1932–1934: (The 1932 Convention and the Dominican Connection — A Potential Opening for Women’s Rights Presented in the 1932 Constitutional Convention but Ass…

1932–1934: (The 1932 Convention and the Dominican Connection — A Potential Opening for Women’s Rights Presented in the 1932 Constitutional Convention but Assembly Members Leaving Article 8 Unchanged — Male Citizens Age Twenty-One the Only Eligible Voters, Manigat Explaining “the Preoccupation of the Moment Concerned Desoccupation” So Women’s Rights Were Not Pressing, the Women Actively Waiting, Garoute and Sylvain Initially Seeing the Dominican Women’s Movement as a Possible Partnership but the Collaboration Fleeting — Dominican Feminist Discourse Quickly Intertwined with Anti-Haitian and Anti-Black Hispanidad Under Trujillo, Despite This Context Oral History Consistently Maintaining That an Unnamed Dominican Woman Contributed to Garoute and Sylvain’s Conversations and Encouraged Them to Start a Similar Organization): Almost immediately, a potential opening for women’s rights was presented in the form of the 1932 Constitutional Convention. As the nation emerged from US authority, the convention was under the occupation regime, but was overseen by elected president Vincent and assembly members including Pierre Hudicourt, Jean Price-Mars, Denis St. Aude, and Dumarsais Estimé. However, as soon as the opportunity seemed to open, it was just as quickly shut. The assembly members left Article 8 of the 1932 Constitution unchanged: male citizens age twenty-one years or older were the only citizens eligible to vote. As legal scholar Mirlande Manigat explained, the preoccupation of the moment concerned the most immediate equality of powers and of obtaining desoccupation, so women’s rights were not a pressing issue according to the assembly. In response, the women actively waited. Throughout the occupation, educated and affluent Haitian women had established relationships with Caribbean and African American women, including women in the simultaneously US-occupied Dominican Republic. For Garoute and Sylvain, the Dominican women’s movement initially seemed like a possible regional partnership, but the collaboration that ensued in the winter of 1934 was fleeting — Dominican feminist discourse was quickly intertwined with the anti-Haitian and anti-Black Hispanidad espoused by General Rafael Trujillo. Despite this context, oral history among Haitian feminists consistently maintains that when Garoute and Sylvain drafted their plans, an unnamed woman from the Dominican Republic’s feminist movement contributed to their conversations and encouraged them to start a similar organization.