29857: Hermantin(News)Immigrant couple write book about their native Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Sun, Jan. 14, 2007
DAVIE
Immigrant couple write book about their native Haiti

Disappointed with the information available on their homeland, two Haitian 
emigres decided to write a children's book themselves.

BY JULIE LEVIN
Special to The Miami Herald
Born in Haiti and now living in Davie, Yvrose and Jerry Gilles did not want 
their children to become disconnected from their roots.

Unhappy with the resources the children had to learn about their homeland, the 
couple set about creating a permanent record of Haitian history that would be 
available for all.

The result is a 200-page book, Bicentennial: Haiti's Gift to the World.

''We were not satisfied with the history as told,'' said Yvrose Gilles, who 
began researching her book four years ago. ``We wanted to give our kids a 
better sense of who they are.''

The original idea was to have the book ready by 2004, in time for Haiti's 
bicentennial. But the recent political unrest in Haiti made that impossible.

''There was so much more, so I added that information to the final chapter,'' 
said Yvrose, the lead author.

Jerry Gilles, a doctor at the University of Miami, served as editor for the 
self-published book.

Yvrose Gilles said the book took on a celebratory tone, to answer the question 
of why the bicentennial should be commemorated despite the overwhelming poverty 
that grips the island nation.

They researched the island's rich history, creating a timeline that goes back 
200 years leading up to the revolution at the turn of the 18th century, when 
slaves overthrew their French colonial masters.

''It is kind of like a step-by-step review of where we came from,'' said Yvrose 
Gilles, who is trained as a teacher and used to write curricula for the New 
York City school system.

Similar books are rare, Yvrose said, and those that do exist were not written 
by people of Haitian descent.

She said daughter Tayina, 11, recently wanted to do a project on the Haitian 
revolution but was stymied in her research by the limited material available in 
school libraries.

''They couldn't find anything at all,'' she said.

The Gilles also have a 7-year-old son, Jarad.

Because Haitian archives have been destroyed, the Gilles turned to resources in 
local libraries and the Internet.

''It has allowed for information that previous authors of Haitian history could 
not have had access to in just one city, without traveling to various countries 
to recover those documents,'' Jerry Gilles said.

They also interviewed family members and people of different cultures, 
including African.

''It allowed us to see how much of that culture continues on in Haiti,'' Jerry 
Gilles said.

Both husband and wife were born in Haiti but educated in the United States, 
where they met at college.

They say their book provides an in-depth look at Haiti's influence on the 
world, stemming back to the days of slavery, when many of those taken from 
Africa actually landed in Haiti, not the United States.

''Anyone who has an interest in modern economy, in how the Americas developed, 
Haiti played a crucial role in that,'' Jerry Gilles said. ``It tends to get 
lost because people only see the poverty.''

The last chapter focuses on the fact that only 1 percent of Haiti's rain forest 
remains and steps that can be taken to help avoid further environmental 
disaster. The desperately poor population has cut down the trees for survival. 
With no tree roots to hold soil, flooding is unchecked. The Haitian government 
has appealed to the international community for help in reforesting.

The book sells for $21. The couple would like to be able to send a portion of 
the proceeds to Haiti but feel the current political situation is too unstable 
for the money to reach its intended goal.

Although they haven't been able to return to their homeland in seven years, 
they help in other ways. Jerry Gilles has run free health clinics in Haiti and 
organized the building of sanitary public latrines.

The Gilleses recently discussed their book on WLRN public radio program Topical 
Currents and have donated copies to Broward libraries.

The book is available at www.bookmanlit.com. E-mail the authors at info@ 
Bookmanlit.com.

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