The Island of Hispaniola

With the exception of passing references to Brooklyn, Brown University and New Hialeah Florida, the story's main action takes place in alternating narrations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, together comprising the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Although the two nations are island neighbors, they are ethically, culturally and linguistically distinct, and the divergent paths of their colonial histories and modern development provide a study in contrasts that are embedded in Monstro's thematic content and allegoric value. The reason why Haiti has been so vulnerable to extreme devastation by natural disasters has its roots in its natural topography and in the French colonial enterprise there, which stripped the mountainous inlands of trees, and then America-led industrial agricultural exploitation of the land for sugar production that further depleted the soil and accelerated erosion and runoff. Because of Haiti's prideful tradition of autonomous rule going back to their...