24095: Hermantin(News)Arab Haitians become more vocal, visible (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

on Sun, Jan. 16, 2005

Miami-Herald

SOUTH FLORIDA


Arab Haitians become more vocal, visible

Haitians of Arab descent are a small group in South Florida, but they are
fast emerging as more vocal, more visible and even more political.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


He grew up eating traditional dishes such as kibbe and tabbouleh. He
listened to the lilt of the Lebanese dialect as his grandfather passionately
discussed the issues of the day. He danced to the distinct sound of the
music.

But even as Pierre Saliba enjoyed Middle Eastern culture, it was the
cultural nuances of his real homeland, Haiti, that came to define much of
his character.

''I am Haitian. My heritage is Lebanese,'' said Saliba, 43, a Pembroke Pines
accountant who was born in Port-au-Prince and raised in Les Cayes, an
isolated seaport on Haiti's southern coast. ``All of my core values, what I
believe in, my basic education, I got them in Haiti. All were shaped in
Haiti.''

Several generations after their grandparents arrived in Haiti from Lebanon
and other Middle Eastern countries, Saliba and other Haitians of Arab
descent are still fighting for inclusion in a Haitian community that
sometimes considers them outsiders.

Now their battle has been transplanted to South Florida, where the
Arab-Haitian community is concentrated in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach
counties.

Their numbers are small, but growing. Of the 214,893 Haitians living in
South Florida, only 201 identified themselves as Haitians of Arab descent,
according to a Herald analysis of U.S. Census data from the Minnesota
Population Center at the University of Minnesota.

The Arab Haitians say they're proud of both sides of their heritage.

''I always let people know I am Haitian,'' said South Dade's Delices De
France bakery owner Patrick Baboun, whose mother emigrated from Palestine to
Haiti in the 1940s after meeting his father, a Haitian of Palestinian
descent. ``They are surprised, but I want them to see that we are
hardworking people.''

And it's not just non-Haitians who are surprised to see a white or
olive-skinned person speaking Creole.

''Yesterday, I was at a supermarket and talking Creole to a cousin of mine,
and the people at the cash register were surprised,'' said Ronald Rigaud,
owner of Miami's Citronelle restaurant whose mother is of Lebanese descent
and whose dad's French-German roots date to before the Haitian Revolution.

'They asked, `You're Haitian?' I answered, 'Yes I am. What do you think?' I
am beyond being offended by it.''

>From Haitian bakeries to shipping companies to Coral Gables' upscale Galerie
d'Art Nader, which promotes high-end Haitian art, the community is making
its presence known in South Florida.

It is becoming more vocal and visible, and even political, as Haitians of
all backgrounds debate the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.

''You reach a point where you can no longer stand on the sidelines,'' said
Dr. Ranley Desir, 46, a South Florida cardiologist whose father is a black
Haitian and whose mother was born in northwest Haiti to Lebanese parents.

For Desir, the point arrived in December 2003, when university students in
Haiti led one of the largest demonstrations against Aristide. More than 500
Haitians and Haitian Americans subsequently held an anti-Aristide rally in
front of downtown Miami's Torch of Friendship. Among them were Arab Haitians
like Desir.

''I don't usually go on the streets and protest, but you have to defend what
is right,'' said Desir, who shares a medical practice with his cousin and
fellow cardiologist Dr. Ralph Nader. Nader's siblings run the family-owned
Coral Gables art gallery.

''Things were not acceptable in Haiti,'' Desir said.

The events in Haiti and the high-profile involvement of one of their own --
wealthy U.S.-born businessman Andre Apaid Jr. -- in Aristide's ouster have
served as a rallying cry for the local Arab-Haitian community.

Apaid, who is of Haitian-Lebanese parentage, is the public face of a
coalition of more than 300 public and private groups in Haiti, which in
addition to demanding Aristide's resignation, called for a new social
contract between all Haitians.

The revolt against Aristide, who portrayed himself as a champion of the poor
masses, resurrected old class and racial tensions in Haiti's highly
class-conscious society, where until recently, Arabs were not embraced by
Haitian elites.

Aristide became public enemy No. 1 to some after publicly berating the elite
-- including Arabs, often prosperous business people in Haiti -- for not
doing their part to improve the lives of the poor.

''How many generations does it take for one to be Haitian?'' said Mario
Delatour, an independent Haitian filmmaker who has spent the past year
filming a documentary on the Arab-Haitian community, tracing its migration
from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine in the 1800s and during World Wars I and
II to the Port-au-Prince waterfront.

``They still point the finger to them because of their flesh tones. We are
talking fourth-generation now -- 1890 to 2005. Can you call them Arabs? No.
They are of Arab extraction, but they are Haitian.''

Delatour said the first documented group of Arabs arrived in Haiti in 1890.
Christian minorities, they were leaving the Ottoman Empire.

''They came dirt-poor, and now a hundred years later they are a force to be
reckoned with,'' Delatour said.

Once in Haiti, they were shunned by the elite but embraced by the poor
masses, to whom they sold textiles. They also mastered the Creole language,
sent their children to Roman Catholic schools and taught them the Haitian
way of life.

When various Haitian presidents attempted to expel them from the country by
enacting anti-Arab laws, some left but soon returned.

It wasn't until Haiti's president-for-life, Francois ''Papa Doc'' Duvalier,
seized power in 1956 that Haitians of Arab decent began to see progress.
Duvalier made them political allies and named Carlo Boulos as the first
Haitian of Arab descent to be health minister, Delatour said.

Today, Boulos' son Dr. Reginald Boulos is a physician who serves as
president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Port-au-Prince.

Carl Fombrun, a South Florida Haitian radio commentator who is not an Arab,
said the Arab Haitians have been successful because they have focused on
business enterprises. Fombrun, a light-skinned Haitian from a prominent
family, said members of his class have tended to obtain professional degrees
while the Arab Haitians provide services, mostly in the textile business.
Haitians, he said, need to overcome their biases and suspicions of Arabs.
Still, some Haitians remain skeptical about the group.

''I am very cautious of this growing involvement,'' said Gepsie Metellus, a
local Haitian community activist. ``Frankly, they don't have a good track
record of affirming their Haitian-ness, of actually contributing to the
social, political and cultural growth of the island they claim to be their
homeland.''

Metellus said that while she agreed with many Arab Haitians in denouncing
Aristide's ''dictatorial tendencies,'' ``I clearly know they are not my
allies.''

Saliba, the forensic accountant who helps build Habitat for Humanity homes
in Little Haiti and lobbies Gov. Jeb Bush on Haitian issues, doesn't
disagree that there are those among his group who should do better at
sharing the wealth.

''I cannot say 100 percent she is right and 100 percent she is wrong . . .
this is a fight we cannot win,'' he said. ``It's very hard for good people
to help this community. They don't make it easy for you even if you are not
Haitian. When they see you really want to help and the community is
responding to you, they will pull the race card.''

Haitians, he said, have to learn to live with each other.

''We are proud to be Haitian,'' he said. ``Right now, in this community,
whether they like ir or not there is an emerging [Arab-Haitian] community,
people moving down from New York, Boston, to South Dade. You will see more
of us.''

Herald database editor Tim Henderson contributed to this report.