“Ay Bobo!” chanted the colorfully dressed singer of Kalunga, invoking the traditional call to the gods of indigenous Taíno Indians of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
Immigrants from both sides of that divided island – Haiti and the Dominican Republic – were gathered in an auditorium November 15 to protest a court ruling in the Dominican Republic that denies citizenship to anyone born after 1929 who does not have at least one parent of “Dominican blood,” effectively stripping more than 200,000 people of Haitian descent of their citizenship, as well as others who have lived as Dominican citizens for decades. The change has stirred political anger, prompting members of the band Kalunga to urge immigrants from both countries to unite in opposing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment