美国国家公共电台 NPR Edwidge Danticat: 'Whether Or Not We Belong Is Not Defined By Us'

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In a short story by Edwidge Danticat, a mother and daughter need to have a hard talk, so they go out to dinner.

EDWIDGE DANTICAT: The daughter thinks, why do people wait until they're in a public place with a mouth full of food to reveal the most horrible news.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

DANTICAT: And we - and a lot of us do that. You're like, let's go out to dinner, I have some news for you.

INSKEEP: The bad news in this story involves the main character's family and her country of origin. She is from Haiti. Most of the characters in Danticat's new book of short stories are Haitian-American. They live in New York or Miami, but Haiti is often in their hearts and on their minds. Natural disasters and political disasters have sent many of its people fleeing to the U.S. Danticat's book of short stories called "Everything Inside" reflects her experiences as an immigrant.

How did your family come to the United States?

DANTICAT: My father first came when I was 2 years old. He came on a tourist visa, which he overstayed, and as did my mother. When I - she left when I was 4, and they were undocumented for about eight years. And during that time, we were separated. I stayed in Haiti with my aunt and uncle. And when I was 12, after they had changed their status and were - got their papers, then they were able to send for me and my brother to join them in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1981.

INSKEEP: I'm sure you've had to tell this story more than once, and I'm sorry to dwell¹ on it. But both as a parent and as a son, to think about so many years away from your parents and especially those particular years, that could not have been easy.

DANTICAT: It wasn't easy, but it was the lot of so many of us. And even in the house where I was growing up, my aunt and uncle were looking after my cousins whose mother was in Canada and another cousin whose father was in the Dominican Republic. And our parents had made this choice so that we could have a better life. You know, that - they could have either stayed with us and struggled and tried to make a living, or they thought that they could carve out a future for us by going abroad and leaving us behind, and then later sending for us.

I mean, we see a lot of parallels in the news right now. And then - what we're seeing with parents and children, and the way parents are being forcibly separated from their children. When the parents make that choice, they know they're taking a big risk with their children. However, it's just that they might be in such a devastating² situation that they're thinking, I'm sacrificing in this moment so that my child can have a better future.

INSKEEP: Learning that, it makes me think differently about some of these short stories you have written. There is, for example, the story of a young woman who has never met her father and learns that he's dying and has an opportunity to go see him one time. That didn't literally³ happen to you, but it sounds like - that you - maybe you had some experiences you could draw on in writing that.

DANTICAT: Oh, absolutely. I mean, my father died in 2005, and I had to make that journey to see him. I remember going to his bedside soon after my daughter was born and literally presenting my newborn to him, and having them meet, and then also losing my Uncle Joseph (ph) in immigration custody⁴ in 2004.

He was 81 years old. He was a father figure to me because he had raised me in the absence of my parents. And in 2004, there was some trouble in Haiti, and he had a valid⁵ visa, but he took a flight and came to Miami. And when he got to the airport, they asked him how long he would be staying. He requested asylum⁶, and he was detained⁷.

And he died without his medication, which was taken away from him, five days later in a county hospital chained to a bed. And I tried very hard to go see him during that time. And I never got that last moment, that the character in the story gets, to say a final goodbye to him.

INSKEEP: You use the word love - that that's one of the things that brings together these stories. And, of course, we're talking about love of other people, but also love of country. As an immigrant, can you talk to me a little bit about what loving America means to you and what loving Haiti means to you?

DANTICAT: Loving Haiti, you know, comes in the blood. And loving America, being grateful for what it's afforded my family, there are so many Americans now in my family - that's what also makes it sad to see what's happening now in terms of how new immigrants are being scapegoated⁸, to hear about children who could have been myself dying at the border for lack of medical care.

There's a kind of ache for both places at the moment, a kind of ache for the troubles that Haiti has had. And then the kind of ache for this, for my second home, the place that had received my family, to see the way that others like us are being treated here at the moment.

INSKEEP: Has it made you think differently about America?

DANTICAT: You know, America has a very complicated history with Haiti in terms of occupations and interventions⁹. So that has always been part of my formulation of how I see America. You know, before we came to America, in many ways, it came to us, you know, from 1915 to 1934.

So I've always had a very nuanced view of America. But the America we see these days - and it's not all Americans, it's not all of America - but the most visible representation¹⁰ of America through the, you know, the presidency¹¹ we have, and how people like me are viewed, it's certainly helping¹² me to reshape and sort of worry about the future that my children, who are U.S. born, like what future they will face as black children of Haitian immigrants in this country.

INSKEEP: Do you have any doubt about your - that you belong here?

DANTICAT: Well, I sometimes feel like I belong here, and then often am reminded, you know, by certain things, like when my uncle died in immigration. I was, you know, I felt like - oh, I thought I belonged. And yet, I couldn't save my uncle from the jaws¹³ of death from the immigration service. So often, I mean, I think these days more than ever, we are reminded that whether or not we belong is not defined¹⁴ by us.

INSKEEP: Edwidge Danticat, thank you so much.

DANTICAT: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF WEBERT SICOT'S "MANHA DO CARNAVAL")

INSKEEP: The book of short stories by Edwidge Danticat is called "Everything Inside."

1 dwell   

vi.老是想着，详细讲述

参考例句：

• Sometimes his mind would dwell on the horrors he had been through.有时他会老是想着他所经历过的种种恐怖。
• A great number of water fowls dwell on the island.许多水鸟在岛上栖息。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

5 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

6 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

7 detained   

留住( detain的过去式和过去分词 )； 耽搁； 拘留； 扣留

参考例句：

• One man has been detained for questioning. 一个男人被拘留审问。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group. 他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 scapegoated   

v.使成为替罪羊( scapegoat的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• As employees gathered around television sets Friday, they groused about getting scapegoated in Washington. 高盛员工周五聚集在电视机前收看相关消息，他们抱怨说自己成了华盛顿的替罪羊。 来自互联网

9 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

10 representation   

n.表现某人（或某事物）的东西，图画，雕塑

参考例句：

• The painting is a representation of a storm at sea.这幅画描绘的是海上的暴风雨。
• All parties won representation in the national assembly.所有政党在国民大会中都赢得了代表资格。

11 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

14 defined   

adj 定义的; 清晰的

参考例句：

• These categories are not well defined. 这些类别划分得不太明确。
• The powers of a judge are defined by law. 法官的权限是由法律规定的。