"Perejil, perejil, perejil! They made us say that….However well you said it, there was no way for you to stay... They were mocking us, trying to trick us…" (Female escapee)

Until October 1937, perejil, the Spanish word for parsley was just an herb sold in all of the peasant markets along the border shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR). But one week in October, the word "perejil" became the arbiter of life and death. Those who could not roll the "r" off their tongues to show their Spanish heritage would face the machete's blows. By the end of that month, 20,000 bodies would disappear into mass unmarked graves or travel downstream with the river.

By the order of Dominican dictator Raphael Trujillo and under the watchful silence of the Haitian president, entire communities along the Haitian-Dominican border were destroyed overnight. Dominicans who were once neighbors, friends and even spouses of Haitians were expected now to subscribe to Trujillo's vision for a mono-cultural and unilateral nation. The island was divided.

The documentary film, "Perejil" will follow the narratives of survivors, witnesses, and their families. The film will explore the legacy of Parsley Massacre and raise the question of how this act of ethnic cleansing took place in the Americas without intervention.

Produced by Miriam Neptune and Angad Bhalla
Directed by Miriam Neptune

image source: Collier's for January 22, 1938