Fighting Imagined Invasions with Administrative Violence African slaves and their descendants in history textbooks. References to slavery presented it as a minor phenomenon which was quickly incorporated by the Dominican culture, where slaves were treated benevolently and where their contribution to the development of the island was downplayed. The emphasis on differences presented a white, Amerindian, Spanish, Catholic, civilised Dominican citizen against a black, African, pagan, uncivilised Haitian. Such racism in the island is often depicted by the statement ‘I am black, but white black’ claimed in order to emphasise the lack of belonging to the Haitian ethnicity. 83 This statement also emphasises a suspicion towards those who are black and poor to be the succession of parents with an irregular residence status at the time of birth. 84 Of course, such differences are exaggerated and hide the existence of important commonalities, as well as a past of cohesion, denied by xenophobic historiography. Administratively, antihaitianismo was promoted through the creation of a civil registry system that classified Dominicans according to their either Hispanic or Amerindian roots, denying any connection to Haiti. 85 A Citizenship and Nativism in the Dominican Republic Antihaitianismo policies were a concerted effort to highlight or create the differences between the Dominican citizen and the Haitian citizen (including their descendants in the Dominican Republic), ascribing the former a superior value to justify its dominance, in consonance with the logic of nativism. The process included ignoring commonalities such as the Catholic religion, the rural economy or the colonial past and highlighting differences in skin colour (where Haitians are darker) and language. The history of violence produced by such nativist ‘otherisation’ is exemplified by the 1937 massacre of thousands of ethnic Haitians (both Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry) in the Northwest of the country ordered by Trujillo’s forces, known as El Corte (Kotou-a in Haiti) or the ‘Parsley Massacre’. Indeed, the period after the massacre saw an increase in antihaitianismo narratives and policies. 86 Paradoxically, in the mid-1930’s relations between Haiti and Dominican Republic were friendly. During the first half of the 20th century the economy relied heavily on Haitian migrants to cut sugarcane. 87 During the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican state recruited what they saw as a temporary male Haitian workforce. 88 A border demarcation agreement had been reached in 1936. 89 However, in October 1937, Trujillo unexpectedly ordered the systematic killing of persons of Haitian descent in the border areas with Haiti. 90 As a result, between 12,000 and 25,000 persons were massacred over five days by the army and 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 Silvio Torres-Saillant, ‘The Tribulations of Blackness: Stages in Dominican Racial Identity’ (1998) 25(3) Latin American Perspectives 107. Lippmann Mazzaglia, Natalia, and Pedro F Marcelino, ‘Migratory Policy as an Exclusionary Tool: The Case of Haitians in the Dominican Republic’ (2014) 3(1) Laws 163, 170. María Paz Bermejo Pérez, Políticas de Inmigración y Ciudadanía y el Estado Dominicano: un Desafío de Gobernanza Democrática (Universidad Complutense Madrid 2018) 124. Robin L H Derby and Richard Turits, ‘Historias de Terror y los Terrores de la Historia: La Masacre Haitiana de 1937 en la República Dominicana’ (1993) 92(1) Estudios Sociales 65. Amelia Hintzen, ‘Cultivating Resistance: Haitian–Dominican Communities and the Dominican Sugar Industry’ (PhD Thesis, University of Miami 2016) 1. ibid. Eric Paul Roorda, ‘Genocide Next Door: The Good Neighbour Policy, The Trujillo Regime and the Haitian Massacre of 1937’ (1996) 20(3) Diplomatic History 301, 305. ibid 301. 207