Ep. 59: The History of Conflict between Haiti and the Dominican Republic Part II: Dominican Statelessness with Dr. Amarilys Estrella and Activist Ana María Belique

As a continuation of our last episode, Dr. Amarilys Estrella and Ana Maria Belique join for a discussion on anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic. Together, we discuss how the Dominican government has legitimized some of the conflict through state documentation, leaving generations of Dominicans and Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless  due to the 2013 Ruling 168/13.
 
Amarilys Estrella is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and a faculty affiliate for the Center for African and African American Studies at Rice University. Her research interests broadly focus on the intersections of race and gender within transnational movements, Black Latin American and Latinx identity, as well as human rights and anti-racist activism. Her first book project investigates how Blackness and Black identity, is produced, employed and transformed through everyday encounters among stateless Black grassroots activists of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. In her article, “Muertos Civiles: Mourning the Casualties of Racism in the Dominican Republic” she examines mourning as a practice of resistance within anti-racist movements. In her blogpost “Black Latinx Encuentros: Embodied Knowledge and Reciprocal Forms of Knowledge Sharing” Estrella and her colleague Dr. Meryleen Mena explore the importance of encuentros, understood as meetings or collective forums where Black Feminists throughout the Americas create spaces for intellectual and personal reciprocity enabling us to connect across our similarities and differences. 

Ana María Belique is a founding member and leader of Reconoci. do, a movement that mobilizes and empowers Dominicans of Haitian descent and campaigns for equality and citizenship rights. She studied Sociology and specializes in Afro-Latin American and Caribbean studies from CLACSO. Her activism focuses on the fight for the restitution of the right to nationality of Dominicans of Haitian descent affected by ruling 168-13 of the Dominican Constitutional Court, as well as promoting the empowerment of the Dominican population of Haitian descent residing in Dominican bateyes. In addition, she founded the initiative for women and girls, MUÑECAS NEGRAS RD initiative, which offers a learning space to break the patterns imposed on black Dominican women. She coordinated the publication of two books, Nos Cambió La Vida (Our Transformed Lives) and "Somos Quien Somos," which document the stories of members of the Reconoci. do. She recently coordinated the Critical Training Space for Dominicans of Haitian descent. Ana María Belique has visited various international academic spaces where she talks about the reality of Dominicans of Haitian descent in the DR, human rights, Afro-descendants, and the experience of working with women in the bateyes. She was a visiting student at Columbia University in the Human Rights Advocacy Program 2022-2023 cohort.

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