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(PHOTO BY RICK DELVECCHIO/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Abandoned by her husband, Haitian citizen Celsie Constant is striving for independence in a foreign country as she sells meals to construction workers in Santo Domingo.
Clerie’s story: Though heartbroken, a Haitian woman touches independence
January 13th, 2010
By Rick DelVecchio
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – No woman should have to make the choices Clerie Constant had to make.
Constant, all too typical of Haitian women, was abused by her husband. He left her, taking their only child, a 5-year-old son, from their home here back to Haiti.
Apparently he expected that she would come groveling back. But she had other ideas, painful though they were.
Constant had to give up motherhood in order, first, to escape a destructive relationship and, second, to make sure she would never have to be dependent on a man like that again.
Independence is a notable achievement for any poor woman from Haiti, a country where women are lowered for the benefit of men and usually abused in the process.
Haitian women “assume violence is going to part of the relationship,” said Miriam Christian, a psychologist with Centro de Servicios Legales para Mujer, a non-profit organization that provides victims of gender violence with legal support and opportunities to go to school and start a career. Christian said that when she discusses gender abuse with Haitian women as a problem, they look at her as if it’s too obvious to mention.
Violence against women, in public and in private, is condoned as a male weapon in a deeply paternalistic culture. Few women are untouched. Violators act with impunity in a justice system that scarcely responds, according to a 2007 report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Sometimes the abuse is physical, other times it is psychological. Often women are expected to pay a man with sex in exchange for a routine need, like having a place to sleep or running an errand, Christian said.
With Haitian women “there’s pressure to get married,” Constant, 27, said in an interview at her home in October. “If they don’t finish school, they’ll marry anyone. They marry any person they think can help. But if they go to school and have a career, they will get married to a person they like.”
Living in the Dominican capital as a migrant, Constant was referred to Christian’s organization by a Haitian community leader. The organization, supported by Catholic Relief Services among other donors, took on her case and guided her on a path to independence.
Constant worked as a domestic at first. Then, thanks to a loan that doesn’t require immediate payments, she started a small business selling meals at construction sites.
On a recent weekday, she was setting up her wares of lemonade, pasta and rice against the fence of a public housing construction site where Haitian men in hard-hats were doing the heavy lifting under Dominican supervision. She conversed with the boss and almost seemed part of the crew.
This scene of a woman who had been cast aside but was holding her own in a man’s world gave way to different picture at Constant’s home.
Her apartment in a neighborhood where many people live in extreme poverty was tidy and well-scrubbed, light curtains blowing gently and sunshine filling the sitting room. Yet the mood was one of loss.
The focus of the room was the sole decoration on one wall: a framed portrait of her son, taken when he was three. He wears a suit.
Will she see her son again?
“No,” Constant said, “because his father doesn’t want to.”
Has she had any contact with her son since then?
“No, nada.”
The conversation quickly shifted to the only topic that wasn’t too painful to explore: Constant’s career plans.
She said she is finishing high school and wants to become an accountant. She hopes to attend college, preferably in the Dominican Republic. She can stay legally on a visa as long as she is a student, but it’s unclear if she’ll be able to regularize her status when she’s out of school.
But Constant knows one thing: She’s a free woman and plans to keep it that way.
“Sometimes a woman goes back to her husband because they don’t know how they will survive,” Constant said. “Now, I can stay alone. It is not necessary to go back to my husband.”
Catholic San Francisco Assistant Editor Rick DelVecchio recently visited Haiti and the Dominican Republic to report on migrants and refugees, whose vulnerability as they cross national borders in search of a better life is a growing humanitarian concern for the Church and for civil authorities worldwide. The trip was organized by Catholic Relief Services. This is the fourth installment in a five-part series.
From January 15, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
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