Haiti

Haiti is one of two countries on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which was divided by the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick during colonial times, allocating the west side of Haiti—approximately 30 percent—to France and the eastern 60 percent—now known as the Dominican Republic—to Spain. Aitiji and Kiskeya, two local names from the language of the autochthonous Arawak People, who occupied the island when the Europeans arrived in 1492, are being revitalized today. The earliest written account of Aitiji-Kiskeya by Pané in 1498 documented the Arawak People’s economic and social landscape for the then Empire of Spain. Underlying Haiti’s poverty today, this cumulative legacy, combined with that of previous recent administrations, the 2010 earthquake, and subsequent hurricanes, has perpetuated poverty. In the labor town borderland communities ...