ABSTRACT
Popular Haitian reaction to the US Marines varied from open insurgency in the mountains, reminiscent of Augusto Cesar Sandino’s forces in Nicaragua, to the naming of a gifted young enlisted Marine as king of the island La Gonave by its inhabitants. Haiti’s isolation was also assured by the Haitians’ own fear of the return of the French or another colonial power. One symbol of that fear was the clause, in every single constitution from 1805 to 1918, which emphatically prohibited foreign ownership of Haitian land. Studies of Haitians in the United States comparable to the Mexican studies would be a useful addition to our understanding of the consequences of illegal immigration from Haiti. The solutions must focus on those obstacles that are to be found in the Haitian mind, yet the Haitians themselves must take the lead. There are no quick cures, least of all by railing at “discrimination,” “dependency,” and “imperialism.”.
