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Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola
by Michele Wucker
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub (1999-01)
ISBN: 080903719X
EAN: 9780809037193
Dewy Decimal #: 303.482729307294
Hardcover: 281 pages
Edition: 1st
SKU: 08080076
Condition: Like New Like New
Comments: Hardcover. First Edition Like new cover and text. Like new dust jacket with very minor shelfwear. Near Fine condition. Beautiful book.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
An eye-opening report on two hostile neighbors. Like two roosters in a fighting arena, the Dominican Republic and Haiti are encircled by barriers of geography and poverty. They share one Caribbean island, Hispaniola, but their histories are as deeply divided as their cultures: one French-speaking and black, one Spanish-speaking and mulatto. And just as the owners of gamecocks contrive battles between their birds (a favorite sport in both countries) as a way of playing out human conflicts, Haitian and Dominican leaders often stir up nationalist disputes and exaggerate their cultural and racial differences as a way of deflecting other kinds of turmoil. Michele Wucker's vivid account of these struggles both on Hispaniola and in the United States takes us to the haunted mountains where, sixty years ago, the Dominican dictator Trujillo ordered 30,000 Haitians to be killed; to Vodou rituals in Dominican sugarcane fields where Haitians work as virtual slaves; and to the ringside of cockfights in all three countries. She focuses especially on the features in Caribbean history that are still affecting Hispaniola today, including the often contradictory policies of the United States toward both nations. Wucker's report on the life of Dominican and Haitian migrants in the United States is essential if we are to understand their contribution to the politics of our hemisphere.
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Amazon.com Review
The Caribbean island of Hispaniola is home to historic, ongoing strife between two countries deeply divided by race, language, and history yet forced constantly into confrontation by their shared geography. In her first book, American journalist Michele Wucker reports from both Haiti and the Dominican Republic on the complex relations between these two cultures and sheds light on the sources of their struggles both in their island home and in the United States. This book is charged from the start with the violence and posturing of blood sport, as Wucker observes her first Haitian cockfight: "The air cracks with the impact of stiffened feathers as each bird tries to push the other to the ground. Around the ring, the Haitian men shout to one another and wave dirty wads of gourdes in the air, seeking bets.... Soon, the feathers of both cocks are slick with blood." Popular in both countries, these fights become a totemic image for the author, who finds in them, as in the many clashes between Hispaniola's two cultures, "both division and community, opposite sides of the same coin." This is a fine historical primer, buoyed along by Wucker's graceful, observant prose style. --Maria Dolan
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Customer Reviews
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Questions?!
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-01-23
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I read this book several months ago. I don't know. I was not particularly enamored with the writing style. The story was more about Dominica, and Haiti seemed to be a sideline story.
However, I did gain some insights and it prompted me to read more books about the island, particularly Haitian History. I have learned a lot and have a better understanding of why Dominicans who are obviously the descedents of Africans, will curse you out if you call them black or African. I understand the effectiveness of the Trujillo's campaign to whiten his part of the island through screwing with the minds of the citizens.
I also understand why they tend to have some serious hate for Haitians. I am still learning.
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informative
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-01-21
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola
A very good insight into the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Very interesting reading.
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I'll take this explaination for now
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-05-18
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I've been born and raised in Haiti. A few months back I've looked at the reviews of some Haitian and Dominicans, and I thought maybe this book was bias. I relunctantly purchase it because its always good to listen to one side of the story. This book is superb. The arguments which I believe the author produced to explain the situation in haiti and St. Domingo makes perfect sense. Michele Wucker's argument falls hand in hand with that of a Haitian Author called Nicholas Jallot in his book "histoire secrete d'haiti". Although I am skeptical to read what I havent researched myself, I still give this book a 5 star
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An Eye Opening experience
Rating (4)
Date: 2007-01-14
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
In reading this book, I learned many more things that I have not known. The island with all of it inhabitants shares a rich and tortured history. There seem to be many uncovered facts in this book, such as the Dominican Republic actually obtained it's Independence from Haiti, that Haiti actually took the steps that eventually liberated the entire island. Though much of the time seems to have been spent in the Dominican Republic with many oblique references to Haiti, a fair amount of that time illuminating the perverse dislike each has for the other, in some ways the idea of blaming the party that for obvious reasons is unable to counteract the argument. For the most part this book illuminates much more of the history between the Haitians and the Dominicans, more and more about the immigration issues that seem to rear its erstwhile head in many places, and why folks seem to be driven to improve upon their personal life spaces. How some of these enclaves come to be, and remain that way. Little is discussed about Arristede and many of his predecessors, the wasting of the land itself and how it came to be that many Haitians would eventually choose to live in the Dominican Republic or the United States, or why Haiti is the most impoverished country in this hemisphere by far.
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Why the Cock Fights...
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-01-09
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Well written and informative, an excellent perspective into the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A must for anyone interested in traveling to Hispanola with an interest beyond the fancy, secluded, all inclusive resorts!
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