Oct 03 2008
Subversive Historian – 10/03/08
Listen to today’s Subversive Historian
The “El Corte” Massacre by Subversive Historian Gabriel San Roman
Seventy-one years ago on this day in people’s history, the first killings of the “El Corte†massacre occurred. In the early morning hours of October 3rd, 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians living within the border of the Dominican Republic were massacred on the orders of Dictator Rafael Trujillo. Driven by a racist ideology, Trujillo alluded to the impending bloodletting at a party thrown in his honor the night before. With instances of violence occurring, the dictator framed the situation as a response to the Dominican people living along the border who he claimed complained of Haitian thievery. Over the next several days Trujillo’s troops sought to create a façade by killing Haitians with machetes instead of guns so as to make it appear as if the violence was the result of a Dominican peasant uprising. They approached those they suspected of being Haitian with a sprig of parsley. If the accused could not identify the parsley in correct sounding Spanish, then they were killed.
Unfortunately, Trujillo’s hatin’ on Haitians ideology still permeates some notions of Dominican nationalism to this very day.
For Uprising, this is your truth professa’ saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our history!
2 Responses to “Subversive Historian – 10/03/08”
First of all, let me just say that I love the show and have been listening to it for years – so please don’t take offense from the following comment…
My family’s from the Dominican Republic, and I agree that there’s racism/nationalism there – but it’s no different nor any worse than the racism that permeates the rest of Latin America. There are other parts of Latin America that are more notorious for their chauvinism and racism than the DR, but I have yet to hear them attacked as pointedly as the DR is in your “el corte” story. You could very well say “racism still permeates some notions of Mexican nationalism to this very day”, but I don’t know if that’s something I’ll ever hear. Thanks for reading.
There are histories of racism to be found everywhere in Latin America, and let me assure you, the history of Mexico is not out of bounds to me as was implied by your response.
Dominican ‘antihaitianismo’ functioned as a means for Trujillo to divide and conquer – a staple of reactionaries who seek to distract people from the true follies of their rule.
I have no problem looking back in history of Mexico and seeing a similar phenomenon in regards to the Porfiriato and the technocratic ‘cientificos’ that surrounded Diaz.
Their eurocentric view of “progress” fostered racism against Mexico’s indigenous population – that still permeates in Mexican society to this very day.