Despite chronological and geographic differences between these Caribbean peoples, they share commonalities. Politically they are all linked by the attempt to consolidate power. In the Dominican Republic, this consolidation was done by Trujillo by radical nationalism centered around himself and brutal suppression of dissent. He wrote books to be read to every child emblazoned with his name that taught them that anyone who wished for the country to be different was a traitor of the highest order. Loyalty was not enough. You had to be enthusiastic in your worship of Trujillo and the state to avoid his wrath. In the Haiti occupation, the USA consolidated power, first through economically strangling the nation, and then through military force. The
