1915: US Marines As Boiled Lobsters

1915: (Rites of Passage — Ghislaine’s Boiled Lobsters and the US Invasion of Haiti, an Eight-Year-Old Girl in Jérémie Seeing US Marines Washed Up on the Shores Like Boiled Lobsters Pink and Raw When They Arrived in 1915 and Baked to a Scaly Burnt Red by the Caribbean Sea and Sun, Her Aunt Claira Running a Small Import-Export Business on the Port Where Natives Were Not Allowed on the Docks After 5:00 PM, Aunt Claira Never Marrying Because She Did Not Want Any Man to Have Access to Her Money — If He Took Her Money She Would Lose Her Freedom, the Port Where Aunt Claira “Ran” Being Where on July 28 1915 President Wilson Ordered US Officers to Forcefully Invade the Capital): Ghislaine saw boiled lobsters washed up on the shores of her hometown of Jérémie when she was eight years old. They had been there for close to a decade and a half, but she had not noticed. When they arrived in 1915, they were pink and raw. Years after their coastal invasion, the Caribbean sea and sun had baked them to a scaly burnt red. Ghislaine and her sister Henrietta rarely interacted with them, but when the girls passed them in the streets they laughed among themselves — as Ghislaine still did eighty-two years later, mouth covered and body leaned in to embrace her jest. The “boiled lobsters” were the US Marines, military personnel, businesspeople, and families who made an official invasion of Haiti in the middle of 1915. Her favorite Aunt Claira ran a small import-export business on the port, where “natives” were not allowed on the docks after 5:00 PM. Aunt Claira played with men and never married because she did not want any man to have access to her money — if he took her money, she would lose her freedom, and so might Ghislaine, since Aunt Claira’s income supplemented her brother’s income. It was all fun and all quite serious. It was on that same port, on July 28, 1915, that President Woodrow Wilson ordered the officers to leave their ships already docked in Port-au-Prince and forcefully invade the capital. The Wilson administration characterized the occupation as the Caribbean frontier of World War I, citing Haiti’s proximity to the United States and some 250 German merchants in the country, along with the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam on July 27. The concern for Allied interests was coupled with the longstanding US paternalistic and racist belief that Haitians were incapable of governing their own nation.