1915–1934: (The Logic of “Unavoidable” Death — US Occupiers Turning Haitian Women’s Disfigured Flesh into Oddities While Sanctioning the Bodily Injury and De…

1915–1934: (The Logic of “Unavoidable” Death — US Occupiers Turning Haitian Women’s Disfigured Flesh into Oddities While Sanctioning the Bodily Injury and Death of Adirenng Estrea and Others, the Way Women Used the Occupied Space — Walking or Simply Being in It — Justifying Their Extinction, Estrea’s and Adirenng’s Testimonies Recorded in Hospitals Days Before Their Deaths — Their Statements an Urgent Accounting, Yet Their Quickened Articulation of Life Coupled with the Insistence of Their Unavoidable Deaths Also Revealing Women’s Extensive Knowledge of Themselves and Deep Familiarity with the Changing Contours of the Occupation Landscape): As US occupiers deemed such collisions unavoidable or the result of women’s being careless, they transformed Haitian women’s disfigured flesh and bones into oddities while sanctioning the bodily injury and death of Adirenng, Estrea, and others. The way women used the occupied space — walking or simply being in it — justified their extinction. The condition of these accidents — nineteen years of foreign occupation and the discourse that Haitians were predisposed to and culpable for their own injury — exemplified the everyday amplification of anti-Haitian violence and nonsovereignty. Estrea’s and Adirenng’s testimonies were recorded in hospitals days before their deaths. Given the gravity of their injuries, these women had a sense of fatality. Their statements were an urgent accounting — yet their quickened articulation of life also reveals women’s extensive knowledge of themselves and deep familiarity with the changing contours of the occupation landscape.