1936-09: (Theodora Holly on Haitian Godparents — Theodora Holly Explaining in Her Early Twentieth-Century Reflections on Haitian Godparents That “It Is Diffi…

1936-09: (Theodora Holly on Haitian Godparents — Theodora Holly Explaining in Her Early Twentieth-Century Reflections on Haitian Godparents That “It Is Difficult for One Who Has Not Lived Among the Haytians to Realize to How Great an Extent the Role of Sponsor Can Increase the Affection Already Existing Between Two Friends,” Holly Explaining That Some Said the Relationship Was “More Binding Than That of Blood” and Agreeing — “To the Haytian Mind This Friendly Office Performed Towards a Friend’s Child Creates a Relationship” That “Can Best Be Gathered from the Terms Co-Parents”): As Theodora Holly explained in her early twentieth-century reflections on Haitian godparents, it was difficult for one who had not lived among the Haitians to realize to how great an extent the role of sponsor (godparent) could increase the affection already existing between two friends. Holly explained that some people said the relationship was more binding than that of blood, and she agreed — to the Haitian mind, this friendly office performed towards a friend’s child creates a relationship that can best be gathered from the terms co-parents. The co-parenting tradition predated and exceeded the nuclear family model that colonial modernity imposed — it was a technology of care that distributed the labor of raising children across a web of chosen relations.