Massacre River

"Pedro takes heart, convinced that a deep human fervor can unite the people of the low land with those of the highland, just as the poetic areitos of the Golden Flower, the woman of the West, were carried in the quiver of the Cacique of the Cibao, the man of the East."

Massacre River, René Philoctète's novel on the 1937 Parsley Massacre along the Dominican-Haitian border, translated by Linda Coverdale, is an excellent example of the literary Spiralism movement, of which Philoctète helped pioneer. Although most of his writings consisted of poetry, this novel is full of poetic prose that personifies a Dominican guagua, fictionalizes Trujillo's motives as an impossible dream of conquering the Citadel, lists the sounds, colors, and physical attributes of the world to show a fully-fleshed frontier where Dominicans and Haitians lived cooperatively. Using the metaphorical couple of Haitian Adele and Dominican Pedro, who live in Elías Piña, a border town forever shattered by the massacre ordered by Trujillo, the author demonstrates how Haitians and Dominicans lived peacefully, exchanged goods, and, through numerous other residents, even shared land, family, and other resources. Racial and cultural distinctions, though present, were never enough to completely separate neighbors. 

The novel also satirizes Trujillo's myth of Dominican nationality, his attempt to 'whiten' the population, and the creation of the indio identity despite the obvious African ancestry of the Dominican population. Government propaganda, radio broadcasts, and Trujillo's supreme authority allow him to get away with this, just as the shadow of World War II, fasciscm, and US imperialism lingers in the background (the baseball game in Chicago is broadcast on the radio as the Massacre occurs, and Trujillo is likened to Hitler and Mussolini). Trujillo's crackdown on labor is also explored, since Pedro is a union organizer who seeks to combat the massacre and maintain the social cohesion that characterized the frontier before 1937. Thus, Trujillo's dictatorship is depicted as monstrous and a threat to Dominicans and Haitians alike, while the Haitian government profits off the misery of Haitians in Haiti and across the border (the non-response from Vincent's government is horrifically ridiculed by Philoctète, as Haitian officials in the capital party and gorge themselves while Haitians flee for their lives in the Dominican Republic. 

Philoctète accomplishes all of the above in a loosely structured story that, like a 'spiral,' moves back and forth in narration, plot, and characters. Hints of magical realism, foreshadowing, symbolism, madness, and moving, decapitated heads permeate the novel which heighten the dark themes of the novel, which is just as critical of Trujillo as it is of Vincent. Consequently, this is a difficult novel, but one which is full of promise, memory, and hope for a more harmonious Hispaniola. 

Favorite Quotes

"We acknowledge that we were a single people: the people of the island of Haiti."

"The Citadel fled further and further from Trujillo's dreams. But although the phantasm was frightened, the myth was holding its own. 

"There's no need for any more bulletins from the authorities. The whole affair is a done deal. The people have been told enough. The League of Nations will make a fuss, that's understandable, but after a few diplomatic formalities that haven't changed since Cyrus the Great; it will all be forgotten." 

"That every Haitian has a drum in his belly? Every Puerto Rican a fountain in his laughter? Every Cuban a sunbeam in his throat? Every Jamaican rum in his eyes? Every Dominican a heaven between his legs?

"For each Haitian decapitation at the border, a draught of Haitian blood at the masked ball, Field of Mars, Square of Heroes."

"Port-au-Prince didn't bother with ways or means of routine protocol. Or even bluffing, grandstanding, putting up a front. Port-au-Prince didn't go in for hypocrisy, swaggering, righteous wrath, curses, sanctimony, gloating: it was all the same to them, business as usual. An invoice, a bill."

"They have so many things in common, share so many similar wounds and joys that trying to distinguish between the two peoples violates their tacit understanding to live as one."