La campaña a favor de los cursos de creole en las escuelas aviva el sentimiento antihaitiano en la República Dominicana

In September 2026, Dominican legislator Julio César Beltré introduced a bill requiring public schools to offer Haitian Creole courses, prompting swift and fierce public backlash rooted largely in questions of national sovereignty. Critics invoke the 1822-1844 period of Haitian occupation, and some nationalist groups frame the bill as a step toward an unwanted island 'unification.'

Haitian Creole is already the second most spoken language in the Dominican Republic, a country whose Haitian-descended population includes many who grow up speaking Creole at home, especially along the border and in mixed communities. Despite its prevalence, Creole has been systematically excluded from public spaces like hospital signage, and a 2017 proposal to teach it in schools was rejected by the national teachers' union on the grounds it would make Dominicans 'think like Haitians.'

Beltré, a member of the governing party that has overseen a hardline immigration crackdown including the deportation of more than 226,000 Haitians in the first half of this year, frames the bill as practical common sense rather than a political statement. The measure currently faces enough political and social opposition that its passage looks unlikely.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.