In The Name of The Forgotten Souls, Respect To The Spirits

The Farming of Bones shows the tremendous talent of Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat. This book is about Amabelle Desir, a housemaid having flashback about a massacre orchestrated by Dominican Strongman and Dictator Rafael Trujillo Molina in 1937. In the midst of such horrific and sleepless nights, Amabelle has a relationship with a strong cane cutter named Sebastien Onius who has to comfort her over the memories of her deceased parents.
When I got a copy of this book, I read it from cover to cover stopping only to grab something to eat. The story is very captivating. I think that Edwidge Danticat wants us to remember this historical event between two neighboring countries. Ethnic Cleansing has been around for a while. The 1937 massacre occurred as a revenge against the Haitian leaders who invaded and occupied D.R. earlier for about 22 years.

Through the lives of those two lovers, the book recounts the 1937 slaughter of 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians who were living in the Dominican Republic.

More importantly, this book shows the difficulty and conditions of migrant workers. They don't seem to be welcome anywhere, i.e. the exploitation of West Indians by West Indians. Their plight continues up to this day. They have no legal status in a country where they were born. This novel has a universal touch to it in that migrant workers can be found in the U.S.A., Europe, Asia etc. This is an eye opener.