Past and Present Relationship

Between Haiti and the

Dominican Republic
Slideshow Presentation: Advocacy
After a series of voyages, Christopher Columbus arrived As we can see in this image, the countries of Haiti and the
on an island – which came to be recognized as Hispaniola Dominican Republic ultimately make up the island of
– in 1492. Hispaniola.

The red line cutting through the island of Hispaniola is the border
that separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
 Between 1930 and 1961, Rafael
Trujillo was the president and
dictator of the Dominican Republic.

Dictator: A person in complete power of a

country; citizens are not able to share
their feelings and thoughts about issues
that are important to them.

Throughout Trujillo’s time as a dictator, Dominican

citizens were forced to honor him in their homes. For
example, they had to hang up images of Trujillo in their
homes, or else something bad would happen to them or
their loved ones 

Translation: “In this home, Trujillo is the national symbol…1955

is the year of our country’s benefactor”
 This is an image of a plant
known as parsley. In Spanish, it
is known as “perejil.” It is used
for many things, such as cooking
and curing sick people.

One of Trujillo’s greatest tasks was to get rid of people that

were originally from Haiti – or whose family are Haitian –
yet were living in the Dominican Republic.

After demanding that all dark-skinned individuals (with

Haitian features) line up along a river, Trujillo and his army
men would hold up a piece of “perejil” to each person.
Trujillo knew if a person was from Haiti or from the
Dominican Republic based on how they pronounced the
word “perejil.”

This image shows how the word “perejil” “divided” the island of
Hispaniola.
 In 2010, there was a disastrous
earthquake that attacked Haiti 
This forced many Haitians to
travel to the Dominican
Republic, in hopes of a better life
and better opportunities.
Source: Yuhas, Alan. (2015, Nov 19). Dominicans of Haitian descent turned into
‘ghost citizens,’ says Amnesty. The Guardian.

Three years ago, the president of the Dominican Republic

started to deport (send people back to their native
country) people that looked Haitian and those without
Dominican documents. If the people could not prove that
they were born in the Dominican Republic, they were
immediately sent to live in Haiti.
Most of the bateyes in the Dominican Republic look similar This is an image of three young boys carrying gallons of
to the one in the above image. Also, the majority of people clean water that they filled up somewhere outside of their
that live in them are Haitians, or Dominicans who have at batey.
least one Haitian family member.