Why the Roosters Fight (Pages 159-210)

Summary:
    Picking up from where it was left off, life in "Little Haiti" was described, including the life of a man called Joseph, who works hard to make a living out of the little he makes. Politics is brought up with Dominican President of the time Joaquin Balaguer, who was doing as he pleased in the country, even though his time in presidency was slowly coming to a close. Even so, Balaguer has managed to manipulate the voting so that he ends up winning the election and presidency once more. Although it has repeatedly happened before, these ending results continued to schock Dominican voters.
    Continuing on with the summary, politics was described with more detail. Readers learn about President Balaguer, who was fragile and old age. He would no longer be President due to the new elections that were coming up, considering he was the one that was ending his term two years ahead. He had done a lot of good things for his country, but he refused to step down in power when it was time to (just as Trujillo had done). He had been President for more than twelve years, and wanted to remain a legacy once he was out of presidency. He was blind due to glaucoma. but he had an incredible education. Once Balaguer lost the election and stepped down from presidency, Guzman became President, but committed suicide for an unclear reason. The next three available candidates were: Jacinto Peynaldo, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, and Leonel Fernandez. He ends up being the elected President (who is still currently the President today). However, that doesn't mean Balaguer is done here. Help is still needed from him, and he still attempted to find a way to control history and threat candidates.

Quote:
   "A month before the election, Leonel's Party alleged that massive numbers of Haitians were would try to vote using fake identification. Police swooped into the cane fields and into Haitian urban ghettos, demanding identity documents from anyone else who was dark. Dominicans interpreted the move as an attempt to intimidate dark-skinned voters who might have wanted to vote for Pena" (Wucker 187).

Reaction:
    In this section, a lot of politics and background information on Joaquin Balaguer was described. Readers learn about the President that, although blind and old, had remained in presidency for twelve years. He was called a manipulator for what he had done with the presidential elections, and it is fair to say that that is what he did. He contributed to some good for the country but for the most part, was just like Trujillo in the sense that he did not want to step down from power. Learning about how the Dominican Republic has obtained their current president and all the struggles candidates faced makes it possible to see that, although Haiti has suffered more cruelly, the Dominican Republic had the same bad luck for some time.
    I chose this quote because it was surprising for me to read it. I thought that with the change of President, Haitians would be given more attention and given the human rights they deserve. However, it seems as if history is willing to continuously repeat itself, and people never learn their lesson. They were not even given the right to vote, or if they were, were intimidated into not doing so. It's disappointing to see that the prejudice just won't end.  It's also sad to see that the candidate Leonel didn't seem to have done anything to stop what his party was doing.