Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola, by Michele Wucker. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999.

The rooster, explains Michele Wucker, represents every aspect of life in Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Associated with politics, territory, sustenance, and even the popular merengue, the cock both separates and unites Dominicans and Haitians. In particular, the cockfight--in which pampered, specially trained cocks are pitted against each other in a fight to the death--symbolizes the violence that has plagued the two peoples since the colonial period. At the same time, cockfighting binds Dominicans and Haitians together in their devotion to the sport. Thus, the cockfight is an appropriate motif for a study of these wary and often warring neighbors.

The Spanish- and French-speaking peoples of Hispaniola have been at odds since early in the seventeenth century, when Spain and France played out the aggressions of the Thirty Years War on the Caribbean island. As French influence grew in the area, the Spanish colonial government encouraged white colonists to marry former slaves so that their children would grow up Spanish and Catholic and thereby strengthen Spain's hold. Nevertheless, by 1655 France had won western Hispaniola (Saint-Domingue) permanently. Over the years, the two colonies grew apart culturally and--at least, in terms of attitude--racially. Santo Domingo became predominantly mulatto, while Saint-Domingue distinguished carefully defined racial types--a difference that continues to divide the nations today. Dominicans still form a mulatto society, while Haitians divide blacks from mulattoes using class as much as color as a criterion. In fact, the two peoples are not so different from each other as they believe, argues Wucker. Yet, Dominican racism toward Haitians has been manifest in some of the country's most brutal policies.

Late in the eighteenth century, when Toussaint Louverture led Haiti to independence, Spain and France once again vied for power on the island. During the chaotic years that followed, revolutionary factions fought among themselves, and even after borders were officially set, hostilities continued to flare up periodically. The situation was exacerbated by U.S. attempts to annex the Dominican Republic in order to establish a strategic stronghold in the area. Indeed, during the twentieth century, the U.S. sent troops to Hispaniola four times...