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Ugly History: The 1937 Haitian Massacre - Edward Paulino

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When historians talk about the atrocities of the 20th century, we often think of those that took place during and between the two World Wars. But two months before the Rape of Nanking in China, and a year before Kristallnacht in Germany, a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign occurred on an island between the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Edward Paulino details the 1937 Haitian
Massacre.

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Edward Paulino
  • Director Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Animator Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat
  • Composer Cem Misirlioglu, Brooks Ball
  • Associate Producer Elizabeth Cox, Jessica Ruby
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • See more
Additional Resources for you to Explore
This article, 80 Years On, Dominicans And Haitians Revisit Painful Memories Of Parsley Massacre will provide more information about this massacre and its long-term effects on the people in the area. How can someone who pronounces the word "parsley" differently than another person end up being the victim of a massacre? Click here and learn more about this horrific story.

How are the relations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti today? This article and audio recording from NPR will answer this question! What is this border like today? Click here and find out.

What else is happening today on the island of Hispaniola? This article might offer some insight into this! The Dominican Republic and Haiti: one island, two nations, lots of trouble is also another resource to consider.

This book written by the educator also addresses the massacre, along with the following titles: 

Alexis, Jacques Stephen. General Sun, My Brother. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1999.

Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Press, 2010.

Baud, Michel, Roberto Cassá, Raymundo González, and Pedro San Miguel, eds. Política, identidad y pensamiento social en la República Dominicana siglos xix y xx. Madrid: Dos Calles, 1999.

Bickel, Keith B. Mars Learning: The Marine Corps Development of Small Wars Doctrine, 1915–194 0. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.

Calder, Bruce. Impact of Intervention: The Dominican Republic during the U.S. Occupation of 1916 –1924. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1984.

Candelario, Ginetta E. B. Black behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.

Castor, Suzy. Migraciones y relaciones internacionales: el caso haitiano-dominicano. Mexico City: Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos, 1983.

Chez Checo, José. La República Dominicana y Haití: Síntesis histórica de su problema fronterizo. Santo Domingo: Colección Historia Total, 1997.

Complete Presidential Press Conferences of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Vols. 9–10, 1937. New York: Da Capo Press, 1972

Cuello Hernández, José Israel. Documentos del conflicto domínico-haitiano de 1937. Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1985

Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones. New York: Soho, 1998.

Derby, Lauren. The Dictator’s Seduction: Politics and the Popular Imagination in the Era o f Tr u j i l l o. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.

Derby, Lauren. “Haitians, Magic, and Money: Raza and Society in the Haitian–Dominican Borderlands, 1900–1937.” Comparative Studies in Society and History (July 1994): 488–526

Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead Trade, 1998.

Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004

Franco, Franklin J., Historia del pueblo dominicano. Vol. 2. Santo Domingo: Editora Ta l le r, 19 9 2 .

Fumagalli, Maria Cristina. On the Edge: Writing the Border Between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press, 2015.

Galíndez, Jesús de. The Era of Trujillo: Dominican Dictator. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1973.

García, Juan Manuel. La Matanza de los haitianos. Genocidio de Trujillo, 1937. Santo Domingo: Alfa and Omega, 1983

García Peña, Lorgia. The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation, and Archives of Contradiction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.

Geggus, David R., ed. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2001

Hoetink, Harry. The Dominican People 1850–1900. Notes for a Historical Sociology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.

Howard, David. Colouring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic. Oxford: Signal Books Limited, 2001

Inquiry into Occupation and Administration of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Statements by Haitians and Dominicans, and U.S. Senators. U.S. Senate Hearings before a Select Committee on Haiti and Santo Domingo, 67th Congress, 1st and 2nd Session,
1922.

Jimenes-Grullón, J. I. Dos actitudes ante el problema domínico-haitiano. El sentido de una política (la voz de la tiranía de Trujillo). Havana: Unión Democrática Anti-Nazista Dominicana, 1943.

Lockward, Alanna. Un Haití dominicano. Tatuajes fantasmas y narrativas bilaterales (1994 –2014). Santo Domingo: Editorial Santuario, 2014.

Lozano, Wilfredo. La cuestión haitiana en Santo Domingo: Migración internacional, desarrollo y relaciones inter-estatales entre Haití y República Dominicana. Miami, FL: FLACSO, 1992.

Manley. Elizabeth S. The Politics of Paternalism: Women and the Politics of Authoritarianism in the Dominican Republic. Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 2017.

Martínez, Samuel. “Not a Cockfight: Rethinking Haitian-Dominican Relations.” Latin American Perspectives 30, no. 3 (May 2003): 80-101.

Mateo, Andrés L. Mito y cultura en la era de Trujillo. Santo Domingo: Librería Trinitaria e Instituto del Libro, 1993.

Martinez-Vergne, Teresita. Nation and Citizen in the Dominican Republic, 1880–1916. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Mayes, April J. The Mulatto Republic: Class, Race, and Dominican National Identity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2014

Moya Pons, Frank. The Dominican Republic: A National History. New York: Hispaniola Books, 1995

Nessler, Graham T. An Islandwide Struggle for Freedom: Revolution, Emancipation, and Reenslavement in Hispaniola, 1789-1809. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

Paulino, Edward. Dividing Hispaniola: the Dominican Republic’s Border Campaign against Haiti, 1930-1961. Pittsburgh, PA: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016.

Peguero, Valentina. The Militarization of Culture in the Dominican Republic, from the Captains General to General Trujillo. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

Prestol Castillo, Freddy. El masacre se pasa a pie. Santo Domingo: Editora Taller, 1973.

Price Mars, Jean. La República de Haití y la República Dominicana. Diversos aspectos de un problema histórico, geográfico, y etnológico. Vol. 1. Puerto Principe: Industrias
Gráficas España, 1953.

Ramirez, Dixa. Colonial Phantoms: Belonging and Refusal in the Dominican Americas, from the 19th Century to the Present. NY: New York University Press, 2018.

Renda, Mary A. Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915–194 0. Durham, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Roorda, Eric Paul. The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1945. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998.

Sagás, Ernesto. Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2000

San Miguel, Pedro L. The Imagined Island: History, Identity, and Utopia in Hispaniola. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Simmons, Kimberly Eison. Reconstructing Racial Identity and the African Past in the Dominican Republic. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009

Suarez, Lucía M. The Tears of Hispaniola: Haitian and Dominican Diaspora Memories.
Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006.

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.

Turit, Richard. The Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

Vargas Llosa, Mario. La fiesta del chivo. Madrid: Alfaguara, 2000.

Vega, Bernardo. Nazismo, fascismo, y falangismo en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 1986.

Vega, Bernardo. Trujillo y Haití. Vol. 1. Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 1988.

Wucker, Michele. Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola. NY: Hill and Wang, 2000.
TED-Ed
Lesson Creator
New York, NY
What is your suggestion on how to “heal the wounds of the past” between these two countries?
11/20/2017
Avatar for Ahammed Jafar Saadique
Ahammed Jafar Saadique • LESSON IN PROGRESS

It is really one island and two nations. So I think something should be done on the international level to unite these two countries. And also the families and the survivors should be given what they deserve.

01/26/2018
Avatar for Michael Murphy
Michael Murphy • COMPLETED LESSON

They could have a Memorial Day every year and pray and think of the lives that people lost.

01/30/2018
Avatar for Ahammed Jafar Saadique
Ahammed Jafar Saadique • LESSON IN PROGRESS

Nice Idea! It would also be good if it really pawed the way for their unification.

01/30/2018 • 
IN RESPONSE TO Michael Murphy Show the comment
Avatar for 양 현세
양 현세 • COMPLETED LESSON

I think they both Dominican and Haitian government has to teach their civilians the right history without distortion since a nation that forgets its past has no future.

02/03/2018
Avatar for Abrar Chowdhury
Abrar Chowdhury • COMPLETED LESSON

I believe they could heal the wounds of the past by having a Memorial Day exactly like Michael Murphy suggested.
The current Dominican Prime Minister should also make a reconciliation speech apologising for the Haitian Massacre of 1937 similar to Kevin Rudd's Sorry Speech in 2008 which he addressed to the Aboriginal People about the Stolen Generations.

02/17/2018
Avatar for Martell Tavares
Martell Tavares • LESSON IN PROGRESS

You can start by giving accurate information, for example sharing a true history of the two nations that laid the groundwork for the events of 1937 and the foundation for the current relations. I find your work beyond offensive, you should retracted it, apologize, promise never to work on this subject, and research the topic from first source accounts, instead of relying solely on information clearly provided by bias organizations. Mr. Paulino, maybe with years of research you can one day you can acquire enough information to form a personal opinion based on facts because you are obviously not in a position to teach anyone.

02/17/2018
Avatar for Omema Hasan
Omema Hasan • COMPLETED LESSON

I believe the families of the victims and the survivors of 1937 Haitian Massacre should be given reparations by the government of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican State should also "officially commemorate the massacre or its victims".

02/19/2018
Avatar for Ashley Ramkissoon
Ashley Ramkissoon • Toronto, Ontario, Canada • COMPLETED LESSON

I think that these "wounds" can never be healed. There is always going to be the remnants of the thousands of lives that were taken and the thousands more that were affected. And no matter what action is taken now, the wounds will always and already have left a scar on the two nations that led to this terrible feud between the people.

08/29/2018
Avatar for Jordi Santizo
Jordi Santizo • COMPLETED LESSON

My suggestion is that the Dominican Republic will have to compensate in some way for the massacre that they did to the people of Haiti, be it economically or psychologically

09/27/2018
Avatar for 霈紜 蘇
霈紜 蘇 • COMPLETED LESSON

There are some methods that could help the victims' families heal the wounds from the massacre.First of all, Dominican should take main responsibility to the tragedy, which means they should pay compensation money to the victims,and they have to officially apologize to Haitian.Furthermore, founding the dominant players of the massacre in Haitian is necessary.These people should be seen as perpetrators because they violate the basic human right.Thus, sending them to the court in order to give them fair trial would be the best way to reveal the truth and this can help the victims recovering from pain.

04/09/2020

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TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Edward Paulino
  • Director Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Animator Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat
  • Composer Cem Misirlioglu, Brooks Ball
  • Associate Producer Elizabeth Cox, Jessica Ruby
  • Content Producer Gerta Xhelo
  • Editorial Producer Alex Rosenthal
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • See more