Haitian-Dominican Counterpoint: Nation, State, and Race on Hispaniola

Haitian-Dominican Counterpoint: Nation, State, and Race on Hispaniola by Eugenio Matibag is an excellent introductory text to the study of Haitian-Dominican relations in a context not biased by nationalism. Seeking to understand the shared history of the island from the colonial era to the present without a thesis of conflict being the main theme, instead seeing economic, social, cultural, and political ties between the halves of the island as an 'articulated system' with counterpoints. Matibag's lens for viewing Haitian-Dominican relations are consequently less obscured by national bias, endeavoring to situate the island of Hispaniola in a framework that elucidates past, present, and future problems and solutions. In the end, Matibag endorses a view of Haitian-Dominican relations that sees each nation's right to the island, but ideally rooted in solidarity and mutual cooperation.

Beginning with the colonial era, Matibag clearly demonstrates how Spanish colonial policy and other factors (the conquest of the mainland, for instance) left colonial Santo Domingo prior to French settlement as underpopulated, marginal, and perfect for contraband trade. Indeed, the Spanish crown ordered the residents of island's western half to resettle on the eastern side, what is now the Dominican Republic, to stem the trade between rival European powers and colonists eking out a living. With this understanding of Haitian-Dominican relations stretching back to the colonial era, conflict and cooperation emerge as themes because the ranching economy of the sparsely settled Spanish colony needed a market for meat and hides, which the French colony of Saint Domingue provided in the late 17th and 18th centuries. This pattern of conflict and cooperation involved African slaves as agents and victims, as runaway slaves were welcomed to form maroon communities across the shifting border, just as the thriving Atlantic Slave Trade fueled smuggling of slaves in the Spanish colony. Hateros benefitted from the French colony's demand, slaves could benefit from using the Spanish colony as a sanctuary for protection from slavery, the Spanish crown could use maroons to destabilize the French colony, and the metropoles endeavored to take advantage of the situation and plot to rule the entire island.

As for the Haitian Revolution and the Haitian occupation of l'Est, Matibag attempts to have an unbiased approach that highlights both positive and negative outcomes. Toussaint abolishing slavery in Santo Domingo, for instance, is undoubtedly positive for Afro-Dominicans, as was the subsequent emancipation under the Boyer occupation. Land redistribution under Boyer, was also positive, although taxing the East to raise funds for the indemnity to France, the Code Rural (1826), the pressure on ecclesiastical bodies, the lack of funding for public education, and compulsory military service certainly did not help either side of the island. Nor were the 1805 invasion of the East under Dessalines, the repeated invasions by Soulouque, and the political structure of Haiti. However, Matibag adds needed nuance to the Soulouque invasions of the Dominican Republic, which, from the Haitian state's perspective, appeared necessary to prevent a European imperial power (and later, the United States) from establishing a foothold in Hispaniola and undermining Haitian sovereignty. From that point of view, one can see why every Constitution of Haiti (including Toussaint Louverture's 1801 Constitution for Saint Domingue) declared the island was "une et indivisible." Thus, Soulouque was partly motivated to repeatedly invade the Dominican Republic to make European powers think twice about intervening militarily, while at the same time it did contribute to US and European meddling and mediation. What is lost in the racist satirical political cartoons of the 1850s, however, is that Soulouque offered Dominican leaders the option for a type of confederation, but was turned down.

Throughout the Haitian occupation and the rest of the 19th century, 'Dominican' national identity was clearly weakened by the white elite's interest in being annexed by a European power to 'protect' themselves from Haitian rule and open themselves more fully to European investment and markets. Simultaneously, committed Dominican nationalists cooperated with Haitians, even going so far as to receive aid, sanctuary, and military support from the Geffrard government during the Dominican war against Spain (after requesting to be admitted as a colony again!). Geffrard, and successive Haitian governments all realized that to defend Haitian independence, defending Dominican independence would be necessary. Indeed, the notion of a 'federation' of independent Caribbean polities in the age of European colonialism throughout the Caribbean was something going around at the time of anti-colonial struggles in Cuba and Puerto Rico, too.

In addition to cooperating against the Spanish, Haitian-Dominican relations also reflected numerous alliances against the neighboring republic's government, often along the porous border, which remains a constant factor in Haitian-Dominican relations, despite pacts agreed to by leaders from each country. This collusion between Dominican and Haitian actors also included Trujillo's outright dominance and interference in Haitian politics, cooperative exploitation of the Haitian poor by both sides (such as the Haitian state essentially selling Haitians as an export commodity for the much needed labor in the growing sugar industry and agriculture of the DR, itself a product of increased US investment and corporate control accelerated by US occupation of the island). As Matibag observes, the ultimate commodification of Haitian bodies came from both governments of the island, the Haitian state (especially under the Duvaliers) enabling and actively profiting off the sale of Haitian labor, blood, and cadavers while the Dominican economy became dependent on the migrant labor while excluding said migrants from rights and integration.

Where Matibag lost it, however, was in the chapter on the Haitian presence in Dominican literature. It was uneven, given the lack of equal attention to the 'Dominican Other' in Haitian literature (assuming for the sake of this argument, there is a 'Dominican Other'). It was interesting on its own merit, but hardly relevant to the overwhelming focus of the text on Haitian-Dominican relations through political and economic relations. Sure, Matibag includes cultural dimensions of intra-island dynamics (such as religion, language, and music), but the literary emphasis in the aforementioned chapter was unnecessary because of a lack of equal attention to Haitian literary sources. In another chapter, Matibag mentions Danticat's The Farming of Bones, and there is some allusion to Haitian poet Viaud (and the inclusion of Haitian poetry in a collection of Dominican poetry), but an exploration of how Haitian poetry, novels, and other literary art forms conceive of the Dominican Republic would be a fascinating addition to the chapter (as well as provide some much-needed balance and nuance. Perhaps the chapter would have functioned better as sub-section of the chapter examining the long period (1929-1985) of dictatorships ruling the island, so that one can see how poets and novelists during the Trujillo years were not exclusively anti-Haitian or racist.

Matibag concludes the short text with coverage of the tumultuous post-Duvalier years, as Dominican dependence on Haitian labor, Haitian dependence on Dominican and other foreign lands for subsistence, and Dominican dependence on the US in a neoliberal world-system complicates contemporary issues in Hispaniola. Instances of cooperation appear (such as international health organizations on the border serving Dominicans and Haitians), just as anti-Haitianism, virtual slavery of Haitian braceros, unemployment, poverty, and environmental degradation substantiate Matibag's call for a committed solidarity between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo. Such a project must include democratization in Haiti (and by the same token, the Dominican Republic), which would challenge the traditional paradigm of a weak, undemocratic Haiti favoring Santo Domingo. As a result of more joint policy decisions and relations, Haiti and the Dominican Republic could, while still protecting the other's sovereignty and national identity, strive for industrialization. While Matibag seems to endorse a Puerto Rico-styled industrialization of Hispaniola through collaborative projects and state policies, the deeper economic and political question of confronting imperialism and neoliberal economic 'development' enforced by the US in the 21st century is largely ignored. So, while clearly a very detailed, informative overview of Haitian-Dominican relations, Matibag does not delve too deep into the uncertain future of the island, which leaves the groundwork for transnational collaboration up to the grassroots and popular classes in both sides of Hispaniola.