Overview:
On the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, The Haitian Times revisits the stories of Haitian victims, families and community members.
NEW YORK — To count the myriad ways that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks changed our world in an impossible feat. What is possible, on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, is a glimpse into the toll of the day on Haitian Americans who lost, survived or helped.
At a time when Haitians in the U.S. face new headwinds about belonging and being part of the American fabric, it is possible to remember that Haitians or their loved ones have been here. To recall, to mourn and to lift up survivors, each other and their city.
To that end, The Haitian Times is revisiting the stories of those most known to us. We hope that anyone who has a remembrance to share will share theirs as well for future anniversaries.
Three Haitians — Mark Y. Gilles, André Bonheur Jr. and François Jean-Pierre — are memorialized among 110 known Caribbean-born nationals killed on 9/11.
Born in Haiti, Jean-Pierre had built a quiet life in Queens, working as a utility steward in the kitchen of Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the North Tower. He was 81, one of the oldest victims of the attacks, and one of many immigrant kitchen workers — dishwashers, porters, stewards — whose labor powered the city.
Photo courtesy of the “In Memoriam Sept .11” Facebook page.
Many more who died or went missing that day had ties to the Haitian community.
Among them Maxima Jean-Pierre, 40, a food-service administrator on the 105th floor of the North Tower, The New York Times reported in October 2001. She was known for leaving handwritten notes taped to the meals she delivered: “Please eat this. You might get sick. When I come back, it better be gone.”
”She was very small, but so are hurricanes until they start,” said Michael Zinkofsky, her husband at the time of the attacks.
September 11, 2001, was supposed to have been her last day on the job.
One of her children, Anjunelly Jean-Pierre, told an outlet in 2021 that Maxima immigrated from the Dominican Republic and had married a Haitian-born man, Ajax Jean Pierre.
No remains were ever recovered.
“It always played on my mind. I thought, ‘What if they find something, then what?’ But I have to be OK with what it is,” Jean-Pierre said in The i Paper article five years ago.
Commemorating the lives of Haitian victims of the September 11 attacks, through the eyes of their loved ones and community.
The aftermath of 9/11 also shaped a Haitian doctor’s legacy. Dr. Gérard Breton, a forensic pathologist born in Port-au-Prince, led the 2006 autopsy of NYPD Detective James Zadroga, establishing the first medical link between Ground Zero dust and a first responder’s death.
Dr. Breton’s finding led Congress to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. He died June 22, 2022, at age 89.
Dr. Gérard Breton, who was instrumental in connecting the 9/11 first responder cancer cases to Ground Zero dust, passed away on June 22, 2022. Photo courtesy of the family.
For a personal take, The Haitian Times’ special projects editor Macollvie J. Neel writes about how 9/11 shaped her own identity as a Haitian New Yorker. She recalls the morning of the attacks from her family’s Flatbush apartment and the decision to apply for U.S. citizenship.
How the attacks pushed one Haitian New Yorker to embrace the American side of her identity
Have a remembrance to share? Include it in the comments below or write to us to potentially be included in future articles. Email your story to The Haitian Times with the subject line “9/11 Remembrance: Mwen te la.”
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