1934–1937: (The Circuitous Route — Women Remaining Interested in Legislated Changes but Acknowledging a Need for a More Circuitous Route, Using Techniques De…

1934–1937: (The Circuitous Route — Women Remaining Interested in Legislated Changes but Acknowledging a Need for a More Circuitous Route, Using Techniques Developed During Occupation Organizing to Navigate the Windy and Often Bumpy Road of the 1930s and Vincent Years, the LFAS Only in Its Second Year When Sylvain Spoke to Canadian Press — Their “Progress Still Hardly Perceptible” Yet Over Two Decades Sylvain and Allies Working to “Solve the Problems Nearest to Their Hearts as Mothers and Apostles of a Broader Life,” the LFAS Membership’s Faith Abiding in Women — Believing in Women’s Intelligence Labor and Practice of Friendship, Months After Sylvain’s Statement of Infancy Criminality and Madness the LFAS Still Optimistically Maintaining “Our Fight Is Not a Chimère”): As a result of the constitutional disappointments, women remained interested in legislated changes to their rights but also acknowledged a need for a more circuitous route. They used some of the techniques they had developed during occupation organizing to communicate their relationship to the nation and navigate the windy and often bumpy road of the 1930s and the Vincent years. When Sylvain made her comments to the Canadian press in 1937, the LFAS was only in its second year of social service and political activism, and in her assessment, their progress was still hardly perceptible. Yet over the following two decades, Sylvain and her friends and allies worked to articulate a politics to solve the problems nearest to their hearts as mothers and apostles of a broader life. From the outset, the founders knew their mission was prodigious. Sylvain admitted several years into their work that the program may seem ambitious, but the members of the League had faith in the potential of Haitian women, believing that they could work together in a friendly spirit, sustained by their devotion to their ideal. The LFAS membership’s faith abided in women. They believed in and committed to women’s intelligence, labor, and practice of friendship. Months after Sylvain’s statement of infancy, criminality, and madness as characteristics of women’s lives in Haiti, the LFAS leadership still optimistically maintained: our fight is not a chimère. Their goals were neither monstrous philosophies set to destroy the nation nor a mirage of well-educated imaginations.