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From hurricanes and earthquakes to revolution and political turmoil. Haiti is a country constantly being reconfigured by nature and man. Through it all, the people have been buoyed by their culture, their religion and telling their stories through art.

good art

The Latin American Cultural Center in Oakland has collaborated with Pittsburgh-based Haiti Friends to present “Haiti: Culture, Religion and Revolution,” an art exhibit that addresses the cultural and climatic upheavals and the strong roots that hold the people together. It opened in September and runs until June 28, 2025, at the center, 4338 Bigelow Blvd.

The LACC, which opened in September 2022 as a museum and cultural center, is a creation of the Latin American Studies Association, itself a scholarly organization based in Pittsburgh since 1986.

“Our mission with the exhibits is to use art as a way gain insights and understanding of the different cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean,” explained Bill DeWalt, a board member who formerly served as director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and director of Latin American studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

This marks the third exhibit the LACC has organized. The first was centered on indigenous art in Guatemala and last year’s show featured Mexican masks. The Haiti exhibit includes 100 original works, most of which were supplied by Haiti Friends’ founder Lucy Rawson’s private collection.

“My mom had a lot of colorful Haitian art and she sold a lot of it with the proceeds benefiting the programs at Haiti Friends, but she was interested in the religious pieces and the more historically significant pieces and held onto those,” said her son, Eddie Rawson, president of Haiti Friends.

“Her life’s work has been working with Haitian artists.”

Many of the pieces in the exhibit are artists’ responses to Haiti’s tumultuous history.

“A lot of the art reflects the tortured history of Haiti,” said DeWalt. 

“There are really incredibly positive aspects to it because Haiti was the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean, inspired by the American revolution, to become independent. Haiti was the first Black republic in the world.”

The Republic of Haiti was born out of a slave revolt against the French.

 “The art of Haiti goes back before the Spanish and the French arrive, so we do have a couple of pieces on display from the indigenous people who populated the island before colonialism,” said DeWalt.

The great-great-grandson of Haitian president Louis Mondestin Florvil Hyppolite, Dr. Erlantz Hyppolite, is now executive director of the Haitian microfinance company Fonkoze USA. He spoke with many of the living artists to help with the interpretation of the pieces. In doing so, he helped expose several underlying themes in the works on display.

“Very central in their creations is everyday Haitian life depicting scenes of people going to the cock fight, school, street markets, celebrations and the importance of community,” said Dr. Hyppolite.

“You will also notice in a lot of these paintings that the people in these communities are women,” he said. “Women are central in Haitian culture and the artists want to show how women are the glue not only of the community, but of the family.” 

The works also display the turmoil Haiti has endured and continues to face today, as well as the involvement of the international community.

“It is really well depicted in the painting with [Barack] Obama and the Haitian president as well as the painting where you see the aid is coming to the people,” noted Dr. Hyppolite. 

He believes the artists are questioning what all the support and help has done for Haiti because the life of the average Haitian has not improved. Yet that notion has not destroyed the joy they feel about life.

“Something embedded in the Haitian culture is optimism,” said Dr. Hyppolite. “If you ask a Haitian how are you doing, they will respond: ‘Not so bad, tomorrow will be better.’

“I can tell you it is that concept that is keeping the country going despite this very long instability.”

The paintings with religious motifs blend Catholicism and African faiths with Haitian Vodou.

“The artists really wanted to highlight the vibrant diversity in Haitian belief between Christianity and the African beliefs to create Vodou,” said Dr. Hyppolite.  “Vodou is just an interpretation and an extension of the Catholic belief.”

The bright colors of many of the paintings also reflect the enduring faith and optimism of the people.

“The interesting thing is the art is so colorful and so vibrant and so beautiful,” DeWalt said. “And what it makes you realize is even with all the turmoil and problems the country has faced, the people are still able to be happy, survive and create wonderful art.”

Patricia Sheridan: psheridan@post-gazette.com

First Published: September 30, 2024, 5:30 a.m.
Updated: September 30, 2024, 5:42 a.m.

Organizing Against Anti-Haitianism Beyond Borders

As anti-Haitianism surges in the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election, confronting the rise in xenophobia and hate requires a hemispheric approach to U.S. imperialism.

September 30, 2024

Darlène Dubuisson and Mark Schuller

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On Wednesday, September 25, the Haitian Bridge Alliance—a Haitian-led advocacy organization working at the intersection of anti-immigration and anti-Blackness—brought charges against the Republican presidential ticket for circulating unfounded rumors about immigrant communities drawn to Springfield, Ohio for work. Even though these statements have been disproven, right-wing media and vigilante groups have doubled down on aggressions against Haitian communities in Ohio and elsewhere, with hostilities escalating to bomb threats and racist attacks.

The backlash against this community in Springfield wasn’t immediate. Just a few years ago, Haitian immigrant workers in the Midwest were welcomed by many as a much-needed labor force in deindustrialized and depopulated “Rust Belt” cities. Yet as the closely contested November 5 election approaches, Republicans have turned to a familiar playbook, stoking xenophobia and anti-Blackness to turn out their base.

This Republican strategy is effective because it rests on longstanding racism that has shaped immigration policies in the United States. Such policies are based on white supremacy, racist exclusion, and labor extraction, reflecting U.S. racial politics rooted in settler colonialism and Black chattel enslavement. In short, anti-immigration sentiment and racism—particularly, anti-Blackness—often operate together. Haitians have long faced these twin hatreds even while being sought after as an exploitable labor force. Today, with changing policies and patterns of migration, these dynamics take on new, if familiar, contours.

Disposable Labor

Between the mid-1960s and 1970s, Haitians were a sought-after immigration population for the United States. After passing the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act, which eliminated explicitly racist 1920s-era national-origin quotas, the United States actively began recruiting Haitians to fill a labor shortage of skilled and semi-skilled workers resulting from the Vietnam War. Many Haitian immigrants, fleeing the U.S.-backed Duvalier regime (1957-1986), received visas to work in sectors ranging from medicine, law, and education to craft trades and manufacturing.

Beginning in the 1970s, Haitians who could not secure visas arrived in the United States through unofficial routes and filled needed positions among the undocumented labor force. Like other non-white immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, Haitians were a necessary labor force that could become disposable with a change of political wind.

Those shifting winds came as, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, neoliberal economic policies drove unionized, relatively well-paying manufacturing jobs out of the United States while simultaneously upending economies and rural livelihoods across Latin America and the Caribbean, including in Haiti. Decades later, small Midwestern Rust Belt cities still struggle to recover. To manage the fallout, demagogic, xenophobic politicians directed unemployed workers’ anger away from capitalist greed and toward Black and Brown “others.”

Anti-immigrant policies and actions are a two-party consensus. President Barack Obama earned the title of “deporter-in-chief,” and with more deportations under his watch than under Donald Trump’s, Joe Biden is on track to live up to his Democratic predecessor’s legacy. Haitians, especially, are a target. In Biden’s first year in office, his administration deported more than 20,000 Haitians, almost as many as the previous three administrations combined over 20 years.

This deportation machine was, in fact, set up by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, on September 30, 1996.

As violence targeting Haitian communities increases, September 30 also marks the reach of U.S. imperialism. On this day in 1991, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted by a coup with CIA support. Leaders of the putsch were trained at the School of Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Following the 1991 coup, the U.S.-supported Haitian paramilitary regime, FRAPH, decapitated the democratic movement in Haiti, killing thousands and forcing tens of thousands more to flee. As activist Ninaj Raoul has shared, Haitian communities organized to confront the immigrant cruelty consensus. Some were politicized in the fight against the discrimination and violence that incorrectly blamed Haitian immigrants for being a source of  HIV/AIDS.

Where Anti-Immigration Meets Anti-Blackness

For Haitians, xenophobia intersects with deep-seated anti-Black racism. Haitians have not only been accused of taking the jobs of U.S. citizens but also depicted through a lens of anti-Blackness, portraying them as threats to white U.S. society. This anti-Haitianism has a long history in the United States and is rooted in U.S. imperialism in Haiti and throughout Latin America. Anti-Haitianism is more than xenophobia, and more than anti-Blackness. As Elie Mystal writes in The Nation, white people have never forgiven Haitians for their freedom.

Organizing among Haitian immigrants has been a primary strategy for combating anti-Haitianism. Since the 1990s, Haitian communities organized human rights networks, support services, hometown associations, and engaged in the formal political process to tackle widespread discrimination along lines of immigration status, race, and class. Haitian immigrants have thus been able to secure pathways to permanent residence and citizenship and even gain political leadership roles. The well-established social, political, and labor networks within Haitian communities in hub destinations like New York, Boston, and Miami have facilitated this organizing and individual and collective gains.

While anti-Haitianism is nothing new, Haitian immigrants arriving and settling in the Midwest today face new challenges—challenges fueled by new mechanisms of U.S. imperialism.While anti-Haitianism is nothing new, Haitian immigrants arriving and settling in the Midwest today face new challenges—challenges fueled by new mechanisms of U.S. imperialism. We summarize these challenges in three categories: the temporariness of immigration statuses; the externalization of U.S. borders in Latin America; and the geographical distance of these new locations from Haitian immigrant destination hubs. These new realities call for new forms of organizing.

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Obama administration granted undocumented Haitians living in the United States Temporary Protected Status (TPS), renewable every 18 months. This temporary status allows recipients to work legally, but the United States can revoke it anytime. TPS does not offer pathways to permanency and even increases the deportability of undocumented Haitians.

In addition to these TPS holders, many recent Haitian immigrants are on another temporary status: the two-year status created by the Biden administration’s 2023 Humanitarian Parole Program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. The parole program has the same limitations as TPS. But unlike TPS, which is a protection from deportation extended to immigrants already in the United States, the humanitarian parole status targets those living outside of U.S. borders. It is part of a package of border externalization policies that the White House implemented to reduce irregular immigration from these Latin American countries, a primary driver of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.

Finally, unlike previous populations of Haitians in the United States, these recent immigrants are living far from the resources and networks destination hubs offer. And while the Midwest provides affordable housing and low-skilled jobs, it lacks established Haitian communities and the racial and ethnic diversity of New York or Miami. The Midwest also suffers from a long history of racial terror and segregation, traditions now being stoked for political gain.

Toward a Hemispheric Approach to Anti-Haitianism

As the first Black Republic and what Michel-Rolph Trouillot called “the longest neocolonial experiment in the history of the West,” Haiti and Haitians have been a laboratory not only for white supremacist and anti-immigration policies “at home” in the United States, but also for U.S. imperialism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Combating anti-Haitianism is crucial to achieving racial and immigrant justice in the U.S. and upending U.S. imperialism throughout the hemisphere.

The current vitriol and violence against Haitian communities are reflections of the externalization of the U.S. border. The U.S. Empire, founded on and long a fomenter of racial capitalism, shaped the contours of mobility and containment. Imperialist intervention across the hemisphere, including dozens of coups d’etat, military invasions, and arms embargoes, have long aimed to quash popular resistance and alternatives to neoliberal capitalism and U.S. hegemony. Today, the United States extends its borders through policies like the 2019 “Remain in Mexico policy”,  Title 42, and the Biden administration’s Humanitarian Parole Program.

This essay introduces a short series of articles that will be published weekly leading up to the U.S. election. Together, this series will offer context about Haitian community organizing, TPS and humanitarian parole, the hemispheric routes of Haitian migration, why the Midwest, and immigrant experiences and anti-Haitianism in general.

This politics of containment, limiting whose lives matter, is a new mechanism for U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Therefore, confronting and organizing against this rise of anti-Haitianism requires a hemispheric approach—one that acknowledges the new challenges rooted in longstanding U.S. imperialism.

Darlène Dubuisson is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. She works on issues of Global anti-Blackness, migration and diaspora, and crises and futures, with a geographic focus on the Caribbean and Latin America. She is also the author ofReclaiming Haiti’s Futures: Returned Intellectuals, Placemaking, and Radical Imagination.

Mark Schuller is Professor of Anthropology and Nonprofit and NGO Studies at Northern Illinois University. His eight books include Humanity’s Last Stand: Confronting Global Catastrophe, and he co-directed/co-produced Poto Mitan. Schuller received the Margaret Mead Award, the Anthropology in Media Award, and the Haitian Studies Association’s Award for Excellence.

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Edward Rawson wants Haiti to be in the news for all the right reasons.

The executive director of Haiti Friends has partnered with the Latin American Cultural Center in Oakland to shine a light on the Caribbean nation with the art exhibit “Haiti: Culture, Religion and Revolution.”

Rawson said that the stereotypes and recent unsubstantiated and negative stories about Haitian immigrants in the United States have been disappointing but unsurprising “That’s nothing new. It’s always some kind of negative stereotype about Haiti that they’re always fighting to counter. This is our way of countering that. We wanted to give voice to Haitian people.”

Rawson’s grandparents, Gwen and Larry Mellon, moved to rural Haiti in 1954. They established the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, the first hospital in its region. Eventually, Rawson’s father — who was 10 years old when the family moved to Haiti — took over as managing director of the hospital.

For her part, his mother Lucy Rawson began Haiti Friends around 30 years ago. It was meant to be a sister organization for the hospital.

“The main work that we do in Haiti is in direct partnership with the hospital. We plant trees with farmers in the same area where the hospital operates. We give free education and agricultural training for farmers and we provide free trees. Basically, the project is an intersection of where the ecology and economy meet in rural Haiti,” Rawson said.

He pointed out that by adding economic diversity and better education to the area, they can help lessen poverty-related diseases such as malnutrition, tuberculosis and malaria, which commonly show up at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti.

Rawson was about 2 years old the first time he made a trip to Haiti. Throughout his life, his mother has also collected Haitian art.

“We met with artists and galleries and traveled all over the country buying art. Over the years, she would bring art back to America and sell it and have these big parties and events all over the U.S. as a way to raise money for the work that we did in Haiti.”

The exhibit at the Latin American Cultural Center draws from their collection.

“Throughout those years, she collected many many pieces that were really the best of the best that she kept to herself and are now on display at this museum,” Rawson said.

“He had been thinking about a proper way of giving tribute and also furthering the reach of the Haitian art that his family and Haiti Friends had been collecting,” said Manuel Roman-Lacayo, director of operations at the Latin American Cultural Center in Oakland and deputy director of the Latin American Studies Association.

“We worked with all of these artists who are still living, and in some cases the family of the artists. We showed them the paintings that we have in our collection and asked them to explain … their own interpretation of their own work. Underneath each painting, there’s a description of what’s there and that’s all extrapolated from those interviews with the artists,” said Rawson.

“Lucy Rawson thought that it should focus on aspects of daily life in Haiti, that it should display the richness of Haitian people’s daily routines and celebrations, highlights, the joy and the customs, and so the script for the exhibit was created around those themes,” Roman-Lacayo said.

The exhibit contains about 90-100 artworks in a variety of mediums. Most of the pieces are paintings, but patrons can also view found sculptures, wood carvings and sequined flags. The artists come from all over Haiti but are concentrated in the Artibonite Valley, where the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti is located.

According to Rawson, the display is split up into several sections.

”We start off talking about the history of Haiti, colonialism, revolution, independence, the abolition of slavery. Then we talk about the everyday life of Haitians, especially rural life … and how it contrasts with the United States. Then we talk about the many natural disasters that have hit Haiti, like the earthquake or the many floods or hurricanes that have hit and how that relates to political intervention from foreign nations.”

There is also a section on the Vodou religion, aspects of which were taken from both West African religious traditions and Catholicism and practiced by slaves brought to Haiti and their descendants.

“We wanted to demystify it. It’s been so demonized in the world, so we wanted to remove the negative stereotype … and give the artists who practice vodou an opportunity to explain it, why it’s important to the Haitian Revolution, why it’s important to everyday life in Haiti and culture and make people understand that it’s quite a beautiful religion — not devil worship or whatever they used to say in the ‘80s,” Rawson said.

Besides spotlighting the rich cultural history of Haiti, Rawson’s hope for the exhibit is that it will change the way people think about the island nation. He said that the way many people — especially foreign journalists — speak about Haiti is “derogatory.”

“That’s a really awful way of looking at the first independent Black nation, the first domino to fall in the transatlantic slave trade, you can’t even have a conversation about Latin America unless you talk about the Haitian Revolution. Haiti has contributed so much to global history and culture,” he said.

The Latin American Cultural Center opened in 2022, a project of the Latin American Studies Association, an international network of 13,000 members engaged in Latin American studies with its home in Pittsburgh. The Center will also be presenting a Haiti film series in partnership with Haiti Friends, with the first showing on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 6 p.m.

“We hope to represent, to exhibit and provide experiences that are focused on Latin America in all its various expressions,” said Roman-Lacayo.

He said that despite what is often portrayed in the news, there is vibrance and joy in Haitian culture. “People still have celebrations and birthdays and marriages and street parties and music and cultural pursuits and community life. We want to be able to represent that aspect.”

“Haiti: Culture, Religion and Revolution” runs through June 28, 2025, at the Latin American Cultural Center, 4338 Bigelow Blvd. For more information, visit haitifriends.org or lacc.lasaweb.org.

Alexis Papalia is a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at apapalia@triblive.com.

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News about Haiti and its people is often dominated by devastating natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, government turmoil, and lately, ridiculous conspiracy theories that have become a topic in the U.S. Presidential election.

To help change the narrative about this Caribbean country, the Latin American Cultural Center in Oakland is displaying a new special exhibit: “Haiti: Culture, Religion, and Revolution,” which opened Sept. 17.

The exhibit features paintings, sequin flags, sculptures and other art forms that highlight the talents of 60 historical and contemporary Haitian artists. Many of the 90 pieces in the exhibit have been collected over decades by Haiti Friends, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit formed to provide support and improve Haiti’s health, economic, ecological and cultural conditions, as well from the Rawson Family Collection.

“The whole objective of this exhibit is to give the Haitian people a voice. I think that is a really important aspect of this exhibit. We want to honor and respect Haitian culture,” says Haiti Friends Executive Director Edward Rawson.

The staff of the Cultural Center has worked with Haiti Friends to present these important artistic works in a larger cultural context. Some of these themes are the Haitian slave revolt against their French Colonial masters, the continuing struggle of Haiti to maintain an independent Black Republic, the nation’s struggles with earthquakes and hurricanes, and the importance of the misunderstood practice of Vodou — a traditional Afro-Haitian religion — in the daily life of the country.

The Latin American Cultural Center is one of Pittsburgh’s newest cultural amenities. It opened in September 2022 to celebrate Latin American and Caribbean culture through compelling physical and cyber exhibits dedicated to sharing and fostering a heightened understanding and appreciation for Latin American arts, history and culture.

The building was purchased in 2019, but due to the pandemic, didn’t open to the public until 2022.

The nonprofit was founded and is supported by the Latin American Studies Association, which is located inside the center. The center also receives funding from grants, endowments and donations.

“Our mission is to promote interest and study in Latin American culture and to promote the richness of the culture because just like Haiti, the media doesn’t present an accurate depiction of Latin America,” says Manuel Roman-Lacayo, the deputy director for operations for the Latin American Studies Association.

The Latin American Cultural Center also will be holding two film series this fall. The first is a four-event series based on the Latin American Studies Association’s Congress Film Festival, and the second is Haiti-focused and run in collaboration with Haiti Friends. The first will screen one film per month starting on Sept. 29 and the second will begin Oct. 10.

“Haiti: Culture, Religion, and Revolution” runs through June 28, 2025. The Latin American Cultural Center is located at 4338 Bigelow Blvd., Oakland. The center is open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday by appointment.

LINK TO THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE

As the political spotlight shines on Charleroi, a Mon Valley town settled by immigrants and named after a city in Belgium, its residents are disputing Donald Trump’s portrayal of its burgeoning Haitian population.

Haitian Marie Occimable lived in Miami and Atlanta, then heard Charleroi could be a place where she could open her business, which sells clothing, shoes and a variety of items.

For the past four years, the community has offered a safe place to live and earn a living, Occimable said.

“It’s been a good place,” Occimable, 68, said inside her store along Fallowfield Avenue in the middle of the town’s once-bustling business district.

Occimable said she does not know much about the criticism Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leveled against the Haitian immigrant community in Charleroi when he claimed in a campaign speech that they have caused problems for the borough and Charleroi Area School District.

It’s a claim community leaders and school officials are pushing back against.

“We don’t have any problems (from Haitian immigrants). There is the perception that there would be, then there’s the reality,” said Joe Manning, manager of the Mon Valley borough. He has fielded inquiries from the national news media, as well as the BBC in England and a German television station.

“There’s no discernible increase in crime and no discernible impact on our resources,” Manning said.

“Of its typical call volume for the police department, maybe 15% is from that (Haitian) community,” said Chad Zelinsky, chief of the Charleroi Regional Police Department, which covers Charleroi, North Charleroi and Speers. Only a few of the 11 accidents reported this month have been from Haitian drivers, he noted.

Trump claimed there was a 2,000% increase in Haitian immigrants in Charleroi since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Trump also claimed the influx of Haitian immigrants has left the borough — with a $3 million budget — virtually bankrupt.

“That’s a complete fabrication,” said Manning, a former City of Washington firefighter who has been borough manager since April.

‘Divisive rhetoric’

Borough council President Kristin Hopkins-Calcek, a registered Democrat, took Trump to task for his comments about the Haitian community in Charleroi.

“Trump chose to exploit our town for political purposes, using divisive rhetoric to unfairly target the Haitian immigrant community,” Hopkins-Calcek said in a statement.

“They looked at the fact that Haitians are living here and they exploited that,” Manning said of the Trump campaign, which also has attacked immigrants from Mexico.

Hopkins said Charleroi is a borough steeped in a rich history of immigration from European countries who sought freedom and happiness.

“Yet, unlike their predecessors, they’ve faced a markedly less-welcoming reception. Haitian immigrants have been unfairly scapegoated for many of Charleroi’s problems,” Hopkins-Calcek said.

Trump’s comments have put Haitians in danger of being attacked, said Edward Rawson, executive director of Haiti Friends, a Pittsburgh-based support agency for Haitians in the region.

“It is never positive to sow the seeds of division and hate,” Hopkins-Calcek said following a meeting Wednesday of the Charleroi Regional Police board.

The former president’s comments have not caused the kind of backlash against the Washington County community that has occurred in Springfield, Ohio. Trump claimed the town was being destroyed by Haitians who are eating people’s pets, something that has been refuted by Springfield officials, residents and multiple media fact-checkers

“We’re grateful we haven’t seen the problems that are going on in Springfield,” said Manning, referring to the bomb threats the community has experienced since Trump’s campaign speech. Manning said he has been in contact with Springfield’s city manager, Bryan Heck, on how they are dealing with the aftermath of Trump’s comments.

Why Charleroi?

The question some in the community have asked is how the Haitian immigrants came to Charleroi.

Word of mouth spread among the Haitian people that Charleroi was a good place to live, with affordable housing and factories offering jobs, Rawson said.

“They felt it was a safe community and a good place for their children to attend school,” Manning said.

The political unrest in Haiti was a big reason people wanted to leave their native country, Rawson said.

“They were trying to escape the gang violence,” Manning said.

They also saw business opportunities where there were empty storefronts along Fallowfield and McKean avenues in the town’s business district, he added.

In addition to Occimable’s boutique, there is Queen’s Market, which is stocked with food from Caribbean countries.

The impact of the pending closure of the Anchor Hocking Corp. glass plant, which makes Pyrex cookware, on the community has yet to be determined. It will result in the loss of some 300 jobs by the end of the year, putting Charleroi’s legacy as a glassmaking hub at risk, Hopkins-Calcek said. In addition to that plant, the closing of the Quality Pasta plant in the borough will mean another 80 jobs lost.

Churches have reached out to make the Haitian community welcome in Charleroi.

St. Andrew the Apostle Church operates a monthly food pantry that distributes about 130 bags of food a month to the needy, many of whom are Haitians, said the Rev. Levi Hartle.

A social worker operates out of space at the church to help the Haitians navigate the intricacies of government systems when they need assistance.

They are working to have a person able to translate the church bulletin and the Mass into Creole for those parishioners who need it, Hartle said. As these efforts develop, word of mouth likely will spread through the Haitian community that St. Andrew is a welcoming church and more families will attend Mass, Hartle said.

He sees it as an important mission of the church, where parishioners are making sacrifices for the whole community.

“St. Andrew has been working on a number of initiatives in order to make the Haitian community integral to the parish life,” Hartle said.

“The church remains committed to working alongside community partners to ensure that these families find stability, support and a sense of belonging during this transition,” Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese Bishop David Zubik said.

Education

The local school district has seen an influx of Haitian students in the last few years, said Charleroi Area Superintendent Edward Zelich, whose district has an enrollment of about 1,560.

Trump claimed the recent surge in Haitian immigrants has caused the district to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide English teachers for the students. The district said it went from one English language learner teacher in the 2019-20 school year to four ELL teachers this year. The jump in enrollment also resulted in two more full-time kindergarten teachers being hired this year.

The ELL program includes students from more than 26 countries. There were just 12 ELL students in the 2019-20 school year, jumping to 175 last year and 225 students this year, the district said. The elementary grades have more than half — with 133 elementary students who are ELLs, the district said.

The additional Haitian students have created challenges in hiring ESL teachers because not many teachers understand Creole, said Edward Killiger, elementary principal and English as a Second Language coordinator.

Donald Martin, executive director of Washington-Fayette-Greene Intermediate Unit 1, said additional teachers are undergoing instruction to be certified as ESL teachers.

“It’s a been a great partnership. I think everyone (IU1 and Charleroi Area) has worked so well together,” Martin said.

What is even more challenging, Killiger said, is that while the parents speak Creole at home, the children, who have gone through Spanish-language countries en route to the United States, speak Spanish and in some cases Portuguese, depending on their migration route from Haiti.

“Creole is like Pittsburghese,” Zelich said.

Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.