Haitian Americans

For more information on Haitian history and culture, seeVol. 2: Haitians.

OVERVIEW

There have been two major stages of Haitian immigration to America, the first in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the second in the late 20th century. Both stages were prompted by economic and political unrest in Haiti. The slave rebellion in 1791 in what was then the French colony of St. Domingue drove the first wave of refugees to the American coast, especially to the New Orleans area of Louisiana. After several more years of political upheaval, bloodshed, and general instability, the black general Dessalines declared himself the leader of the independent republic of Haiti and began slaughtering all remaining whites. Those whites who were able to escape, along with many free blacks and mulattoes, as well as some black slaves, fled to America.

The second stage of Haitian immigration to America occurred more recently, beginning in the late 1950s. This time Haitians were fleeing the brutal dictatorship of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who succeeded him. At first, those who left Haiti were mostly well-educated professionals who could afford airfare and who had particular skills that were considered "desirable" enough for the United States to allow them to immigrate. As a result, Haiti suffered a severe "brain drain," adding to its internal troubles. Conditions worsened in Haiti, and by the 1970s life had become intolerable for many Haitians of all social and economic classes.

Lacking the necessary financial resources, most Haitian refugees from the 1970s until today have been forced to take desperate measures to leave Haiti and enter the United States. Thousands have piled onto small boats in recent decades, risking their lives and sacrificing all of their possessions for a chance at a better life in the United States. The first Haitian "boat people" arrived in Florida in 1972. Despite efforts by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Coast Guard, boat people continue to arrive in the 21st century.

Some owners and captains of small boats in Haiti have made tremendous profits smuggling refugees across the hundreds of miles of water between Haiti and Florida, or across the much shorter distance to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Cuba does not welcome Haitian immigrants, so it is only a stopping place on the journey to freedom.) Haitian individuals and families sell all they have to raise the money for passage on a boat. The boats are small and overcrowded, conditions are miserable, and the risks are great. Boats capsize, or captains force the passengers overboard to avoid arrest as smugglers. Perhaps hundreds of Haitians have drowned within sight of the U.S. shore. In 1981, a boat carrying more than 60 Haitian passengers, two of them women with nearly full-term pregnancies, capsized only 50 yards off the coast of Florida. Some managed to swim to shore, but 33 drowned, including the two pregnant women (leading the medical authority to list the number of dead at 35). This was only one tragedy among many that continue to claim the lives of Haitian refugees.

In 1981, U.S. president Ronald Reagan ordered a number of measures to stop the flow of Haitian refugees into America, but Haitians have continued to risk their lives to gain entrance into the country. Unfortunately, the United States has failed to live up to that designation in the case of Haitian immigrants. The Immigration and Nationality (McCarran–Walter) Act of 1952 severely curtailed legal immigration from West Indian nations. Although U.S. immigration reform in 1965 removed some of the restrictions, it is still difficult for the majority of Haitians to achieve legal immigration status in the United States. Nor are they officially considered "refugees."

The nonrefugee status of Haitians is extremely controversial, provoking accusations of racism on the part of the INS. Cubans, who are mostly white and fleeing a left-wing dictatorship, are welcomed as refugees and even assisted by the U.S. government in their efforts to immigrate to the United States. Haitians, who are black and fleeing a right-wing dictatorship or, currently, desperate economic and unstable political conditions, are not. In any case, lacking legal or refugee status, Haitians must enter the United States "illegally," subjecting them to various forms of harassment and shutting them out of employment, housing, and other opportunities.

Many incoming Haitians, particularly "boat people," are arrested upon entering the United States and placed in city and county jails, federal prisons, or detention camps, such as the Krome Center in south Florida. They may be held there for a period of months or even years. Some sign papers that say they agree to return voluntarily to Haiti, after which they are promptly flown back to that country from which they sacrificed everything to escape. Others are forcibly deported. A number manage to evade the INS and live as fugitives in their new home. The lucky ones are granted legal immigrant status, often through sponsorship by church agencies or other social justice organizations.

The most recent wave of Haitian immigration to the United States was prompted by the violent takeover in 1991 of the first democratically elected government in Haiti. Jean-Bertrand Aristide became the first democratically elected president of Haiti in 1990, only to be overthrown eight months later by former Duvalier supporters. Coup leaders then set up a military dictatorship that ruled by force. Masses of Haitians swarmed to the sea to escape the regime. The United States placed embargoes on Haiti to pressure the military to surrender its control, creating even more hardship for the Haitian people. Starvation and malnutrition became rampant in Haiti. Finally, when the United States threatened a military invasion in 1994, the Haitian military dictatorship stepped down and Aristide was returned peacefully to the presidency. When his term ended in 1996, he was succeeded by René Préval. Préval was unable to organize elections and instead filled government positions with local officials who supported him and the Lavalas party. The Lavalas party swept the first round of elections in 2000, causing the opposition to join together and boycott the second round, leaving Aristide a clear path to the presidency in 2001. But it was not to last for long: in 2004 Aristide was forced to resign and went into exile in Africa. With the help of the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations (UN), Haiti established an interim government and then held free and clean elections in February 2006. Préval was elected to serve as president again and chose Jacques-Edouard Alexis to once again serve as his prime minister. The UN Stability

Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), established in 2004, remains in the country to assist in peacekeeping and continued democratic freedom.

Conditions in Haiti remain extremely difficult, however. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and is one of the poorest in the entire world. Economic development is proceeding very slowly, and political stability has yet to be established securely. Despite their lack of welcome in the United States, Haitian refugees continue to make their way to America, hoping for a better life, even if it is as an illegal alien.

Although Louisiana was the preferred destination for Haitian immigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries, only 1,010 Louisiana residents claimed Haitian ancestry in the 2000 U.S. Census. The largest Haitian populations today are in Florida (233,881) and New York (160,319), with a fair number also in Massachusetts (43,576) and New Jersey (39,902). The Miami, Florida, area has one of the greatest concentrations of Haitians in the United States (95,669 in 2000). Haitian immigrants have even created a "Little Haiti" section of Miami. According to the U.S. Census, the total Haitian American population has doubled in the past 10 years, reaching 548,199 in 2000 from 289,521 in 1990. Two-thirds of Haitian Americans (361,731) are foreign-born. Because so many Haitian immigrants are considered illegal aliens and are either in detention centers or in hiding, however, U.S. Census figures are undoubtedly quite low. It is impossible to know for certain just how many Haitian Americans live in the United States today.

Haitians, both those who immigrated to America and those who stayed in Haiti, had a tremendous influence on American culture in the 1800s. Those who came to the United States brought with them their French and Creole culture. The population of New Orleans increased from 4,446 in 1791 to 8,056 by 1797, mostly through the influx of Haitian refugees. Because they generally had more education and training than the colonists already there, the Haitians rose quickly to the upper ranks of society and shaped that society in significant ways.

The majority of Haitian refugees in the 19th century were Catholic. This is one reason they chose to settle primarily in Louisiana. As a sometime-French, sometime-Spanish colony, the dominant religion was Catholicism, as opposed to the fiercely Protestant character of the English colonies. Haitian Creole Catholics, and later Cajun Catholics, created a French Catholic flavor to Louisiana, especially New Orleans. The festival of Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"), a Cajun-Creole celebration preceding the beginning of Lent, is still a major annual event, drawing visitors from all over the world to New Orleans every February.

Many Haitian refugees today practice Vodou (also known as Voodoo), a blend of African folk religion brought to Haiti by the original African slaves, and the Catholicism of the slave owners. Vodou is predominantly concerned with appeasing the many spirits that rule nature. Ancestor worship is also of central importance. Voodoo has been inaccurately popularized in American culture as black magic, where pins are stuck into dolls and people are cursed or turned into zombies. In fact, Vodou practitioners use herbal remedies and a form of psychology interpreted as exorcism to bring people back into balance.

Early Haitian immigrants had many other effects on Louisianan society and culture. Louisiana is the only state in the United States today that continues to base its legal system on the Code Napoléon (a code of laws written by Napoleon Bonaparte); other states use English Common Law. Music, food, and architecture all show strong Haitian influences in Louisiana and other places in the South where Haitians settled (such as Charleston, South Carolina). These influences have since spread throughout general American culture. For example, the basic structure of blues singing—an introductory couplet that is repeated, with the theme then developed around the couplet—is based on Haitian folk music. Certain drums and rhythms, as well as the banjo, were introduced into American music by the Haitians. Creole cooking has become quite popular in mainstream American society. "Shotgun" houses (one room wide and several rooms deep with doors at both ends) were introduced by black artisans from Haiti in the 19th century and are identical to houses still found in Haiti today.

Perhaps most importantly, the successful slave revolt in Haiti seriously influenced both white and black Americans. White Americans became extremely fearful of a similar revolt occurring in the United States and strove to prevent their black slaves from gaining enough education or organization to consider rebellion. Many white Americans were also afraid that emancipating slaves in the United States would lead to a black insurrection (once free, they would take over). Black Americans saw the Haitian revolt as proof that blacks were indeed capable of self-rule. As the first independent black nation in the western hemisphere, Haiti became a symbol of pride for blacks in America.

Haitian refugees of the 18th and 19th centuries adapted quickly to mainstream American society with relatively few difficulties. This has not been the case for 20th and 21st century Haitian refugees. Classified as "illegal" by the INS, held in prisons and detention camps or forced to live as fugitives, and suffering from physical and mental health problems resulting from malnutrition, overcrowded conditions, and trauma, most recent Haitian refugees have found it difficult to survive—let alone thrive—in America. Those who are granted "legal" immigrant status often lack the language and job skills to succeed in the industrialized United States. A sizeable number end up working as migrant farm workers (as do many "illegal" Haitian immigrants), a scant improvement over their former lives in Haiti.

Some Haitian Americans have managed to create successful lives in the United States, including musicians Wyclef Jean and Joanne Borgella (featured on Season 7 of American Idol), and writers Edwidge Danticat and W. E. B. DuBois. Josaphat Celestin was the first Haitian American to be elected mayor of Miami, Florida, serving from 2001 to 2005.

Homosexuality is not accepted by the majority Catholic and Evangelical Protestant population in Haiti or among Haitian Americans. The widespread practice of Vodou, however, allows for more fluid expressions of sexuality and gender, giving Haitian and Haitian American homosexuals and transvestites a place to be themselves without suffering ostracism. Being a Haitian American homosexual, however, carries with it a double difficulty in the United States: not only is homosexuality not tolerated by many in American society, but there is a historical tie between the AIDS epidemic and Haiti. Due to the prevalence of HIV infection among Haitian immigrants in the 1980s when HIV/AIDS was first recognized in the United States, Haitians were included in the "high risk groups" for infection. Although U.S. policy later changed to list high risk activities rather than groups, Haitians continue to carry the stigma of AIDS.

A new study of gene sequence mutation and evolution published in 2007 reaffirmed the hypothesis that the U.S. strain of HIV, subtype B, originated from Haiti, though years earlier than previously suspected, sometime around 1969. According to this study, the original HIV infection of this strain came to Haiti from Africa around 1966, spread and mutated in Haiti for three years, then migrated to the United States with a Haitian visitor or immigrant. Many Haitian Americans are outraged that this supposition of Haitian origin for HIV/AIDS in the United States has resurfaced. To them it is not just a scientific study aimed at helping create effective vaccines for the HIV/AIDS virus but an accusation that they are carriers of a deadly disease. The stigma that resulted in the 1980s in Haitian Americans losing their jobs, non-Haitian friends, and the ability to carry on a normal life in society is being revisited upon them 20 years later.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gilbert, M. Thomas P., Andrew Rambaut, Gabriela Wlasink, Thomas J. Spira, Arthur E. Pitchenik, and Michael Worobey. "The Emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and Beyond." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 31 October 2007, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/47/18566 (4 May 2008).

Hunt, Alfred N. Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.

Miller, Jake C. The Plight of Haitian Refugees. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1984.

Kretsedemas, Philip, Ana Aparicio, Ronald Walters, and Kalyani Rai. Immigrants, Welfare Reform, and the Poverty of Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004.

Portes, Alejandro, and Ruben G. Rumbaut. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001.

"Protests Erupt Across Haiti as Leaders Push Austerity." New York Times. (17 January 1997).

Stepick, Alex, Guillermo Grenier, Max Castro, and Marvin Dunn. This Land Is Our Land: Immigrants and Power in Miami. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

Tasker, Fred, and Jacqueline Charles. "AIDS Study Spurs Haitian Outrage." Gay South Florida, in Miami Herald,http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2007/10/aids-study-spur.html (3 May 2008).

Tekavec, Valerie. Teenage Refugees from Haiti Speak Out. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1995.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. American Factfinder. http://fact-finder.census.gov (28 April 2008).

—by D. K. Daeg de Mott