Author: Myriam J. A. Chancy

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1477327819

"The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 was a debilitating event that followed decades of political, social, and financial issues. Leaving over 250,000 people dead, 300,000 injured, and 1.5 million people homeless, the earthquake has had lasting repercussions on a struggling nation. In this book, Myriam Chancy encourages us to look at Haiti and to continue to examine the historical and present structures that have resulted in Haiti's post-earthquake conditions. And as Haiti is newly recovering from another 7.2 magnitude earthquake from August 2021, the questions that Chancy seeks to answer and the stories she aims to document seem all the more urgent. Originally presented at invited campus talks, published as columns for a newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago, or other venues, the essays in Harvesting Haiti respond to a particular moment and preserve the reactions and urgencies in the years following the 2010 disaster. As Chancy explains, this work "remains pertinent to discussions of Haiti today and to understand what was being discussed in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, which continues to mark the country today, is relevant to what may or may not be possible for its future." The volume is organized into five parts, each with a thematic focus that reveals an important element for the context of post-earthquake Haiti. Part I provides political contexts and background, and includes pieces on international aid, Haiti's exclusion from global trade, and overarching issues in the battle for sovereignty. In Part II, an interview and two essays based on invited talks problematize the media's portrayal of gendered issues in the wake of the disaster. Part III takes an artistic turn with a poem and photo essay. Part IV preserves essays originally published in a column in a discontinued magazine insert for The Trinidad Express. Part V looks to the impact of the earthquake on the already vexed relationship between Haiti and their neighbor, the Dominican Republic. The book concludes with a reflection from five years after the earthquake, and then the tenth anniversary of the disaster"--