The Farming of Bones

     In our class Tuesday, we briefly talked about "anti-haitian racism" in the book The Farming of Bones. But throughout reading this book and watching that film Tuesday it has brought to my attention how much we have suppressed the importance of this "cleanse" or massacre of 1937. Many do not know that nearly 20,000 people were murdered during this massacre. Its so sad because growing up you hear of the horror of the holocaust, but not once have i ever heard of the 1937 Haitian immigration workers massacre. Both deal with the same thing, racism and dictatorship. This makes me think a lot of what Trouillot was taking about in Silencing the Past. The only History we know is what we are told, and if we are never told about it, then we will never know.  The silence of the 1937 massacre is a perfect example to me.

    Throughout this novel Edwidge Dandicat really uses this event as a background for the life and time period in which her main character Amabelle is living. By doing this I think it gives readers a more relatable story line to go off, coming from a personal story. Like our character from Freedom Papers Rosalie, Amabelle's story makes the events during this haitian racism time become more real by becoming more personal to readers. 

   We briefly talked about the importance of Senora Valencia's giving birth to twins. This event is important because it a perfect example of how strong the "anti-haitain racism" was during this time. Senor Pico had darker skin than Senora Valencia, and because most of the racism was based of skin tone, she was scared that her daughter might be mistaken as haitian. "My poor love, what if she is mistaken for one of your people?" ( Danicat 28) This is very significant to readers because it gives you a real perspective on just how harsh racism was in the Dominican Republic during this time. Learning about both Amabelle and Rosalies hard journey thru slavery, and racism makes me feel so lucky to be free from that. Reading these stories makes me feel like we take our freedom for granite.