Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Parsley Massacre

Posted by at

3 comments:

jeigheff said...

I own a small, beat-up paperback book called "The Dictators." It was written by Jules Archer in 1967. The book has profiles of twentieth century dictators, including Trujillo. The book is definitely anti-totalitarian. But the author sometimes reluctantly gives credit to dictators when they happen to do something good.

Last night, I picked up the book and reread Trujillo's short chapter. Trujillo sounds like a brutal and corrupt man.

Anyway, in Archer's book, the provocation for the Parsley Massacre is presented differently from that of the Wikipedia article:

In return for the high taxes he extorted, Trujillo permitted over two hundred thousand Haitian negroes to live in the Dominican Republic as labor for American-owned sugar plantations. But in 1937, with a crash in the price of sugar, many thousands were laid off. Some stole food to live. Trujillo pondered the problem. "Dominicans would be happier,' he told his army commander, "if we got rid of the Haitians."

I'm not someone who wants to rush to Wikipedia's defense. But I got the impression from the Wikipedia article that Trujillo was concerned about Haitians crossing the border as illegal immigrants and making things tough on the people of the Dominican Republic. Their situation sounded similar to the problem we have on our southern border.

I was reminded of Vlad Tepes/Vlad the Impaler when Trujillo said, "I will fix this."

Of course, the Wikipedia article might be different today than what it was yesterday.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 11:19:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...

"Trujillo sounds like a brutal and corrupt man"

Dominican Republic during the 1930's was the ONLY country in the world to accept an increased number of Jewish refugees. Trujillo saw the possibility of making his nation MORE white.

And with Jewish talented people as an asset too.

The strong man [caudillo] a popular theme in Latin American culture.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 5:54:00 PM EST
jeigheff said...

Good point.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 at 9:38:00 PM EST

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)