Danticat, Edwidge

Edwidge Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her father was a taxi driver and her mother a seamstress. Life was tough under the dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, and later Baby Doc. Danticat’s parents were among the one million Haitians that were forced to leave the country. By the time she was four years old, both parents had emigrated to New York. Edwidge and her younger brother, André, were left behind, and together with many other children in the same situation she was raised by her uncle Joseph, a local Baptist minister. At home they spoke Creole, but in the private school her parents paid for only French was allowed. Edwidge was a shy and quiet child whose life circled around church and school. Her happiest memories are of the moments after sunset when her grandmother told her stories in Creole. This was a version of Haitian history that was not written down and that was different from what was taught at school.