Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean ed. by Vanessa K. Valdés

Abstract

Reviewed by: Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean ed. by Vanessa K. Valdés John T. Maddox IV Valdés, Vanessa K., editor. Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean. SUNY P, 2020. Pp. 276. ISBN 978-1-438-48103-6. Once again, Vanessa K. Valdés has proven herself a leader in Afro-Latin American and Latinx studies in this bound volume of essays on Haiti in the Hispanic Caribbean. While William Luis's Voices from Under (1984) already recognizes the importance of the Haitian Revolution in the Spanish-speaking islands, followed by the Afro-Hispanic Review 32.2 (2013), to name two examples, Valdés et alia do the necessary work of showing how the First Black Republic changed the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the world. In Racialized Visions: Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean, Valdés includes a consolidated timeline to show key events of the three Antilles' shared history. A forward from Myriam J. A. Chancy, author of From Sugar to Revolution (2012), passes the torch to Valdés of recognizing Haiti's far-reaching, revolutionary impact through scholarship. The editor's introduction argues that, despite centuries of "racialized visions" that presented the Haitian nation as barbaric, it is a symbol of black liberation. Leaders like Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda visited the republic for inspiration. Sadly, this epic history includes France's charging Haitians for their own freedom after fighting off their enslavers, sinking it into debt. Afterward, invasions, dictatorships, and disasters made Haiti the poorest nation in the Americas and a source of vulnerable migrant labor. Cuba is the topic of contributions by Natalie Marie Léger, Philip Kaisary, and Erika V. Serrato. Léger revisits Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of this World (1949) to show that the novel, like today's Haitian migrants to Cuba, belongs to both nations. She shows the deep influence of black people on what Carpentier called the marvelous real, one of Latin American literature's most-studied aspects. She notes the historical ties between the exodus from Saint-Domingue and Santiago de Cuba. Tying the erudite canonical work to one of the most marginalized diaspora is unique. Kaisary revisits Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's classic film La última cena (1976) to indicate how an enslaver's recreation of the Last Supper devolves into violence as the enslaved rise up, mimicking the Haitian Revolution. Ultimately, the captives are crucified. The close reading draws interesting connections. Serrato compares Nicolás Guillén to the post-Revolutionary voice of Jesús Cos Causse. The latter was deeply inspired by the founder of Haitian indigenisme Jacque Roumain, whom Cos Causse called "The Quijote Negro." He seeks to link the two iconic Caribbean uprisings. Serrato contributes to forming a Afro-Caribbean canon. Puerto Rico is the focus for Valdés and Mariana Past's chapters. Valdés unearths an all-but-forgotten series of texts of lectures by Haitian diplomat Dantès Bellegarde, who visited the United States-controlled island during the time of independentista Pedro Albizu Campos and draws parallels between their thought. This connection is innovative and will lead to more discoveries at the Río Piedras archive she consulted. Past intersperses Haitian history into her close reading of a short story by Ana Lydia Vega. In Vega's allegory, the Caribbean nations are individuals on a boat that cannot achieve unity to reach their destination, a metaphor for South-South solidarity. These chapters will interest historians and literary scholars. The Dominican Republic is, understandably, the most-discussed region, since it shares a border with Haiti and centuries of conflicted and contradictory negotiations with it. Claudy Delné traces the fluctuating and permeable western border of the Hispanic republic in history and literature since 1791. Since 2013, it has become contentious as numerous Haitians and those "accused" of being from that nation must show documentation or be deported to Haiti. Since the ruling requires investigating records going back to 1929 and prosecuting those born from 1984 onward, it seems to be a return to Trujillo-era policies that came to a head in 1937 with the "Parsley Massacre" of thousands of Haitians at the border...