WELCOME

CIEE Santiago, DR Service Learning Blog

!Bienvenidos!  Our blog is a joint collaboration incoporating contributions from staff and students.  We hope it will serve as a forum to share the learning, critiquing and tranformative experiences of our students. All student blog post will embody one or more of the principles our service-learning program addresses:

ENGAGEMENT - REFLECTION - RECIPROCITY - PUBLIC DISSEMINATION

It is based off of these principles that we will  share our experiences to a wider audience so they too, may take part in this journey.  

Don Mosquito

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

Slide Show

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

By Zoe Ingerson

Whitman College

The Illustration of Pride

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

http://www.flickr.com//photos/77744650@N08/sets/72157629204454108/show/

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

Talia Brock

Denison University

El Otro Peluquero

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

http://www.flickr.com//photos/77744650@N08/sets/72157629571631771/show/

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

Isabelle Jaffe

Clark University

El Carnicero

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

http://www.flickr.com//photos/77744650@N08/sets/72157629206311866/show/

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

By Emily Sturdivant

Clark University

La inspiración de las flores: La artesana Viviana Padilla

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

http://www.flickr.com//photos/77744650@N08/sets/72157629206207024/show/

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

Davika Parris

Clark University

Manacurista

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

http://www.flickr.com//photos/77744650@N08/sets/72157629204829036/show/

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

By Anna Myhr

Arizona State University

Doña Chocolate

For Photo Eassy slide show click below

http://www.flickr.com//photos/77744650@N08/sets/72157629204643984/show/

(for captions click show info on flickr site)

By Anna McWhirter

University of Oregon

Grassroots on a Larger Scale

Guest Lecture by Julia Sanchez on the Inter-American Development Bank

After working in the Peace Corps for almost three years, one volunteer, Jean, told our group that one of the biggest lessons she has learned is that “development and poverty are based in relationships.” Looking at different paradigms of development as part of our poverty and development class, this statement made me think: what kinds of relationships does she mean? Sure, it involves people's relationships with money and resources, but it also goes deeper, to relationships between groups, between individuals and people in power, and between entirely different cultures. In other words: grassroots development.

When we think of grassroots development, we generally think of small nonprofits that help bring change from the “bottom up,” starting with the community. But, how do we reconcile this with the globalized system we have? Is it possible to have grassroots change at a higher level? Perhaps not. But, I would argue that building the relationships necessary for change are not necessarily confined to local, grassroots organizations. Also on our excursion to look at development paradigms, we spoke with a representative of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB). This bank differentiates itself from other financial organizations by striving to provide direct help to those who most need it. In other words, the IDB tries to cultivate relationships between the lenders and the receivers of aid, requiring visits to the sites and concrete records of what kind of development has been done and where the money has gone.

Julia Sánchez, a Dominican representative of the bank for 30 years before retiring in '92, told us about more than just the bank's set-up and process, but how it developed her relationship with her own country, by showing her what conditions people were living in and what she could do to change them. I think that too often we think of large organizations such as this one as impersonal and unidimensional. The IDB is an example of how, even at the larger level, it is possible to focus on the people and look beyond the dollar sign. In contrast to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sánchez argues, the IDB only gives small loans at one time, waiting for the follow-through to see where the money went. Furthermore, the interest rates are lower then the IMF's and countries are given grace periods to pay back the loan. In other words, the bank seems to make a conscious effort to work with its members as opposed to merely throwing money at the problem and expecting to be paid back all at once.

Now, clearly, the IDB is not perfect, but, then again, what is? Our responsibility is to ask tough questions and keep working with the bank so that it can be better. How can we ensure that the bank maintains the personal relationships with loan receivers? At a community level, what can we do to make the most of IDB loans? The goal here is to continue cultivating these relationships at both the community and international levels. Community development does not exist entirely out of international development, nor the other way around. It's a hard balance to hit, but organizations like this one are at least trying, fairly successfully, to feel the waters of this new combinations of ideas.

As service learners, human developers, and people, our challenge is to cultivate these relationships and learn from our exchanges. In anything we do, we must remember to work with people instead of for/in spite of them. For me, that was the take-home message this weekend, the paradigm of human development. Only by empowering ourselves and others can we enact change, because, truly, it's all about the people.

Zoe Ingerson

Whitman College

A Racial Repercussion of Trujillo’s Rule

The group and I in front of the Memorial where Trujillo died

 My host mother was one of the first Dominicans I spoke to about Dominican-Haitian relations who told me “everything is rooted in history,” and then spoke a lot about Trujillo. Before coming to the Dominican Republic, I learned some information about the dictatorship of Trujillo in my spanish class. I learned that his rule lasted from 1930-1961, and that because he was determined to “whiten” the Dominican race, he brought Europenas and Japanese into the Dominican Republic, and killed a massive amount of Haitians who are of darker skin. However, what we didn’t learn in my spanish class was the extent to which the actions of his dictatorship had, and continues to have in  shaping the mentality of race of Domincans today.

 Since being here one of my biggest percetions about how Dominicans view race is the disparity in how they identify not only themselves, but others as well. There is a spectrum of terms such as indio (indian), negra (dark skin), blanco (white skin), morena (brown skin), and a plethora more of combinations to identify a Dominican. Unlike in the United States, where a person can be of mixed heritage, but perceived as a general race, such as black, white, hispanic, or asian, here I notice Dominicans are very specific in the way they identify a person. While skin color might be a main determing factor of a person’s race, Dominicans also take into account physical characteristics of the face such as the width of the nose, and eye color, and even the length and texture of hair. Overall, I have noticed that lighter skin and longer straight hair are favored characteristics.

 I have found that a lot of the way that Dominicans identify themselves is heavily based on the idea that lighter skin and straight hair is the standard of beauty. This mentality has also influenced the relations that Dominicans have with Haitians, especially in that the majority of Haitians do not fit those characteristics. Unfortunately this was a mentality created during Trujillo’s rule that affected the way Dominicans viewed race.

Another monument where Trujillo was assassinated

But how could one man have infected a country with such a poisonous anti-Haitian mentality?

There were a lot of factors that allowed Trujillo to create that mentality, and perhaps one of the biggest factors was fear. Trujillo was an absolute dictator in that if you opposed him or his rule you would be killed. This fear caused people to accept his ideas, such as Haitians being inferior people because they were of darker skin. This mentality not only caused the murders of over 25,000 Haitians during 1937, but repercussions of that mentality are felt today on different levels from racism in the street, to the complex situation of Haitian-Dominican migration and citizenship in the Dominican Republic.

 Another repercussion is a racist mentality against Haitians. The racism that Trujillo enforced against Haitians and darker skinned Dominicans of Haitian decent during his time is unfortunately, still affecting the Dominican Republic today. This is not to say that every Dominican has a racist opinion toward Haitians, but there is a stereotype that Haitians are less than Dominicans and are looked down upon because of how they were treated during Trujillo’s rule. In the same manner, Haitians have their opinions about Dominicans and how they think they are perceived in this country. Although this racist tension did not being during Trujillo’s dictatorship, he was one of the main catalysts in promoting this thought of inferiority.

 Trujillo’s dictatorship did not just span for more than three decades and simply stop. The repercussions of his decisions are still seen today, between Haitians and Dominicans in the Dominican Republic. The multi-faceted history of the Dominican Republic and the repercussions of Trujillo’s “anti-Haitian” ideology is still a prevelant issue. History not a clean-cut linear process, but rather a series of interconnected events that have, and continue to shape the present by the interactions between people. It would have been ideal for that racism and anti-haitian mentality to end with Trujillo’s death and the end of his dictatorship, but it is neither easy nor simple to undo the ideologies that were enforced during Trujillo’s thirty-one year rule, and throughout the history of the Dominican Republic.

Davika Parris

Clark University

“I am not my hair, I am not this skin”

I grew up in a diverse, urban area in the United States, so I am accustomed to being surrounded by many people of different races, ethnicities and economic classes. My observations and experiences have told me that the there is a general sense of pride, exuberance and confidence in the black community in the Washington D. C. metropolitan area. Despite this seemingly unanimous expression of self-worth, I have repeatedly heard the same sentiments about skin color and hair texture expressed by African-Americans of all walks of life. Many of my peers that identify as African-American or black have made a point of mentioning the rank and quality of the hair and skin of other African-Americans. So often I have heard that a black girl or woman is more beautiful because she has “caramel” skin, or “good hair.” While my peers appear to embrace their race, somehow they still seem to find that more white equals more beautiful. Conflicts of identity and racial hierarchy exist all over the world, and long standing paradigms have left their indelible marks in the minds of people everywhere.

Fortunately, I have never lost pride in my physical features nor wished that the African aspects of my heritage were less apparent on my exterior, despite the negativity I’ve come up against. I have been told before that I have a big nose, or that my hair is “bad” because of its kinks and tiny curls. That being said, the widespread desire to reject one’s African ancestry does trouble me. Prior to my studies in the Dominican Republic, I had heard very often that the issue of identity was a touchy subject for many men and women living on the island. Is there an identity crisis in the Dominican Republic in general? Or is there merely a strong desire to move away from “blackness?” Rather, what is the greater dilemma in terms of identity in the Dominican Republic: being black, or not knowing how to categorize oneself?

During the first week in Santiago, the students and our program coordinators traveled to two ingenios, or plantations, called Engombe and Boca de Nigua. In the midst of dilapidated stores and residences, stood two distinct properties, each bearing the indescribable pain of African enslavement through a deafening silence. It was incredible to stand where slaves once stood, and to feel so close and yet so distant from the horrors that once occurred in a now desolate and obscure place. Historical events that occurred in the Dominican Republic have had a large effect on the perception of race and identity throughout the country. Spanish and French colonization of Hispaniola led to a division between the two sides of the island, leaving one side with much more Spanish influence, and the other side with more African influence. In later years, Trujillo’s dictatorial regime pushed for a rejection of African culture and for Dominicans to identify as “indio”, or as people of indigenous ancestry. Whether the blame belongs to colonization, Trujillo or any other historical influence of the past, the negative perception of negro has been passed down from generation to generation without fail.

While we toured Engombe, we discussed the issue of racial labels on Dominican personal identification cards. Both the Engombe and Boca de Nigua plantations are tangible evidence that slavery took place on the island, and yet most Dominicans will identify themselves as blanco, indio, mezclado; anything is better than “black.”  Nevertheless, there have been some positive movements in recent years that are moving towards an altered consciousness regarding identity in the Dominican Republic. Many women are beginning to embrace and flaunt their natural hair, and are calling for other women to follow suit. Others are opening themselves up to their African ancestry, and changing their ID status from indio to negro. The large migration of Haitians after the earthquake and the rapid aid response of the Dominican government has helped in changing perceptions of race as well. The inevitable intermixing of Africans, Tainos, Spaniards and other groups has resulted in a richly diverse, physically and biologically heterogeneous country of people. The challenge for all of us is to understand who we are, without limiting ourselves to only some parts of our being. Furthermore, we shouldn’t be forced to choose one all-encompassing label, because all humans are far too colorful to settle for one single crayon from the box.

 Talia Brock

Denison University