“The Haitian community has lost someone who was a huge advocate in the fight for Haitian rights.”- Edwin Paraison, executive director of the Zile Foundation, speaking about Sonia Pierre.
Solange “Sonia” Pierre, noted champion for Dominican citizens of Haitian ancestry, has died. The cause of death was a heart attack suffered on December 4, 2011. Born in Vila Altagracia, San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, Pierre battled racial discrimination, sometimes called “Antihaitianismo” or “Haitianization,” her entire life.
As if anointed by destiny, the future crusader encountered prejudice early on. Though born in 1963, ethnic biases prevented Pierre from securing an official certificate with the precise date of her birth, which is common among Dominicans born of Haitian parentage. That didn’t stop Pierre however from following her calling.
A familiar tale
At times, Sonia Pierre’s life reads like a classic novel. The Associated Press piece, “Dominican-Haitian activist Sonia Pierre dies at 48,” published December 4, 2011, offers one depiction that could have been an excerpt right out of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath:
“Pierre was one of 12 children raised in a dirt-floor barrack in a Dominican migrant worker camp and just 13 when she was first arrested and threatened with deportation for leading her fellow Dominican residents of Haitian descent in a march for cane cutters’ rights.”
Unlike the fictionalized Joad family in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Sonia Pierre was a real life protagonist whose outspoken struggle for human rights reverberated beyond the Dominican Republic.
In New York City, upon learning of her passing, the New York Daily News quoted Councilman Ydanis Rodríguez (D – Washington Heights) as saying, “Sonia’s name became synonymous with progressive political change in the Dominican Republic, and so it’s difficult to overstate the impact she had on the lives of over 650,000 Dominicans of Haitian origin.”
Recognized humanitarian
Sonia Pierre raised awareness about the prejudice experienced by ethnic Haitians who are frequently shunned in the Dominican Republic. At the heart of much of the racism are Dominican viewpoints regarding skin tone. Through education and citizenship programs, mostly administered by her “Movement for Dominico-Haitian Women” organization, Pierre worked toward making serious socio-political changes.
In 2002, Pierre was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education; it was followed in 2003 by her receipt of Amnesty International’s Ginetta Sagan Human Rights Award. Further recognizing Pierre’s important work, she was presented with the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and was honored by the United States Department of State when Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama presented her with the 2010 International Women of Courage Award.
Even Pierre’s kudos proved to be controversial. When she received the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Dominican Foreign Minister, Carlos Morales Troncoso, vehemently objected to the tribute.
In a New York Times article published in 2007, the Foreign Minister was quoted as saying, “I fear that, unfortunately, the Robert F. Kennedy Prize is divorced from reality on the island of Hispaniola, and unfortunately there was bad information on the consequences of the work of Ms. Pierre in these parts.”
On December 7, 2011, government officials, political dignitaries and members of the press packed a funeral service held in Villa Altagracia for Solange Sonia Pierre. At the Haitian embassy in the Dominican Republic, three days of mourning were declared and the flag was lowered in her memory.
The Support Group for Returnees and Refugees, also known as GARR, declared Pierre, “a daughter of the island.”
Among her survivors are three children.