Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The author bravely tackles a tricky, thorny subject that (as you can see from one of the reviews below) is bound to offend many on the island of Hispaniola but in truth is not a condemnation of Dominican culture from a supposedly superior perspective. In point of fact, the author's lucid analysis of the interplay of race and identity on this small but historically seminal island has much to say about the unspoken interplay of race and identity in our own country and throughout the New World. One of the finest of the many rhetorical maneuvers on the part of Ms Wucker is a description of the many supernatural beings thought to inhabit the border between these two countries: blue-skinned ciguapas, the souls of dead Taino women who fled to these mountains to escape the rapacious Spaniards, and bien-bienes, the ghosts of escaped slaves whose cry inflicts all who hear it with perpetual melancholy. Through the clarity of her analysis, Ms Wucker shows us how the ghosts of European conquest and African slavery still haunt all of our cultures five centuries after Columbus.

We've needed a book that addresses Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the context of one another. Both keep cropping up in the news, and both keep trying to tear chunks out of each other. A meaningful study of the two nations together would make all the difference in the world in sorting out the important issues. But this isn't that book.

Oh, it's informative. It's also very close to being up to date, having been published in 1999. Wucker, who has written for Dominican newspapers in the U.S., knows whereof she speaks. But this book doesn't really treat both nations.

There's a great deal on the Dominican Republic. The convoluted history of the nation in the Twentieth Century has never been so eloquently explicated. It's a history of shifting alliances, powerful people, anger, justice, injustice, and more. And every bit of it helps in understanding the ins and outs of why so many Dominicans are coming to America and why we should care.

But Haiti glides by under the radar screen. Most of the material about Haiti in this book is actually about Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. The political information on Haiti seems to come almost entirely out of history books. Wucker travelled extensively in the Dominican Republic, but to judge by the contents of this book, she may have made one or two day trips across the border into Haiti, that's it.

Striking the balance between Dominican and Haitian issues is difficult, both on Hispaniola and in studies thereof. Ms. Wucker has tried to do so, and she's to be commended for that. Indeed, she's come closer to succeeding than anyone else in recent memory. However, this book is almost entirely one-sided, and just can't quite make the leap into usefulness.

I wish my review to stand as a rebuttal to the earlier mean-spirited and mis-informed commentary (all in caps, in true froth-at-the-mouth illiterate style) that is less of a genuine review and more of an ad hominem attack upon the author, her methods and her intentions.

First, my prejudice and qualifications.

I'm a former professional colleague of the author of Why The Cocks Fight. I've known the author Michele Wucker for about 11 or 12 years since we first worked together on a newspaper in the Dominican Republic and then later in New York for a Dominican newspaper. During that entire time I've watched her diligent and careful gathering of information and interviews for this book.

The most casual reading of the book will reveal genuine and deep affection for both the Dominican and Haitian people. Her book is clearly intended to illuminate and enrich the dialog between those people and to serve their best interests with the hope they will enjoy a better future. She offers no excuses for the failings of the United States in the past and present that have aggravated the problems of the people of Hispaniola. Likewise, she does not spare those in those two lands who have and continue to fail themselves and betray their own peoples. Most important of all, she does not make the mistake of offering some well-intentioned simplistic solution as a substitute for one that only those who must live with it can develop and employ.

The book does all of this in excellent style. One may, if one wishes, quibble about the significance of any single reported event compared to another event not mentioned. One may disagree with her emphasis or analysis. But her facts are solid and complete. Her language is rich and evocative.

As someone else has said, if you have any love of the island of Hispaniola and entertain any hopes for its future, this is the single most important book on the subject that has been published in recent times in this country or there.

The evergoing conflict between the Dominican Republic and Haiti has never been a subject that has captured the international community's attention, due to their third-world status and their political instability. Unlike the only other Caribbean island to be shared by two foreign powers (St. Martin/St. Maarten), Hispaniola's history has always been linked to the topic of race and culture. As a student of Latin American & Caribbean politics and culture, I discovered many hidden truths I never knew when I was living in the cultural melting pot know as New York City. This book gave me even a greater understanding of two communities that are so close in proximity, yet so far apart in everything else.

Ms. Wucker definately has done extensive research and has delved into the complexity of racial politics on this island. Her research is not biased (as one reviewer feels it is) but rich in truth. As an author myself, I have written a book that will be published in the near future on the political legacy a famous Dominican politician has left his country, and Ms. Wucker's research coincides with the same exact research I did.

Although the author is not Haitian or Dominican, it shouldn't matter because she has done a magnificent job. I always said "it sometimes takes an outsider to understand and resolve the problems of a place he/she has never lived in." Ms. Wucker's work validates this saying.

Whether you are in Miami's Little Haiti or in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhoods, or even in some faraway place that is not directly affected by either Dominican or Haitian immigration or politics, this should be a must read for all. By reading this book, you might have understand what U.S. President Ulysses Grant was thinking when he declined an offer to "purchase" the Dominican Republic shortly after the end of the Civil War.

Overall, this is an excellent book and a must-read for anyone who is interested in cultural or political studies in the Third World.

After living for almost 28 years in the Dominican Republic, I thought there was not much I could learn about the culture and peoples of Hispaniola, but Michele Wucker's Why the Cocks Fight has opened up a whole new chapter in my knowledge of this enchanting island. Her choice of the cockfights as a metaphore to illustrate the island's struggle through its five centuries of history, is a brilliant way to describe the complex dynamics at work in the two societies trapped within it.

For some of my fellow Dominicans, this book will be a tough drink to swallow, because Michele, in this well researched work, has confronted the ghosts that have haunted Hispaniola for 500 years of history, and that have bound together the paths of these two nations. In the early 1900's, Dominican poet Juan Antonio Alix, in his work "El Negro detrás de la Oreja" (The Black Behind your Ear) joked about how every Dominican, no matter how white the color of his skin, could find a black ancestor in his family. That is a truth that Dominicans do not want to face, and something that Michele has shown in her book.

Michele's accounts of the treatment of Haitian workers by the Dominican Sugar Cane Establishement is an accurate portrail of a situation which unfortunately roams over the heads of an otherwise friendly and sometimes naive Dominican population. But, as she well points out, the Haitians keep on crossing the frontier with the Dominican Republic, regardless of the abuses, because the alternative is the shark infested waters of the Atlantic ocean.

Why the Cocks Fight is a must read for anybody interested in Hispaniola, but also for those interested on the effects of immigration in the United States and the transformation of societies and cultures whose inhabitants have been exposed to the "american way".

I can't wait for her next book.

If you wish to learn how history is written in the Dominican Republic and why the Dominicans behave as they do, find the answer in this beautifully written and well researched volume. If you wish to separate fact from fiction in the beautiful island of Hispaniola, this is the book to buy.

Today there are few travelers to the Island of Hispaniola compared to other Caribbean Islands. For those of you looking for a travel log you would be better served with Bradt's "Haiti & the Dominican Republic". If your are looking for information on the history, culture and politicts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic then this is the most complete and accurate book I have found.

I'm a frequent traveler to Hispaniola and specifically to Haiti where I lead several missionary trips a year. People who go on these trips always have a lot of questions and my most FAQ's are; "Why are they so poor? Why doesn't their Government help? What is the US doing?", etc. Michele Wucker takes all this dirty laundry out and waves it for everyone to see. She offers objective comparison of the cultures and why there is so much strife. The book is a compassionate dialog of history, fact and folklore that I couldn't put down. She spares no one and provides an honest and (I think) accurate review of all three countries involved (Haiti, The Dominican Republic, and The United States).

Overall I consider this book an excellent exposition of a problem that both Dominicans and Haitians choose to ignore, by demanding that each country be looked at as a separate entity having no relation or relevance to the other. Having lived in Puerto Rico most of my life (my family emigrated from Europe when I was 3 years old), I have wondered what motivates so many Dominicans and Haitians to come to Puerto Rico and settle down. This book provided insights that are very incisive and intelligent. Ms. Wucker bravely tackled the subject of race and politics in Hispaniola (La Española, in Spanish) when in fact most Dominicans (in my experience) rather avoid the topic and push it into the background. It is a fact that most islands in the Caribbean (including Puerto Rico) rather identify themselves with the European power that colonized, while minimizing the influence of the African and native Indian population. I highly recommend this book because it gives an accurate description of "popular culture" in the Spanish speaking Caribbean islands.

I am finishing reading this book as I write this down. I am offended by the simplistic and anecdotal way in which Ms. Wucker describes all of us dominicans as criminals, racists, thieves, rum drinkers and "galleros"...Did she really meet some real, hard working and honest dominican families..?? Her book is almost entirely dedicated to collect the personal stories or anecdotes of haitians living (legally or not) in our country. What would you expect an illegal immigrant to say about his life anywhere in the world..?? And take this into the equation: they are not invading illegaly a rich country as the USA or France, but a country as poor as their own. What would you expect the reactions of the citizens of the invaded country to be??

If she wants to talk about slavery and human rights she should have concentrated on those countries that made Haiti what it is today. We dominicans did not make the haitians pay to France what today would be billions of US$ as compensation...And no matter what Balaguer (a tyrant that killed thousands of dominicans, members of my own family included) felt about Aristide, the majority of the dominican people were happy when he was elected as haitian president and sad when the USA took him down..Yes, because a little and poor country like ours can not take a president down, not even its own, if USA interests are involved. The USA gov't killed democracy in Haiti, imposed embargoes that made the haitian people poorer ( if this is possible) and conspired in every way they could to maintain the status quo, for the benefit of a white and mulatto minority. Let us put the blame where it belongs...Our Gov't was a puppet for the USA policy...I humbly suggest that for a true account of what happened you read "An unbroken agony" by Randall Robinson..

What the haitians braceros got paid in the cane fields is the same that the dominicans got. Their misery and our misery was and is the same. The fate of poor dominicans is the same as poor haitians...The problem is not racial, the problem is economic in its essence...but Ms. Wucker missed this point. Ours is a VERY poor country that can not possibly assimilate 2 million haitians without making us poorer and creating HUGE social problems...Imagine if France or the USA had to receive immigrants representing a 20%-30% of their populations...! What do you think would happen? What would be the reaction of the american or the french people?

In my 59 years I have never been to a cock fight. None of my friends or relatives go or went to what Ms. Wucker describes as a sort of national sport..I believe that not more than 10 to 15% of our population participate in this "sport"...Our national sport is baseball..Period. She also talks a lot about race, but it strikes me as strange that she mentioned that Francisco Pena Gomez the late leader of the PRD was attacked by Balaguer because of his suspected haitian origins and his very black skin, but she failed to mention that his dominican wife was a blue eyed dominican white woman and that senator Milagros Ortiz Bosch an important follower of Pena Gomez was also a blue eyed white dominican woman...I am a white dominican descending from spanish and french grandparents and I voted for Pena...and would do it again if he were alive...

And for Ms. Wucker's knowledge...the cultural differences between haitians and dominicans are HUGE...So huge that it is impossible for us to assimilate them..It is not because they are black...we also have a significant black population...Look at our baseball heros..!!

Our wish is that the international community (the rich countries that created and maintain the mess in Haiti), hides its hypocrisy for a while, "walk the talk" and help Haiti out of their poverty, because only then our two countries would be able to live side by side in peace...

Why The Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, And The Struggle For Hispaniola is a definitive, informative, insightful study of the longstanding tensions between Dominicans and Haitians on their shared island of Hispaniola. Michele Wucker carefully takes the reader through the dramatic and bloody history, and current political dilemmas of the two nations' hostilities. Close attention is paid to the features of Caribbean life that affect modern Hispaniola in its relations to the United States and American involvement in the conflicts between these two island-sharing neighbors. Why The Cocks Fight is an excellent addition to the literature and highly recommended reading for students of international studies in general, and the Caribbean-based national conflicts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in particular.