To Dr. Roberto Cassá, Director General of the General Archives of the Nation of the Dominican Republic

Yesterday, in some homes across the country, children listened to adults as they commented on the news. Before technology, every word, every facial expression and every gesture expressed something. Many Haitian families had a history with the Caribbean and enjoyed sharing it. I remember the eyes of one of my classmates telling us about the competition between his grandfather, a blacksmith, and the Jamaican blacksmiths who arrived in Haiti at the end of the 19th century. I met this almost 100-year-old grandfather, Boss Rigaud.

For more than forty years, I wonder why in my family we have always had good relations with the Dominicans. A Dominican witnessed the wedding of my maternal great-grandmother on the morning of May 25, 1907. A few months ago a reader, after seeing the photo of one of my ancestors in Acento, sent me a document dated March 12, 1915, at 10 a.m.- which revealed to me the Dominican nationality of the maternal ancestor (“Dominican major, owner residing in Santo Domingo and domiciled in Petit-Goâve”, writes the officer of marital status).

Of course, I don’t count anything spectacular or heroic. I remember the magnificent poem What a pity! by León Felipe: “I have no homeland, nor the portrait of my grandfather who won a battle”. There are so many stories between us and Jamaica that we were hoping for a good press release. To make a good impression. Haitian businessman Thomas Désulmé was elected the youngest senator in 1946. A pioneer of authentic industrialization in Haiti (manufacture of plastic products) and almost the father of new technologies with the introduction of cable television, he never quick to detect the maneuvers of President François Duvalier. to secure a presidency for life. In the early 1960s, Thomas Désulmé was forced into exile in Jamaica. He was one of the founding fathers of Jamaica’s modernization and decorated by Queen Elizabeth II of England.

“Each actor made the trip to Jamaica with their dreams and plans. The final results of the Kingston dialogue are not yet known. One thing is certain: Haiti has not won anything. Neither have the Haitians. (F. Duval , Everything went well for everyone in Jamaica, except Haiti, Le Nouvelliste, June 14, 2023)

When I heard the first reports of plans to create a Canadian office in the Dominican Republic to modernize the Haitian National Police, we sensed something was happening. The latest news indicates that this is a project intention that has not even been presented to the Dominican authorities.

A painful certainty: this week of June 2023 has just shown us that, institutionally, Haiti is very far from its Caribbean neighbors.