Stateless in the Dominican Republic
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Arizona State University 2011
Stateless in the Dominican Republic
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Arizona State University 2011
Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication cronkite.asu.edu/buffett/dr
The Cronkite School has been covering immigration and border issues since 2006 with the generous support of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Buffett student projects include: South Africa: At the Crossroads of Hate and Hope | South Africa Documentary | Borderlands Photo Essays | Divided Families | Divided Families Documentary | Children of the Borderlands Copyright Š 2012 Arizona Board of Regents. Published January 2012. Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication 555 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85004-1248 cronkite.asu.edu Editors: Rick Rodriguez, Jason Manning and Kristin Gilger Art Director: Linda O’Neal Davis On the cover: Henry Joseph, 1, was born in the Dominican Republic but is not considered a citizen. Photo by Brandon Quester
Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
About the Project
In March 2011, 17 student journalists from the
Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, is the Carnegie Professor
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass
of Journalism at the Cronkite School, where he
Communication at Arizona State University traveled
teaches a seminar on Latino issues and a depth
to the Dominican Republic to report on immigration
reporting class. Manning, former political editor
and border policies and their impact on the coun-
for washingtonpost.com, is the director of student
try’s large Haitian population.
media at ASU and teaches a freshman seminar
The students, all members of a depth reporting
as well as assisting with the depth reporting class.
class, spent eight days reporting in Santo Domingo
The two have guided students in previous in-depth
and nearby bateyes as well in communities along
reporting projects on immigration and border issues
the border with Haiti. They conducted dozens of
in the U.S. and Mexico.
interviews, shot more than 30 hours of video footage
Cronkite Associate Dean Kristin Gilger and Steve Crane, chief of the school’s Washington bureau,
and took thousands of photographs. The student journalists were Joshua Armstrong,
copy edited the project. Cronkite technologist Nic
Serena Del Mundo, Michel Duarte, Lauren Gilger,
Lindh built the website, and Cronkite graduates Lisa
Carie Gladding, Joanne Ingram, Bastien Inzaurralde,
Ruhl and Grant Martin served as webmaster and
Brandon Quester, Erin Lough, Tarryn Mento, Nick
fact-checker, respectively.
Newman, Nathan O’Neal, Whitney Phillips, Cristina
“Stateless in the Dominican Republic” was made
Rayas, Lisa Ruhl, Stephanie Snyder and Dustin Volz.
possible by a grant from the Howard G. Buffett
The students worked under the direction of
Foundation, the Illinois-based nonprofit organization
Cronkite faculty members Rick Rodriguez and Jason
founded by the international photojournalist, author
Manning. Rodriguez, former executive editor of the
and philanthropist.
Documentary: Stateless in the Dominican Republic Cronkite students produced a 30-minute documentary about their
experiences
covering
immigration
and
border
issues
in
the Dominican Republic. The documentary can be viewed at cronkite.asu.edu/buffett/dr
A guard checks Haitians attempting to enter at one of the busiest border crossings between the Dominican and neighboring Haiti. Photo by Lauren Gilger
Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Table of Contents
‘You are Nobody’ ........................................................1 Thousands find themselves stateless in the Dominican Republic, without a country to call their own. By Whitney Phillips A Place to Cross..........................................................8 Border markets provide passage for undocumented immigrants two days a week. By Stephanie Snyder Cheap Labor.............................................................. 14 Despite an official stance against illegal immigration, demand for low-paid Haitian workers has not abated. By Dustin Volz Fight for Citizenship.................................................24 Dark Skin and “strange” name lead to landmark ruling for those seeking birthright citizenship. By Joshua Armstrong Newborn and Stateless ...........................................31 Haitian women cross the border to give birth, putting their children in citizenship limbo. By Lauren Gilger Dying in Childbirth ...................................................39 Haitian women, many already in labor, are taxing an already stressed health care system. By Tarryn Mento
Educational Roadblock .......................................47 Without proper documentation, thousands of Haitian youngsters find their education blocked after grade school. By Joanne Ingram
Laws of God and Country .......................................53 Religious groups extending help to poor Haitian immigrants find themselves in opposition to the government. By Nick Newman Coffee and Clothing .................................................65 Two business ventures are testing new approaches to labor and markets that could diversify the Dominican economy. By Cristina Rayas The Street Children ..................................................72 Hundreds of children live out their lives on the treacherous streets of the capital city of Santo Domingo. By Bastien Inzaurralde and Brandon Quester HIV Roulette...............................................................83 Despite one of the highest HIV rates in the world, HIV funding on the island of Hispaniola is in jeopardy. By Serena Del Mundo Dirty Water.................................................................90 Contaminated water supplies threaten the health of the country’s impoverished residents. By Bastien Inzaurralde Student Reporters .................................................. 97 Leadership Team ...................................................108
Miledis Juan, a 25-year-old Dominican with a teaching degree, has been unable to find work as a teacher after being denied access to her birth certificate because her parents are Haitian.
1
By Whitney Phillips Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Brandon Quester
Thousands Find Themselves Stateless in the Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – While
attorney and law professor, puts it another way:
politicians in at least 14 states are arguing the merits
“Here a civil genocide is being committed,” he said.
of birthright citizenship in the U.S., this country is already ruling out citizenship for thousands of
No Future
people.
Miledis Juan looks down at her 1-year-old son
Over the past seven years, the Dominican
Henry, his nose running and eyes swollen from a
government has re-written its Constitution, re-
cold. His arms stretch upward, and Juan picks him
interpreted old laws and passed new ones, effec-
up.
tively eliminating birthright citizenship. Today, a child
She and her son were both born in this country,
born in the Dominican Republic is no longer auto-
and that, Juan says, gives them every right to be
matically a citizen; citizenship goes only to those
Dominican citizens. But the Dominican government
who can prove they have at least one documented
has another view of the matter, and that leaves Juan
parent.
worried about her son’s future and her own.
Further, vigorous enforcement of the new rules means that hundreds of thousands of people, mostly
“He practically doesn’t exist,” she said. “Without documents you are nobody.”
of Haitian descent, are finding it increasingly diffi-
Dominican officials say the country’s laws were
cult to get access to their birth certificates, which
never meant to grant birthright citizenship to the
are required to get married, obtain a high school
children or descendants of illegal immigrants. And
diploma, start a business, get a driver’s license
they argue against the term “stateless” as applied
or passport or even sign up for a phone plan. It is
to those of Haitian descent born in the Dominican
also needed to get a cédula, the national identity
Republic.
card that is essential for voting and conducting a licensed business activity such as banking.
José Ángel Aquino, a magistrate for the country’s civil registry, the Junta Central Electoral, said Haitian
Without proper documentation, these residents
descendants can go back to Haiti and obtain citi-
have no legal status in the Dominican Republic, and
zenship as long as they can prove their parents are
many who have been in this country for years are
Haitian.
unable to prove they are legal citizens of Haiti, either.
“Because of this, in the case of the Haitians, for
They are, in effect, stateless – citizens of no
us, you can’t speak of the ‘stateless,’” Aquino said
country. Cristobal Rodríguez, a Dominican human rights
in Spanish. “These Haitian citizens always have the possibility of declaring themselves in their 2
Miledis Juan makes dinner in her small two-room home in Batey Esperanza, a mostly Haitian-Dominican community on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
consulate…or simply in Haiti.” But for many Haitian immigrants, like Juan, the situation is more complex. Born in December 1985 when laws and attitudes were different, Juan was granted a Dominican birth
purpose and expires in a few months. Juan said that when she went to the civil registry, she was told her she should never have been registered as a Dominican citizen because her parents came without documents from Haiti.
certificate and a national identification card. She has
“Practically, my hands are tied,” she said. “There’s
no papers proving she is from Haiti, and to become
nothing I can do because without that birth certifi-
a naturalized Haitian citizen, she would have to go
cate, I’m paralyzed.”
through a five-year application process, said Liliana
She also needs her birth certificate to get Henry
Gamboa, a project director for the Open Society
one of his own. Without it, he cannot access public
Justice Initiative in Santo Domingo.
health services or attend school past the eighth
Besides, Juan doesn’t want Haitian citizenship;
grade.
she has never lived in the country. “I know that Haiti
“My biggest fear is that he’s in the country without
exists because there is a map that I can see where
documents,” Juan said. “He is nobody in the
it is, but I actually have no connections with it,” she
country.”
said. Her life is in Batey Esperanza, a poor, mostly
Changing the Ground Rules
Haitian-Dominican community just outside the
Before birthright citizenship was abolished, the
nation’s capital, Santo Domingo, where she works
Dominican Constitution stated that anyone born
long days at an embroidery machine in a free-trade
in the country was a citizen, with the exception of
zone.
children born to people “in transit,” a term generally
Although she went to college to become a teacher,
interpreted to mean those in the country fewer than
she is unable to get a teaching job because she
10 days. The first of the changes passed in 2004
can’t get a new copy of her birth certificate. The
redefined “in transit” to mean those in the country
country’s civil registries retain every citizen’s original
illegally. A year later, the Dominican Supreme Court
birth certificate and issue duplicates upon request.
upheld the 2004 law as constitutional.
Official duplicates are necessary for every legal act,
Six years later, the Dominican government revised
from applying to a university and purchasing prop-
its Constitution to further limit citizenship. Since Jan.
erty to obtaining a marriage license and securing
26, 2010, citizens must prove they have at least one
most jobs. Each duplicate can be used for only one
parent of Dominican nationality to be recognized.
3
At the same time, the Junta Central Electoral, which oversees the civil
Henry Claude Joseph worries
registries, issued an order known as Circular 17, which directs govern-
that his son Henry, 1, will
ment employees not to give duplicates of birth certificates and other
have no citizenship rights
identity documents if they have any reason to believe the person should
in his country of birth.
not have Dominican citizenship. According to Gamboa, this means the JCE “decides …if you are worthy of your documentation” and has led to the targeting of people with French-sounding last names and dark skin. That’s what Modesta Michel believes happened to her. Michel applied for her national ID card when she turned 18 in 2007. Cédulas are issued at age 18 and must be renewed every six years or when the government issues a new version. At first, all went well. She had an approved copy of her birth certificate, and the civil registry office approved her cédula, giving her a receipt that verified the information that would appear on her identification card. But then she was told that she would not get the official, laminated card after all because her parents immigrated from Haiti, she said. And shortly after, when she needed a copy of her birth certificate to take the national test for a high school diploma, that, too, was denied, she said. “Every year goes by, and I sometimes feel like hope is going away, but I have to trust God that eventually this will get solved because studying is the only way that I can actually move forward in life,” Michel said through a translator. “It’s the only option that I have.” Mounting Challenges Government officials say Circular 17 simply upholds the original intent of the Constitution. People who are in the country illegally were never meant to have Dominican citizenship and some have gotten it only because of errors and corruption on the part of civil registry employees, 4
Residents of Batey Esperanza,
JCE magistrate Aquino said.
a mostly Haitian immigrant
But many advocates for the stateless, including Gamboa, contend that
community on the outskirts
retroactive application of the new law is forbidden by international trea-
of Santo Domingo, walk from
ties to which the Dominican Republic is party, including the American
home to home on a humid
Convention on Human Rights under the Organization of American States.
afternoon. With dirt streets and
The Open Society Justice Initiative and other human rights organiza-
minimal access to basic utili-
tions have begun fighting the changes in court. They won a key victory in
ties, the community seems far
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2005 with Yean and Bosico
removed from the fast-paced
v. Dominican Republic, which led to the granting of Dominican citizen-
streets of the nearby capital.
ship to two young girls of Haitian descent. More recently, they’ve taken up the case of Emildo Bueno. Born in the Dominican in 1975, he had several citizenship documents, including a birth certificate and passport. Even so, in 2007 when Bueno went to obtain a copy of his birth certificate for a visa to join his wife in the U.S., he was turned down because his parents were Haitian nationals. With Rodríguez, the Dominican human rights attorney, representing him, Bueno took his case to a Dominican national court in 2008, claiming a violation of his basic human right to nationality. The case was unsuccessful. “In spite of all evidence and proof and the fact that legally I was good, the judge took a decision against me,” Bueno said in Spanish. He submitted an appeal to the Dominican Supreme Court in 2009, but the court has yet to rule. Meanwhile, Francisco Quintana, a deputy program director and litigator for the Center for Justice and International Law, has submitted the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Gamboa said a favorable ruling from the international could draw attention to the problem and pressure the Dominican government into changing its policies. “At the end of the day, it will be political pressure that will bring the
5
result we expect, which is the recognition of nationality of people of Haitian descent,” she said. But in the meantime, they have another worry. The Dominican Republic is working on a new national identity card system aimed at eliminating fraudulent citizenship by requiring residents to submit fingerprints and biometric photos that are entered into a national data bank. Aquino said the JCE has received fingerprints and photos from 4 million people so far. The JCE is “15 years behind” in fully implementing the system, Aquino, said, but is working hard to make up the time. He said the JCE also has presented a proposal to the Dominican government asking for approval to do a full “biometric census” of all foreigners in the country. Gamboa and other human rights activists fear that these new programs will lead to every person of Haitian descent being classified as illegal. “The problem is going to be huge,” Gamboa said. “I hope, and maybe
A group of residents from Batey Esperanza start construction on a
I have faith, that it will not happen, that the DR realizes before that that it
Community of Christ Church
cannot commit such a crime.”
to serve the neighborhood.
“I think people without an identity, without a nationality, are really the ones who are most unprotected in the world,” she added. “When no country wants to recognize you as a citizen, then there’s nobody to protect you.” Though the political situation for Haitian immigrants and their children has been bleak, there may be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Aquino said that he supports a regularization program for Haitian workers. In late July another JCE magistrate, Eddy Olivares, said in a television interview that the children of Haitian immigrants should be given identity papers — especially those that came to the Dominican Republic under labor agreements with Haiti. He further stated that the Dominican Republic’s immigration agency, not the JCE, has the authority to make decisions on the validity of identity documents and the JCE, therefore, should not 6
Batey Esperanza, near Santo Domingo, is filled with children of Haitian immigrants, many of whom lack citizenship even though they were born in the country. Juancalo Sabino, 3, (above) and Christina Ceird, 5, are among them.
“At the end of the day, it will be political pressure that will bring the result we expect, which is the recognition of nationality of people of Haitian descent.” – Liliana Gamboa, project director for the Open Society Justice Initiative, Santo Domingo
be invalidating documents because a person’s parents are immigrants. In the end, however, a major political and legislative shift would have to occur, throughout the Dominican government, to turn the tide against immigrant rights. Their Future There isn’t much Juan, Michel or Bueno can do while citizenship continues to be redefined in the country of their birth. Juan goes to work each day at the clothing factory, although she would much rather be teaching. On the web: Two women share their harrowing tales of how they tried to prove their Dominican citizenship. http://cronkite.asu.edu/ buffett/dr/the_stateless. 7
Bueno made it to the U.S. after finally obtaining his visa. He works at a security company in Florida while his case for Dominican citizenship is being appealed. He has temporary residence in the U.S., but has no official citizenship anywhere. Bueno spoke for them all when he said, “We have no country now.” Along with thousands of others, they hope they are not wrong when they call themselves Dominican. ■
By Stephanie Snyder Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Michel Duarte
Border Markets Provide Passage for Undocumented Immigrants
COMENDADOR, Dominican Republic – Haitians
whole.
stream through a low-lying metal gate into the
“It’s the quickest way for us to survive,” said
Dominican Republic, past uniformed and armed
Meran, who estimates that 2,000 people cross into
guards who give them only a casual glance.
the town every market day.
It’s market day, when Haitians don’t have to
But the economic gulf between Haiti and the
present a visa or passport to cross into this capital
Dominican Republic – where the average Dominican
city, one of the Dominican Republican’s poorest,
earns seven times more than the average Haitian –
or into two other Dominican cities, Dajabon and
means that some Haitians who cross the border on
Pedernales.
market days never return. They disappear into the
But there is a catch: Haitians without documenta-
Dominican Republic, squeezing into poor bateyes
tion are not permitted to travel more than about 100
in crowded cities like Santo Domingo or Santiago or
yards into the Dominican Republic, and they are
settling near plantations where they can find work.
expected to return to their country by 6 p.m.
Some come because they have lost their homes
Every Monday and Friday, the border between
and livelihoods in last year’s earthquake; others are
the two countries opens for the simple reason of
escaping cholera outbreaks in Haiti. Virtually all
commerce. Commerce, in fact, links the border
are fleeing poverty. And because they are a cheap
towns of the Dominican Republic and Haiti in much
source of labor, Dominican businesses welcome
the same way that it binds the towns that lie on
them.
either side of the U.S.- Mexico border. People cross to sell goods, and they cross to buy them.
Undocumented Haitian migrants work in agriculture, tourism, construction and other industries,
Comendador is a city that revolves around the
“which now make a lot of money on cheap Haitian
market, and it is a city that would very likely wither
labor,” said Bernardo Vega, a former Dominican
without it, said Cruz Dalis Ramon Meran, super-
ambassador to the U.S. and a prominent econo-
visor of the city’s General Directorate of Migration.
mist.
It provides a major source of income for both
But unlike the U.S., the open borders on market
Dominicans and Haitians and creates jobs not only
days provide easy access into the country. There is
for the border community but for the province as a
no need to hire a coyote or risk a dangerous desert 8
9
Haitians crowd around a vendor to buy rice at a market set up in a dirt lot just a few yards from the border. Photo by Michel Duarte 10
crossing: A Haitian simply waits for market day, then hopes to avoid teams of Dominican military, police and border security agents that scour the countryside, set up checkpoints and search buses. Many slip through, according to Adolfo Mercedes Medrano, head of customs at the Comendador border crossing. “The widespread border facilitates the penetration of Haitians, so it is very difficult for us to control (immigration),” he said. Border enforcement is made even more difficult because some illegal immigrants pay off military police to avoid being sent back to Haiti, according to a 2010 report by Nuestra Frontera, an organization whose goal it is to create economic opportunities along the border. Others are legal when they cross into the Dominican Republic, but, as Haitians trade at a
is the case with many illegal immigrants in the U.S., they overstay their
market in the border
visas.
town of Comendador, Dominican Republic.
That’s what Jean Ludovie Louissain did in 1978. Louissain had a sixmonth visa to work in construction and stayed on in Comendador. Like thousands of others, he lives without documentation, working and living
Previous page: Haitians crowd
under the official radar.
around a vendor to buy rice at
When it came time to register his two young daughters for school,
a market set up in a dirt lot just
Louissain was afraid that his last name – distinctly French – would flag
a few yards from the border.
the family as foreigners and the school would refuse to enroll the children. So he registered them under a Dominican surname instead. While pleased that his daughters are in school, Louissain laments the loss of his family name. He has been in the country for more than 30 years, so why, he asks, can’t he become a Dominican citizen? Haitians, he said, are no more than “material” for Dominicans to use.
11
The border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti is porous, with people allowed to cross freely on market days. The Dominican government says it has a difficult time controlling immigration.
New Market Restrictions Security along the border between Haiti and the
Dominicans are especially reluctant to come because of concern about cholera, Meran said.
Dominican Republic was tightened in late 2010 after
Rosita Cabrera, who sells bedding and clothing
a cholera outbreak in Haiti was confirmed in mid-
at the primary market in Comendador, said she
October. By the end of May 2011, 321,000 cases
and other Dominican vendors stay away from the
and 5,300 deaths were recorded, according to the
border market. “The market at the border is narrow,
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials
dirty and dusty,” she said. “If we go there, we’re
in the Dominican Republic, fearing the outbreak
going to get cholera faster.”
would spread to their country, began mass depor-
Cabrera is paying a price for her precaution. Her
tations in the country’s larger cities and temporarily
sales have fallen significantly since the cholera
shut down the bi-national markets in Comendador,
outbreak because the majority of her customers
Dajabon and Pedernales.
were Haitians crossing the border.
When the market re-opened in Comendador in
“Without the Haitians, we are nothing,” she said.
December, it took a different form. The local government set up a temporary market in a compound just
Haitian Vendors
a few feet past the gate between the two countries.
In addition to the economic importance of
Undocumented Haitians now must do their buying
the markets to its businesses, the government
and selling there, rather than traveling a few miles
of Comendador relies on the markets for direct
further into the heart of the city, where the main open
revenue.
air markets are situated. As a result, fewer people are coming across the border on market days, and business for both Haitian and Dominican vendors is suffering, said Meran, the migration supervisor.
The city auctions off the main market each year to local Dominican businessmen, who then have the right to control it and collect taxes from vendors. While Dominican vendors are typically taxed 50 to 100 pesos per market day, Haitian vendors are
“The restrictions affect the vendors a lot because
taxed 10 to 20 times that amount, depending on
people used to come from all over Haiti to buy and
the amount of space they use, a practice that was
sell goods,” she said. “Less people are coming now.”
confirmed by several Dominican vendors, although 12
Parishioners wait for a service to begin at Open Arms, a Haitian Protestant church, in Comendador, Dominican Republic.
“The United States has strict security so that all
fearful Haitian vendors declined to comment. On a day in March, when Haitian vendors, who
Mexicans that want to come to the United States
are predominately women, were unable to pay the
– without documentation or without permission –
tax, a group of Dominicans working for the market
can’t cross,” Medrano said. “In a way, that’s the
owner, led by “el cobrador,” or the collector, confis-
same as what we have here in the Dominican
cated their merchandise and stuffed the items into
Republic.” And whenever there are great disparities in
sacks. Cabrera said few speak up about the inequitable system or the way Haitians are treated. “If I speak the truth, I am hated. This is what
income, as there are between the U.S. and Mexico and between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, people will keep trying to cross, he said. Medrano said his country can no more support
happens here in this town,” she said. “If you talk about what’s happening, they hate you for your
unlimited immigration than can the U.S. “If the door is opened, everyone will want to
entire life.” Medrano, the head of customs, along with
come here,” he said. But Rosario Espinal, a Dominican sociologist at
Comendador Assistant Governor Abraham Nova, denied that there are problems.
Temple University in Philadelphia, said that simply
“Here in (Comendador), if you go through the
trying to keep people out ignores the complexity
street, there are more Haitians than Dominicans –
of the situation. The border is too porous, the two
no one is offended and no one is trampled on and
countries are too economically intertwined and
no one is mistreated,” Medrano said. “There may
there are already too many Haitians living in the
be particular cases, but in broad terms, there is no
Dominican Republic for that to work, she said. “What you have is an immense population of
Dominican mistreatment of Haitians.”
poor people who happen to be immigrants who Border Policy
don’t have rights, and the (Dominican) system itself
The problems the Dominican Republic faces in
is unwilling legally and unable socially to integrate
trying to control illegal immigration are not unlike
them,” Espinal said. “This is a formula for disaster.”
those in the U.S., Medrano said.
■
13
By Dustin Volz Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
Illegal Haitian Workers in Demand
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Carlo
near Port-au-Prince. Government officials have
Collin knows his story is a familiar one. In 2005
estimated that the number of Haitians living in
when he was just 15, he emigrated from Haiti to the
the Dominican Republic increased by 15 percent
Dominican Republic to find a job and a better life.
following the earthquake and they now account for
Today, Collin works six days a week in construction for what he calls an unlivable wage in an
more than a tenth of the nation’s 10 million inhabitants.
industry that employs primarily Haitians, many
Although there is a long history of strained rela-
of whom, like him, are in this country illegally.
tions between the two countries that share the
Because his passport has expired and his dark
island of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic was
skin identifies him as Haitian, Collin lives in fear of
the first country to provide Haiti with humanitarian
being caught and deported.
aid and to help with rescue efforts after the disaster.
He said he’s been detained seven times by
U.S. President Barack Obama praised Dominican
Dominican soldiers while crossing the porous
President Leonel Fernandez during a White House
Haiti-Dominican Republic border. He has paid
visit last July, saying the Dominican Republic’s
bribes as high as 500 pesos – about $13 – to mili-
response “saved lives, and it continues as we look
tary guards at immigration checkpoints on the road
at how we can reconstruct and rebuild in Haiti in a
to Santo Domingo in order to be allowed back into
way that is good not only for the people of Haiti but
the country.
also good for the region as a whole.”
“When you see (the military guards) your heart is
But while demand for cheap labor keeps many
scared,” he said. “If you don’t have money they will
Haitians employed in the Dominican Republic,
call immigration and send you back to Haiti.”
increased immigration is placing unbearable
Collin stays in the Dominican Republic so he can
strains on a country struggling to provide health
send money home to his family. Finding a job in
care, education and social services to its own resi-
Haiti these days, he said, is almost impossible.
dents.
In fact, more Haitian immigrants than ever have
Earlier this year, a cholera outbreak in Haiti trig-
crossed into the country looking for work and
gered an aggressive resumption of immigration
refuge since last year’s devastating earthquake
raids and deportations of immigrants following 14
15
Opposite page: Many Haitian workers are employed building a metro subway system in Santo
Domingo.
Photo
by
Lindsay Erin Lough
a one-year moratorium after the earthquake.
undocumented Haitians who have just crossed or
Government officials reported nearly 7,000 Haitians
those who have lived and worked all their lives in
were deported through mid-March. In May, new
the Dominican Republic.
outbreaks of the cholera threatened to exacerbate the issue.
“Deportations are being used as a blunt instrument to regulate migration when it is by no means
To some extent, “compassion fatigue” has set
clear that the people being deported are those
in as more and more Haitians have entered the
people who recently entered the country,” said
country in the year following the earthquake.
Dominican-based author and migration researcher
Dominican immigration director Sigfrido Pared
Bridget Wooding.
rebuked requests from human rights groups such
Wooding said that amid tough rhetoric, there is
as Amnesty International to halt deportations
“an open secret” that exists within the Dominican
because conditions in the poorest country in the
government and among the Dominican people
western hemisphere are still so bleak.
regarding migrant labor. They understand that key
Dominican officials are well aware of the lack of
industries – construction, agriculture and tourism,
improvement in Haiti but insist there’s only so much
for example – rely heavily on cheap Haitian labor.
support they can provide their island neighbor.
As a result, government officials straddle the fence
“The solution for Haiti is not that they immigrate to
between appeasing ultranationalists who call for a
the Dominican Republic, just as the solution for the
stricter border policy and satisfying business and
Dominican Republic is not that we immigrate to the
economic interests deeply invested in maintaining
United States,” said Jose Angel Aquino, magistrate
the status quo.
of the Junta Central Electoral, the country’s central
“There’s always been complicity on both sides
electoral board responsible for issuing legal docu-
in terms of how people can cross,” Wooding said.
ments to citizens. “The solution is that here and
“The informality of crossing comes to be seen as
there we build more democracy, more institutions,
completely normalized. It’s part of the culture.”
more development for our people.”
Bernardo Vega, a prominent Dominican econo-
Human rights groups are especially incensed that
mist and historian who served as the country’s
immigration police make no distinction between
ambassador to the U.S. from 1997 to 1999, agreed 16
Ricardo Yand has work building an apartment complex in downtown Santo Domingo. Photo by Lindsay Erin Lough
that the complicity is rooted in economic interests.
serious tensions in communities where there are
“We don’t want them, but we need them,” Vega
many Haitians settled,” Espinal said this spring. “It
said. “The politicians say we don’t want them. But
was a different story decades ago when Haitians
the economy needs them. And there are no jobs
were mostly located in sugar fields and for most
in Haiti. There’s a great difference between the
Dominicans, they were non-existent.”
political discourse and what the law says and what
A comprehensive survey conducted a month after the earthquake found that a little more than 48
happens in practice.” Vega
percent of Dominicans thought children of Haitians
believes that Dominicans are relying on Haitian
born in the Dominican Republic should be allowed
labor more than ever. Until about 30 years ago,
citizenship rights. Only about 42 percent were in
most Dominicans were rarely exposed to Haitians
favor of the government providing work permits to
because they largely lived in desperately poor
undocumented Haitians.
Despite
the
immigration
crackdown,
rural shantytowns called bateyes, located outside
Those numbers are slightly higher than what
the cities close to the sugar cane fields where they
was gleaned from similar surveys conducted in
worked.
2008 and 2006, but Espinal, who co-authored the
As the country has become more urbanized
most recent report, said the bump was likely due
and the economy more diversified, Haitians have
to post-earthquake sympathy expressed by many
moved to the cities, finding jobs in construction, the
Dominican citizens.
tourism industry and other labor-intensive fields.
Vega, the former ambassador, agreed. For as
Only 20 percent of Haitian migrants now work in
long as the Dominican Republic has been allowing
the sugar fields, Vega said.
Haitians to cross the border, Vega said, the country
Rosario Espinal, a Dominican sociologist at
has been expelling them back where they came
Temple University, believes this urban migration
from – but not fast enough to keep up with the
– compounded by the influx of immigrants after
in-migration.
the earthquake – has led to increased animosity between the two groups. “In the past couple of months, there have been 17
“There’s never been a moment where we’ve had a net outflow of Haitians,” Vega said. “The few that get deported are much less than the numbers who
come back.”
Haitian
construction
worker
The Dominican labor code mandates that 80 percent of laborers
Carlo Collin, 21, who first
for any company must be Dominican citizens, but the law is loosely
emigrated to the Dominican
applied in practice, acknowledged JCE magistrate Aquino. The other
Republic when he was 15,
20 percent are supposed to be legal residents from other countries,
works at a construction site in
but in construction the numbers are often reversed: 80 percent to
Santo Domingo. Collin earns
90 percent of construction workers in big cities are Haitian, legal or
about $17 U.S. dollars a week.
otherwise, while Dominican nationals make up the remaining fraction,
Photos by Stephanie Snyder
according to Vega. The reliance on a Haitian workforce is pervasive in a number of industries, but in construction, it is openly visible and accepted. In fact, the Dominican government itself increasingly employs Haitian laborers. “All public works construction uses Haitian labor, so the government is a big employer of Haitian labor,” Vega said. A glaring example is the workforce on the construction of a metro subway system in Santo Domingo, a prime project of President Fernandez’s administration. The underground construction sites are mostly staffed by Haitians, leaving the government with a contradictory message about its immigration policy. Chiero Ferristal is a subway construction worker from Haiti. He crossed the border after the 2010 earthquake but said he had trouble finding work even with a passport. Eventually, Ferristal got a job working on the subway for 350 pesos – almost $10 – a week. He has been unable
In the Dominican Republic’s
to acquire a cedula – a national identity card required of legal residents
largest cities, up to 90 percent
over 18 – and because of that he has no right to health insurance.
of construction workers are
Ferristal and his co-workers, some of them Dominican, toil away in dust-filled underground sites, working without breathing masks
Haitian or of Haitian descent. Photo by Lindsay Erin Lough 18
19
Ricardo Yand, left, and Jacinto Mnoves Pona are at work on a construction project in downtown Santo Domingo. Photo by Lindsay Erin Lough 20
to build the subway’s second line. Ferristal and
According to former ambassador Vega, illegal
other workers said Dominican and Haitians work
Haitian labor in the Dominican Republic pulls down
together as if they were brothers.
wages, which contributes to a wide disparity of
That is unsurprising to former transportation
income in the country. Additionally, a reliance on
minister and economist Hamlet Hermann who
cheap labor stunts advancements in technology
believes the use of cheap Haitian labor is not a
because businesses have no need to invest when
matter of racial exploitation but of economic inter-
the human resources available are so affordable,
ests.
he said.
“Haitians and Dominicans, they deal one with the
Carlo Collin, the construction worker, is a prime
other and so we are friends,” Hermann said. “But
example. He earns 600 pesos a week or about
the interests – I mean, military, politicians, busi-
$17 in the U.S. And that’s double what most of
nesspeople – they are the ones that violate all the
his co-workers earn: Because he has six years of
laws to force the (open) migration.”
experience, he is considered more skilled by his
Hermann used to work in the government during
supervisors and helps manage other laborers.
Fernandez’s first presidential term from 1996 to
“If you’re Haitian, you don’t have any value in
2000 but has since become an outspoken critic
this land,” Collin, now 21, said in his native Creole
of several governmental policies, including the
language during a break from renovating an old
subway project, which Hermann says has cost
government building in Santo Domingo. He wipes
$1.5 billion thus far. Hermann points to what he
sweat from his brow as he peeks out from under a
calls a double standard with regard to immigration
purple President “Leonel” baseball cap. His dark
and Haitian labor policy.
eyes appear distant.
“In the building he lives in, the janitors are Haitian,” Hermann said of the president.
Collin says he wants to go back to Haiti because his family is there and he is treated better, but he
The subway’s technicians are Europeans or
can’t because there are no jobs, especially after
Dominicans, Hermann said, but the hard, manual
the earthquake. It’s precisely this sort of despera-
labor is done almost entirely by Haitians because
tion that many Dominican employers rely on.
they come so cheap. 21
“If we had a good president in our country who
“The most dangerous (thing we can do) is to leave Haiti to the will of God. We share the same rivers, the same everything. If Haiti is allowed to be lost to violence, drugs, to the lack of natural resources, this will come back to the Dominican Republic.” – Jose Angel Aquino, magistrate, Junta Central Electoral, Dominican Republic
was helping us, we would never come here to be
are hired for construction work because they have
mistreated, to be looked at like animals, to not be
no rights and are therefore cheaper. Most of the
cared for,” he declared.
Haitian workers don’t have proper citizenship or
Collin has a family to support back in Haiti, but
residency papers, Mejia said, so he sometimes will
no wife or children. He said he is afraid to start
hide his workers when immigration police raid his
a family in the Dominican Republic because his
construction sites.
salary wouldn’t be enough to support them unless
Mejia and others like him perpetuate the open
they moved back to Haiti, where 600 pesos a week
secret Wooding speaks of by employing Haitians
can carry a family a lot farther.
like Collin who, desperate to support his family,
“In Haiti, if you have 100 pesos you will eat,” said
have nowhere else to turn.
Collin, adding that what most of his co-workers
For his part, Collin says he wants to return home
make – 300 pesos a week – is not enough to
to Haiti some day, but until the country recovers
survive on in the Dominican Republic.
from one of the worst natural disasters in human
Like thousands of other Haitians working in
history, he will stay and work in Santo Domingo.
the Dominican Republic, Collin sends what little
The hardships that come with being stateless,
money he can spare to his family in Haiti. As his
a phenomenon caused in part by the flood of
countrymen struggle to overcome the earthquake
illegal migrant labor into the Dominican Republic,
devastation that brought what was already the
is something Collin says he has seen too many
poorest country in the western hemisphere to its
times to count. Children of undocumented Haitians
knees, Collin works a job he doesn’t particularly
born in the Dominican are deported back to Haiti,
like in a country he doesn’t call his own for a wage
where they don’t speak the language, don’t know
he can barely survive on.
anyone and don’t know how to survive in a country
“The little money I make, it is money to eat only,” Collin said. “You’re obliged to take the money to send it back to family in Haiti.”
destroyed by natural disaster, he said. The swinging-door migration policy employed by the Dominican government may not be keeping
William Mejia, one of Collin’s Dominican supervi-
Haitians out, but the high volume entering has put
sors on the renovation project, said Haitian migrants
strains on a country ill-equipped to handle many 22
of its own issues. The only solution, said Vega, is for the international community to keep the promises it made following the 2010 earthquake and support the rebuilding of an entire country. Money has been pledged, Vega said, but not dispersed due to a variety of political and economic concerns. “It’s so easy to start building houses and yet very few houses have been built,” Vega said. “And if there was a huge project to build thouMany
Haitian
Jesus
Alberto,
workers,
like
sand of houses in Haiti, some of the Haitians that are here would go
above,
are
back to work there.”
employed building a subway
That’s something JCE magistrate Aquino agrees with. Problems in
in Santo Domingo. Photos by
Haiti spill over to the Dominican Republic, concedes Aquino, as the
Lindsay Erin Lough
two countries are linked by history, geography and economic dependence. “The most dangerous (thing we can do) is to leave Haiti to the will of God,” Aquino said. “We share the same rivers, the same everything. If Haiti is allowed to be lost to violence, drugs, to the lack of natural resources, this will come back to the Dominican Republic.” Until the country is rebuilt, Haitians will keep crossing the border to find work in the Dominican Republic, where, devoid of other options, they will continue going through the motions of being deported and paying bribes to come back again. Why? Because anything is better than Haiti, said Temple University’s Espinal. “There’s nothing in Haiti,” she insisted. “Nothing. There’s no agriculture; there’s no industry. There’s absolutely nothing.” For migrants like Collin, Haiti is unable to offer even hope. ■
23
By Joshua Armstrong Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Brandon Quester
Dark Skin and ‘Strange’ Name Lead to Landmark Ruling
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – For eight years, Violeta Bosico fought for her name and a permanent place in this country.
alist extremists. Bosico, now 26, clenches her fist as she talks softly about the judgment. “This was not just about
But she still doesn’t like people to know who she is.
me,” she said through an interpreter. “This was
Bosico was one of two girls at the center of an
important to a lot of people.”
international court case hailed as a landmark for
Six years after the ruling, the Dominican govern-
stateless people – those not recognized as citizens
ment has paid $22,000 in damages: $8,000 to
of any country. After eight years of legal battles,
each girl and $6,000 for their legal fees. It arranged
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled
a publication of the facts of the case in a national
in 2005 that Bosico and Dilcia Yean, both born in
newspaper. And it gave Yean and Bosico citizen-
the Dominican Republic of Haitian ancestry, were
ship.
unfairly denied citizenship.
But the government has not taken the more far-
But in the Dominican Republic, which shares a
reaching steps that might help remedy the problem
border with Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western
of statelessness in this Caribbean country of nearly
Hemisphere, any threat to the nation’s ability to
10 million. The judgment requires a public apology,
police immigration – real or perceived – raises
which has not been issued, and broadly calls for
passions among its citizens.
reform in Dominican citizenship laws that would
“There was a point where the case and the topic
prevent a person from becoming stateless.
became very contentious in the country,” said Sonia
Jose Angel Aquino, a top official in the Junta
Pierre, founder of the Movement of Dominican-
Central Electoral, which issues domestic identi-
Haitian Women, which helped Bosico and Yean,
fication documents, said the human rights court
“especially because there was this whole myth
misconstrued Dominican laws when it ruled that the
created around the case that it was meant to do
girls’ proof of birth in the country should have been
damage to the Dominican Republic.”
enough to prove their citizenship. He said Yean and
So neither Bosico nor Yean has ever been publicly
Bosico should have been granted birth certificates
photographed. They remain highly guarded to
not because they were born in the country but
protect themselves from being targeted by nation-
because their mothers have Dominican citizenship. 24
Violeta Bosico does not want
This is a major rift between the Dominican government and the court.
her face shown in photographs
“Clearly, there is a decision of the court that we do not agree with and it
because she fears retaliation
is not in agreement with our legal and constitutional disposition,” Aquino
from those who opposed her
said in Spanish. “And that is that the court says that the situation of the
fight against the Dominican
parents cannot affect the children.”
government. Her case drew
International human-rights advocates favor birthright citizenship,
worldwide attention when an
which guarantees rights to children of immigrants, no matter their legal
international court ruled that the
status. And for decades, the Dominican Constitution was interpreted to
Dominican government violated
guarantee citizenship to those born on Dominican soil. But as Haitian
basic human rights laws when
immigration increased, the Dominican government began to move away
it denied her a birth certificate.
from that interpretation and, in some cases, sought to retroactively deny citizenship rights to Dominicans of Haitian descent. This touched off a number of legal battles, including Yean and Bosico’s. Limited Impact The court ruling in their case, while a victory, appears to have had limited impact. Indeed, an estimated 90 percent of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ rulings has not been enforced, raising questions about the effectiveness of the court and its parent, the Organization of American States.
Above and opposite page:
The Inter-American Court is the top level of the OAS’s human-rights
Bosico’s case files cover an
system. Based in San Jose, Costa Rica, it has an annual budget of
eight-year court battle.
slightly more than $3 million – half from the OAS, the rest donated by governments and organizations. Human-rights advocates see it as a court of last resort without definitive remedial powers. “In this system, we’re talking about the worst of the worst cases being handed to a court that has no army, that has no coercive possibility of
25
enforcing its decisions,” said Roxanna Altholz, asso-
because the decisions of the system only apply to
ciate director of the International Human Rights Law
countries that have accepted the jurisdiction of the
Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, and
court.”
Yean and Bosico’s lead attorney. “It is frequently questioned by states.”
The court also faces a rising caseload while relying on unpaid judges and a donor-dependent budget.
At the top level of the OAS, the Washington-based
From the court’s founding in 1979 until 2002, a total
General Assembly, a single ruling rarely spurs major
of 49 cases were submitted. From 2003 to 2010,
dialogue. The Dominican Republic’s OAS ambas-
the court received 102 cases. Sixteen alone were
sador at the time of the Bosico-Yean ruling, Roberto
submitted in 2010, the most ever in a single year.
Alvarez, said it had no effect on his diplomatic business in the organization.
Despite those troubles, Altholz and others involved in the Dominican case say the court’s judgments are
But the Inter-American court and its sister
important tools in fighting human rights problems. In
commission have a large influence on governments,
most cases, it takes many rulings and incidents for
he said, and the court’s influence could be dramati-
an issue to spur public and international attention
cally increased if all OAS members agree to its juris-
and action.
diction. The U.S., Canada and most of the Englishspeaking Caribbean countries have not ratified the
“If you look at it as a snapshot, it’s quite a depressing picture, but the arc of justice is long,” Altholz said.
Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, which
Francisco Quintana, a deputy program director
would put them under the court’s jurisdiction. When
and litigator for the Center for Justice and
the court was created in 1979, President Jimmy
International Law, said the Bosico-Yean judgment
Carter signed the pact, but the Senate has never
“is really important because it’s the starting point,
ratified it.
the stick that we use to measure the application of
“You have a gulf that exists between the Latin
the law.”
American countries and the common-world coun-
People who are not recognized as citizens of any
tries that do not have a stake in the system,” Alvarez
country are, in effect, stateless, lacking the basic
said. “That gulf is becoming wider over the years
rights and recognition that governments guarantee. 26
By Joshua Armstrong Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Adorfo
Adorfo or Adolfo? One Letter Makes a Difference
Vasquez was exhausted as he sat outside the civil
In the Dominican Republic, a birth
One letter, one L, had taken two weeks to change.
certificate is needed for everything from a marriage license to a phone plan.
registry in the National District of this capital city. In 2007, the government issued Vasquez a birth certificate and ID card with the first name Adolfo. The slip-up didn’t bother him until recently, when he
In a legal sense, they do not exist. This is especially
Rincon Miesse, a lawyer.
true in the Dominican Republic, where a certified
What happened next depends on whose testi-
birth certificate is required to go to universities, get
mony is correct. Thelma Bienvienidas Reyes, the
jobs or marry.
registrar, said Miesse never gave her identification documents for the girls’ parents. Miesse said he did
A Proud Citizen
and that Reyes commented on the girls’ “strange”
Bosico was once stateless, but now she has her
and “Africanized” names.
name on a Dominican birth certificate and is proud of that name – Haitian roots and all.
The case first went to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – another arm of
“When I was young, I would always wonder, ‘Oh,
the OAS human-rights system – which oversaw the
my God, how am I going to say my last name in
Dominican Republic until the country came under
public?’ because I know that I’m going to be made
the Inter-American Court’s jurisdiction in 1999.
fun of or pointed at,” she said through a translator.
At the center of this effort on the girls’ behalf were
“But then one day I said, ‘No, this is my last name.
Pierre and her Movement of Dominican-Haitian
I can call myself what I want. It’s mine and it’s what
Women, known by its Spanish acronym MUDHA.
I’m going to say everywhere I am.’”
From the time of her rejection, Bosico was a regular
Today, Bosico attends a university in this capital
in MUDHA’s drafty office about a half-mile north
city, spending several hours on public transporta-
of the Caribbean Sea, and she made friends with
tion to and from her home in Batey Palive, where
many of its staff.
she lives with her mother, Tiramen.
“They were very patient and they explained to me
Bosico’s eyes are alert, and she wears a shy smile
step-by-step what was happening,” said Bosico,
that can grow surprisingly wide. She also is very
who was 11 when the case started. “They also
dark-skinned, and that may have been a problem
explained to me – and I was able to understand –
on March 5, 1997, when she and an infant named
that this was not just about me, and there were a lot
Dilcia were sent away from a civil registry without
of people like me and that this was important to a lot
birth certificates. They had been rejected before,
of people.”
but this time they were accompanied by Genardo 27
When MUDHA committed the two girls’ names to
applied to buy a house and was denied because of
banking. Cedulas are issued at age 18 and must be
the mistake.
renewed every six years or when the government
In the Dominican Republic, a birth certificate is
issues a new version.
required nearly every time a person deals with the
The agency responsible for distributing birth
government. A birth certificate is needed to get
certificates and overseeing citizenship issues is the
married, attend school, start a business, get a driv-
Junta Central Electoral, which operates a series of
er’s license or passport, sign up for a phone plan
civil registries around the country.
and much more.
Human-right groups such as the Open Society
It is also needed to get a “cedula,” the national
Justice Initiative and a Jesuit-led group called the
identity card that is essential for voting and
Social Action and Agrarian Center have accused
conducting a licensed business activity such as
the civil registries of denying birth certificates and
court documents, it tried the girls’ names and their
by herself, so I fear for her life.”
connection to the case as quiet as possible. The girls and their parents were shielded from being
Tougher Citizenship Laws
photographed by media and international organiza-
Less than a year after the September 2005 judg-
tions.
ment in the girls’ case, the Dominican Supreme
Pierre said she feared retaliation from Dominicans
Court upheld a revision to citizenship laws that
who oppose birthright citizenship. Even a sugges-
classified illegal immigrants in the same manner
tion of violence could keep people from speaking
as foreign diplomats and tourists – as people “in
out in the future, she said.
transit.”
The ages of the two girls presented unique chal-
In 2010, the country’s constitution was amended
lenges. Yean, just a toddler when the case was
to define citizenship by parental status: If one parent
accepted by the court, was especially vulnerable,
is Dominican, the child is Dominican. But if a child
and not just physically. At one point, Pierre said,
is born in the Dominican Republic to parents who
Yean told a psychologist that she felt different from
are not citizens, the child no longer has citizenship
the other children and didn’t want to have Haitian
rights.
roots any longer.
The Dominican government is working with
Bosico, meanwhile, was maturing rapidly and
some longtime immigrants to gain legal residence,
running out of ways to get an education. At 14, she
Aquino, the JCE magistrate, said. He was careful
had to attend night school with adults for a year until
to note, however, that not every undocumented
she received her birth certificate, which allowed her
person will qualify – only those who were registered
to return to school in the daytime with students her
legally in the eyes of the government.
own age.
“We are proposing that these people in this
Bosico said she no longer fears an attack, but
circumstance regularize their birth certificates so
she still does not want to be photographed. Her
that they can have full rights and, in spite of these
mother is more worried.
irregularities, they can access the benefits of
“She walks around on her own,” Tiramen said through a translator. “She goes to school, usually
Dominican law without limitation,” he said. David Baluarte, a former legal counsel for Yean 28
identity cards to people of Haitian descent because
you can’t necessarily control. You can have a deter-
of their darker skin and French Creole-based
mined policy and an employee can depart from it.” Hortensia Guzman, personnel director of the
names. Jose Angel Aquino, one of five magistrates who
civil registry in the National District, denied that
determine JCE policy, said there have been cases
her office discriminates. Yet she said through a
of discrimination, but it is not institutionalized and
translator that a JCE agent could place someone
there are training programs that aim to prevent it.
under investigation for falsifying documents if the
“We have sanctioned employees, and we have
agent had a general feeling that the person wasn’t
given the corresponding apology to the people
Dominican: If a blond, Caucasian woman with
affected,” he said in Spanish. “It can happen. …
a U.S. accent were to present Dominican docu-
Racism and, in this case, elitism are feelings that
ments, Guzman said, that woman would likely be
and Bosico, said such programs address part of
large, unless you have cases that point to a pattern
the problem. But “I think there needs to be a lot
in a particular country, it’s highly unusual that you
of attention and focus on that and support for the
would have an immediate impact on the political
Dominican Republic to ultimately do the right thing,”
organs.” And if judgments have broad remedies, like the
he said. Some Dominican officials have begun to focus
legal reforms ordered in Yean’s and Bosico’s case,
on the problem. In late July, JCE magistrate Eddy
they can provide a framework for a country to solve
Olivares said in a television interview that the chil-
its problems when the time comes, said Thomas
dren of Haitian immigrants should be given identity
Antkowiak, a former senior attorney in the Inter-
papers — pointing out that many of them came to
American system.
the country through labor treaties with Haiti. Olivares
“Many studies have shown that what victims want
also said that the Dominican immigration agency,
most is justice and recognition from the state, and
not the JCE is should be take the lead in deciding
these remedies – like apologies, recognition of
whether someone is in the country illegally.
responsibility, publishing the judgment, rehabilita-
Meanwhile, Dominican
citizenship Republic
are
cases
against
mounting
in
the Inter-
tion – they go more directly to those needs,” he said.
American human rights bodies. The commission
But even without recognition from the govern-
has declared three cases against the Dominican
ment, judgments can have long-lasting effects,
Republic admissible and applied for one of them to
such as the $8,000 paid to Bosico. With that money,
be heard by the court.
Bosico has become a university student. Now, she
If the court continues to rule against the Dominican Republic, the country’s problems are more likely to be recognized at the top level of the OAS, said Alvarez, the former Dominican ambassador. “One case by itself does not have that impact unless there are specific conditions in the case that have far-reaching implications,” he said. “By and 29
hopes her story will inspire others without citizenship to persevere. “I do believe that the more people hear about it … that maybe can help,” she said. ■
placed under investigation and her papers would
multiple sets of requirements for a late birth certifi-
be confiscated.
cate application. Recently, Ramon Tibo, who has
An investigation typically takes a few hours but
filed a suit against the government, had his birth
can sometimes last overnight, Guzman said. She
certificate revoked in a Santo Domingo civil registry
said she has never seen an investigation last more
yet easily received another in the country’s second
than 10 days, although plaintiffs in cases against
largest city, Santiago.
the Dominican Republic have claimed they were under investigation for years. Charges of inconsistency also have plagued the JCE. When collecting evidence a decade ago,
“We have 300 offices, and it could be that at some time in a particular office there is different treatment,” Aquino said, “but in general the policies are implemented the same way.” ■
the Inter-American Court on Human Rights found
30
The Jimani public hospital near the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic is flooded with Haitian women who come to give birth.
31
By Lauren Gilger Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Lauren Gilger
Haitian Women Cross Border to Give Birth
JIMANI, Dominican Republic – A doctor sits on
hospitals and health care in Haiti, especially after
the porch of her clinic, the only one in Jimani, the
last year’s earthquake. They come to have their
Dominican city that serves as the busiest border
babies in hospital beds instead of on the floors of
crossing between Haiti and its neighbor.
their homes.
Just beyond the quiet porch, everything is chaos:
But many come too late. In the Dominican
dust, smoke, heat and the angry roar of motorbikes.
Republic, 17 of every 1,000 newborns died in 2009,
Suddenly, one of the bikes kicks up dirt and heads
according to the latest numbers available from
directly for the clinic. It is driven by a teenage boy
UNICEF. And the lifetime risk of maternal death is
in shorts and on the back sits a woman wearing
one in 320.
spandex pants, a pink scarf tied around her head.
Still, those odds are much better than what women
The woman struggles to get off the bike.
face if they stay in Haiti, where 27 of every 1,000
“I’m bleeding,” she tells Dr. Camila Perozo.
newborns died in 2009 and the odds of a woman
The woman, three months pregnant, has just
dying giving birth is one in 93.
crossed the border from Haiti to see the Dominican
So the women cross the border. Their children
doctor. She has no immigration papers or money to
may have a better chance of survival, but they also
pay a fee. The same is true for thousands of preg-
end up in a legal no man’s land they may never
nant Haitian women, many of them ready to give
escape.
birth, who cross the border each year.
In Arizona, these children might be called “anchor
Haitian women make up a large portion of the
babies.” They might be born on U.S. soil to immi-
patients giving birth in Dominican hospitals. In the
grants from Mexico or Guatemala who illegally
capital of Port-au-Prince, hospitals estimate that up
came to this country. They might become the center
to 35 percent of the patients in their maternity wards
of the emotional debate about immigration and the
are Haitian. On the border, the numbers are higher
U.S. Constitution that’s being waged in 14 states, in
still. One hospital director estimated that three out
the halls of Congress and on the streets of Phoenix.
of four of his patients are Haitian women who come
But the children will be U.S. citizens.
there to give birth.
In the Dominican Republic, these children have no
They come because they don’t have access to
“anchor.” 32
Poor women from both Haiti and the Dominican Republic seek health care at Centro Clinico Diagnostico in Jimani, Dominican Republic.
In a series of changes to its Constitution over the past decade, the Dominican government has done what some powerful conservative politicians are attempting in Arizona and around the country – revoke birthright citizenship. A child born to illegal immigrants in the Dominican Republic is no longer a citizen of that country. At the same time, without registration in their parents’ home country, they are not citizens there Ludia Baptiste, 25, left Haiti after she lost everything in the devastating 2010 earthquake.
either. They are stateless. But that doesn’t stop a pregnant Haitian woman from getting on the back of a motorbike and making the dusty crossing into the Dominican Republic. She knows the doctors there won’t turn her away: Although the Dominican Republic is a relatively poor country, it treats everyone needing medical assistance regardless of immigration status. As a result, these women are overwhelming an already stressed Dominican health care system. “We are poor,” said Jose Delancer, director of the Ministry of Health with the Department of Women and Children. From money to beds to doctors and nurses, “the Dominican Republic was not set up to handle this.”
On the web: Many Haitian women who cross the border to give birth in the Dominican
Still, Delancer understands why they come – and why they will keep coming. “If I were Haitian,” he said. “I would do the same thing as them.”
hospitals don’t realize that their children may end up
Refugee from an Earthquake
without citizenship rights.
“Life in Haiti is hard,” said Ludia Baptiste. She sits upright on the side of her bed in a one-room shanty in Bateye San Isidro, a tight-knit, impov-
http://cronkite.asu.edu/ buffett/dr/giving_birth_full. 33
erished Haitian community outside of Santo Domingo. The walls of her room are covered in newspaper and magazine clip-
pings written in English; American celebrities smile out from the pages.
A
Nothing is out of place: A small Bible sits on her pillow and a sheet
Dominican
serves as a curtain separating the kitchen from her bed.
Jimani, one of the busiest
Baptiste came to the Dominican Republic along with thousands of
woman
walks
into
Republic
the near
border crossings between the
other refugees after the earthquake in early 2010 left Haiti – already the
Dominican
poorest country in the Western hemisphere – devastated.
Haiti.
and
neighboring
“The house in Haiti collapsed,” she said in broken French. “The people who live in Haiti have a hard life. The house collapsed. And the food – everything people had in Haiti – they have no food anymore.” The hospitals are gone, too, she says, which is why she crossed the border. Five months pregnant with no father in sight, she is waiting for her baby to be born. Then she will return home. “I want to go back to Haiti because my family is there,” she said, nodding and adding an emphatic “Uh huh.” Here, she lives alone in this small, tidy room. She cannot work because she has no papers, and hunger has followed her across the border. Still, Baptiste smiles widely and laughs as she looks at the sonogram she’s just pulled out of her purse. She has been to Centro Materno Infantil San Lorenzo de Los Mina hospital five times since she found she was pregnant. “Each month,” she said with pride. “You get free vitamins here, and you get free consultations here. You get a lot of things for free, which is better than in Haiti.” This will be her first child and she laughs at the suggestion that she might have another in the future. But if that happens, she will come back to this country to give birth – if she can. “If I have papers,” she said. But this child, she’s not worried about. “The baby will be Dominican,” she said. 34
New and expectant mothers wait to be seen at Los Mina Hospital in Santo Domingo. 35
Opposite page: Luiz Mena, 34, recovers from giving birth at Hospital General Melenciano in Jimani.
“Your baby will be Dominican?”
zied pace. And then there are the women who walk
“Yes.” She nods her head and frowns. “Uh huh.”
to the dusty border crossing and pay a man with a
Here’s the truth:
motorbike to drive them into the Dominican Republic
Children born to illegal parents in the Dominican
when their babies are about to come.
Republic are not citizens of that country.
They arrive in the throes of labor and with a myriad
Nor are they citizens of Haiti.
of other health problems: malnourishment, anemia,
They are stateless.
septicemia and poverty. Few have had any prenatal care.
A Place for Women
“Here we call them ‘time bombs,’” said Francis
“I picked this area because it is too poor.”
Moquete, director of Hospital General Melenciano,
Camila Perozo’s voice is drowned out by a motor-
Jimani’s public hospital. He’s watched for years as
bike that is circling her clinic for the third or fourth
countless Haitian women come to the hospital and
time, the engine screaming.
leave with newborns.
Perozo worked for four years as a doctor in Haiti
“They come here; this is where they want to come.
before she and her husband spent their life savings
One wants to go where there is better service,” he
building a clinic on a dirt road one block from the
said. “This is how it is.”
public hospital in Jimani. They painted it clean
Of the 40 or so deliveries performed at his hospital
white and baby blue with the words “Centro Clinico
each month, about 30 are Haitian births, Moquete
Diagnostico, Dra. Perozo” painted in gold lettering
said. “And of those 30, at least four come without
on the front. Her name is in cursive.
any type of (medical) check,” he said.
“There are other border crossings. But this is the one that takes people directly from the capital,”
“This is what most worries us when they come like this – suddenly, with nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Perozo said in Spanish. “This is why we have so much movement.”
Overwhelming the System
Jimani is just an hour’s drive from Port-au-Prince.
Across the country, on their half of this small
Food, trucks, cars, goods and workers move across
island, Dominican hospitals and clinics are being
the border between these two countries at a fren-
overwhelmed by Haitian women. 36
“The border is imaginary. It’s just a door,” said
whomever – no matter their creed or race, their
Delancer of the national Ministry of Health, sitting at
color – it does not matter,” he said as he sat inside
his desk in a crowded office with bright blue walls in
the hospital, a fan buzzing behind him to stave off
Santo Domingo. “There are clinics and hospitals that
the Caribbean heat.
are 100 meters away from the border line, and 50 to 60 percent of the births that occur here are Haitian. “It’s a problem of poverty; it’s a problem of education; it’s a problem of empowering of women.”
“You have to give service to the person,” he added with conviction. “This is what is important.” But what is important comes up against a harsh reality: The Dominican health care system
And it’s a problem of access. In the Dominican
is designed to care for about 7 million people,
Republic, medical treatment is provided free of
according to Delancer. There are nearly 10 million
charge whether the individual has documentation or
living in the Dominican Republic, and more than
not, Delancer said.
a million of them are Haitians – with more coming
More than 150 miles away on the border, Moquete
every day.
nods his head in agreement. “In this we are clear
Delancer worries about those numbers: “How
– no matter a person’s poverty, religion, race, they
many of them are in reproductive age? How many of
have to be given medical attention,” he said.
them need health care?”
He spins his cell phone between his two hands on top of a spotless desk and frowns. “This is a right of all human beings.” Joaquin Recio, vice director of nursing at the public hospital in Jimani, was born inside these walls. He has worked here for nearly a quarter-
How can the system support so many? “There isn’t a system that counts the total number of Haitian citizens who live in this country,” Delancer said. “Everyone knows that.” “How do you count an illegal population, a population that is registered nowhere?”
century and brings a religious fervor to the care he provides to Haitians.
Clinging to Citizenship
“If God has given you this gift to give service to
At the Jimani public hospital an hour from Port-au-
others – this special service, of health – then you
Prince, two women, still in their street clothes, lie on
have to give it with quality, warmly, with love, to
small cots.
37
Opposite
page:
Querida
Missou, 25, a Haitian immigrant, lies next to her newborn son in Hospital General Melenciano in Jimani. Left: Luiz Mena’s daughter sleeps hours after her birth at Hospital General Melenciano.
A nurse in a tight, white uniform uses a needle to inject a clear liquid
Women wait to see a doctor at
into their IVs. A baby lies next to each woman on her bed. They are
a maternity hospital in Santo
hours old. Neither yet has a name.
Domingo.
“Where are you from?” “Here,” they both say. “My husband is Dominican,” one woman offers without being asked. This is an important detail: If it is true, her child is legal. The new Dominican law says that if one parent has Dominican citizenship, the child is Dominican. The nurse doesn’t blink; she hears such claims every day. But she clarifies that the women are of Haitian descent. The two women agree. The nurse files birth certificates for every child born in the hospital.
A boy wanders the hallways of
“She fills out a record – a card,” Recio said. “And she puts her name,
Hospital General Melenciano in
what she is called, her last name. And with this, nothing more, the baby
Jimani.
is registered.” The nurse writes down whatever name the mothers give her on the certificate – Spanish or French. She’s not an immigration officer. She doesn’t tell them that their children won’t be citizens until they are officially registered with the Dominican government and that they can be officially registered only if they can prove that they or their husbands are legal residents of the country. It’s a complicated process, fraught with challenges and delays that can be triggered simply by a surname that sounds more French than Spanish. By that afternoon, the women are gone, taking their new babies with them. The beds are stripped and the hallways quiet. The babies have their birth certificates, but they are not citizens – not yet. They are stateless. ■ 38
By Tarryn Mento Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Lauren Gilger
High Numbers of Maternal Deaths Plague Health System
SANTO
DOMINGO,
Dominican
Republic
–
Abraham’s mother was just 17 when she died. The same day that he came into this world was the day she left.
free, people come from everywhere, from all the surrounding villages.” Wagner said the hospital is equipped to handle 1,500 to 2,000 births a year. Instead, it is handling
Abraham was delivered by Cesarean section at
12,000 to 13,000 births annually. Many of the
Hospital Materno-Infantil San Lorenzo de Los Mina,
mothers are poor, undocumented women who have
a bustling public hospital in the Dominican capital
had little or no prenatal care. Many of these are from
city. His mother, Nana Charlie, died from excessive
Haiti, where the maternal death rate is even worse –
bleeding.
three times higher than in the Dominican Republic.
Maternal hemorrhaging is one of the main reasons
Those are the facts Los Mina deals with every day.
for the Dominican Republic’s relatively high maternal
So is this one: 24 mothers died in childbirth at the
mortality rate.
hospital last year. That’s about the same number of
But many come too late. In the Dominican
deaths per 100,000 live births in the U.S.
Republic, the lifetime risk of maternal death is one
To medical professionals in the Dominican
in 320, according to UNICEF. That’s almost seven
Republic, health care is a human right. No woman in
times higher than in the U.S.
need of maternal care will be turned away, regard-
Medical experts say a high maternal mortality
less of her immigration status or ability to pay.
rate usually correlates to limited medical access.
“We have had always an open door policy that we
But in the Dominican Republic, skilled medical
would take anyone who comes,” said Leonard Ziur,
personnel attend nearly 98 percent of births, only
a Los Mina doctor from Cuba who has also prac-
one percentage point less than in this country.
ticed in Miami. “We don’t send them back.”
So many women die in childbirth in the Dominican Republic not because they can’t get to a doctor, but
Haitians Flood System
because they get there so late – and because they
Three strangers and their newborns, just hours
come in such great numbers. “These hospitals are free,” said Los Mina Hospital Director Pablo Wagner. “And because they are 39
old, share a bare, dimly lit room at Los Mina. Water leaks onto the tile floor. Yirandy Contrera sits on a narrow hospital bed,
Abraham Axicinean, 5 months old, takes a nap at the home of Eriana Alce in Batey San Isidro. His mother was 17 when she died giving birth to him.
40
Deborah Juan Medlete, 15, holds her infant son, Solomon Felipe.
wearing a pink cotton baby doll dress, her inflated belly still visible beneath the thin fabric. Her newborn son, wrapped in white terrycloth embroidered with his name, lies on the mattress next to her. There is no recognizable chime of a hospital gadget monitoring vitals. No hospital bracelets or visitors’ badges. No call button to ensure a nurse is just a ring away. There are just the familiar cries of infants and the comforting coos of their mothers. The care is mediocre by U.S. standards, but it is far superior to what is available in neighboring Haiti, and, as a result, pregnant Haitian women Dr. Pablo Wagner directs the
regularly cross the border illegally into the Dominican Republic to have
Los Mina hospital, where many
their babies.
Haitian women come to give birth.
No one knows how many of them come – only that it’s many and that the numbers have grown substantially since last year’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, which destroyed many hospitals. “The cost of this hasn’t been estimated because there isn’t a system that counts the total number of Haitian citizens who live in this country,” said Jose Delancer, director of the Department of Women and Children within the Dominican Ministry of Public Health. “How do you count an illegal population, a population that is registered nowhere?” “The Dominican laws and the Constitution of the Republic guarantee universal access to health care to anyone, no matter their descent, their races, their nationalities, their immigration status,” Delancer added. “We as a health care system are not here to question immigration policies. We are here simply to provide quality services to the extent that our capacities allow us to, to anyone who asks for it.” Delancer said the Dominican government has budgeted for public health services for 7 million people in a country with a population of 10
41
A child runs to his house in Bateye San Isidro, an impovershed Haitian community on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. 42
Annabelle and Cristina, both 2, play next to the only bed in Eriana Alce’s home. Annabelle is the daughter of a neighbor who died and Cristina is one of Alce’s two children. 43
million, although wealthier segments of the population mainly use private
Eriana Alce, 23, is three months
health care. The undocumented Haitian population is estimated to repre-
pregnant. She cares for four
sent at least a tenth of the population, some who enter the Dominican
children – two of whom she
solely to deliver their babies.
took in after their mother died
Many of them have never had a pre-natal check-up, and, as a result,
and two of her own – Cristina,
doctors are often unable to anticipate problems and are unprepared for
2, (above) and Veronica, 4,
complications that could have been prevented.
(below), who chews on the arm
Approximately one third of Los Mina patients are Haitian and arrive in
of a doll.
poor health, said Wagner, the Los Mina hospital director. “They don’t have a monthly examination, and when they come to the hospital, they come in an awful condition, in a bad situation,” he said. “They are mothers that don’t have the proper conditions to support nine months of pregnancy. They are without nutrition, without education.” Abraham’s mother was one such patient, according to local religious leader Malia Duval and other members of the community who are familiar with the case. When she arrived at the hospital to give birth, she was in poor condition. She was undernourished and battling sickle-cell anemia and wasn’t strong enough to survive surgery. She bled to death after undergoing a Cesarean section. Language Barriers More than five months after the death of his mother, Abraham sleeps on a bed in a home in Batey San Isidro, an impoverished community made up mostly of Haitian immigrants on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. Flies drift freely around his head. With the whereabouts of their father unknown, Abraham and his 2-year-old sister, Annabelle, live in the care of Eriana Alce, a neighbor of 44
their deceased mother. At 23, Eriana is four months pregnant and already has two children of her own. One of them, a toddler, sits on the dirty cement floor, biting and occasionally swallowing pieces of a torn plastic bag. An immigrant from Haiti, Eriana does not have Dominican citizenship and can’t legally work. Her husband works at a nightclub, but the couple
“They are without nutrition, without education.” – Dr. Pablo Wagner, director, Los Mina hospital
struggle to feed the children they have. Asked what she is going to do with another baby coming, Eriana replies, “Nada.”
to overcome the language problems by adopting a
There is nothing she can do.
common form for perinatal histories and translating
Like many immigrants from Haiti, Eriana speaks
it into Creole. The ministry has disseminated the
only a little Spanish. Her native language is a dialect
translated document throughout Dominican hospi-
of French-Creole, and that presents yet another
tals and also has sent the form to Haiti.
challenge to health care professionals. “Usually they come when they are almost at time
Common Problems
of delivery,” said Ziur, the Cuban doctor at Los Mina.
The maternal health problems in the Dominican
“They live in Haiti. They get here and they tell you,
Republic are not unique, and, in fact, many are the
‘No, I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t speak English. I
same as those facing immigrant populations in the
don’t speak anything, only Creole.’”
U.S.
Translators are sometimes available at the hospital,
Many undocumented women in the U.S. have little
but not always. Ziur said he handles an average of
or no access to pre-natal care during pregnancy,
40 patients a day. In a typical eight-hour day, that’s
according to a 2010 Amnesty International report.
five patients per hour, and nearly one third do not
Private insurance is too expensive, and they don’t
speak Spanish.
qualify for Medicaid because they are in the country
The Dominican Ministry of Public Health is trying 45
unlawfully.
Opposite page: (From left to right) Yirandy Contrera, Yatrona Santos and Rosalba Castillo share a room with their newborn babies hours after giving birth at Los Mina hospital. Staff members clean medical equipment in front of Los Mina hospital in Santo Domingo.
Although U.S. law requires that all women in active labor have access to medical care regardless of immigration status, many arrive at hospitals in poor condition, according to the report. They frequently lack prenatal care and don’t speak the language. Medical care for undocumented immigrants is being increasingly debated in the U.S. In Arizona, for example, a bill introduced in the state Legislature last year would have required hospitals to identify suspected illegal immigrants. While those in need of emergency services would get
Used syringes sit on the bed
them, the bill would have denied services to others.
at the feet of a patient hours
The bill failed to pass after hospital and medical associations voiced strong opposition to checking patients’ immigration status. However,
after she gave birth in the public hospital in Jimani.
state Sen. Steve Smith, a Republican who represents a large district south and east of Phoenix, has said he intends to reintroduce the bill
Medical supplies are kept on
next session.
a metal stand at the hospital.
Such a debate has not yet surfaced in the Dominican Republic, despite evidence that treating illegal immigrants has stretched the health care system beyond its capabilities and even though the two countries – the Dominican and Haiti – have a long history of antagonistic relations. Ziur is typical of doctors who say that if the Dominican Republic adopted a law requiring hospitals to notify authorities of a patient’s immigration status, he would refuse. Treating undocumented population may be hurting the Dominican health care system, but not treating people in need would be more painful. “I will not do it. I will just resist,” he said. Medical care, he said, is not about policy or politics. “Your duty’s not that. I’m here to save lives.” ■ 46
By Joanne Ingram Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Carie Gladding
Educating Children Proves Daunting Challenge
SANTO
DOMINGO,
Dominican
Republic
–
director of the Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo
Fate dealt teenagers Maria and Theresa Cajou a
Integral,
devastating hand in 2010. Their parents were killed
Development. “Consequently, after eighth grade
in the Jan. 12 Haitian earthquake. Their school was
they can’t . . . continue to go to school, they can’t
destroyed. They lost all contact with friends and
take out a loan, they can’t vote. And that’s probably
family.
the best recipe for them to continue in a level of
Three days after the earthquake, the twins left their native Haiti and headed across the border into the Dominican Republic.
or
Dominican
Institute
for
Integral
critical poverty.” The Dominican Republic already has troubling numbers of people living in poverty and who lack
They were lucky. The girls, both 16, found refuge
literacy and a high school degree. Fewer than 10
at the Dominica Orphanage and School in the
percent of its 3.7 million children will graduate from
capital city, where they are doing well.
high school, according to the organization Save the
But without proper documentation, the Cajous will hit a dead-end once they graduate.
Children. Many of the neediest children are orphans, some
“I know that the laws, our laws, won’t allow them
of them orphaned by last year’s earthquake in Haiti.
to go to university without birth certificates,” said
In all, approximately 170,000 Haitian and Dominican
Dominica orphanage founder Dominica Rosario. “I
orphans live in the Dominican Republic, according
don’t even know what will happen with them when
to UNICEF.
they finish.” While education in the Dominican Republic is
Making Education a Priority
mandatory and free for children ages 5 through 14,
Education advocates working in the country
regardless of their immigration status, many children
believe the government is not doing enough. They
do not continue to ninth grade because they lack
point out that only 2.3 percent of the nation’s gross
a Dominican birth certificate or other official docu-
domestic product is spent on education, even
mentation that proves they are citizens.
though the law calls for 4 percent of the nation’s
“A lot of the kids, even the Dominicans, don’t have birth certificates,” said David Luther, executive 47
GDP to go to schools. By comparison, the U.S. spends 5.4 percent of its GDP on education.
Fewer than 10 percent of children in the Dominican Republic will graduate from high school. 48
“For me it’s the biggest problem the country has,” said Kevin Manning, a business consultant who sits on the executive board of directors for the Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring (DREAM) Project, a nonprofit hoping to improve educational opportunities. “The poor are condemned to their poverty as a result.” The Ministry of Education did not respond to calls and emails to discuss the country’s support for education. But Dominican President Leonel Fernandez’s administration has spoken about the need to improve the educational system. In March 2008, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development held its second Global Forum on Education in the Dominican
“We very strongly believe that a quality education is the best way to lift all of these kids out of poverty. When we say ‘all of these kids,’ we also mean the Haitian kids.” – Jonathan Wunderlich, director of development, DREAM Project in Cabarete, Dominican Republic
Republic at Fernandez’s suggestion. During the
public schools, opening up 417 new classrooms
opening session, Ligia Amada Melo de Cardona,
before the 2011-2012 school year, according to
state secretary for higher education, science and
Dominican news reports. The school expansion
technology, “emphasized that President Fernandez
project is expected to cost $20 million.
sees education as the key for driving moderniza-
Still, Manning insists that not enough is being
tion and sustainable development in the Dominican
done. Most classrooms lack desks and chairs, he
Republic,” the OECD reported.
said, and some teachers are barely literate. In other
Cardona added that Fernandez wants to make the
cases, teachers are in such short supply that classes
education system more “efficient and effective, in
are taught by the most advanced students, he said.
order to drive innovation and technological develop-
“Teaching has become the terrain of the lower
ment.” The Ministry of Education plans to build 41 more 49
classes in this country,” he said. Jonathan Wunderlich, director of development for
Opposite page: Children at the Armando
Rosenberg
Home
and School in Santo Domingo receive an education thanks to charitable donations. Left and below: Maria Cajou and her twin sister Theresa have lived at the Dominica school since losing their parents in the 2010 Haitian earthquake.
the DREAM Project in Cabarete on the country’s north coast, agreed that the “quality of the teachers is very low” in public schools. Schools for the Poor Originally from New York, Wunderlich came to the Dominican Republic almost eight years ago after spending several years teaching in a number of countries. He planned to write a novel but instead got involved with the DREAM Project, which has helped provide education to underprivileged Dominican children since 2002. Teachers, parents and volunteers help run DREAM Centers located in six cities across the country. A total of nearly 500 students from ages 3 through 6 attend school in small classes. About 1,000 others, mostly older, participate in summer camps and youth development programs that teach computer literacy, music and health.
Jonathan
Wunderlich
came
Most expenses are covered by U.S. donors, and no tuition is charged,
to the Dominican Republic in
Wunderlich said. Children who enroll must come from the community
2004 to write a novel. He now
where the school is located and have a family member willing to volun-
helps educate underprivileged
teer for two weeks each year.
children.
No legal documentation is required – a fact that has encouraged many local Haitian families to enroll their children. “We very strongly believe that a quality education is the best way to lift all of these kids out of poverty,” Wunderlich said. “When we say ‘all of these kids,’ we also mean the Haitian kids.” In Santo Domingo, Dominica Rosario also is doing what she can to educate the poorest of the Dominican Republic’s children, including those who are from Haiti. Rosario said she and her brother, Alexis, grew up in an orphanage, 50
Many students of Haitian descent are unable to complete their education because they can’t prove their Dominican citizenship. 51
where they received just one meal a day. When her brother died in 2002, Rosario took over the school and has been running it by herself since. She also teaches two days a week at a
A student waits Dominica
outside the
Orphanage
and
School in Santo Domingo.
college in San Pedro de Macoris, about an hour east of Santo Domingo. The Dominica school relies on a combination of tuition and donations to operate – a dicey proposition in a poor global economy. Some longtime contributors have been unable to help in recent years, and the orphanage is in a precarious financial situation, Rosario said. She has asked for financial help from the government but has received nothing so far. She does her best to understand and to be patient. “They are focused on other things first,” she said. “I can see that they’re trying.”
Dominica Rosario ran the Dominica Orphanage and
Rosario said she increasingly relies on members of the local commu-
School with her brother,
nity for help. Some take children for overnight stays since there is not
Alexis, until his death in
always enough room at the orphanage for everyone to sleep, she said.
2002. She is now the sole
Every day, she said she turns away three to four families who bring
director of the facility.
their children to live or to learn. Demand has grown since last year’s earthquake in Haiti. “We have always had children from Haiti, but after the earthquake we got more children,” Rosario said. “We received about 30 children from
On the web: Many students
the (Santo Domingo) hospital.”
of Haitian descent are unable
All told, about 60 children, the youngest of them just 9 months old, live at the orphanage. About 200 attend the orphanage school. Maria and Theresa Cajou are among the oldest residents, and they
to complete their education because they can’t prove their Dominican citizenship.
appear to have absorbed the lessons Rosario has taught them. “School,” said Theresa through a translator, “is the future for children.” ■
http://cronkite.asu.edu/ buffett/dr/education. 52
The People of Batey Esperanza Photos by Brandon Quester
i
Street Kids of Santo Domingo Photos by Brandon Quester
ii
Life in Barrio San Jose La Mina Photos by Brandon Quester
iii
Life in Barrio San Jose La Mina Photos by Brandon Quester
iv
Niños Del Camino Children’s Shelter Photos by Brandon Quester
v
Niùos Del Camino Children’s Shelter Photos by Brandon Quester
vi
Dominican Republic Schools Photos by Carie Gladding
vii
Dominican Republic Schools Photos by Carie Gladding
viii
Along the Haitian-Dominican Border Photos by Lauren Gilger
ix
Along the Haitian-Dominican Border Photos by Lauren Gilger
x
Life in Bateye San Isidro Photos by Lauren Gilger
xi
Life in Bateye San Isidro Photos by Lauren Gilger
xii
Los Mina Hospital, Santo Domingo Photo by Lauren Gilger
2.
3.
1. 4. 6. xiii
5.
1: Dr. Leonard Zuir of Centro Materno Infantil San Lorenzo de Los Mina 2-4: RaĂşl H. Yzaguirre, U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic 5: Adolfo Mecedes, head of Customs, Comendador, Dominican Republic 6: Atalio Herrera, founder of AGROESSA coffee cooperative
Public Faces Photos by Michel Duarte
xiv
Streets of Santo Domingo Photos by Michel Duarte
xv
Streets of Santo Domingo Photos by Michel Duarte
xvi
Life in Batey Nine Photos by Lindsay Erin Lough
xvii
Life in Batey Nine Photos by Lindsay Erin Lough
xviii
Churches of Santo Domingo Photos by Lindsay Erin Lough
xix
Churches of Santo Domingo Photos by Lindsay Erin Lough
xx
The Catedral Primada de America is one of many Catholic churches in Santo Domingo. Photo by Lindsay Erin Lough 53
By Nick Newman Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
Religious Weigh God’s Law Against Country’s Law
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these thy brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
gious organizations working with poor, displaced Haitians in the Dominican Republic – people who find themselves without the ability to travel abroad, legally find work, access adequate health care or enroll their children in high school or college. The Jesuits loudly advocate for the rights of the refugees, often finding themselves at odds with
– Matthew 25:40
government institutions. Some government “institutions are acting against
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – It’s
the law of the country,” said Mario Serrano, national
a call to serve the poor. And for many of Christian
director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the
faith, Matthew 25:40 is a mandate to do as Jesus
Dominican Republic. “You cannot deny (Haitians)
would do.
the right to documentation, education or getting a
But in the Dominican Republic – where birthright
job. These are young people whose only fault is
citizenship has been outlawed and left thousands
being born to a migrant who gave his whole life to
of Dominican-born residents of Haitian descent
cutting sugar cane.”
without a country to call their own – doing so has
The Jesuits work with the poor, running shelters
fueled a conflict between this country’s law and
and providing food and clothing, but they don’t
what some see as God’s law.
think that’s enough. “We need to help change the
At the center of the tension is the Jesuit Refugee Service, which has 51 offices worldwide, including
political structures of society and denounce when rights have been denied,” Serrano said.
four in the Dominican Republic – in the border towns
The Dominican government, in turn, accuses the
of Dajabón and Jimaní, the city of Santiago and a
Jesuit Refugee Service of being part of an interna-
home base in the capital city of Santo Domingo.
tional conspiracy to unify the island of Hispaniola,
The Jesuits, a Catholic order that embraces social
which consists of the Dominican Republic and
justice, advocacy and human rights work as prime
Haiti. Some also have accused Jesuit priests of
tenets, are among the most high-profile of the reli-
harboring Haitians in churches at the border and of 54
Opposite
page:
Students
provide dental services to low income people, regardless of nationality. The small clinic is hosted at the Jesuit Refugee Service office in Santiago. Davide
Sala
is
advocacy
director for the Jesuit Refugee Service in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Photos by Brandon Quester disregarding federal law. In 2006, Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso talked openly about such a conspiracy and the Jesuits’ part in it. That same year, Troncoso called members of the Jesuit Refugee Service “leeches.” As recently as this year, Ramon Antonio Veras, a lawyer and political personality in Santiago, and nationalist presidential candidate Pelegrín Castillo have accused the U.S., among other countries, of a conspiracy to try to unite the island. Davide Sala, advocacy director for the Jesuits’ Santiago office, said the conspiracy allegations ignore the real problem. “Attacking us is just another way to not talk about the problem with immigration,” Sala said. Serrano added, “We are a target. We are not the only ones working Attorney Yojaira Bonilla works
with the Haitians, (but) we might be the only ones in the public sphere
on birthright citizenship cases
saying things aren’t right.”
in coordination with the Jesuit Refugee Service. Photo by Brandon Quester.
Sometimes the disagreements between the two sides erupt into violence. Jesuits in the Santiago office say several staff members were assaulted while they attempted to document a mass deportation of some 650 Haitian refugees and Dominicans of Haitian descent in that city in mid-April. A number of impoverished children who beg for subsistence on the streets were deported, and the repatriations were done so swiftly – some in less than an hour – that the Haitians had no time to call attorneys or inform family members, the Jesuits said. “We have seen authorities not only arrest people but also humiliate them, dragging them half-dressed from their houses, stripping them
55
of their property and carting them off to Dajabón and Jimaní,” Yaira Portes, a worker at the Santiago Jesuit office, wrote on a Jesuit website. “What is happening is heart-rending.” History of Advocacy The Jesuits have a history of standing with the poor, even if it means coming into direct conflict with governments and even the hierarchy of their own church.
“You’re born in the country and I cannot live a normal life like any other citizen. I just stay at home thinking of what I can’t do.” – Ramón Tibo, Dominican Republic resident
Pope Benedict XVI, while still a Cardinal, strongly criticized portions of the Jesuit Liberation Theology, which emphasizes the rights of the poor and disenfranchised. Jesuit activism has sometimes led to direct conflicts with governments and death for its most outspoken members.
don’t expect that kind of violence in the Dominican Republic. But they said they are prepared to take risks – and to flout the law if necessary. “Those migrants are among the weakest of the
For example, in El Salvador, Jesuits denounced
weak,” Serrano said. “And the law tries to be as just
what they considered a dictatorial regime that
as possible. But justice sometimes must go beyond
ignored the plight of the poor. In 1977, a Jesuit
the law. On the seal of our country it says, ‘God,
priest and a lay deacon were killed along the side
Country, Liberty.’ Notice that God comes first.”
of a road. Three years later, the archbishop of the
The Rev. Regino Martinez, director of the Dajabón
country, Oscar Romero, was assassinated while
office in the northern part of the country and among
celebrating Mass. Four nuns were killed in 1980,
the most outspoken advocates for immigrants, put
and in 1989, six Jesuit priests and two lay women
it more simply yet: “Migrants have rights, even if
who worked at a university were assassinated.
they are undocumented,” he said.
Several Jesuits who were interviewed said they
On two separate occasions in 2009, Martinez 56
57
Ramon Tibo, 21, who is of Haitian descent, displays his all-important birth certificate. Photo by Brandon Quester 58
Jean-Louis
Raymond
says
changes in Dominican law,
was accused of hiding as many as 600 Haitians in a church to keep them from being deported.
combined with racism against
At one point, National Border Council President Radhamés Batista
those of Haitian descent, have
called for Martinez’s removal as a priest, saying he shouldn’t be allowed
made it impossible for him to
to serve while violating Dominican immigration laws.
support his 10 children.
“We believe no one is above the law,” Batista told a local newspaper, Dominican Today.
Fanie Bogelin, the mother of Jean-Louis
Raymond’s
chil-
Seeking Justice in the Courts
dren, says it is difficult to protect
The Jesuits have taken their battle for human rights to the Dominican
and nurture children who are
courts, winning four citizenship cases so far for Haitians threatened with
seen as illegal immigrants.
deportation.
Photos by Lindsay Erin Lough
A fifth case, still in process, involves Ramón Tibo, a man of Haitian descent from the northern city of Santiago. A young man in his 20s, Tibo was born in the Dominican Republic and has a birth certificate to prove it. But in the Dominican Republic, that’s not enough. Identification papers for those of Haitian descent must be obtained anew for most of life’s important steps – applying for college, buying a house or getting married, for example. For a year, Tibo has been trying to get his cédula – a national identification card – only to be refused. He said he produced his birth certificate but was told that he’s too dark, looks like a Haitian and has a French-sounding family name. Authorities tried to detain him for identity fraud, he said, but lawyers from the JRS helped get him released. The next day, Tibo, on the advice of Sala and others, went back to Santo Domingo to get his paperwork. This time, his birth certificate was given back to him. But the next day, authorities in Santo Domingo
59
Ramon Tibo, 21, was born in the Dominican Republic but does not have a birth certificate to prove it. He is being helped by the Jesuit Refugee Service. Photo by Brandon Quester
wanted to detain him yet again. That’s when Tibo
Saints doesn’t have a mission to specifically help
turned to the Jesuits in Santiago for legal help.
the stateless, the international humanitarian arm of
While he is uncertain what the court’s decision
the Mormon Church, which has a regional head-
will be, Tibo said he hopes his actions will propel
quarters in Santo Domingo, also works with the
others to speak out about what is happening.
poor in the Dominican Republic, as do a variety of
“The government wants to destroy the aspirations
other denominations.
of many young people like me who have dreams of
But with more displaced Haitians pouring into the
becoming professionals,” Tibo said. “We must fight
country after last year’s devastating earthquake, it’s
for our future.”
impossible to get help to everyone who needs it,
Tibo wants to study to be a lawyer so he can help
religious leaders said.
others like him. But for now, he can do little but wait.
“For the moment, we’re not helping much,” said
He walks the streets in fear of being deported to
the Rev. Abrahán Apolinario, pastor of Santa
Haiti, a country he’s never laid eyes on.
Cura de Ars, the local parish in La Zurza. “We are
“The true reality is this,” Tibo said. “You’re born in
welcoming them into our church. We are just barely
the country and I cannot live a normal life like any
starting. But I think in the future, things are going to
other citizen. I just stay at home thinking of what I
happen.”
can’t do.”
Agathe Champagne, a Catholic nun from Haiti, said she fled to the Dominican Republic after the
Overwhelming Need
hurricane and now assists at Apolinario’s parish
While the Jesuits are the most vocal, they’re not
along with other nuns.
the only religious organization coming to the aid of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic.
“Home is chaos,” Champagne said. “So we live everywhere.”
American Jewish World Service and Christian Aid
Jean-Louis Raymond and his family demonstrate
UK have their own operations on the island. Caritas,
both the extent of the need for help in Haiti and the
an international Catholic charity organization, teams
limits of what religious organizations have been
up with the Jesuit Refugee Service on occasion.
able to do so far.
And while The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
The family – with 10 children ranging in age from 60
Students in the Santo Domingo
4 to 24 – lives in La Zurza, a predominately Haitian barrio and one of the
barrio of La Zurza attend a
most violent in the capital city.
school run by nuns from a
“This barrio used to be safe when I was a kid, with only knives and
nearby Catholic parish. Photos
machetes,” said a taxi driver by the name of Hipolito. “Now they use
by Lindsay Erin Lough
machine guns.” Raymond and his family have no permanent home. “We stay with one person for a week, then a different person the next week, and even then, sometimes, we can get kicked out. It’s scary, because you never know how long you can stay,” Raymond said during an interview at that week’s home, no more than an open enclosure, with concrete and dirt floors and a tin roof on a side of a hill. The smell was of rotting vegetables and fecal matter – no better than a county dump. Men and boys strolled the neighborhood carrying guns and machetes. Raymond said his family has never received any sustained help from religious organizations, other than a Catholic nun named Rosa Maria Marmolejos, who oversees a school in the barrio and has helped the family find housing. “What is help? Is it getting a house? Where we get food? Where we sleep?” Raymond said. “Sometimes they’ll (religious organizations) come in and give us food for a day or two, but then they won’t show up for three or four months. So does helping for one day help?” Still, Raymond said he has faith in God. His greatest hope is that he can get his children off the island so they can have a better life. “There are … Dominicans that have a good heart, (that) see a Haitian as a person,” Raymond said. “There are many Dominicans … that see a Haitian as an animal. Here we only have the protection of God, and it is better than Haiti. But I would rather be anywhere than here.” ■
61
Domingo Fan Fan, son Osiris and wife Ulda Luis By Nick Newman Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
want to become Mormons but can’t legally marry without the proper documentation. Photo by Cristina Rayas
Marriage, Church Membership Blocked for Couple
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic –
that’s almost impossible to prove.
Gazcue is a middle-class neighborhood by
Fan Fan has the correct papers, so he is consid-
Dominican Republic standards. With its tree-lined
ered a citizen of the country. But Luis said her
streets and apartment buildings, it looks as if it
mother did not obtain the correct documentation
could fit comfortably into almost any American
for her when she was born, so she is now living
city.
illegally in her native country.
But follow a laundry line that disappears down a dirt alley and you’ll find Domingo Fan Fan and Ulda Luis.
And without her citizenship papers, the couple cannot legally marry. That became an even bigger problem for the
The two live here with their son, Osiris, 4, in what
two after they decided to convert to the Mormon
can only be described as a shack nearly hidden
faith. Early in 2011, the two began talking to
between tall apartment buildings.
missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of
How Fan Fan and Luis met is your typical boy-
Latter-day Saints, and after many discussions and
meets-girl-next-door story. Their parents lived in a
visits to the local church in Gazcue, Fan Fan and
village in a rural part of the Dominican Republic
Luis asked to be baptized.
and the two grew up together. When Fan Fan moved to the city to find work 16 years ago, Luis followed and they have lived together ever since. The two would like to get married and make their son legitimate, but new laws in the Dominican Republic have made that virtually impossible.
But in order to become a Mormon, the two can’t live together as an unmarried couple. “To get to the kingdom of God we have to be married,” Luis said. Church elders Jordan Hunter, of Peoria, Ariz., and Daniel Marte, a native Dominican, said they
Over the past seven years, a series of new laws
have discussed ways to resolve the problem. But
have been enacted that eliminate birthright citizen-
for a struggling couple living in bad conditions in
ship. Now, anyone born in the country must have at
an unlikely part of town, the choices are not good.
least one documented Dominican parent in order
Luis’s parents, who were born in Haiti, are both
to be considered a citizen, and for many people of
dead and cannot testify as to where she was born.
Haitian descent who lack the correct paperwork,
She could go to her hometown about 60 miles 62
Daniel Marte, left, a Dominican Mormon
missionary,
and
Jordan Hunter, of Peoria, Ariz., are on a mission in Santo Domingo for The Church of Jesus
Christ
of
Latter-day
Saints. Photo by Nick Newman
away and get two family members to testify that
The members of the Gazcue LDS Ward assist
she was, in fact, born to her mother and born in
hundreds of residents, many of them of Haitian
this country, but the trip would be expensive and
descent, with food, clothing, money and some-
there’s no guarantee that they would be believed.
times shelter, said Bishop Cristian Olivero, the
“My last name … is Haitian-sounding and my skin is black,” Luis said. “It’d be easier if I had a Dominican name.”
leader of the local Mormon congregation. “We have to take care of those who are poor and in need,” said Olivero, a convert of 27 years
She could try to find a Dominican citizen willing
who works for the U.S. consulate. “But at the same
to pretend to be her parents. Or she could find
time, we teach people to be self-sufficient. There’s
someone who has died, but hasn’t been declared
nothing that can bring more joy and happiness to
dead, and use that identity to obtain a cedula, a
our lives (than) when we can provide for ourselves
national identification card.
and our families, spiritually and temporally.”
The easiest and cheapest option would be to
Fan Fan and Luis are doing their best to achieve
have someone pretend to be her parents. But in a
that goal. Luis works at a clothing store for a little
church that values its standing with foreign govern-
more than $150 a month. Fan Fan parks cars, in a
ments and preaches “honesty to all your fellow
good month earning about $40.
men, it’s not an attractive option, Hunter said. “The least of all evils would be for her to go to her hometown, and that’s the most honest option,” Hunter said. “But economically and logistically, it’s impossible.” Hunter, 20, who is scheduled to complete his mission and return to the U.S. this summer, said the couple’s situation is not unique. “It happens a lot. In my 18 months here, I’ve had to help four,” Hunter said. “And I’m one person among 200 missionaries in my mission.” 63
The two work, save as much as they can and raise their child, hoping all the time that they can find a way to marry and officially join the church. “You first have to have faith in God. Without faith, you are nothing,” he said. “Our dream is to get married, buy ourselves a little house somewhere. With faith in God, we can do that.” ■
Signs written in Creole and Spanish are posted outside the barrio San Jose La Mina. They ask Haitian migrants to leave the Dominican Republic and state that they are not welcome. Photo by Brandon Quester 64
Atalio Herrera grows organic coffee in the hills around Los Cacaos, Dominican Republic. Photo by Michel Duarte 65
By Cristina Rayas Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Michel Duarte
Coffee and Clothing: Two Ways to Diversify an Economy
VILLA ALTAGRACIA, Dominican Republic – An
when an American student pulls his logo-embla-
American clothing company is transforming lives
zoned school sweatshirt over his head, he’ll care
and worker-employer relations here with a simple
about the workers who sewed the sleeves onto his
concept: paying a living wage.
favorite hoodie.
And 13 miles to the west as the crow flies (but
The company, which manufactures collegiate
57 miles in actual driving distance), family farmers
apparel, and its Dominican factory in Villa Altagracia,
in the steep, lush mountains near Los Cacaos are
are competing for their place in college bookstores
working together to produce pesticide-free, organic
across the U.S. by asking students to shell out a
coffee, taking advantage of a growing niche market
few extra dollars to buy a sweatshirt that helped
for coffee.
eliminate a sweatshop and gave workers rights they
In a country where the controversial sugar
have never enjoyed before.
industry has long been king, the two companies are
Knights Apparel has allowed its workers at the
examples of the Dominican Republic’s attempts to
factory in Alta Gracia to advocate collectively – a
diversify its economy.
rarity in a country where fewer than 10 percent of
More than half of the nation’s Gross Domestic
workers are unionized.
Product – the value of goods and services –comes
“One of the strategies that influences the lack of
from the service industry, including tourism, trade,
workers’ unions is the fact that a lot of times compa-
communications, real estate and other indus-
nies go to places that are very remote where people
tries, according to the U.S. Department of State.
are not educated,” said Mariza Vargas, the secre-
Manufacturing accounts for 21.4 percent of the GDP
tary of the workers’ union, Sitralpro, as she sewed
and agriculture 7.7 percent.
sleeves onto T-shirts. “And they take advantage of
The Dominican Republic is working hard to change those numbers by attracting foreign investors, like
the fact that they are not educated enough to know their rights.”
Knights Apparel, a privately owned company based
But just the opposite happened at Alta Gracia.
in Spartanburg, S.C., and retraining and redirecting
After taking over the manufacturing plant in 2007
family farmers into new crops and new markets.
from BJ&B, a South Korean-based company that
In Villa Altagracia, Knights Apparel is betting that
sewed baseball caps for brands like Nike and 66
Workers at La Esperanza
Reebok, Knights Apparel raised workers wages ten-fold. The company
plantation tie coffee bags shut
pays its workers at Alta Gracia 4,432 pesos a week – about $120. That
in preparation for shipment.
compares to the $12 a week paid to employees at BJ&B.
Photo by Michel Duarte
Moreover, workers had a strong say in what they would be paid. Vargas teamed up with the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent
Below: Coffee beans are
labor rights watchdog organization, to help determine a baseline living
dried at the plantation
wage. They calculated the cost of food and water, housing and energy,
near Los Cacaos. Photo
clothing and health care, plus a modest savings, and determined that a
by Stephanie Snyder
living wage is 222,042 Dominican pesos a year, more than three times the local minimum wage. Knights Apparel agreed to pay the living wage. Kayla Elisa Mena, 36, who used to work for BJ&B, said working for Knights Apparel –and earning the new, higher wage –has “changed my life 360 (degrees).” Before earning a living wage, she couldn’t keep up with her bills and shared a small house with many people, she said. Today she is paying off her debt and living in a more comfortable home. Organic farming Just a few miles away from the clothing plant in the mountains near Los Cacaos, family farmers who are members of the AGROESSA coffee cooperative also are inching their way toward economic stability. To get to the La Esperanza Agroindustrial plantation, a rusty mini-bus, called a gua-gua (pronounced wah-wah) – makes an hour-long ascent, leaving the bustling streets of Los Cacaos behind. The endless greenery of trees is broken only to reveal the few tiny, derelict shacks that pepper the knolls. The idea of cell-phone reception is laughable as travelers take themselves off the grid, putting their lives in the hands of the gua-gua driver.
67
“If you are Haitian with papers, you are hired. If you are Haitian without documents, you are not.” – Kayla Elisa Mena, factory worker, Knights Apparel, Villa Altagracia
The coffee plantation is a relic of Dominican
Today, the major organic exports in the Dominican
history but one with goals firmly fixed on the future:
Republic are bananas, cocoa, coffee and mangos,
Organic, free-trade farming has reached these
accounting for a small but growing .13 percent of the
secluded peaks.
GDP. Interestingly, the former king of cash crops,
La Esperanza is a family-business; in fact, 961
sugar, has not become a major organic export.
families work the land and 200 of them contribute pesticide-free, certified organic coffee to the
Haitian workers
cooperative, said Juan Arias, the co-op president,
Sugar, still an important crop, is intertwined with
who says he’s never heard of Starbucks, another
Dominican history. Christopher Columbus trans-
reminder of just how far off the grid you are.
ported sugar cane to what is now the Dominican
“We haven’t been able to expand (the number
Republic in 1493. The industry flourished through
of certified organic farmers) much beyond that yet
the centuries, dependent on the labor of slaves and,
since it’s a costly process to get more farmers certi-
later, on migrant Haitian sugar cane cutters.
fied,” Arias said.
The industry came under international scrutiny and
Over the past 25 years, agriculture has been
condemnation in 1990 when international humani-
reshaped in Latin America, fueled by new export
tarian groups charged that Haitian workers were
opportunities for products like organic foods aimed
being held in near slavery. The criticism prompted
at wealthy customers, particularly in the European
mass deportations of Haitian cane cutters in 1991.
Union.
Bernardo Vega, a former Dominican ambassador
From its small start in the 1980s, organic crops
to the United States and a prominent economist
are now grown on more than 177,915 acres in the
and historian, said sugar mill owners long were
Dominican Republic. That represented 8.3 percent
the primary beneficiaries of Haitian labor. He said
of the country’s agricultural acreage in 2009,
U.S. Marines occupying Haiti and the Dominican
according to the Switzerland-based Research
Republic in 1916 first promoted the idea of using
Institute of Organic Agriculture, and it’s among the
Haitian workers.
highest percentage of agricultural land devoted to
“That was in the past,” Vega said. “Now the
organic farming in Latin America and the Caribbean.
people who benefit from Haitian migrants are not 68
The
AGROESSA
coopera-
tive uses cloth bags to ship its coffee to the U.S. and elsewhere. Photo by Stephanie Snyder
only sugar producers. Only about 20 percent of Haitian migrants work in sugar.”
fields. Using seasonal Haitian workers presents other
He said producers of coffee, bananas, cocoa and
challenges, Arias said. Many don’t understand
the construction sector are all dependent on Haitian
sustainable farming and have to be trained. And
labor, much of it undocumented, even though the
because the workforce is so transient, there are
country’s labor laws require that 80 percent of those
always new workers who must be taught.
jobs go to Dominicans. No one has ever been taken to court for violating the laws, Vega said, and he doesn’t expect that to change. There are “so many vested interests which
“It’s a workforce that comes with a lot of deficiencies,” Arias said. The temporary workers tend to live apart from the more permanent community, he said.
now make a lot of money on cheap Haitian labor,” he
“The community does not see them in social activ-
said. “And the labor unions who should be logical
ities or social events,” he said. “They don’t integrate
protestors have been politically weak.”
and that brings problems; because the cultures are
Arias estimated that only 10 of the 961 families in
so different, they clash.”
the co-op are of Haitian descent. But he acknowledged a seasonal dependence on Haitian workers
People and money
and said immigration officials have come to his
At the Knights Apparel plant in Villa Altagracia,
lands and chased Haitian workers down to deport
such problems have been avoided because the
them.
factory hires only people with cedulas, national
“Some come back and some don’t,” he said.
identification cards, said Mena, the employee who
While giving a tour of the coffee fields, co-op
credits the plant with turning around her life.
member and farmer Italio Herrera also admitted that
“If you are Haitian with papers, you are hired. If
Haitians provide much of the labor at harvest time.
you are Haitian without documents, you are not,”
Many live in bateyes, ramshackle company towns
she said.
close to the fields – places frequently raided by
Mena said there are many undocumented Haitians
immigration officials, who catch and deport illegal
living in her village who are limited to working as
workers as they return from a day of work in the
street vendors or for cash under the table. She
69
Santa
Alvarita
Hernandes
separates coffee beans at the AGROESSA cooperative. Photo by Michel Duarte
wishes they could have dignified jobs, “but we have laws in this country,” she said. Rudy Rijo, an administrative manager at the Knights Apparel plant, said there is no shortage of people seeking work at his plant, which currently employs 133. “With labor, we have a lot of people available, a lot of qualified people. A lot of them need jobs, like these kinds of jobs,” Rijo said. In fact, “excellent human resources” is one of the pitches that President Leonel Fernandez employs to attract foreign investment to the Dominican Republic. Another is “attractive government incentives” – and indeed they are available. During his first stint in office in 1996, Fernandez signed a law giving foreign investors huge tax advantages for bringing their businesses to the island. The law created “free trade zones” for textiles and
Organic
wearing apparel, for example, allowing manufacturers to import materials
grown at the plantation in Los
duty free to assemble. Other incentives keep taxes on foreign compa-
Cacaos, Dominican Republic.
nies low. Alta Gracia is in one of these free trade zones.
Photos by Michel Duarte and
The incentives have worked, increasing foreign investment in the
coffee
beans
are
Stephanie Snyder
country from $932 million in 2000 to a peak of nearly $3 billion in 2008, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations. Still, the plant at Altagracia and the plantation in Los Cacaos have faced formidable challenges in their quests to compete in the global market.
Next
page:
AGROESSA
workers scoop coffee beans Challenges for Coffee
into bags for shipment. Photo
Los Cacaos has been trying to integrate eco-tourism into its business
by Stephanie Snyder 70
model, hoping that tourists will come to see where
label “Café La Esperanza.”
their coffee comes from. “The more tourists we have, the more they try our tasty product, and you know, that increases the outlet to get our product out,” Arias said. The co-op was starting to build tourist housing
New Clothing Market At the Knights Apparel plant, things are even more uncertain. The market is not as well established and no one knows if the new plant is sustainable.
and plan small-scale attractions, but progress was
Business is down this year, said Rijo and admin-
halted with the flooding that followed Hurricane
istrative manager Adriana Tavernas, because a
Thomas in 2010. The community had to turn its
number of American university bookstores have not
attention to rebuilding homes and schools before
renewed their contracts.
starting on tourism ventures. Natural disasters can create work shortages as well, Arias said. In 2007, a tropical storm devastated Los Cacaos, and instead of rebuilding, some families and workers moved to the cities to seek work.
“I think when we started everyone was really attracted to the idea of helping this community, but now they are not,” Tavernas said. The company and its union are working hard to promote its clothing through online videos and
“That’s hard because if they cannot make money
conferences with students. The message, said union
here, they have to go and find a way to make money.
leader Vargas is that “we have the best customers:
But that means things are left here unattended,” he
university students who respect and understand
said.
workers’ rights and understand how important
Even in good times, organic farmers struggle with
freedom of association is.”
a difficult and expensive certification process for
Workers and managers alike hope the message
organic goods and detailed record-keeping require-
will resonate with the socially conscious, who will
ments, he added.
then pay a small premium to support a new way of
AGROESSA has been helped by organizations such as the Peace Corps and a global fair trade movement. Today, Arias’ coffee is distributed to the United States and throughout Europe under the 71
business for Dominicans. “It’s a long way from where we need to be,” Tavernas said. “But it has to start somewhere.” ■
By Bastien Inzaurralde and Brandon Quester Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Brandon Quester
Children Struggle to Survive on Santo Domingo Streets
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Tono
are Dominican and some Haitian. Many are both.
Chelestine slumps onto a wooden bench, a small,
Most, like Tono, were born here, but few know how to
white plastic bag containing everything he owns
legally prove their citizenship.
dangling from his hand.
While the rest of Dominican society debates the
He says nothing as two counselors at a shelter for
rights of immigrants, something more matters to
street children talk to him, gently telling him it’s time
these kids than where their parents were born or
to leave.
whether they have a birth certificate. Their struggle
“Now everyone leaves, and you, Tono, I don’t know what you’re going to do,” said Natividad “Ana” Sosa, one of the counselors. “What are you going to do?” The shelter, Niños Del Camino, an aging yellow
is surviving the day at hand. They live lives largely ignored by Dominican society, on the margins, with no real homes and little access to education or other government services.
house surrounded by an iron fence, closes at 2 p.m.
“The population sees them as delinquents. They
It is now nearing 3, and all the other children have
only see it as a kids’ problem,” Sosa said. “They
left, threatening to beat Tono with a broomstick on
don’t see it as a state problem.”
their way out. “If you choose to live in the streets, you also have to choose to be able to defend yourself, unfortunately,” Sosa tells the boy.
The Palomos The streets are a violent place. The street children encounter beatings, robberies, drugs and sexual
Tono, who is 14, doesn’t want to leave. He is
abuse. They earn what money they can, washing
frightened by what faces him beyond the iron fence.
car windshields in the middle of busy streets, shining
The shelter is in Ensanche Luperón – one of the
shoes, begging.
most dangerous areas of the Dominican Republic’s capital. Tono has lived on the streets for only a couple of weeks. He has much to learn.
Informally, they are called “palomos,” a Spanish word derived from “dove.” On the streets, it means rascals. Others simply call them “niños de la calle,” or children of the street.
He is one of hundreds of children who roam the
Palomos have no legal recognition. Public authori-
streets of Santo Domingo, a city of 2.1 million. Some
ties don’t attempt to count them, and there are few 72
Natividad “Ana” Sosa, a social worker with Niños Del Camino, says that while it can be difficult working with street children, she need only look them in the face to remember why she does the work.
• More than a quarter – 27.6
public services available to them, although the government did create
percent – of families lives
the National Council for Children and Adolescents, or CONANI, in 2003.
in poverty Santo Domingo,
The council’s top official is Kirsys Fernández de Valenzuela, the sister of
according
the Dominican Republic’s president, Leonel Fernández.
to
government
statistics.
The council operates 58 centers nationwide, providing assistance to more than 18,000 children up to the age of 6, according to an email
•
The
Council
Dominican for
National
Children
from Lourdes Rodriguez, CONANI’s director of communications.
and
The council also offers some financial and other support to five non-
Adolescents runs 58 centers
profits that help the nation’s street kids, said CONANI Public Policies
and provides assistance to
Manager Alberto Padilla.
18,800 children nationwide.
But those programs “have lots of financial weaknesses” and don’t coordinate very well, Padilla said in a phone interview.
• More than 13 percent of all
“A kid sleeps at a shelter and eats at another,” he said.
Dominican children ages 10
Tono stayed at such a shelter after his father kicked him out of the
to14 works to help support their
house after Tono was caught breaking into a barbershop with a group
families, according to a 2006
of other teens. Tono said he was forced to participate in the break-in.
government report.
When Tono’s father came to the police station, he told Tono that he was no longer welcome at home.
• All of the children served by
“People at the CONANI were talking to my Dad on my behalf to see
the Niños Del Camino shelter
whether he would give me another chance, so that he would forgive
in Santa Domingo come from
me,” Tono said in Spanish. “He didn’t want to.”
impoverished families and 77 percent
have
At the shelter, Tono got into trouble again. He was asked to leave after
experienced
getting into a fistfight with another child. So he now lives on the streets,
domestic violence, according
going to Niños Del Camino three days a week from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. He’s
to 2009 data from the shelter.
careful to be on time: No one is admitted after 9 a.m. Breakfast is at 10 a.m. and lunch is served at 1.
73
A Different Set of Rules
Manuel Antonio Santos, 16,
In addition to feeding the children, the shelter, supported largely by
(left) Eduard Arias, 13, and
donations, teaches basic literacy, offers drug counseling and tries to
Andres Castillo, 12, frequently
introduce the palomos to a set of social rules far different from those
visit the Niños Del Camino
that govern the streets.
shelter. Street children in the
While at the shelter, the children are expected to show respect for
Dominican Republic are known
adults and each other. They are asked to check their belongings –
as “palomos,” Dominican slang
and their attitudes – at the door. In exchange, they get a safe place to
for “rascals.”
regroup and escape the streets, if just for a while. Abel Ortega, a Spanish teacher in Madrid who took a year off to work for the shelter, described his job this way: “Be tough if you have to be tough; get nervous if you have to get nervous; yell if you have to yell at one of them. But at the same time give them a lot of affection because a lot of times it’s part of what they need.” Despite the counselor’s best efforts, fights sometimes break out, as occurred on a day in mid-March when Tono took exception to something another boy said to him and made a threatening gesture. The other boy picked up a five-gallon plastic water bucket and threw it at Tono, barely missing his head. “The truth is that (getting) them to understand the norms, it is a bit complex,” Ortega said. “It’s obviously very difficult because these are children whose aggressiveness is skin deep.” Nineteen-year-old Yeison Baís has lived in the streets since he was 5 and comes to the shelter every week. Baís said he spent two years in prison after a shootout with police following a robbery, and he prides himself on being tough. But even he needs a break. The shelter is a place where he can “think a little, analyze, chill for 74
Pedro ‘Fifito’ Manuel Galbán, 6, spends his days on the streets of Santo Domingo as part of a group of children who wash car windows for cash. The operation is supervised by Fifito’s mother, 27-year-old Maribel Galbán. Photo by Brandon Quester 75
76
Cesar Julio, 14, (right) sits next
a while,” he said. “Because you can never chill in the street. There’s
to Tono Chelestine, also 14,
always someone that shows up to mess around with you.”
during a morning discussion at Niños Del Camino.
Street School Poverty is what drives most children to the streets. More than a quarter – 27.6 percent – of Santo Domingo families lives in poverty, according to a 2009 Dominican National Office of Statistics report. A report issued by Niños Del Camino that same year said that all of the children who came to the shelter were from a “very low socioeconomic level” and 77 percent had experienced some form of domestic violence before leaving their homes. “The majority (of street kids) come from families where their most
Agustin Mora, (left) director of the shelter, tells a group of children about one of their friends who was attacked with a machete.
basic needs are not covered,” the report states. Some children turn to the streets to help support their families, returning home at night. Others never go back. Sixteen-year-old Manuel Antonio Santos has lived on the streets since he was 7. He occasionally visits his family in Los Guandules, a neighborhood that he describes as an “aggressive place.” “I have my family at my house,” Manuel said in Spanish. “They give me everything so that I don’t stay in the street, but I leave because I don’t like it there.” He has formed a new family on the streets – 13-year-old Eduard Arias and 18-year-old Jonathan Encarnación. “I live in the street with my ‘brother’ Eduard, the small one,” Manuel said. “He’s my brother. In the street I have to protect him and get money, see?”
77
Tono Chelestine, 14, is new to the street and doesn’t mix much with other street children. He often finds himself in fights.
Agustin Mora, the director of Niños Del Camino, said that kind of solidarity is very important for street kids. “They see themselves as a family,” he said. Tono has yet to find a street family. At the shelter and on the streets, he keeps mostly to himself, and he’s often taunted and abused by other children, most of whom have lived on the streets of Santo Domingo for years. To survive, he will need to make alliances and learn the street code from more experienced children. “It’s like a school,” Mora said. But this school can be a violent one. Tono said a man attempted to rape him a few days after he turned to the streets. “I was in the street, a guy wanted to rape me. He took my money,” Tono said, imitating a knife held to his throat. “So he was telling me, ‘Look, do
Cesar Julio, 14, visits the shelter
you know what I have here? I have a knife. And do you know what you
along with many other street
are going to do now? What you’re going to do now is lay face down and
children to eat, bathe and wash
take your pants off. Got it?’”
their clothes.
Tono said he convinced the man to let him beg for money so he could pay for a prostitute instead. Drugs and Violence As time passes, palomos often switch from becoming victims of crime to perpetrators. They say they do it to survive. And the longer they stay in the street, the more likely they are to use drugs. Marijuana is the narcotic palomos use most, according to the 2009 Niños Del Camino annual report. They also consume cigarettes, crack and cocaine. 78
Yeison Baís, 19, has been homeless since he was a young child. He finds refuge from the violence of the streets at Niños Del Camino shelter.
Nearly all the children who visit the shelter use drugs, Ortega said. “A lot of times they come (to the shelter) under the influence of drugs,” making social workers’ work more difficult, he said.
“They come when you’re looking for money. They give you crap,” Baís said. “They say that you can’t clean windshields here. They kick you out of your spot.” The Dominican National Police Office declined
Niños Del Camino staff coined the word “streetiza-
repeated attempts for comment, but Mora said the
tion” – callejerización in Spanish – to describe the
claims are true. “They beat them, they send them
process by which violence and drugs become an
to jail with no justification,” he said. “It’s a way of
accepted routine.
creating fear.”
Some children eventually become leaders of small
Julio Cesar De la Rosa Tiburcio, director of
gangs of street kids, who band together at a stage
the Dominican Alliance against Corruption and
of what the staff calls “high exposition” to street life.
professor of law at the Autonomous University
That is what happened to Baís, the 19-year-old
of Santo Domingo, said his organization has
who visits Niños Del Camino to chill each week. Baís is the leader of a group of about half-a-dozen youngsters who have claimed the intersection of 27
complained several times about police brutality. Street kids are frequently robbed by police and sent to jail, De la Rosa said in a phone interview.
de Febrero and Lincoln Avenue, a high-crime area
“They do what they call raids, and they send
in the Dominican capital. They earn money by stop-
them to jail,” he added. “They put minors in jail with
ping cars and cleaning windshields.
adults.”
“I have been in the street for 14 years, but I have never been afraid of anything,” Baís said. “You have
Seasoned street kids like Baís say they aren’t afraid of the police.
to defend yourself,” he said. “If one wants to beat
“The cop who punches me, I hit him back right
you, you have to respond. Yes or no? You have to
away,” Baís said. “I sustain myself, but I don’t accept
respond. Those are the things of my life.”
being punched by anyone.”
Street violence sometimes extends beyond physical exchanges between palomos; the children also
Preparing to Close
complain of being abused by police.
If help doesn’t come soon, the Niños del Camino
79
Andres Castillo, 12, washes clothes at the Ni単os Del Camino shelter. 80
shelter may close. The primarily source of funding, which came from a
Pedro ‘Fifito’ Manuel Galbán,
regional government and a city in Spain, ended in May, Sosa said.
6, clean windshields with a
The Dominican government used to provide $10,000 pesos or about
squeegee and sponge on a
$270 a month for the shelter, but Sosa said the money stopped coming
street corner in Santo Domingo.
a year ago. Another Niños del Camino shelter in northern Santo Domingo already has closed. It was a place where street kids could stay for extended periods of time, Sosa said. The children who come to the shelter don’t know that it may shut down, she said. Part of the counselor’s work now is to prepare them to live without Niños del Camino’s assistance. “We work with a view to teach them to move on,” Sosa said. “So that if the organization is not here anymore, they will know that they have to move on. And it’s hard, but you have to do it.” One morning in mid-March shortly after the children arrived at the shelter, the counselors gathered them in a circle and asked them to each answer two questions: How do you feel and how did you wake up? “Every one of them is an individual. Every one of them seeks a different kind of affection. And I think that affection starts with a smile as soon as they arrive here,” Sosa said. “They know that someone who will ask them, ‘How did you wake up?’ ‘How was last night?’” As the children took their places in the circle, sitting on slab of concrete in the shelter’s back yard, Tono was the first to speak up. “I didn’t sleep well,” he said. “Why didn’t you sleep well?” Sosa asked. “Because I slept in the street,” he replied. ■ 81
By Brandon Quester and Bastien Inzaurralde Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Abel Ortega, a social worker with Niños Del Camino, talks with Tono Chelestine, 14.
Street Kids Present Challenges
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Little Pedro “Fifito” Manuel Galbán walks barefoot into
Camino, one of a handful of shelters in the city, takes their services to the streets.
oncoming traffic at the intersection of San Vincente
Social workers and volunteers introduce them-
de Paul St. and Mella highways in the Dominican
selves to the children and invite those without
capital.
homes to visit the shelter, which is open during the
A passenger bus stops, and the 6-year-
day-time, offering food, counseling and training in
old quickly climbs the grill guard, clutching a
life skills, said Natividad “Ana” Sosa, who works at
squeegee and water-soaked sponge in one hand.
the shelter.
As he starts swabbing, the bus driver swats at the
“From there, you build empathy … little by little,”
window with a folded newspaper and yells at Fifito
she said. “We adapt our street work to their rules.
to stop.
We are in their space. We are in the street, as they
A dozen or so street children watch the scene
say.”
and laugh. Although Fifito’s head barely reaches a
The work can be dangerous.
car door handle, he often earns more pesos than
Abel Ortega, a teacher from Spain who took
any other member of the group. Fifito is one of nearly two-dozen street kids who survive by washing the windows of vehicles that clog the busy streets of the city’s Megacentro Zone. They take their orders from Fifito’s mother, 27-year-old Maribel Galbán, who manages the
a year off to work with street children at Niños Del Camino, recently was assaulted and had his camera stolen while working on the streets. “Challenges? There are a lot of them,” Ortega said, with a rueful laugh. “Really, every one of those children can be a challenge at any given time.”
children during the day and walks the sidewalks
But while the children – some as young as 6 –
as a prostitute at night. They all live together in a
are hardened by their street existence, Ortega
home Fifito’s mother rents.
said a little affection can go a long way.
The street kids are known as palomos, or rascals in Dominican slang.
Sometimes, he said, all they need is someone to listen. ■
To help these children, the staff of Niños Del 82
By Serena Del Mundo Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Lindsey Erin Lough
Island of Hispaniola Struggles to Control HIV
SAN PEDRO DE MACORIS, Dominican Republic
Ironically, the country may be too rich. Even
– Rammon ran into the makeshift hovel, kicked off
though more than 40 percent of its 10 million people
his dusty shoes and jumped into the arms of his
live in poverty and the average per capita income is
waiting brothers and sisters.
just $8,300 a year, the Global Fund categorizes the
The 5-year-old’s forehead was smeared with
Dominican Republic as “lower-middle income.”
green paint – evidence of a school day filled with art
Compounding the problem is the fact that the
and activity. Victoria Guzman, his stand-in mother,
Global Fund’s overall support for HIV treatment
picked him up and planted a slobbery kiss on one
is down. At an October meeting with its donors in
plump cheek.
New York, the fund’s managers outlined what could
The only difference between Rammon and his
be achieved with various funding levels ranging
brothers and sisters, said Guzman, is the “vitamin”
from $12 billion to $21 billion. Donors subsequently
he takes every morning. That “vitamin” is Zidovudine
pledged $11.7 billion.
– an antiretroviral that keeps Rammon’s HIV load low and his infection-fighting CD4 cells high.
Funding took another hit after The Associated Press reported in January on corruption in the
Rammon contracted HIV from his biological mother,
administration of grants supported by the Global
who left him in Guzman’s care when he was just 25
Fund. The AP cited the fund’s own investigative
days old. The drugs he takes would normally cost
report into grant recipients suspected of forging
almost $2,000 a year, but he gets them free, thanks
documents and pocketing money.
to international health agencies that fund much of the HIV treatment in the Dominican Republic.
Global Fund officials attacked the article for “serious misrepresentations and factual inaccura-
Now that funding is in jeopardy.
cies.” A follow-up AP story cited fund officials and
The Global Fund, the world’s leading financer
outside experts who said the Global Fund has less
of programs to fight AIDS, TB and malaria, gave
corruption and fights it more aggressively than most
the Dominican Republic almost $82 million over a
aid organizations, but the damage had been done.
seven-year period for HIV prevention and treatment
“Some donors have suspended their contributions
efforts. But that funding is expected to drop dramati-
to the Global Fund,” spokeswoman Marcela Rojo
cally in coming years.
said.
83
Rammon Hernandez, 5, cuddles with his father, who is visiting the foster home where Rammon has lived since his mother died.
84
Rammon has lived with Victoria
We are at a critical crossroads,” said Sharonann Lynch, HIV/AIDS policy
Guzman since he was an
adviser for Doctors Without Borders during an open webcast. “You have
infant. He has HIV, which he
a situation that the funds available for treating HIV, for scaling up preven-
contracted at birth from his
tion is shrinking right at the moment we can get ahead of new infections.”
mother. HIV Help An art class at school has left
The island of Hispaniola, which the Dominican Republic shares with
Rammon with a smear of paint
Haiti, has the highest HIV rates in the world outside of sub-Saharan
on his forehead.
Africa, according to the United Nations. In three of the largest cities, including the capital of Santo Domingo, HIV rates range from 1 percent to 9.9 percent. The U.S. rate of HIV infection, by comparison, is about 0.2 percent of the general population. Far fewer people die of AIDS than once was the case. AIDS-related deaths have dropped worldwide by 40 percent since antiretroviral drugs have become widely available, according to the United Nations. Expensive antiretrovirals were largely unavailable to poor people in developing countries like the Dominican Republic until the late 1990s and the early 2000s when international humanitarian agencies and world leaders made it a priority. Among the agencies that have been working on the problem are the Global Fund, former President George
Opposite page: Leona Adolfo
W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, the U.S. Agency
of MOSCTHA, a nonprofit that
for International Development and the Clinton Foundation, founded by
aids Haitians in the Dominican
former President Bill Clinton.
Republic, counsels residents
Not only do the drugs save the lives of those being treated, they save
of a batey near Santo Domingo
the lives of those closest to them. Patients on these medications have a
about safe sex practices. Photo
decreased viral load, making it less likely for HIV to spread from mother
by Michel Duarte
to child or from husband to wife. There is less maternal mortality, less
85
infant mortality, less tuberculosis – the benefits go and on, Lynch said. For children like Rammon, the medications mean the chance to live a reasonably normal life.
imbalanced and unequal.” There are two main branches of the Dominican health system – public and private. Eddy PerezThen, director of the country’s National Research
“When Rammon entered our clinic, he was a bag
Center for Maternal and Child Health, said the
of bones,” said his physician, Michael Dohn. His
private branch is largely available only to wealthier
transformation is nothing short of a miracle, Dohn
Dominicans. The public branch provides access for
said.
about 75 percent of the population, but there is no
But that miracle depends in large part on interna-
guarantee to access or quality of services.
tional aid, said Bethania Betances, program officer
If the government has to pay the costs of expen-
in Santo Domingo for UNAIDS, the United Nations
sive drugs, procedures and prevention for HIV
program to combat and prevent the disease.
patients, some fear that at-risk groups could be
“The HIV response in the country is being moved by international funds,” she said.
pushed out of the system based on their immigration and economic status.
Betances worries that the Dominican government
“What we’re hoping for the Global Fund to see
will have to fill in the treatment gaps as funding
is that even though we are a middle-class country,
dries up, which would strain an already overloaded
there is a lot of inequity,” said UNAIDS Monitoring
public-health system.
and Evaluation Adviser Yordana Dolores.
Health care is available to all Dominican residents.
And that would leave people like Pablo, a Haitian
Anyone can go to their local hospital, get tested
man without papers, living with HIV in San Pedro de
for HIV and, if they test positive, get the necessary
Macoris, unable to get treatment.
medications. However, that doesn’t mean health care is equal for everyone.
One Man’s Treatment
“The Dominican Republic claims universal access
When Pablo, who did not want to give his last
to health care, but that’s not the case even for
name, comes into the local clinic’s office, he creates
poor Dominicans,” said international public health
a buzz. He is tall and handsome and has an infec-
specialist Judith Kaine. “The roll-out of services is
tious smile that remains even as he recounts his 86
Daysi
Payano
works
with
HIV patients at the Clinica Esperanza y Caridad
in San
Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic.
personal struggle. “When I found out I had HIV, I wanted to die,” he says matter-of-factly. Pablo becomes animated as he tells his story of
with HIV. “I know firsthand . . . how to live with it, because it’s in my blood, so I want to help people who have it” Payano said.
living as a gay man with HIV in a country in which 95
Payano is a force at the clinic. People seek her
percent of the population is Catholic and gay people
out constantly, interrupting meetings and thrusting
often encounter strong disapproval.
messages in her face. She glides through the clinic
When he was diagnosed with HIV, Pablo assumed
and calmly handles all demands.
he was going to die, just like his partner before him.
She says she is a consultant at the clinic, but she
“The people in his barrio, his mom and dad, think
is much more: She is an advocate for people living
he died of lung cancer,” Pablo said of his partner. “I know he died of HIV.”
with HIV, like Pablo. With his family now gone, Pablo said he consider
Soon after his partner’s death, Haiti was hit by
Payano and the people at the clinic his family. He
the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed more than
celebrates holidays with the clinic staff and members
300,000 people and left 1 million homeless.
of his therapy group for people living with HIV.
“All of my family died in the earthquake,” Pablo said. “And the pain was killing me.”
“They don’t discriminate, and they don’t care if I’m gay,” he said.
What saved him, Pablo said, was support from
And every day, Pablo takes his medication —
Clínica Esperanza y Caridad and the encourage-
antiretrovirals that physician Luisa Reyes said are
ment of clinic staff members like Daysi Payano.
provided by the Global Fund.
Clínica Esperanza y Caridad, like many other health clinics, was started with funds from the Clinton Foundation. It continues to operate with public and private funding. Payano heard about Pablo’s case and went to his
“I have a cell phone that I set for 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and I take one pill each time,” Pablo said. These pills allow Pablo to leave his house and embrace life again. And they make it possible for Rammon to run home from school covered with
house. She told him again and again that he was not
green paint.
going to die. She told him that she, too, was living
For now. ■
87
By Serena Del Mundo Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photo by Lindsey Erin Lough
Sex Trade Flourishes in Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – As a
tion grows, so does its sex tourism, according to the
“Almost always a sex worker starts because of a friend or because she was a child who has been sexually abused or she has a very bad husband. To me, all three of these happened.”
U.S. Agency for International Development’s profile
– Jacqueline Montero,
worker in the Dominican Republic’s burgeoning sex trade, Odalis, a 34-year-old mother of three, has been gang raped, robbed and harassed. But she keeps selling her body, mostly on weekends, she said, so she can feed her children. There is no law that explicitly prohibits or legalizes prostitution in the Dominican Republic, a country that has developed lavish resorts along its beautiful beaches. But as the country’s popularity as a tourist destina-
president of MODEMU
on HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic. The
Center
for
Integral
Orientation
and
Investigation, a non-governmental organization for
the Dominican Republic’s sex trade.
sexual and reproductive health in the Dominican
“I remember a time when a man took me for a
Republic, estimates there are almost 100,000 sex
long distance way up in the mountains and started
workers in this country of 10 million.
to beat me,” she said.
While sex work is most prevalent in large cities
Her voice was calm, her face expressionless, as
and tourist areas, according to researchers at Johns
she recounted how the man proceeded to attack
Hopkins and COIN, many sex workers like Odalis
her physically and sexually, again and again.
have local clients.
“I was just looking up saying, ‘Don’t kill me.’”
Odalis has a youthful face and a girlish physique.
While Odalis continues in the sex trade, she has
One day in late spring, she was dressed casually in
found an advocate in Jacqueline Montero, the presi-
leggings and a fitted T-shirt. She quietly described
dent of MODEMU, Movimiento de Mujeres Unidas
her experiences working for more than 14 years in
or Movement of United Women. Montero, a former 88
sex worker, now spends her days fighting for the
Republic,” spent years researching the sex trade in
rights of sex workers in the Dominican Republic.
those countries.
MODEMU was established in 1996 after the first
“MODEMU has been very successful in educating
congress of sex workers in the Dominican Republic.
women (in the sex trade) of their rights, letting them
It is made up of current sex workers, like Odalis, and
know they have labor rights, human rights and giving
former ones, like Montero.
them language and tools to defend themselves,”
The organization, which is dedicated to promoting the human rights of commercial sex workers,
Cabezas said. MODEMU “raises their self-esteem and their knowledge of sex practices.”
educates prostitutes on how to limit their exposure
She and Montero said a major problem facing sex
to AIDS and offers support for those hoping to tran-
worker advocacy organizations such as MODEMU is
sition out of the sex trade.
lack of resources. A religious organization that once
“Almost always a sex worker starts because of a
helped fund Montero’s group recently decreased its
friend or because she was a child who has been
contributions, which will make it difficult for women
sexually abused or she has a very bad husband,”
to develop literacy skills and support systems to
Montero said. “To me, all three of these happened.”
leave the sex trade for other jobs, Cabezas said.
Montero has turned her life around. She was
Meanwhile, Odalis continues to meet her three
elected to Santo Domingo’s city council and plans
johns on the weekends. When she leaves for work,
to run for Congress in 2016 in order to “promulgate
she locks her 13-year-old son in his room until her
a law that will respect the rights of my compatriots,”
return. He knows what she does and wishes she
she said.
wouldn’t “go out” anymore.
She also has been asked to speak at conferences and meetings in the U.S. University of California, Riverside, Women Studies Professor of Amalia Cabezas hosted a fundraiser at
“He hears things and he worries,” Odalis said. Odalis’ dreams for her four children are the dreams of most parents – a respectable job, a good education, health.
her home for Montero’s presentation to her class.
But Odalis adds one more wish: that her four chil-
Cabezas, who wrote the book “Economies of
dren will never be drawn into the industry that has
Desire: Sex and Tourism in Cuba and the Dominican
sustained them. ■
89
By Bastien Inzaurralde Cronkite Borderlands Initiative Photos by Lindsay Erin Lough
Dirty and Dangerous Water Threatens Country’s Health
BATEY NINE, Dominican Republic – Christin Morin has to stop and think about the last time he drank water that was really clean.
Independencia,
the
poverty-stricken
province
where Batey 9 is located, near the border with Haiti. Julis said the recent arrival of so many Haitian
It’s been a couple of months since the 54-year-
immigrants in these villages — the three bateyes
old agricultural worker and his wife had a few spare
have a total population of 5,000 – have made
pesos to buy chlorine or potable water, so they rely
already poor sanitary conditions and the lack of
on water from the Batey 9 village tank. The water is
access to drinkable water even worse.
free and accessible but also dirty and dangerous.
“Health issues started to become more acute, as
Birds sometimes get trapped in a tiny hole in the
families with boys and girls arrived in not so good
tank and die inside. When villagers turn on faucets in their homes, they may get a sickening mixture of water, feathers and dirt. Running water and drinkable water are not synonymous here.
condition,” he said. In addition, an outbreak of cholera Haiti in late 2010 that killed nearly 5,000 people prompted widespread concern that the disease would spread to the Dominican Republic. This year,
“The water doesn’t receive the treatment that is
there have been 1,681 confirmed cases of cholera
needed to make it suitable for human consump-
and 56 deaths in the Dominican Republic as of
tion,” said David Perez Julis, mayor of the munic-
June 18, according to the General Directorate of
ipal district that oversees bateyes 7, 8 and 9, where
Epidemiology of the Dominican Ministry of Public
nearly 700 Haitians have settled since the 2010
Health.
earthquake in their country. “At times, some women have come to me and told me, ‘I turned the faucet on in my house to drink water and I saw small birds and water insects,’” Julis said.
Those fears are most acute in border provinces such as Independencia, according to the Ministry of Public Health. While cholera raises alarms, however, diarrhea is a much more common health problem.
Waterborne diseases – often the result of poor
A nuisance in the U.S., diarrhea causes half the
sanitation and lack of treated, drinkable water
deaths of children under age 1 in the Dominican
– that are a rarity elsewhere are common in
Republic, according to the Pan American Health 90
Jorge Garcia Feliz, 8 months old, is sick with diarrhea as a result of drinking Batey 9’s water, according to his parents, Betti Feliz and Evanson Florestae, who say they can’t afford to buy purified water or medicine for him. Photo by Lindsay Erin Lough 91
92
Organization. And in places like Independencia, the problems are even worse. A little more than 21 percent of
“It’s not purified or they don’t boil it. They don’t chlorinate it and the children get sick. It causes them diarrhea,” she said.
children in the province contracted diarrhea over
Ramirez Aquino’s clinic, called a Unit of Primary
a two-week period, compared to 14.7 percent of
Care, is a small, under-stocked building of the
children in the rest of the country, according to
Dominican Ministry of Public Health that is reach-
the 2007 Demographics and Health Report by the
able only by dirt roads. The clinic has one doctor
Dominican Center for Social and Demographical
and five nurses to serve nearly 5,000 area resi-
Studies. The mortality rate in the province was
dents. A dermatologist comes every Tuesday, as
44 deaths per 1,000 children under 5 in 2007,
contaminated water also causes skin problems.
compared to a national rate of 36 percent,
Patients needing treatment that can’t be provided
according to The Dominican National Office of
by the clinic are either sent to the hospital in nearby
Statistics.
Tamayo or to a bigger health center in the neigh-
Low levels of vaccination for common diarrheal
boring province of Barahona.
diseases are part of the problem. Fewer than half
Rosa-Helena Feliz, a teacher who also works
the children in Independencia get a full series of
as a health promoter in Batey 9, said that in addi-
vaccinations, according to the National Office of
tion to bringing children to the clinic, parents often
Statistics, and 7 percent get no vaccines at all.
bring sick children to her home, where she gives
The most recent child death was last year in
them a serum made of three spoons of sugar, a
Batey 8, when a mother settled in the community
pinch of salt and a liter of clean water. She doesn’t
with a child who was already weak and later died of
prescribe medicine because she doesn’t have any.
complications from diarrhea, said Beneco Enecia,
When Feliz’s nephew, 6-month-old Diego Antonio
former mayor of the three bateyes and head of the
Perez Feliz, came down with a severe case of diar-
non-profit Center for Sustainable Development.
rhea, his mother took him to the hospital in Tamayo.
Alexandra Ramirez Aquino, a nurse in Batey 8’s
The mother, Virginia Feliz Santana, said that even
clinic, said impure water is responsible for most of
though she buys drinkable water for the baby, he
the diarrhea in the community.
vomited and had diarrhea for five days.
93
Opposite page: Lucien Sanchez Feliz scoops water off a dirt street in Batey 9, a poor area near the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Miguel Gomez waits to buy water from a truck that brings purified water to villagers in Batey 9.
“The fever increased after three days. He was really sick; he had hard stomach ache,” Feliz Santana said. “With all this happening, I felt the pressure increasing in me.” Doctors could not tell her precisely what sickened her baby, just that “it was a virus that was around,” she said. Not every batey resident will go to the hospital, even if they are desperately ill. Some fear being caught by immigration authorities at military checkpoints – there are two between the bateyes and the hospital in Tamayo, said Tomas Leyba, the head of the Red Cross in Independencia. Most batey residents are Haitian or of Haitian descent and considered undocumented under a Dominican law that has overturned birthright citizenship. Nearly half of the population in bateyes 7, 8 and 9 is undocumented, Enecia said.
Lucien Sanchez Feliz has the important job of keeping the village water tank in working order. The cistern provides water for most of the village, but it often contains dirt and debris.
The Dominican Republic has a universal health care system that provides basic medical treatment free to all, but there are still some expenses – including medications – that some residents can’t afford. “I was buying all the drugs. I was buying everything,” said Feliz Santana of her baby’s hospital stay. But Enecia, whose center provides health assistance to poor resi-
On the web: Drinking con-
dents of the bateyes, said the real issue is how to prevent illness in the
taminated water can cause
first place.
widespread illness and even
“You not only get sick because you drink the (non-purified) water directly. A lot of times, it’s because it is misused after it comes out of the
death. But many Dominicans have no other option.
faucet,” said Enecia, who said water is often stored in dirty containers. A lack of sanitary restrooms plays a part in the spread of waterborne
http://cronkite.asu.edu/
diseases. Only one in five Independencia homes had a bathroom in
buffett/dr/unsafe_water. 94
Yonei Feliz Cuevas fills
2007, according to the statistics office. Most families – 55.20 percent
bottles of purified water
– had access to latrines, but 23.75 percent did not have access to any
for Batey 9 resident Naica
kind of toilet.
Feliz. A gallon of water costs about three cents.
“A lot of people don’t have bathrooms or latrines . . . and they defecate outside,” Julis said. “It’s something that we’ve been trying to eradicate for several years.”
Marubell Feliz Santana consid-
Other realities, like the presence of animals and children wandering
ers a cup of water that is con-
naked in the village, increase chances of diarrheal diseases as people
taminated with bird feces and
are more likely to be in contact with excrement. The lack of plumbing
dirt. She gets most of her water
in the bateyes promotes the spread of cholera, diarrhea and dengue,
from the village’s water cistern.
a mosquito-spread disease, said Miguel Carvajal, an engineer for the National Institute of Potable Water in Independencia. Community efforts to improve the situation face numerous challenges — money being one of the biggest. “The majority cannot buy bottled water, so we explain to them how to put drops of chlorine in a gallon of water – five drops of chlorine for a gallon of water – or how to boil it before they give it to the children,” said Ramirez Aquino, the clinic nurse. But Batey residents often don’t follow recommendation to chlorinate water, said Carvajal. Some are plain resistant. Dieula Blanc, a Haitian woman who moved to Batey 9 after the earthquake, refuses to chlorinate her water and simply drinks it as it comes out of the tap. Blanc is afraid that if she gets used to filtered water, she will get sick when she returns to Haiti, where she drinks from the river. Morin, the agricultural worker, said he is used to drinking water from the batey’s tank but his wife, Jean, frequently feels sick. She has had dizzy spells, intense headaches and stomach aches for nearly
95
Osmila Torres, 2, drinks Coca-Cola from a cup held by her mother. The soft drink costs 15 pesos, or about 40 cents, while five gallons of purified water from the batey’s grocery store costs 35 pesos, or about 90 cents.
five years. But they have little choice. The Morins live in a dark and decayed hut. There is no sink in their kitchen. They store water in a plastic bucket and cook with charcoal. They say they can’t buy water on his income of about 200 pesos a day – about $5.20. “A lot of times, people don’t have the 30 pesos (about 80 cents) once every two or three days to buy water,” said William Decena, pastor for a local church. That’s the price charged by the water-selling truck that comes from Barahona on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays; a gallon at Batey 9’s grocery costs several times that much. A new water-purifying system has been built behind the church with help from G.O. Ministries, an American nonprofit. A gallon of the church’s water is less than 3 cents, and 5 gallons cost 5 pesos – about 14 cents. Yonei Feliz Cuevas, who purifies and sells the water, said a hut-byhut educational campaign was launched to inform residents of the new system and some are taking to it. Up to 40 families a day now buy water from the new system – and Cuevas said he has had to stay at the church at night to keep water thieves away. But not everyone is convinced. And change comes slowly here – even for the man in charge of the new water system. On the same day that water began to be sold behind his own church,
Maria Lita worries about her son William Lita Feliz (left), who has lost a lot of weight because of severe diarrhea, a common consequence of drinking untreated water. A woman washes clothes with the free but untreated water from a village tank.
Decena bought two gallons outside Batey 9. He had forgotten that cheap, pure water was now available in his own village. ■
96
Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
Cronkite Student Reporters
Joshua Armstrong: Armstrong is a graduate
media journalism and was a fellow in the national
student at the Cronkite School and a former
News21 program last summer. Her internships
reporter and copy editor at the Fairbanks (Alaska)
include
Daily News-Miner. A native of Bradenton, Fla., he
CNN. She is a Carnegie Fellow with ABC News’
earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the
Investigative Unit in New York this summer.
CBSNews.com,
ABCNews.com
and
University of Florida before entering ASU in fall 2010.
Carie Gladding: Gladding moved to Arizona from Santa Cruz, Calif., last year to enter Cronkite’s
Serena Del Mundo: Originally from the tiny island
graduate program. She earned her undergraduate
of Guam, Del Mundo is one of the first participants of
degree from Ohio University with a major in broad-
a joint program that brings students from the Mayo
cast journalism and a minor in film. She has profes-
Medical School in Rochester, Minn., to Cronkite for
sional experience working in both television and
a condensed one-year master’s program in jour-
film.
nalism. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in marketing from San Jose State
Joanne Ingram: A Cronkite graduate student,
University. She hopes to use her training at the
Ingram holds a bachelor’s degree in communi-
Cronkite School to report on international human
cation from the University of New Mexico. She
rights issues.
is interested in print journalism, and her articles have been published in a number of newspapers,
Michel Duarte: Born and raised in Brazil, Duarte
including the East Valley Tribune and the Tucson
has lived and worked in countries such as Wales,
Sentinel. She is reporting on food safety issues this
Turkey and Morocco. He is currently a photo intern
summer as a Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow.
at The Arizona Republic and plans to graduate from the Cronkite School in December 2012 with
Bastien Inzaurralde: Inzaurralde is a Fulbright
a degree in journalism. His specialties are visual
Scholar in the Cronkite School’s graduate program.
media and multimedia production.
A native of France, he earned a master’s in journalism with a broadcast focus in Grenoble, France,
Lauren Gilger: A graduate of Fordham University,
and interned for several print and broadcast orga-
Gilger completed the Cronkite master’s program
nizations in Paris. His reporting interests include
earlier this year. She studied broadcast and multi-
international, immigration and social issues.
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
Lindsay Erin Lough: Lough is a Mayo Medical
“ABC World News” and “World News Now,” and
Student studying for her master’s degree at
he co-produced a live election town hall with ABC
Cronkite. She graduated from Princeton University
News and Facebook in 2010. He has interned at the
in 2007 with a major in ecology and evolutionary
NBC affiliate in Phoenix and attended the Institute
biology and two minors in Hellenic studies and
on Political Journalism at Georgetown University
environmental studies. She volunteered on the
while interning at a digital media company in
Los Amigos Research Station in the Amazon Rain
Washington.
Forest of Peru and is an avid photographer and photojournalist.
Whitney Phillips: Phillips received a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Dixie State
Tarryn Mento: An aspiring multimedia journalist,
College of Utah before entering the Cronkite
Mento holds a degree in journalism from the
School’s graduate program last year. She worked
University at Albany in New York. She was a staff
as a section editor and staff writer for her college
writer for the student newspaper and an edito-
newspaper. She is reporting on food safety this
rial intern for the Times Union newspaper. She is
summer as a News 21 Carnegie-Knight fellow.
reporting on food safety this summer as a CarnegieKnight News21 fellow.
Brandon Quester: After earning his undergraduate degree from the Cronkite School, Quester worked
Nick Newman: A native of Utah, Newman holds
for five years as a photographer and reporter,
a degree in print journalism from Brigham Young
a backcountry wilderness guide, wild land fire-
University. He interned for the Deseret News in Salt
fighter and volunteer backcountry ranger with the
Lake City in sports and online and social media and
National Park Service and Student Conservation
worked for the paper as a religion reporter. He is
Association. He returned to Cronkite last year to
reporting this summer in Washington, D.C., for the
pursue a master’s degree and study multimedia
new Cronkite News Service Washington bureau.
journalism.
Nathan O’Neal: O’Neal is pursuing a combined
Cristina Rayas: Rayas is pursuing a dual bach-
bachelor’s and master’s degree in journalism. At
elor’s and master’s program at Cronkite. She also
Cronkite, he was bureau chief for the ABC News
completed a minor in urban and metropolitan
on Campus bureau. His work has appeared on
studies at the ASU College of Public Programs. She 98
Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
was a News21 fellow last summer, reporting on the
Dustin Volz: Volz is pursuing both a master’s and
relationship between violent crime and immigra-
bachelor’s degree in journalism while also studying
tion and was co-director, producer and writer for
American history. He has interned for The Arizona
the 2009 student documentary “Voices Behind the
Republic as a copy editor and online-content
Veils.” She has interned at KCNC-TV in Denver —
coordinator, covered the state legislature for the
her hometown.
Arizona Capitol Times and written a column for ASU’s student newspaper. He is a managing editor
Lisa Ruhl: Ruhl completed her undergraduate
of the Downtown Devil, a student-run online news
degree in communications at Westfield State
site. He is reporting on food safety this summer as
before coming to the Cronkite School to study
a Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow.
broadcast and multimedia journalism. While at Cronkite, she worked as a Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow reporting on immigration issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. She also served as director, reporter, and anchor for Cronkite NewsWatch, the school’s award-winning student-produced newscast. She earned her master’s degree in May 2011. Lisa Ruhl also created web pages and gave multimedia support for this project. Stephanie Snyder: Snyder is pursuing a dual master’s and bachelor’s degree at Cronkite as well as a minor in Spanish. She was a breaking news intern for The Arizona Republic and covered the state legislature for the Arizona Capital Times. She also is a managing editor of the Downtown Devil, an independent, student-run online news publication that she co-founded. She is reporting on food safety this summer as a Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow. 99
Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
Cronkite Student Reporters
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Student Reporters Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
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Leadership Team Cronkite Borderlands Initiative
Leadership Team
Rick
Rodriguez:
Cronkite
Orleans. She conducts training at newspapers and
School’s Carnegie Professor of Journalism. The
for newspaper associations nationally and interna-
former executive editor of The Sacramento (Calif.)
tionally.
Rodriguez
is
the
Bee, Rodriguez was the first Latino president of the American Society of News Editors. He came to the
Steve Crane: Crane is director of the Cronkite
Cronkite School in 2008 to develop a new cross-
News Service bureau in Washington, D.C., directing
disciplinary specialization in the coverage of issues
Cronkite students as they cover the nation’s capital.
related to Latinos and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Crane was a political reporter and editor for The
Rodriguez is known nationally as a champion of
Washington Times before directing the D.C. bureau
watchdog journalism and newsroom diversity.
of the University of Maryland’s Capital News Service, where his students won numerous awards
Jason Manning: Manning is director of student
for their reporting. For five years before joining the
media at ASU, serving as adviser and publisher
Cronkite School, he was assistant dean at University
to the university’s student-run news outlets. He
of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
teaches at the Cronkite School and served as the managing editor for ASU’s News21 project — part
Nic Lindh: Lindh is the Cronkite School Web master
of a 12-university consortium that provides profes-
and instructional technology analyst. He built the
sional-level journalism experience for students. He
school’s website and the site for Cronkite News and
previously was politics editor for washingtonpost.
helps faculty and students use technology. He also
com, where he led the website’s coverage of the
has taught graphic design at the school. Prior to
federal government and national campaign politics.
coming to ASU, he worked as a writer, programmer and system administrator.
Kristin Gilger: Gilger is associate dean in charge of professional programs at the Cronkite School. She came to the university in 2002 as director of student media. Previously she served as deputy managing editor for news at The Arizona Republic, as managing editor of The Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem, Ore., and in various editing positions at the Times-Picayune newspaper in New 108
Cronkite student Bastien Inzaurralde reviews his notes after an interview in the Dominican Republic. Photo by Michel Duarte 109
110
The Cronkite School has been covering immigration and border issues since 2006 with the generous support of the
Howard G. Buffett Foundation
Members of the Cronkite reporting team have breakfast with RaĂşl H. Yzaguirre, U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Photo by Michel Duarte
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