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The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is home to historic, ongoing strife between two countries deeply divided by race, language, and history yet forced constantly into confrontation by their shared geography. In her first book, American journalist Michele Wucker reports from both Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the complex relations between these two cultures and sheds light on the sources of their struggles both in their island home and in the United States.
This book is charged from the start with the violence and posturing of blood sport, as Wucker observes her first Haitian cockfight: "The air cracks with the impact of stiffened feathers as each bird tries to push the other to the ground. Around the ring, the Haitian men shout to one another and wave dirty wads of gourdes in the air, seeking bets.... Soon, the feathers of both cocks are slick with blood." Popular in both countries, these fights become a totemic image for the author, who finds in them, as in the many clashes between Hispaniola's two cultures, "both division and community, opposite sides of the same coin." This is a fine historical primer, buoyed along by Wucker's graceful, observant prose style. --Maria Dolan
From Publishers Weekly
The U.S. has sent troops to Haiti and the Dominican Republic four times in this century, twice to each country. In the last 20 years, reports Wucker, one-eighth of the population of the island of Hispaniola has emigrated to the U.S. Wucker, a freelance journalist, delves much deeper than mere numbers and chronology, supplementing her knowledge of the island's history with a great sense of the fabric of everyday life in the two countries. While each chapter is discrete enough to stand alone, cumulatively they create a passionate mural of the often bloody relationship between wary neighbors. Among the critical issues and events Wucker addresses are the role of geography as a barrier, European settlement, slave revolts, the role of the sugar industry and the experience of Dominican and Haitian immigrants in the U.S. Wucker's treatment of Dominican racism toward Haitians is particularly good, capturing the nuance and ambivalence at work when two peoples who are not nearly as different as they would sometimes like to believe are stuck together on a small piece of land with limited resources. Throughout the book, Wucker uses the metaphor of cockfighting, presenting the countries as two roosters forced (sometimes by the U.S.) to battle in a small, enclosed ring. If she relies a bit too heavily on this trope, Wucker more than makes up for the minor indulgence with her insightful treatment of many cultural issues, particularly the politicized nature of language, to which she brings an understanding of Creole, Spanish and French. Clear prose and vivid scenes of life at street level make Wucker's first book a marvelous immersion experience in the clash and conciliation of cultures on a small, embattled island next door. (Jan.) FYI: Why the Cocks Fight makes good companion reading to Edwidge Danticat's novel, The Farming of Bones (Forecasts, June 8.)Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Two countries are found on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic is Spanish-speaking and mixed-race; Haiti is Francophone and black. Though there are important similarities in the two populations, their differences are more significant. Wucker, a freelance journalist, examines the cultural divide between the two neighbors from the colonial period to the present. She suggests that the root of the conflict is the politically sensitive issue of immigration from Haiti to the Dominican Republic and argues that the racial differences between the two populations intensify the problem. Of interest to public libraries serving these two populations and research libraries with Caribbean collections.?Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, UTCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Patrick Markee
...a complex exploration of the cultural divide between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.... a subtle picture of the island today.
Alastair Reid
"I have not read so spellbinding a book in a long time."
Review
"A complex exploration of the cultural divide between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Wucker . . . weaves together five centuries of tragic conflict with a subtle picture of the island today."--Patrick Markee, The New York Times Book Review
"A richly textured social history of Hispaniola . . . . A powerful cultural analysis."--Kirkus Reviews
"Impeccably researched history made current and more meaningful by first rate reporting."--Barbara Fischkin, author of Muddy Cup: A Dominican Family Comes of Age in a New America
"A delightful yet disturbingly relevant book . . . The economic, political and geographical struggles vividly occurring on Hispaniola are a microcosm of what happens all over the world."--Michael Hopkins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"Wucker peels away layers of history and culture, revealing aspects of Dominican and Haitian culture few have described so clearly. Well crafted, lucidly told, and full of insight.."--Rob Ruck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A rich cultural history."--Ken Moore, Naples Daily News
Kirkus Reviews
"A richly textured social history [and] a powerful cultural analysis."
Book Description
Like two roosters in a fighting arena, Haiti and the Dominican Republic are encircled by barriers of geography and poverty. They co-inhabit the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, but their histories are as deeply divided as their cultures: one French-speaking and black, one Spanish-speaking and mulatto. Yet, despite their antagonism, the two countries share a national symbol in the rooster--and a fundamental activity and favorite sport in the cockfight. In this book, Michele Wucker asks: "If the symbols that dominate a culture accurately express a nation's character, what kind of a country draws so heavily on images of cockfighting and roosters, birds bred to be aggressive? What does it mean when not one but two countries that are neighbors choose these symbols? Why do the cocks fight, and why do humans watch and glorify them?"
Wucker studies the cockfight ritual in considerable detail, focusing as much on the customs and histories of these two nations as on their contemporary lifestyles and politics. Her well-cited and comprehensive volume also explores the relations of each nation toward the United States, which twice invaded both Haiti (in 1915 and 1994) and the Dominican Republic (in 1916 and 1965) during the twentieth century. Just as the owners of gamecocks contrive battles between their birds as a way of playing out human conflicts, Wucker argues, Haitian and Dominican leaders often stir up nationalist disputes and exaggerate their cultural and racial differences as a way of deflecting other kinds of turmoil. Thus Why the Cocks Fight highlights the factors in Caribbean history that still affect Hispaniola today, including the often contradictory policies of the U.S.
About the Author
Michele Wucker, born in 1969, is a freelance writer who reports regularly on Caribbean affairs for both Dominican and North American papers. She lives in New York City. This is her first book.
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