For members of the UMass Haitian-American Student Association (HASA), being a part of HASA and a Haitian community means something more than membership to them.

“It’s more than just a club, and we want to embody that,” Valerie Casimir, a junior nursing major and HASA’s president said. “To have such a large population of students that are very similar to me and my upbringing and have the same culture as me, it makes you feel closer to home without being at home.”

Casimir is not the only HASA member who feels this way.

“I don’t even know how to describe it, but HASA means a lot to me,” Jehanne Chery, a senior special education major and HASA’s vice president, said. “Being a part of this community just shows how much we care about where we’re from and how much we want to show UMass our culture.”

HASA aims to create a welcoming and safe environment for the university’s Haitian students. Some of their larger events include the PEACH Pageant and HASA CASA, both of which are hosted in the spring.

However, students who are not Haitian are still encouraged to attend HASA’s events. “We’re very welcoming, and we just want everyone to learn more about Haitian culture and see the beauty in it,” Casimir said.

To reflect their commitment to fostering community, HASA’s e-board created a photoshoot with the theme of ‘A Seat at HASA’s Table.’

“We really liked what the concept stood for in that our club has grown a lot in the past couple of years, and we want people to understand that we want everyone to be invited to the table,” Casimir said.

In addition to its general body meetings and events, HASA runs two dance teams: a Kompa team that dances to the popular Haitian music genre of Kompa, and a cultural dance team that “infuses Haitian culture with more modern styles of dance,” Casimir said.

HASA also has a community service and outreach division known as Progressive Efforts for the Advancement and Change in Haiti (PEACH). There is a separate Instagram page for PEACH, @umasspeach, that posts educational content revolving around Haitian history and topics currently affecting Haiti.

Aurelie Belinette, a senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, is the club’s PEACH officer.

“I actively have connections in Haiti and I lived through part of the uprising with the gang violence before I moved to America, so I understand what the need is, and then how to actually tackle those issues that are pretty sensitive,” Belinette said.

Although Belinette was born in New York, she was raised in Haiti until she was 16, when she and her family moved to Massachusetts in 2019 to escape the growing violence in Haiti.

“My parents knew it was always a possibility for the country to be unstable, but I never thought that would be my future, being in America full time,” Belinette said.

Haiti has seen a rise in gang violence this year, with coordinated attacks taking the threat to a new level. A United Nations report in June indicated there were about 580,000 internally displaced people in Haiti.

While finishing her junior and senior of high school in Massachusetts, transitioning to America was challenging for Belinette. “It was tough. I didn’t speak English at all, and then COVID happened,” she said.

Before coming to UMass, Belinette was unsure if she would find a community of Haitians.

“My father believed I would be like one in a million, the expectation that there would be no other Haitian people, even like no other black people,” she said.

But when she arrived at UMass, Belinette attended some of HASA’s events, and established friendships with other Haitian students on campus.

“That really helped me a lot. It was really comforting to be like, ‘Wow, there’s so many of us here,’” she said.

The anti-immigration rhetoric in this year’s election cycle has had a particularly harmful impact on Haitian-Americans. During the presidential debate, Donald Trump repeated the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating local cats and dogs, which has led to dozens of bomb threats in the town. In a now deleted tweet, Republican congressman Clay Higgins stated “Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters.”

“Speaking for myself, I’m not surprised,” Belinette said. “This kind of rhetoric has been made about us forever, and despite that, Haitians are one of the proudest people you will ever meet. I think that it’s really important to emphasize that our fight for justice and respect is still not done, and it’s all showing how we still have to work for a place in this country.”

“When you say things like that, you’re hurting a whole group of people,” Chery said. “You’re making people feel insecure about who they are, about their culture, and about what they represent, when there is so much more to you.”

HASA released a statement on its Instagram account on Sept. 13, 2024, in response to “the false rhetoric being nationally spread.” The statement closed by saying “Haitians are a resilient group of people, and we will continue to stand with and fight for our community.”

“It’s very important to emphasize the resilience and strength of Haitians, especially with a nation that’s been through so much,” Chery said. “For my parents, and the people in general, the resilience is just ‘take it to the chin’, to be able to persevere, move forward and find new things to be happy about.”

HASA is currently planning a charity clothing drive to provide clothes and other basic necessities for Haitian immigrants arriving in the Springfield and Greenfield areas.

“There will be a box in Oak in the Honors College, Webster and Dickinson in Orchard Hill, and we’re trying to get one in Southwest,” Chery said.

“These charity donations will directly impact our brothers and sisters in Haiti, and I think that’s really important for people to not just be like ‘Oh man, that was said about us, I’m so mad.’ Do something about it,” Belinette said. “You don’t have to sit there and complain, you have to be active and do something.”

For more information on UMass HASA, visit their Instagram @umass_hasa.

George Coulouras can be reached at [email protected].