People Think That There Is

It's Not Easy To Start Over In A New Place,' He Said. 'exile Is Not For Everyone. Someone Has To Stay Behind, To Receive The Letters And Greet Family Members When They Come Back.

When I Meet People For The First Time, I Always Put On My Glasses Because I Feel Like That's A Little Something Extra Between Me And Them. It's Like The Laurence Dunbar Poem "we Wear The Mask."

It Seemed From The Media That We Were Being Told That All Haitians Had Aids. At The Time, I Had Just Come From Haiti. I Was Twelve Years Old, And The Building I Was Living In Had Primarily Haitians. A Lot Of People Got Fired From Their Jobs. At School, Sometimes In Gym Class, We'd Be Separated Because Teachers Were Worried About What Would Happen If We Bled. So There Was Really This Intense Discrimination.

The Whole History Between Haiti And The Dominican Republic Is Complicated. We Share The Island Of Hispaniola, And Haiti Occupied The Dominican Republic For Twenty-two Years After 1804 For Fear That The French And Spanish Would Come Back And Reinstitute Slavery. So We Have This Unique Situation Of Being Two Independent Nations On The Same Island, But With Each Community Having Its Own Grievance.

I Love The Process Of Cracking The Spine For The First Time And Slowly Sinking Into A Book. That Will Soon Seem Old-fashioned, I'm Sure, Like The Time Of Illuminated Manuscripts.