Parsley Massacre
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In October 1937, Dominican President Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of the Haitian population living in the borderlands with Haiti. The violence resulted in the killing of 20,000[1][2] Haitian civilians during approximately five days. This later became known as the Parsley Massacre from the shibboleth that Trujillo had his soldiers apply to determine whether or not those living on the border were native Dominicans who spoke Spanish fluently. Soldiers would hold up a sprig of parsley, ask "What is this?", and assume that those who could not pronounce the Spanish word perejil were Haitian; both French and Haitian Creole realize the r as a uvular approximant and their speakers can have great difficulties with the alveolar tap or trill of Spanish.[3] In the Dominican Republic, the massacre is known as El Corte ("the cutting").[4]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
In October 1937, Dominican President Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of the Haitian population living in the borderlands with Haiti. The violence resulted in the killing of 20,000[1][2] Haitian civilians during approximately five days. This later became known as the Parsley Massacre from the shibboleth that Trujillo had his soldiers apply to determine whether or not those living on the border were native Dominicans who spoke Spanish fluently. Soldiers would hold up a sprig of parsley, ask "What is this?", and assume that those who could not pronounce the Spanish word perejil were Haitian; both French and Haitian Creole realize the r as a uvular approximant and their speakers can have great difficulties with the alveolar tap or trill of Spanish.[3] In the Dominican Republic, the massacre is known as El Corte ("the cutting").[4]