The changing representation of Haiti in three of Aida Cartagen Portalatin’s later works

This article analyzes the changing representation of Haiti in the later works
of Aida Cartagena Portalatin: the experimental novel Escalera para Electra
(1970), the “poem document” Yania Tierra (1981), and the collection of essays
Culturas africanas: rebeldes con causa (1986). Cartagena never studied the
representation of Haiti and of Haitians, which isn’t surprising given that Haiti
is not a theme highlighted with an obvious emphasis in her work. At the same
time, given her commitment to fight for justice, her interest in examining the
history of her homeland, and above all, her strong denunciation of racism, one
could consider the absence of Haiti as an object of interest in the work of this
important Dominican writer to be, in some way, significant. Furthermore, Haiti
is not absent in her plays, however its representation varies and its nuances
are highly dependent on how each text conceives the Dominican nation.

More specifically, there is a close relationship between how nationalism is
presented in the text and its representation of the Haitian theme: the more it
depends on territorial notions and “patriots” (in the conventional sense) of
the nation, the more negative its portrait of the Western neighbor.