¶ … Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola
The American writer and free lance journalist Michele Wucker in her first book has written about both Haiti and the Dominican Republic complex relations in terms of their cultures and on the sources of their great effort both in their island home as well as in the United States.
According to the book, the Caribbean island of Hispaniola is home to historic, where this continuing conflict between two countries has been intensely separated by language, race and history. However, at the same time it has been forced continuously into argument by their shared geography. The book is emotional from the beginning with the fighting and posturing of blood sport, as observed by the writer in her first Haitian cockfight (1):
The air cracks with the impact of stiffened feathers as each bird tries to push the other to the ground. Around the ring, the Haitian men shout to one another and wave dirty wads of gourdes in the air, seeking bets.... Soon, the feathers of both cocks are slick with blood (1)."
The journalist Wucker has used the metaphor of cockfighting throughout the book, portraying the countries as two roosters forced to combat in a small and enclosed cockpit. Her clear writing style and brilliant scenes of life at street level make her book a wonderful fascinating feel and experience in the fight and pacification of cultures on a small, beleaguered island (1).
About the book
On the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, there exist two countries: the Dominican Republic - Spanish-speaking and mixed-race; and Haiti- Francophone, black and mulatto. Even though, they have vital similarities, yet their differences are more major and considerable. And despite their rivalry, both share a national symbol in the rooster which is an important activity and favorite sport in the cockfight (1).
Michele Wucker asks:
If the symbols that dominate a culture accurately express a nation's character, what kind of a country draws so heavily on images of cockfighting and roosters, birds bred...
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