26122: Miller: (reply ) Bob Corbett adds reply ----Re: 26109: Wilcken (ask) Massacre River history and geography (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Rob Miller <painewebberm@yahoo.com>
and Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>
Subject: Re: 26109:  Wilcken (ask)  Massacre River history and geography (fwd)

Rob Miller writes:

The name of the river Masacre is named for the 1937
massacre of 30,000 Haitians and dark skinned Domincans
living along the border.

Corbett interjects:

The name "Massacre River" is earlier than 1937.  I just pulled Richard 
Loederer's terrible book, Voodoo Fire in Haiti off the shelf.  It was
printed in 1935 and he talks about the Massacre River in that book.

----------------

Miller continues:




Because the border was not heavily populated by
Dominicans, Haitian expansion moved settlements east,
some into Dominican territory.

There are numerous ways the story has been told.  From
what I have gathered, it begins with an order from
Trujillo along the lines of, "Take care of it."


Dominican soldiers would stop and question any person
with dark skin.  They would determine their respective
nationality based upon their ability to pronounce the
Spanish word for parsley, or perejil.  They believed
that the difficulty of rolling the R was sufficient
enough to determine nationality.

30,000+ were killed becuase they could not roll their
r's apparently. But their are other stories too.

As far as the geography of the NE along the border, it
varies a great deal.  The border town of Ouanaminthe
has been almost completely deforrested.  During the
embargo Ouanaminthe was the site for a great gasoline
black market, as a result of the spilled gas, there
are many areas that still cannot be planted.  North of
Ouanaminthe as you approach the see you find very
dense mangrove.  South of Ouanaminthe, as you enter
the hills of the Capotille area, you will find much
more vegitation and trees.  The entire area has very
sandy soil, which sustains the peanut industry that
thrives in the NE.  There are of course plenty of
Mango, Bread Fruit and citrous trees.  You will find
some cashew, but only in very small quantities.  They
are very fickle trees.

Anyway, the Massacre runs only knee deeps in its
deepest parts. After a rain, it can rise many feet.
Numerous people drown every year trying to wade
accross.  If you have any questions you can email me.
ramiller6@hotmail.com

Sincerely,

Rob Miller