With deep roots in the Dominican Republic, born and raised in New York City, Amarilys Estrella is a social scientist that, as a leading member of the We Are All Dominican collective (WAAD), works to advance social and political change. Estrella is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Women, Gender and Sexualities Studies Program and History Department. She holds a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology and a Master’s in Latin America and Caribbean Studies from New York University. From 2018-2019, Estrella was a Public Humanities Fellow for Humanities New York. In 2017, she received the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) Grassroots Development Fellowship for dissertation field research. Her work has appeared in The Black Scholar, Cassius and Transforming Anthropology.

In this interview, Amarilys Estrella discusses her recent article on denationalization and racist policies by the Dominican government that affect Dominicans of Haitian origin, the concept of civil death and the rising grassroots activism in Dominican society within the context of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement.

You embarked on a project in the Dominican Republic that investigated the relationship between muertes civiles (civil deaths) and racism. What were some of your findings?

When I first began my ethnographic research with Reconoci.do I was really interested in understanding how the movement utilized human rights as discourse and law within their anti-racist work, but during that year I started to think more critically about the different forms of death that were always lingering and made themselves present within the daily interactions and practices of the movement. My research started very much as a question of denationalization and statelessness and the civil death they experienced because they did not have identity documents, therefore no access to social services and civic participation, to thinking more critically about the biological deaths that were also enacted by the state because of racism. It felt like we were in a constant process of mourning. And literally during protests in front of the JCE (Central Electoral Board) the movement would bring a makeshift coffin symbolizing their deaths. And they would mourn over the coffin. So as I found myself constantly surrounded by questions of death including my own experience with the healthcare system in DR after a car accident, I started writing about it and sharing my ideas in panels and conferences. In two different instances Jameelah Imani Morris and Christen Smith suggested I look at Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake. Reading In the Wake allowed me to really think about what Sharpe refers to as Black people’s “insistence on being and living” that I was witnessing in the Reconoci.do movement “despite Black death”.

There were many interesting moments, but for example I became super interested and intrigued by the use of funeral insurance. I note in my article that it wasn’t uncommon for many people in the Dominican Republic to have some form of funeral insurance whether they are of Haitian descent or not. In fact many Dominicans and Haitian migrants were part of mutual aid networks that provided funeral insurance. But I was interested in the irony that many of the people I met were more likely to have funeral insurance than health insurance. So in the article I’m thinking about necropolitics and the conditions that have led to this need. It was also fascinating to say the least to see how social hierarchies were reinforced even when thinking about death because there were many different tiers of funeral insurance you could buy into, making it a very lucrative business in urban settings as well.

In your article, you cited Christina Sharpe’s book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Can you discuss how you applied her ideas in the context of Dominican and Caribbean society and the African diaspora? 

My interest in wake work and thinking of this project and the work of Reconoci.do as wake work came from an ongoing process of sharing my work and research in spaces with Black scholars in the United States who would hear me at talks and in workshops and say have you read Christina Sharpe’s “In the wake”?  (Shoutout to Jameelah Imani Morris, and Dr. Christen Smith!)

Once I started reading In the Wake I couldn’t stop seeing the many ways that Reconoci.do’s activism and what I sought to do with my writing was wake work in itself. Through “wake work” Sharpe is examining how Black people “produce in, into, and through the wake an insistence on existing” (2016, 11). Sharpe employs wake work as a “conceptual frame of and for living Blackness in the diaspora in the still unfolding aftermaths of Atlantic chattel slavery” (2016, 2). I saw Reconoci.do’s activism as wake work through which I could interpret the movement’s manifestations of resistance to death by racism as well as a way of imagining new ways of living despite Black death. I think these are the pieces that to me hold relevance in a Dominican, Caribbean and Afro-diasporic context. There was the actual symbolism behind the many wakes that movement members were taking part in, which literally was a way to cumplir with the dead. But then there were the many historical connections from colonization and slavery to state-sanctioned racism and violence which I was threading together while reading In the Wake and trying to understand the Reconoci.do movement’s ongoing struggle for recognition as Black Dominican citizens.

I think this paragraph from the article might get to this best:

Despite the necropolitics of the state, through their power and ability to “subjugate life to the power of death” (Mbembe 2003, 39), Black Dominican activists of Haitian descent have carved out spaces “to care for, comfort, and defend, those already dead, those dying and those living consigned to the possibility of always‐imminent death” (Sharpe 2016, 38). It is this “wake work,” as a counter to biopower, that leads the members of Reconoci.do to cumplir with the dead. There is no direct translation for cumplir in this sense, but it marks a sense of commitment to the dead, a fulfillment of a promise that challenges the state’s control over their legal and corporeal existence.

Reconoci.do is one of the most important organizations that fights for the civil and political rights of Dominicans of Haitian descent. Can you talk about its origins and trajectory?

Reconoci. do—which means “recognized” in Spanish, and also refers to the URL for the movement’s online was founded in 2011 with the support of the Jesuit organization Centro Pedro Francisco Bonó (now known as Centro Montalvo). The movement is led by young Black Dominicans of Haitian descent advocating for their human rights and resisting a series of racist denationalization policies and rulings, which have rendered many of them stateless in the Dominican Republic. Reconoci.do’s members are directly affected individuals who have been denied access to their identity documents. They see their work as long term and transformational and are committed to the political education of their members and the communities they came from and work in.

The Reconoci.do movement is organized into zones comprised of several nuclei responsible for organizing communities within the six different regions of the country where they work (San Pedro de Macoris, La Romana, Monte Plata, El Seibo, Bahoruco, Santo Domingo). The members of the movement provide accompaniment to Dominicans of Haitian descent to government offices responsible for their civil deaths by denying them their identity documents. Reconoci.do’s leaders are well known in their communities and feel a great sense of responsibility over the lives of their members, family, and community. In addition to their core anti-racist work and demands that their Dominican nationality be restored, Reconoci.do’s leaders are known in their communities as resources for issues beyond documentation. They support their elders in advocating for their pension funds as retired sugar cane workers and accompany the sick and injured to hospitals. Reconoci.do activists organize community clean‐up days, fundraising events, and movie nights. In addition to providing legal accompaniment and popular education in their communities, Reconoci.do participates in mass rallies to make visible the number of stateless individuals affected by the Dominican government’s denationalization policies. They have also joined other national‐level movements fighting against government corruption, such as Marcha Verde, and advocating for health rights, such as Alianza por el Derecho a la Salud (ADESA). Since the pandemic they have started weekly Facebook live conversatorios where they have guests discuss different topics of interest often related Dominican government policies on citizenship, nationality and gender, as well as addressing anti-Blackness globally. Recently, We Are All Dominican began collaborating with Reconoci.do to include a diasporic element to these discussions.

Before Reconoci.do other grassroots organizations were fighting for civil and immigrant rights in the Dominican society. Sonia Pierre was one of the most well-known activists who built a movement centered in the fight for democratic and civil rights with the goal of improving the lives and well-being of Dominicans of Haitian descent, Haitian immigrants and women. Can you talk about Sonia Pierre’s contribution to one of the most important social movements in recent memory?

I could not even begin to write my article without acknowledging the words of Sonia Pierre. I began the article “Muertos Civiles” with a quote by Sonia Pierre because she has been the source of inspiration for so many. I think her words ask us to persist and continue to fight for social justice. This is part of the legacy she leaves to all of us and especially to Black Dominicans of Haitian descent who continue to fight for legal and social recognition. On a personal level I felt really touched and blessed to have been in her presence and to have been able to get to know her even if just in these very small moments we shared. She is also a source of motivation and inspiration for so many members of the Reconoci.do movement. Like so many of the young members of the movement, Sonia Pierre began her activism at a young age. She supported strikes led by sugar cane cutters for fair wages and fought ceaselessly until her untimely death. Sonia Pierre can really be thought of as the key leader and organizer who brought international attention to the human rights violations Black Dominicans of Haitian descent were experiencing in the Dominican Republic. She led MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitiana) and really brought an intersectional approach to all that she did. She understood that Black women in particular were left vulnerable by the Dominican state and often bared the responsibility for their children’s citizenship. Sonia fought for their rights to mother and provide for their children. MUDHA litigated against the Dominican Republic at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the famous case Yean y Bosico v Dominican Republic. The mothers who had been denied their daughters’ birth certificates won the case, but the Dominican Republic has yet to recognize the court’s decision and pay any reparations.

Dominicans in the United States have mobilized in support of the struggle for civil rights. What has been the role of We Are All Dominican and other organizations in that regard?

I am founding member of We Are All Dominican (WAAD). We Are All Dominican is a collective of the Dominican diaspora which first organized in 2013 to denounce the Dominican Constitutional Court’s decision to strip more than four generations of Dominicans of Haitian descent of their nationality, violating fundamental human rights. As immigrants and the children of immigrants ourselves, Dominican-Americans know firsthand the marginalization and discrimination that migrants and their families face all over the world. The name We Are All Dominican is in recognition of Black Dominicans of Haitian descent’s identity, in resistance to the government’s effort to deny their nationality, their fundamental rights, and their humanity. We have sought to address anti-Black and anti-Haitian sentiments within our families and communities by discussing the common structural racism underlying the Dominican government’s discriminatory policies and injustices faced by Black and brown communities in the United States. WAAD recognizes these connections and seeks to educate and activate Dominicans to turn the tide. WAAD aims to bring more Dominicans to a larger, multi-ethnic, cross-class conversation on denationalization, human rights violations, and racism in order to foster transnational solidarity Specifically, we seek to amplify the voices of Black Dominicans of Haitian descent by working in solidarity with movements such as Reconoci.do that are led by Dominicans of Haitian descent who have been rendered stateless by the Dominican government and are advocating for citizenship rights.

We follow in a long tradition of collaboration on the island and in the Dominican and Haitian diaspora of fighting for human rights and against systemic racism aquí y alla. Our work is one of many examples of transnational solidarity that has been taking place for a long time. We see this work as daily practice to build transnational solidarity to combat anti-Blackness. To learn more follow us on FB (@we are all dominican) IG (@Dominicanxs_) and twitter (@Domnicanxs)

The brutal murder of George Floyd has sparked a worldwide movement. When activists in the Dominican Republic organized a protest in memory of George Floyd to express solidarity with victims of racist violence in the United States, the National Police detained some of the main organizers. Can you talk about state violence in the D.R; the role of policing Black youth and Haitian immigrants as well as the challenges facing anti-racist activists? 

Deep rooted anti-Haitianism has been at the foundation of the Dominican Republic as a nation. These sentiments have been developed into state policies and laws that have infringed on the lives of Black Dominicans and permeate society at large. I remember watching the IG live of Junta de Prietas as Ana Maria Belique of the Reconoci.do movement and Maribel Nuñez of Accion Afro-Dominicana were being taken by the police while they were peacefully holding a vigil for George Floyd. I remember feeling such fear and panic. I quickly started posting and tagging anyone who would listen. I could not believe that they had been met with that level of repression (and then again, I could!). While countries all over the globe had held vigils and protests denouncing the horrific murder of George Floyd by the police, in the Dominican Republic bringing flowers to show solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter movement was met with extreme repression. I will never forget the images of the police taking away the flowers. To make matters worse ultranationalist groups had begun rallying since earlier that morning shouting “Dominican lives matters” exemplifying how the anti-Blackness of such actions once again uphold a white supremacist state. I was afraid for Ana and Maribel because we  know about the forced disappearance of activists in the Dominican Republic in the past. I want to also note that just a day or two later a small group once again attempted to hold a vigil and they were detained.

Policing forces from immigration, to national police to municipalities are allowed to enact state-violence. These institutions are responsible for racial profiling, and repression of impoverished communities. I remember during one meeting I was accompanying members of the movement on a safety and security training in the southern part of the Dominican Republic. For the youth in that community understanding how to navigate the many check points along the southern corridor meant that they were literally unable to move, because they were racially profiled and surveilled. They were vulnerable to being stopped and expulsed. They were rendered immobile. Their concern and need to discuss this is very much based on their particular experiences and reality. There have been murders, lynchings, some caught on camera in the DR and many others haven’t but in all of these the State has acted with impunity. Such policing is extended into barrios where once again race and class make young people a target of the police.  

Soooo….This seems like a really disheartening and concerning point to end this interview on so I want to share a bit about what I have been thinking about lately. I believe that other ways of re-imagining this world and possibilities will be found in the diasporic movements that are working across national boundaries to denounce the injustices we have faced as Afrodiasporic people, and to dismantle white supremacy. So much knowledge and wisdom has been shared over the years in encuentros, particularly of Afro-descendant women that have given light to theory and praxis and which have provided so much guidance for this present moment. I found that returning to these texts and reading about these historical moments that led for example to International Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and its Diaspora day (of which MUDHA members were part of!) provide so much motivation for imagining Afro-Diasporic Futures.

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Emmanuel Espinal collaborated with this interview.