Gonzalez


someone who expresses some Caribbean reality even if he

is not aware of it. For instance, an alienated poet who

shows that alienation. He may consciously reject the

Caribbean and in this way betray himself. There is also

the poet who is concerned about the Caribbean and tries

to express these concerns in some way. There are some

Caribbean poets who play the flute by chance, and there

are others who choose to play. For me the element of

awareness is indispensable to human sensitivity; it can

not be a purely aesthetic or artistic consideration.

 I went to Haiti in the summer of 1986 when Baby Doc

had fled. I saw terrible things: hunger, poverty,

deception. The people went about wearing t-shirts with

Haiti Liberg printed on them precisely when Haiti had not

been freed. You could see the ton-ton Macouttes and the

militia everywhere. When I came back I talked to Peri

Coss the director of Dialogo, and he asked me to write

something about Haiti. I wrote a short article which

appeared in Dialogo entitled "Haiti: A Powerful Nation"

because the Haitian people awakened enthusiasm in me for

their great creativity. Upon writing this article, the

first song (poem) sprang forth and I continued writing