Haitian Politics Hit Too Close to Home for Junior

While her fellow government concentrators have wrestled with the intricacies of trade policy and diplomacy, Adams House resident Cynthia Dorsainvil '97 has learned much harder lessons in the reality of international politics.

Last summer, her parents were killed while vacationing in their homeland of Haiti, which was in the midst of political upheaval.

Since then, Dorsainvil has initiated an effort to bring her parents' killers to justice that has crossed international borders and swept in members of the Harvard community.

Pierre Dorsainvil, 69, a retired factory worker, and his wife, Josephine, 62, a factory worker, had just finished building a vacation home in the small town of Arcahaie, Haiti, where both were born, raised, met and were married.

According to Dorsainvil, her parents were spending their first night in the new house late on June 29 when four "zinglingdo," or gang members, broke in and, in the course of a robbery, shot and killed Dorsainvil's mother and wounded her father, who died the next day.

The only survivor of the incident, a teenage maid who was shot four times, later testified against the gang members but then went into hiding, Dorsainvil says.

Dorsainvil says she was in her New York home preparing for work when her older brother arrived to tell her what had happened.

"It's hard," she says, nearly eight months later, recalling her initial reaction. "It's like--what do you do after this?"

The Investigation

Dorsainvil says the investigation by the Haitian authorities into her parents' murder has been a "joke."

"They had made some inquiries and they claim that they arrested some people," she says.

Dorsainvil says one of her older sisters went to Haiti and was surprised to find that the gang members were released the next day.

In addition to that initial setback, Dorsainvil says the U.S. embassy told her it could not help her gain restitution because her parents had not been American citizens.

Dorsainvil eventually gained support from an unexpected source.

After reading accounts of the murder in New York newspapers, Roy Smith '80, a human rights lawyer and professor at the City University of New York, called Dorsainvil to offer his counsel.

Smith says he suggested that Dor- Dorsainvil attempt to generate publicity and contact Harvard faculty members familiar with the region as well as campus organizations such as the Harvard-Radcliffe Haitian Alliance and Fuerza Quisqueyana, the Dominican Students' Organization.

Smith says he traveled to Haiti and presented to the U.S. Deputy Ambassador and the Haitian Truth Commission several petitions which Dorsainvil had collected from fellow students in Adams House.

He says the petitions "made a tremendous difference" in spurring investigation efforts.

"I praise what she's done because I don't think it's easy in the midst of losing your parents in such a brutal manner to persevere," he says.

Smith says he now uses Dorsainvil's story as an example in a course that he teaches about human rights.

"She's a real model to me," he says.

Aftermath

Nearly eight months later, the repercussions of her parents murder still reverberate through Dorsainvil's life.

"I have all my mail forwarded to me," she says. "I'll get mail 'To the Parents of Cynthia Dorsainvil.'"

Every time she is reminded of the loss of her parents is painful, she says. Receiving the letter forwarded from the Parents Association announcing Junior Parents Weekend or hearing her roommate talk to her mother brings everything back.

"If I hear [my roommate] talking to her mother, like 'Hi, Mommy, I love you,' it's just like 'I gotta get out of here,'" Dorsainvil says.

She now resides with her second oldest sister, Bobbie, and her family in Westbury, N.Y.

Dorsainvil says she is pursuing the academic plans laid out before the incident. She still plans to attend law school, just as she had told her parents that she would.

"It's become more important that you still do stuff in their memory," she says. "I can't take a year off or drop out of school or work or take those shortcuts. That's why they were working so hard."

Dorsainvil says she is continuing her pursuit of justice for her parent's killers while simultaneously pursuing the dreams they left behind for her.

"I think I still live my life as if they were still there," she says. "I hesitate at certain things because I can hear my father saying 'No way.' They were good parents, wonderful parents.

Smith says he traveled to Haiti and presented to the U.S. Deputy Ambassador and the Haitian Truth Commission several petitions which Dorsainvil had collected from fellow students in Adams House.

He says the petitions "made a tremendous difference" in spurring investigation efforts.

"I praise what she's done because I don't think it's easy in the midst of losing your parents in such a brutal manner to persevere," he says.

Smith says he now uses Dorsainvil's story as an example in a course that he teaches about human rights.

"She's a real model to me," he says.

Aftermath

Nearly eight months later, the repercussions of her parents murder still reverberate through Dorsainvil's life.

"I have all my mail forwarded to me," she says. "I'll get mail 'To the Parents of Cynthia Dorsainvil.'"

Every time she is reminded of the loss of her parents is painful, she says. Receiving the letter forwarded from the Parents Association announcing Junior Parents Weekend or hearing her roommate talk to her mother brings everything back.

"If I hear [my roommate] talking to her mother, like 'Hi, Mommy, I love you,' it's just like 'I gotta get out of here,'" Dorsainvil says.

She now resides with her second oldest sister, Bobbie, and her family in Westbury, N.Y.

Dorsainvil says she is pursuing the academic plans laid out before the incident. She still plans to attend law school, just as she had told her parents that she would.

"It's become more important that you still do stuff in their memory," she says. "I can't take a year off or drop out of school or work or take those shortcuts. That's why they were working so hard."

Dorsainvil says she is continuing her pursuit of justice for her parent's killers while simultaneously pursuing the dreams they left behind for her.

"I think I still live my life as if they were still there," she says. "I hesitate at certain things because I can hear my father saying 'No way.' They were good parents, wonderful parents.