1937: (The Countryside Was Not Green Pastures: What Valcin and Few in the Urban Centers Knew Was That the Countryside Particularly the Farthest Inland Was No…

1937: (The Countryside Was Not Green Pastures: What Valcin and Few in the Urban Centers Knew Was That the Countryside Particularly the Farthest Inland Was Not a Bastion of Green Pastures, Instead Women and Men Were Crossing the Border into the Dominican Republic to Live and Work in the Neighboring Country for Little Pay but with a Hope Similar to That of the Girls Migrating to Haiti’s Urban Centers That the Alternative Location Would Offer New Opportunities for Economic and Social Advancement): What Valcin and few in the urban centers knew was that the countryside, particularly the farthest inland, was not a bastion of green pastures. Women and men were crossing the border into the Dominican Republic to live and work in the neighboring country for little pay, but with a hope similar to that of the girls migrating to Haiti’s urban centers, that the alternative location would offer new opportunities for economic and social advancement. The generous soul of the Haitian land that Valcin had invoked was in fact a place people were fleeing, the pastoral fantasy of the countryside dissolving under the weight of the economic desperation that drove Haitians across every border they could find.