'Unsilencing the Past: Super Human 91' Protest Announced in New York City

This Hispanic Heritage Month the Dominicans Love Haitians movement is pleased to present Unsilencing the Past: Super Human 91, the second public art performance as an act of protest by Dominican artist, founder, and activist Clarivel Ruiz, in New York City on Saturday, October 10, 2020.

In this iteration, Ruiz is inviting 90 people to help raise the voice of the collective against crimes of humanity, as it directly relates to the history of anti-Blackness and injustice, which gave birth to generations of trauma and further complicated the relationship between Dominicans and Haitians. Each participant will walk together in a special procession from the African Ancestral Burial Grounds in Lower Manhattan to the Juan Pablo Duarte statue on Varick Street, attaching a piece of sugar cane to their bodies in remembrance of the lives lost in the October 1937 genocide of 20,000+ Haitians slaughtered by the Trujillo regime along the Massacre River called the Parsley Massacre/El Corte/Kout Kout-a. The procession will also acknowledge the September 23, 2013 constitutional tribunal judgment TC 168-13, which retroactively stripped thousands of Dominicans of their nationality, leaving 200,000 stateless and ineligible for citizenship. The hope is to also bring awareness to the continued practice of denaturalizing citizens lawfully born in the Dominican Republic (and the silencing of said events) under the guise of TC 168-13, by former Dominican President Danilo Medina, which continues to exacerbate issues and wreak havoc on the island and abroad.

"For a specific immigrant in the Dominican Republic, the only disfigurement is the stigma of being Haitian, which equates to Black. Too Black. There is an ominous desire for colonized countries to alter history by erasing the horrors of genocide and enslavement that have occurred to indigenous people of the "New World" and the indigenous people of Africa. We must continue to speak our truths, dismantling the frameworks of anti-Haitianism, xenophobia, anti-Blackness, and injustice. We ask all African descendants to stand up and raise our collective voices in solidarity for justice no matter where you are." - Clarivel Ruiz, Founder

In the first iteration of Super Human 91, held earlier this month on September 5, 2020, Clarivel Ruiz attached 91 pieces of sugar cane to their own body in protest of then departing Dominican President Danilo Medina who granted nationality to a mere 750 Dominicans of Haitian descent, leaving 8,000 people undetermined and stateless. The solo march by Ruiz, who was later joined by supporters of all races and nationalities, also spoke against the retroactive denaturalization of Dominicans of Haitian descent retroactively from1929, by walking from Tribeca Park to the statue of Juan Pablo Duarte located on 74 Varick Street on Canal Street in New York City.

To participate in the special public performance and procession, click here.

To donate to Dominicans Love Haitians Movement, click here.

For more information about Dominicans Love Haitians Movement, click here.