Overview:
On the anniversary of the September 11 assaults, The Haitian Instances displays on the lives of Haitian and Haitian-American victims—folks whose tales stay under-told greater than twenty years later.
Annually on Sept. 11, names are learn, bells are tolled, and tears are shed. However not each story makes it into the collective reminiscence. Among the many almost 3,000 individuals who died that day had been Haitian immigrants and Haitian Individuals—working in kitchens, tech workplaces, and govt suites.
The Haitian group misplaced moms, sons, and neighbors—a few of them undocumented, a few of them newly arrived, others nicely established. Their tales, typically undocumented in nationwide protection, dwell on of their households and in diaspora reminiscence.
These are two of them.
Maxima Jean-Pierre, 40
Meals service administrator, Cantor Fitzgerald | Bellport, N.Y.
Maxima Jean-Pierre was described as tiny in stature, however unforgettable in presence. A food-service administrator at Cantor Fitzgerald, she labored on the one hundred and fifth flooring of the North Tower, feeding executives like they had been her family.
“She was very small, however so are hurricanes till they begin,” her husband, Michael Zinkofsky, informed The Patriot-Information in 2001.
Born within the Dominican Republic to Haitian dad and mom, Maxima lived in Bellport, Lengthy Island, along with her husband and their blended household of six youngsters. She was recognized for leaving handwritten notes taped to meals she delivered within the govt suites: “Please eat this. You may get sick. Once I come again, it higher be gone.”
Sept. 11, 2001, was alleged to be her final day on the job. The commute had turn into too lengthy, too draining.
Her daughter, Anjunelly Jean-Pierre, was 19 on the time. She recalled watching smoke rise from the Manhattan skyline and desperately attempting to name her mom. The subsequent day, she and her brother made missing-person flyers and posted them exterior hospitals.
“To today, you possibly can see a duplicate of the wall within the 9/11 Memorial Museum with my mother’s poster on it,” she informed BBC News in 2021.
No stays had been recovered. The household continues to grieve within the absence of finality.
“There’s truly nonetheless part of the museum the place they’re nonetheless looking for stays,” Anjunelly mentioned. “Due to that, it’s troublesome to simply accept that that particular person is not there.”
On the time of the interview, Anjunelly was primarily based in Washington, D.C., working on the U.S. Capitol and as a photographer documenting the lives of minority victims of 9/11.
“I began it as a result of I consider you don’t hear the tales of the minorities who perished that day and their households,” she mentioned in the identical BBC interview.
François Jean-Pierre, 81
Utility steward, Home windows on the World | Queens, N.Y.
Born in Haiti, François Jean-Pierre had constructed a quiet lifetime of dignity and onerous work in New York Metropolis. He lived in Queens together with his spouse and labored as a utility steward within the kitchen of Home windows on the World, the famed restaurant on the 106th flooring of the North Tower.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, François was at work when the primary aircraft struck. He by no means made it out.
François was 81 years previous on the time of his dying. He was one of many oldest victims of the 9/11 assaults, and one of many many immigrant employees—dishwashers, porters, stewards—whose labor powered town’s financial system however whose tales not often made headlines.
In tribute to his life, a white rose was positioned beside his title on the 9/11 Memorial in Decrease Manhattan on what would have been his 81st birthday.