Now in his late-30s, author Anglade notes in the book\u2019s opening lines that he \u201chad a relatively good life, despite being born in one of the poorest countries in the world.\u201d As recounted in the memoir\u2019s harrowing opening chapters, the author\u2019s childhood home was broken into twice by armed burglars during the night, prompting his family to frequently sleep at their church to avoid zenglendos (armed criminals). While he deeply valued Haiti\u2019s rich culture, even having competitions with his friends to see who could read Haitian novels the fastest, he also had family members whom he visited in the United States, where he developed an affinity for the U.S., especially its cartoons and Wendy\u2019s spicy chicken nuggets. Ultimately, he migrated to the U.S., devoting his efforts to education and eventually receiving a Ph.D. in applied economics from the University of Florida. Apart from academic research, Anglade spent much of his postgraduate life engaging with Haitian politics, public policy, and economic development. The memoir certainly offers an inspirational story of overcoming obstacles to obtain one\u2019s dreams, but what makes this work stand out is Anglade\u2019s grasp of Haitian history; he interweaves his personal story into the larger narrative of the Caribbean nation. For example, the zenglendos that terrorized his family, he convincingly writes, weren\u2019t just random criminals or a \u201clocal menace,\u201d but were intricately tied to the political and economic instability that followed the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991. He similarly connects his immigration story to the wider history of the African diaspora. The book also includes ample commentary on contemporary Haitian politics and the effects of climate change on the country. While this political analysis lacks formal citations, Anglade has a learned understanding of the various forces at play in 21st-century Haiti and is particularly critical of the nation\u2019s bureaucrats for \u201criding in bullet proof cars and drawing comfortable salaries\u201d amid rising crime rates and economic decline.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Now in his late-30s, author Anglade notes in the book\u2019s opening lines that he \u201chad a relatively good life, despite being born in one of the poorest countries in the world.\u201d As recounted in the memoir\u2019s harrowing opening chapters, the author\u2019s childhood home was broken into twice by armed burglars during the night, prompting his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}