Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the

Struggle for Hispaniola.

Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for

Hispaniola, by Michele Wucker. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.

The rooster, explains Michele Wucker, represents every aspect of

life in Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican

Republic and Haiti. Associated with politics, territory, sustenance, and

even the popular merengue, the cock both separates and unites Dominicans

and Haitians. In particular, the cockfight--in which pampered, specially

trained cocks are pitted against each other in a fight to the

death--symbolizes the violence that has plagued the two peoples since

the colonial period. At the same time, cockfighting binds Dominicans and

Haitians together in their devotion to the sport. Thus, the cockfight is

an appropriate motif for a study of these wary and often warring

neighbors.

The Spanish- and French-speaking peoples of judi sabung ayam Hispaniola have been at

odds since early in the seventeenth century, when Spain and France

played out the aggressions of the Thirty Years War on the Caribbean

island. As French influence grew in the area, the Spanish colonial

government encouraged white colonists to marry former slaves so that

their children would grow up Spanish and Catholic and thereby strengthen

Spain's hold. Nevertheless, by 1655 France had won western

Hispaniola (Saint-Domingue) permanently. Over the years, the two

colonies grew apart culturally and--at least, in terms of

attitude--racially. Santo Domingo became predominantly mulatto, while

Saint-Domingue distinguished carefully defined racial types--a

difference that continues to divide the nations today. Dominicans still

form a mulatto society, while Haitians divide blacks from mulattoes

using class as much as color as a criterion. In fact, the two peoples

are not so different from each other as they believe, argues Wucker.

Yet, Dominican racism toward Haitians has been manifest in some of the

country's most brutal policies.

Late in the eighteenth century, when Toussaint Louverture led Haiti

to independence, Spain and France once again vied for power on the

island. During the chaotic years that followed, revolutionary factions

fought among themselves, and even after borders were officially set,

hostilities continued to flare up periodically. The situation was

exacerbated by U.S. attempts to annex the Dominican Republic in order to

establish a strategic stronghold in the area. Indeed, during the

twentieth century, the U.S. sent troops to Hispaniola four times, twice

to the Dominican Republic and twice to Haiti. In the cockfight that

defines Dominican-Haitian relations, writes Wucker, the United States is

often "a gambling spectator, casting its fickle sabung ayam online support to
whichever side best serves its own interests."

American intervention has played into the hands of diverse

political elements, often the most violent. Wucker sees the vicious

dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo as a legacy of U.S. occupation, which

left bandar sabung ayam behind efficiently trained military officers both in Haiti and the

Dominican Republic. One of them was Trujillo. When the hard-drinking,

womanizing Trujillo was elected president of the Dominican Republic in a

sham election in 1930, Haitians had been trekking across the border to

cut sugarcane for years. However, the 1929 international financial

crisis caused a radical drop in sugar prices, and Haitian labor was no

longer needed.

The Dominican authorities adopted xenophobic policies and began

deporting Haitians, but Dominican nationals, who saw themselves in dire

economic straits and blamed the Haitians, were not satisfied. Trujillo

therefore came up with a more radical solution. Under his directives,

government soldiers rounded up Haitians and transported them like cattle

to killing grounds, where they were slaughtered and thrown into the

Atlantic. Wucker reports estimates of Haitian dead ranging from fifteen

thousand to thirty-five thousand. Trujillo tried to hide the facts from

international scrutiny by maintaining the fiction that Haitians

represented a real threat to his country and depicting himself as

"the savior of Dominican nationhood: Catholic, white, and oriented

toward Europe." If Haitians were not contained or eliminated,

affirmed Trujillo's minister of justice, the island would soon be

entirely black. Years later, Joaquin Balaguer, who became president of

the republic in 1960, was still repeating these anti-Haitian sentiments.

The Haitian president, Stenio Vincent, failed to take a strong

stand against Trujillo, which earned him the scorn of his countrymen and

provided ammunition for a coup. The plot failed, however, and Vincent

decreed martial law and ordered massive arrests. In the meantime,

Trujillo curried favor with the Haitian ambassador to Santo Domingo, the

light-skinned Elie Lescot, who shared his racial views and would later

become president of Haiti. Today, the racial and cultural rift continues

to exist. The world has cut off Haiti, and economic conditions in the

island republic are catastrophic. Starving Haitians continue to seek

relief in the Dominican Republic in spite of their neighbors'

scorn. Thousands more seek new lives in the United States.

Why should the cockfight between Haiti and the Dominican Republic

concern North Americansh Wucker reports that in the last twenty years,

one-eighth of the population of Hispaniola--Haitians and

Dominicans--have resettled in the United States. Their presence has

altered the makeup of our cities and affected our immigration and

welfare laws.

At times Wucker simplifies disturbingly, gets bogged down in the

anecdotal, or lets her biases get the better of her. Still, Why the

Cocks Fight is a thought-provoking book by a talented writer who is

passionate about her subject.

Critic, novelist, and short story writer, Barbara Mujica is a

professor of Spanish literature at Georgetown University. Her latest

book is Frida, a novel based on the tumultuous relationship between

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Frida is scheduled for publication in

November, by Overlook Press.