The Farming of Bones.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

To the Haitian cutters who work the Dominican sugar fields, cane life is travay te pou zo, "the farming of bones."

The year is 1937, and Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo is in power in the Dominican Republic. Valencia, wife of Pico, an officer in Trujillo's army, has just given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, attended only by her Haitian maid Amabelle, who has lived in her household since both women were children. In his haste to get home to see his new babies, Pico tears recklessly down the road and kills a young Haitian sugarcane cutter named Joel. Sebastien, Amabelle's lover and Joel's friend, swears that night that after the present cane season is over, he will never again "farm bones."

The Haltians, who are ostracized socially and only tolerated in menial positions because they meet an economic need, call themselves orphans, and many of them are just that. Amabelle lost her parents in a flood. Sebastien lost his father in a hurricane. But even those with families and roots in the country are treated like strays. The owners of the cane mills routinely keep their workers' papers, without which the cutters' children have access only to limited education. Worse still, many cutters are injured or mutilated while working. One has lost fingers; another has a gash in her cheek. These men and women lead gloomy lives, and yet they derive strength from their traditions and from one another.

Joel's death spurs a host of rumors. Word spreads of murders of Haltians in distant towns. The cutters believe Trujillo is planning a massive move against Haitians and that Joel's death is part of a larger plan. Amabelle rejects such notions. She knows many Dominicans to be kind. Valencia is a sensitive woman whose compassion for Kongo, Joel's grieving father, is sincere. Don Ignacio, Valencia's father, is a Spaniard who saw action in the Spanish-American War and has learned to detest violence. He shows his sorrow for Joel's death by trying to comfort Kongo and offering to pay for the boy's funeral.

Pico, however, is so calculating and ambitious that he names the male twin for the dictator. However, as if in retribution for his father's transgressions, the baby dies. Shortly afterward, the Haltians' worst nightmare comes true. Trujillo gives the order to push the foreigners out, and Pico, commanding a band of thugs, mows down hordes of people and arrests scores more--among them Sebastien...