“El exceso de población de Haití constituye, por tanto, una amenaza
creciente para la República Dominicana.”
-- (Joaquín Balaguer, La isla al
revés: Haití y el
destino dominicano)
“The excess of inhabitants from Haiti constitute, therefore, a growing
threat for the Dominican Republic.”
-- (Joaquín Balaguer, The Inside
Out Island: Haiti and the Dominican
Destiny)
The Afro/Latin American
Research Association (ALARA) is fully committed to the promotion of ethnic and
racial equality. To that end, ALARA
finds the 30 September 2013 Ruling Sentence 168/13 of the Constitutional Court
of the Dominican Republic to revoke citizenship from thousands of people of
Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic to be an aggressive and
egregious act of anti-Haitian sentiment, xenophobia, and racism.
This recent change to
national policy and its incumbent ripple effect on this population’s ability to
access social services and the public education system are uncomfortably
similar to the words written by seven-time Dominican president Joaquín Balaguer
in his 1983 anti-Haitian diatribe, “La isla al revés: Haití y el destino dominicano.” ALARA considers Balaguer’s book to be a
thinly veiled anti-Haitian manifesto intended to rest the Dominican Republic’s
social, political, and econonic ills squarely at the feet of Haitians and those
of Haitian descent residing near the border between the two countries.
