On August 30, 2017, Joane Florvil was arrested by the Chilean Police after being falsely accused of child abandonment. Throughout the successive press notes, investigations of the causes of his death (September 30, 2017) and the different versions of both, public institutions and her relatives, emerges a story that goes from social stigmatization towards victimization and it exposes the hostilities faced by one of the most vulnerable groups of immigrants in Chile: the women from Haiti. The present article, in its first part, presents a critical review of the press notes related to Joane Florvil and the social stigmatization of which she was a victim. In the second part, I will refer - in a very general way - to the concept of hospitality in Jacques Derrida, who describes a way of inhabiting more radical and original than that defined by the mere physical place: our mother tongue. In this context, the New Chilean Migration Law does not assume any responsibility of the State to prevent the occurrence of a new case of discrimination such as those suffered by Joane Florvil. Haitian citizens should be given immediate support that should begin with urgent language assistance. This was affirmed by Joane in his dialogue with the Haitian doctor and cultural facilitator Jean Telo Noël: “What affected me the most is that I can’t defend myself because I do not speak Spanish. The haitians will never have justice in Chile”.
Keywords:
Joane Florvil, hospitality, language, discrimination, new inmigration law in Chile
Vargas Carlier, N. (2019). The case of the Haitian immigrant Joane Florvil from the concept of hospitality in Jacques Derrida. Nomadías, (26), 109–132. Retrieved from https://revistaeggp.uchile.cl/index.php/NO/article/view/52585
