Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora

Faith Makes Us Live: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora, by Margarita A. Mooney. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0520260344. 302 pp. $55.00 cloth, $21.95 paper. In a transnational comparison of the types of cultural and institutional mediation available to Haitian Catholics living in the Diaspora, Margarita A. Mooney reveals the Catholic Church, and in particular its laypeople, to be an invaluable resource for immigrants in their struggle to adapt to their new surroundings. A fellow Catholic, Mooney participated in Church activities in Haitian communities in Miami, Montreal, and Paris in a sustained effort to meet them where they are. Her research reveals their adaptive strategies to be consistent despite context, and that crucial differences exist at the state level - a reality that precludes upward mobility for many Haitians, she concludes. Faced with high unemployment rates (more than double those of the local average) as well as cultural and linguistic barriers, some Haitians in the Diaspora form organizations to assist with practical matters such as asylum and citizenship, and to provide help finding housing and work. Such organizations are generally run by Haitian laypeople dedicated to their community, thereby helping to sustain that which sustains them. Despite individual successes, the efforts of these organizations are limited largely by the separation between church and state in all three of the societies Mooney examined. Furthermore, there is limited funding (at best) for the operation of such organizations. One exception is the unique oasis of Little Haiti in Miami. The difference with Little Haiti, Mooney purports, lies in the mutuality and cooperation between community leaders and politicians in Miami and the United States. Compared to Montreal or Paris, the US government is more willing to assist with funding faith-based initiatives. Mooney incorporates several excerpted interviews from each site as a way of demonstrating the lived experiences of those with whom she came in contact, their strategies for surviving, and their hopes that their children will thrive in an environment that affords them far more opportunities than they had in Haiti. Another way in which their faith provides for them in the adaptive process is through their use and identification with biblical narratives - narratives of hope that mirror their migratory experiences - as well as their common belief in another Catholic doctrine, incarnation. Haitian Catholics believe that God, Jesus, and Mary accompanied them during their migrations. Mooney finds these religious figures remain present in their lives, a sustaining force upon which they may rely and to whom they pray, fervently and constantly. Despite its many strengths and important transnational scope, Mooney's work is undeniably shortsighted and overlooks several critical aspects of Haitian identity and history that would have strengthened her assessment of the lived adaptive strategies of her subjects. Admittedly, her work is already ambitious in examining state and federal governmental policies surrounding both the reception and support of immigrant populations whose migrations have been undertaken out of necessity and in the interest of finding political asylum. Unfortunately, given her stated methods and admitted constant adjustment of her approach and proposed task, Mooney's study is overly simplistic. It lacks perspective and research on Haitian culture and religion, not to mention the political and economic factors that precipitated the massive migrations out of Haiti. What it seems to overlook most of all, however, is an appreciation for the fact that the very population with which she was engaging - Haitian Catholics - is undoubtedly made up of individuals who also serve the spirits of Haitian Vodou. While this is mentioned once by an informant in Paris and by the author herself in the appendix where she outlines her methodology and acknowledges the limitations of her work, Mooney largely ignores this fact, stating simply that, if present, Vodou practice at my field sites was relatively weak (246). …

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