the Dominican batey

The Dominican batey is a site of important political, legal and cultural significance, even while its economic value continues to diminish. As an exponent of the Caribbean sugar plantation, it is perhaps the most salient example today of the cultural values that shaped this region, even while it continues to provoke heated debate about the rights of migrant workers, the importance of basic commodities in a global economy, the place of colonial economic practices in a post-colonial world, and the culpability of ex-colonial powers now long absent from the scene. While Dominican sugar workers are not exactly slaves -- a term which has caused extremely angry Dominican pundits to defend obviously exploitative labor practices with a fervor that approaches paranoia -- there is no doubt that the lamentable conditions on the sugar plantations and derelict bateys are in need of immediate and thorough reform, and that, for complex reasons, the two nations involved directly in this tragedy are hard pressed to solve the problems that bedevil this industry.

While not losing sight of the current socioeconomic context that defines the batey, we can fully understand this situation only by taking the long view and appreciating the role that history plays in the development of the sugar industry. The island of Hispaniola gave birth to the New World, and proved to be the cradle of a new multicultural society, the elements of which have continued to be in conflict to this day. Santo Domingo saw the first sugar plantations, the first slaves, and the first slave revolts. While today's sugar workers are not so hard pressed as to form cimarron societies and revolt openly against the state, they doubtless suffer the same ostracism, racism, economic deprivation, and political repudiation as did their historical forebears. And yet, ironically, they are at once the ultimate outsiders and the primary bearers of our most heartfelt core values. Sugar has a significance that far exceeds its market value.

Karl Marx once remarked that "a commodity is a mysterious thing. . . ." The power of basic products such as salt or sugar not only to dictate markets but to shape whole cultures and provide us with the semantic keys to our existence cannot be underestimated, particularly in the light of such studies as Sidney Mintz´s Sweetness and Power, or Mark Kurlansky's magisterial work, Salt. This website is dedicated to illuminating the lives of those who provide us with one of our most important and culturally fraught foodstuffs, and offer us a means to decipher the order of our existence.


Si alguien quiere saber cuál es mi patria se lo diré algún día . . . Cuando la caña se desnude y rían los machetes en fuga hacia el batey dejando en paz las manos sorprendidas (Pedro Mir)	The Dominican batey is a site of important political, legal and cultural significance, even while its economic value continues to diminish. As an exponent of the Caribbean sugar plantation, it is perhaps the most salient example today of the cultural values that shaped this region, even while it continues to provoke heated debate about the rights of migrant workers, the importance of basic commodities in a global economy, the place of colonial economic practices in a post-colonial world, and the culpability of ex-colonial powers now long absent from the scene. While Dominican sugar workers are not exactly slaves -- a term which has caused extremely angry Dominican pundits to defend obviously exploitative labor practices with a fervor that approaches paranoia -- there is no doubt that the lamentable conditions on the sugar plantations and derelict bateys are in need of immediate and thorough reform, and that, for complex reasons, the two nations involved directly in this tragedy are hard pressed to solve the problems that bedevil this industry. While not losing sight of the current socioeconomic context that defines the batey, we can fully understand this situation only by taking the long view and appreciating the role that history plays in the development of the sugar industry. The island of Hispaniola gave birth to the New World, and proved to be the cradle of a new multicultural society, the elements of which have continued to be in conflict to this day. Santo Domingo saw the first sugar plantations, the first slaves, and the first slave revolts. While today's sugar workers are not so hard pressed as to form cimarron societies and revolt openly against the state, they doubtless suffer the same ostracism, racism, economic deprivation, and political repudiation as did their historical forebears. And yet, ironically, they are at once the ultimate outsiders and the primary bearers of our most heartfelt core values. Sugar has a significance that far exceeds its market value. Karl Marx once remarked that "a commodity is a mysterious thing. . . ." The power of basic products such as salt or sugar not only to dictate markets but to shape whole cultures and provide us with the semantic keys to our existence cannot be underestimated, particularly in the light of such studies as Sidney Mintz´s Sweetness and Power, or Mark Kurlansky's magisterial work, Salt. This website is dedicated to illuminating the lives of those who provide us with one of our most important and culturally fraught foodstuffs, and offer us a means to decipher the order of our existence.
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