on the necessity utilizing a single, powerful image to tell the story of a nation.
-, An editorial asserts that the Chicago Defender joins the Congressional Black Caucus, the Miami Branch of the NAACP and Rep Carrie Meek in denouncing a Bush administration directive requiring INS officials to arbitrarily detain Haitian refugees seeking asylum in the US.
On January 1, 1804, Gen. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, proclaimed to the world that his country, henceforth to be called Haiti, was free and independent. Previously dominated by France since buccaneers settled there in 1697, the small Caribbean island, whose eastern portion was under Spanish rule, had become an important slave colony. The slaves were imported from Africa and lived a harsh reality in comparison to the minority white slaveholding population. In 1789, Santo Domingo, as France called the colony, consisted of 450,000 enslaved Blacks, 40,000 whites, and 28,000 free Blacks and mulattos. The death rate for the enslaved population was high: While more than 800,000 Africans had been enslaved in the colony in the 1700s, only 450,000 survived in 1789. In 1791 a slave rebellion under the leadership of Vodou priest Boukman sparked a revolution that lasted thirteen years, culminating in independence in 1804. Toussaint L'Overture was the primary leader among the enslaved population, playing France against the British and Spanish, as he maneuvered the struggle closer to independence. However, in hoping to maintain a friendly relationship with France, L'Overture was deceived and placed in the French gallows upon an invitation to France. His able subordinates Dessalines and Henri Christophe, however, continued the liberation effort achieving independence and eventually driving all whites off the island nation.
Congressman Charles B. Rangel (D-Harlem), who was instrumental in obtaining a license from the U.S. Treasury Department on behalf of the NAACP delegation for the trip to Cuba, hailed the planned trade link with Black farmers. Rangel said he considers the results of the NAACP's Cuba visit "an important breakthrough." Rangel is a longtime advocate of U.S. trade with Cuba, arguing that removal of the U.S. embargo would promote democracy in Cuba.
Tanya Quintero, a light-skinned mulatta and prominent independent journalist in Havana, said she was not aware of racial discrimination until she had a daughter with darker skin the than she. Suddenly, some of her friends referred to her child with a Spanish phrase that literally translates as "sour or dark stomach" but figuratively is slang for "a child who comes out darker than her mother," she said. Lighter-skinned children later made fun of her daughter for being a "marron," brown. Also the millions of dollars in "remittances" that Cubans in the United States and elsewhere send their relatives back on the island very year reach few "black" Cubans because more than 90 percent of the exiles are "white." As a result, the long-standing economic gap between darker and lighter Cubans widens. I use quotation marks around "black" and "white" because the terms don't mean the same as they do in the United States, with our traditional "one-drop rule." Race in Cuba, as in the rest of Latin America, is somewhat fluid: You are pretty much what you say you are, even within the same family.
3) Spanish and other European immigrants that were encouraged to settle in Cuba as per attempts to "bleach" the island. This was the first time anything like this was seriously proposed since Haiti earned its independence. This is important to note because the "spectre" of Haiti loomed ominously over Spanish and Cuban whites for a century and most of their policies towards Cuba's Blacks were reflective of it. The following year, the Cuban Ward Connerly of his day, Martin Morúa Delgado was elected Speaker in Cuba's Senate. The year after that, Morúa introduced legislation that became known as the Morúa Amendment and it outlaws the PIC because is was based on race and racism was supposedly eradicated in Cuba. Just before the vote was taken to enact this bill into law, Estonez and other PIC leaders were imprisoned and were kept in jail until after the law was passed.
An effervescent Dr. Claire Nelson, the ICS founder and president, beams with excitement about this year's honoree line-up that underlines the Caribbean excellence that helps build the United States and the wider world. Of Greenbelt, Maryland-based engineer [Robert Rashford]'s "one-of-a-kind inventions" for the NASA space program, Nelson bubbles: "Most of us dream about space... but he is working on equipment that is sent up on the Space Shuttle." Fae Ellington an enduring actress and radio, television and comedy personality in Jamaica, is hosting the evening's affair, which returns to the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C. Among the other Caribbean celebrities on the program-Washington's WJLA-TV news anchor Maureen Bunyan and New York-based Jamaican author Colin Channer. The latter's novel, "Waiting in Vain," copped the Washington Post's 1998 Critic's Choice award. The Institute of Caribbean Studies is a non-partisan, non-profit organization established in 1993, with a mission to conduct research, policy analysis and education focussed on issues that impact the Caribbean diaspora in the United States. ICS works with scholars, the private sector, NGO community, and US and Caribbean public sector- and other interests to promote dialogue on Caribbean issues. The ICS is at present operated by an all-volunteer staff.
On August 11th, the Mayor will march in New York City's largest Dominican parade in Manhattan, which will celebrate the anniversary of The Restoration of the Dominican Constitution on August 16, 1863, when a group of patriots led by Santiago Rodriguez crossed the Dominican border from Haiti and raised the Dominican flag. The other two Dominican parades were held in the Bronx and in Brooklyn earlier in July. The reception included music by "king" of the merengue sound Oro Solido, children performing traditional folk dancing, and was attended by elected officials and representatives of the Dominican community.
Let me say this again: The Haitian community is not going anywhere. Instead, the Haitian community is looking ahead, to move forward to a better community. We welcome people from different ethnic backgrounds to come and join us in our efforts to move forward. If you don't want to or cannot help the Haitian community to overcome the economic adversity we face, at least don't spread rumors trying to create a false division between the Haitian and Black American communities.
"It was shocking to see the changes made," [Marleine Bastien] told The Times. "The U.S. does not have the capacity to detain all persons that make it to this country. This policy mainly targets Haitians." The U.S. Department of Justice released a statement which said, "Rumors of successful entry into the United States have fueled migration surges, and any perception of a relaxing U.S. immigration policy could cause future migrations at sea ... "Miami Immigration and Naturalization Services Chief of Staff John Shewairy said the revisions have been designed to deter large numbers of Haitians from migrating to the U.S. He told The Times that detention of the asylum-seekers who arrived by boat on Oct. 29 is an effort to thwart "smuggling" of migrants from Haiti.
Arbitrary detention of Haitian refugees should not be part of U.S. foreign policy. Minors should not be held captive, nor should any of the refugees be denied due process or the right to legal representation. In the past, all Haitian refugees were considered economic refugees. Today, even the president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is claiming that he is being persecuted. While the U.S. Special Forces and the State Department are busy chasing Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, on the island nation of Haiti, a powerful and deadly drama is unfolding. Mob killings of reporters and shootouts in broad daylight between mayors and congressmen have become common occurrence.
Protesters gathered at the corner of 64th Street and 22nd Ave., carrying yellow placards reading "Stop Using Black Men as Target Practice," and "Free Haitian Refugees." "If we can't vote people in the positions to do the right thing then we have no other alternative than to protest," said [Lorraine Goddard], who held a sign that read "No Justice, No Transit Tax." "We demand that the police who have been guilty of killing our youth be prosecuted and put in jail," said Mel Reeves, an organizer with the coalition. "We also demand that they free the Haitian refugees who are being held in the Chrome detention center."
A trade accord spearheaded by the NAACP worth $1.5 billion between the Cuban government and black farmers was heralded on Nov 17, 2002 by the Rev Al Sampson, who called the accord an "international window of opportunity" for African Americans. Sampson, who works with African American farmers, said this agreement gives black farmers an "international window" through Cuba into the Caribbean.
It may also have helped English-speaking migrants from the Caribbean that Florida served as a broad entry point for Caribbean migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and other countries: Where an area has a strong tradition of immigration, prevailing social attitudes are not likely to be as parochial as those in traditionally closed communities. Again, this is not to minimize the difficulties that particular migrants have faced; it is to acknowledge the fairly obvious point that some communities are less impenetrable for outsiders than others. A recent study by the British Cabinet Office has found that Caribbean women constitute a significant success story at the professional level. Specifically, for the generation born between 1940 and 1959, as many as 45 percent of the black women from the Caribbean, or who are of Caribbean heritage, now hold professional or managerial jobs, as against 27.3 percent of the black men in the same category. For the generation born between 1960 and 1979, 38.1 percent of the black women with Caribbean roots are professionals or managers, in comparison with 28.6 percent of the black men. These figures warn us that gender is now a significant factor in determining the prospects of Caribbean migrants to Britain, and they highlight the need for a broader examination of the factors that determine success for those who, in Claude McKay's words, may find themselves "a long way from home."
Talk to Richard Lue and it becomes clear that not nearly enough Caribbean people are heading `home'. Neither are enough African Americans trying to discover the Caribbean, although their connection with the culture has long been established in the U.S. That's why Lue was appointed Air Jamaica's regional manager for special markets in the southern U.S. Another Air Jamaica representative has been given similar responsibilities for the northern states. "It wasn't neglect," said Lue. "It just wasn't accountability. We've always been there. The problem was internally. We feel we can get more out of that (Caribbean) market." "To me it's no big deal," he said. "The problems in Jamaica are serious, but Jamaica has never been an easy sell. But it is a challenge. It is because of 9/11 that we realized we had to diversify our markets and give importance to all the markets. The challenge is there, but we just have to deliver."
Amid the flurry of designations by the media, law enforcement officials, and advocacy organizations--terms ranging from "migrants" to "asylum-seekers" to "economic refugees"--one thing was clear. The people aboard that boat had fled desperate conditions for safe harbor in the U.S. What awaited them when they touched land was then, and remains, a matter of great contention. When asked about the implications of the designation "migrant," Miami field office INS public relations officer Barbara Gonzalez said that in the context of INS policy, "There is really no such thing as a migrant." She said, "Many use the word," when the correct terminology for what they intend is "non-immigrant." How about the terms "alien" and "refugee?" Amnesty International notes that the term "alien" has been used in U.S. legislation to describe various types of non-citizens, including those Amnesty would call "asylum-seekers." Similarly, the INS describes an alien as any non-citizen or national of the U.S.
