Elzbieta Sklodowska (Washington University, Saint Louis)
In this paper I will attempt to delve into some more complex and subtle representations of Haiti and Haitians by focusing on two short stories by a Cuban writer, Antonio Benítez Rojo: “Heaven and Earth” (1967) and “Full Moon in Le Cap” (1998) for which the presence of Haitian workers in Cuba and the Haitian Revolution serve, respectively, as historical prisms through which the Caribbean identify of Cuba is explored. In view of the totality of Benítez Rojo’s work—historically minded and traversed by a web of inter-Caribbean connections—it seems worthwhile to open the door to these textual explorations in which Cuban and Haitian destinies and cultures become intertwined, as part of the vast complex of the Atlantic World. Within the remarkably diverse domain of the Caribbean, far from being the two wings of one bird, Haiti and Cuba, separated by the narrow stretch of the Windward Passage, share more than just the usual coordinates of the region, such as colonial legacy of slavery and plantation economy and African-based cultural heritage steeped in centuries of violent “hybridizations.” And Haiti’s presence in Cuba is more than just symbolic. Ever since the 1791 slave uprising Haiti has remained in Cuban imaginary a source of constant anxiety, bewilderment and fascination. Cuban nation-building, literary and popular discourses are often ambivalent in their perception of the neighboring nation, ranging from fear of the other Haiti to unwavering admiration for its heroic struggle for racial equality and emancipation.
