"Nationalism & the Politics of Historical Memory: Charlemagne Peralte's Rebellion Against U.S. Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1986" by Yveline Alexis has been an informative, academic defense of the legacy of Charlemagne Péralte in Haitian popular memory. Unlike Philippe Girard, whose condescending and brief analysis of the caco resistance to US Occupation reduces Péralte to a criminal and blames him and his followers for the prolonged Occupation (Haiti: The Tumultuous History), Alexis uses Haitian newspapers, oral history, and archival material from the US and Haiti to construct a more accurate (and compelling) narrative. Instead of being a criminal, Péralte was actually an educated man who occupied various civil and military positions, participated in the Revolutionary Committee with Rosalvo Bobo against US occupation, sought foreign assistance in ending US rule of Haiti, and led an organized band of guerrilla resistance to US marines and their gendarmes.
Alexis extends her analysis to the years after Péralte, too. She suggests that caco resistance (termed 'banditry' by US marines) continued up until the early 1930s, and places the post-occupation history of Haiti into a longer story of popular and oral history invoking Péralte's legacy as a defense of the Haitian nation. For anyone interested in Péralte or the cacos, this relatively short work is quite useful.
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