Stories of their "torn country" continue to haunt the people of Hispaniola's diaspora, Suarez writes, and at the same time present them with a path to social action. She argues that as authors and intellectuals articulate traumatic memories of their homeland, their writing transcends violence, and cries out for justice.
Interpreting the literary production of the selected authors in light of contemporary events, Suarez explores human rights issues and examines recent history in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In their images of what they left behind and what exists today, these writers engage in a process Suarez contends can transform unspeakable truths into memoirs of survival, understanding and resistance.
She uses their work as a platform to consider questions of ethnic identity and social reform for the large and growing U.S.-Caribbean community, finding that citizens of the diaspora challenge prejudices and make a distinct impact on the cultural landscape of the United States.
This is the first book to offer a comparative analysis of the literatures and societies that have emerged from Haitian and Dominican dispersion to the United States. It offers an important way to look at the links between literature, history, and memory, and it reframes Caribbean and diaspora literature in terms of a new Pan-Caribbean diasporic canon.