Location
Los Llanos, Dominican Republic, and the nearby plantations. (Capital city is Santa Domingo.)
The DR shares an island with the country of Haiti.
Hartley served as priest 1997-2006; documentary was filmed 2004-2006.
Word Bank
Bateyes: sugar plantation
Buscones: slave merchant, recruiter, human trafficking, lured, steal documents or ID, 20,000 new crossings a year
Parish: a Catholic division of land and responsibility. Priests are assigned to a parish, parishioners attend services at their location parish church.
Mass: Catholic worship service
Characters
Father Christopher Hartley : Catholic priest. wealthy, powerful Spanish/British family 20 years working for Mother Theresa, learned to love the poor, solidarity. (Unfortunately, by the time the documentary was produced, Hartley’s bishop asked him to leave. He has continued to advocate for the bateyes)
The Vicini Family: own sugar plantations, banks. Large political control
Father Pedro Ruquoy: Belgium priest helped 30 years, assaulted
Mr. Merité: head guard
History of Slavery and Sugar
1492: Christopher Columbus claims Haiti for Spain.
1600s: Haiti is the center of the slave trade: importing 40,000 slaves per year. Produces most
of the world’s coffee and sugar.
1665: Haiti ceded to France
1793: Slavery (legally) ends in Haiti after 13 year revolution.
1804: Haiti declares independence (but spends 100 years paying off reparations to France.)
1844: The Dominican Republic declares itself independent from Haiti.
1916-24: US occupation of the DR.
1930s: Haitians worked cutting cane in the DR as a temporary, seasonal job.
1990s: international attention of poor working conditions leads DR government to begin
expelling Haitian workers.
Current Sugar Production
Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, marked by violence and government corruption.
Haiti has a 40% unemployment rate. Buscones tell Haitians they can move to the DR, get good jobs, and send money home to their families. (These are lies.)
In 2006, there were approximately 1 million Haitians in the DR, with possibly hundreds of thousands living on bateyes.
The United States buys most of the sugar cane, due to a trade agreement with the DR.
Plantation Conditions
- Can’t afford shoes or education
- $0.90 a day, paid in voucher for company store
- Not enough food, worker and children chew cane for calories
- Unsanitary, water, parasites
- Armed guards, can’t leave plantations
- Overcrowding
- Child labor
- Company has absolute authority (not state or police)
- Rampant AIDS and tuberculosis
- High maternal mortality
- Treatable, preventable diseases
- No care provided for work accidents
Activism
Inclusiveness: Went somewhere he shouldn’t go - first visit to bateyes, part of the parish
Documentation: photography, recording bad conditions
Service: Brought American doctors (taboo)
Investigated: trafficking, recruitment tactics in Haiti
Speaking: Gave public speech at presidential ceremony (January 2000), preaches at church.
Fundraising: money from Spain to make a compound and serve meals on Batey Paloma, later the DR government gave money to build new homes.
Strike: getting worker to all agree not to work until demands are met.
- education, religious background (2nd Vatican Council says workers have right to strike)
- 23 batteys strike: demands met, wages told in advance and small raise
- Retaliation: field burned, workers blamed
Changes: stop beatings, stop carrying guns, built more houses, Workers are allowed to leave batey, but risk arrest (no papers), locals don’t like them. Borders closed to human trafficking
Discussion Questions
- Father Christopher said that the owner of a plantation “would be my best friend if all I did was celebrate mass.” Why did he bother doing more? How did his faith lead him to do more?
- Many Dominicans are supportive and worked for justice. However, the loudest voices were Dominicans who treated their neighbors, the Haitians, poorly. What beliefs or teachings led them to this? In what ways do Americans act similarly to refugees and undocumented immigrants?
- How did colonization harm Haiti and the Dominican Republic? Why has there not been healing even after 200 years of independence?
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