The Haitians in the Heartland series is a result of six months of close collaboration between the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO with a group of Springfield residents from Haiti, who had been involved in an Internet radio station in Springfield called New Diaspora Live.
In the first episode, shared on Today from the Ohio Newsroom, three of the series' four storytellers — Miguelito Jerome, Virginelle Jerome, and Luckens Merzius — share their hopes for the series and the circumstances that led them to Springfield.
The following transcript is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Miguelito Jerome: I think one of the questions that most people may have is: what's the situation in Haiti right now, and how [did] that situation kind of influenced us to migrate to the US?
Virginelle Jerome: I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think that's what we'd want our listeners to think about — reasons that could push you to leave and not necessarily wanting to leave home, but still having to do so and the different sacrifices that we had to make.
Some of us— at least for me, I was a child. I had no say. Basically, I got uprooted and left. I left my friends, my family. And that's the story that a lot of us have and we share.
Luckens Merzius: I'm so, so glad you're talking about this because, you know, people will ask, 'Why did you leave behind your wife, your kids? '
Virginelle: Right. And I think here people move from one city or one state to another, maybe for a better opportunity job-wise. There's a little bit of that, too, as to why some Haitians have migrated to the U.S. and Springfield because of more opportunities. So, that same reason, I think others can relate.
But there is more. And I do not wish that anyone else or any country, any group get to experience the different reasons as to why some of us have to leave. It's tough situations that literally push you.
Merzius: Like you said, everybody has a different story.
Virginelle: It's just dangerous right now, back home ... gun violence, gang activities.
Miguelito: I was afraid for my own life and for the people that were around me. And I would stay at home, not going out.
And it's the worst. It's like being in a jail at your own place, in your own country. We lost the power to be ourselves in Haiti.
Virginelle: My aunt had to flee the country with my twin cousins because of a kidnapping threat, actually.
She received a call, and they basically told her where her kids were, what time they normally go out, what color dresses they wore, x-y-z day, what time they come home, where they were born. So they literally knew everything about her and asked $120,000 per child should they kidnap them.
So literally the very next morning she took a flight to the U.S.
Merzius: I extend an invitation to people to share our stories, share our experiences.
Virginelle: I think I want others to see the humane side, and hear the stories about the journeys that some of us had to take.
Miguelito: I think this is a great start with Haitians in the Heartland. It's pretty much the story of so many immigrants.
Virginelle: It's the sacrifices, the decisions that prompted us to leave home and to migrate here.
Merzius: People will discover hope, faith, resilience, and community.
In the coming weeks, WYSO will share more stories from these producers and Haitian storytellers about everything from poetry and music to activism.
Haitians in the Heartland is produced at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.
