17793: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Haitian flags wave in Miami on nation's 200th Birthday (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitian flags wave in Miami on nation's 200th birthday

The Associated Press
Posted January 1 2004, 6:33 PM EST

MIAMI -- Miami's Little Haiti draped itself in red, white and blue New
Year's Day as thousands of Haitian-Americans gathered to celebrate the 200th
birthday of the Republic of Haiti.

The colors were not for America's Old Glory, but rather the tricolor flag of
the world's first independent black republic.

``These are big days for us, for every Haitian,'' said Gisline Augustin, a
resident of the Little Haiti neighborhood. ``We have 200 years to
celebrate.''

Participants seemed to vie with each other for the diversity of their flag
displays.

Flag-bearers marched across a stage bulging with politicos and dignitaries.
Women wore them as hair bandanas. Men sported them as jaunty ascots. Young
girls in bright dresses wore them in their hair like patriotic flowers. And
everyone in the crowd waved the 6-inch version given to participants.

``We freed ourselves,'' said speaker after speaker, bringing thunderous
cheers every time.

Celebrants ate spicy Haitian chicken, rice, cake and soup joumou, the
traditional pumpkin soup of a New Years Day in Haiti. Haitian artwork
decorated the car-free festival zone along Miami Avenue in the northern part
of Miami, known for its diverse immigrant cultures.

Most speeches were devoted to the historical significance of the day, as the
present-day misery in their homeland wasn't on the minds of many celebrants.

Opinions differed on whether to blame embattled President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, even as thousands of his supporters and protesters clashed in
their homeland.

``Now, some people don't want Aristide, but they are wrong,'' said Augustin,
who also volunteers with Citizens on Patrol in Little Haiti. ``We want him,
we elected him for five years.''

Rev. Francisco Barranco, a Haitian-born cleric who leads the Celestial
Church of Christ in Miami, was anti-Aristide.

``He is a priest who turned away from God,'' said Barranco, 70. ``He kills
people. Nothing good can come from this.''

Fritz Loture, 49, a wiry landscaper who brought his own moveable art to the
fair -- a wood-roofed truck with a Haitian-primitive paint job like those
common to Port au Prince streets -- had an Aristide opinion but wouldn't
venture it.

``I can't say anything about him,'' he said. ``It isn't safe, even here.''
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