(English)
Marie Maude Leblanc, oldest member of the socialist weekly Haiti Progressdied of lung and brain cancers on January 25, 2024 at the age of 69.
Born on August 31, 1954 in Port-au-Prince, she spent most of her life outside Haiti, but was always dedicated to radical social change in her home country.
The eldest child of Léonvil Leblanc, one of Haiti’s main union leaders in the 1960s, she developed a deep understanding of political dynamics as a child, having to flee Haiti at the age of 10 with her mother and two children. younger siblings for the Dominican Republic, where his father had fled a year earlier.
There, she lived through the invasion of the country by the American marines from April to September 1965, living in the very district of Santo Domingo where the most violent and deadliest fighting took place. She used to describe to her colleagues at Haiti Progrès how a ceasefire was declared at noon during the war. She, her family and neighbors ventured through bullet-strewn streets, past corpses and rubble of buildings, to look for food and water. An hour later, a whistle sounded and the fighting resumed.
Such experiences and his father’s activism surely forged the tough side of his character, while his mother, always religious and exuberant, Lamercie Leblanc, probably brought out his optimistic, encouraging and caring side, which made the rigors of work short of money, at the radical Haitian weekly, all the easier to bear for his comrades. Her quick, melodious laugh, thoughtful advice and ideas, and Sylvio Rodriguez playlists have made her the “ immediately » (central pillar) of the New York office of Haiti Progrès for almost 40 years.
After spending three years without her parents at a Catholic boarding school in the Dominican Republic, Maude and her siblings traveled to New York in the early 1970s to join their parents.
She attended Hunter College, where she became active in the CUNY Haitian Student Association and taught English as a Second Language classes to Haitian immigrants at St. Matthew’s Catholic Church on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.
The late 1970s and early 1980s were heady times for progressive Haitians. The Duvalier dictatorship began to collapse and most students were swept away by the political fervor of the time.
Maude was recruited into the Haitian Liberation Movement (MHL), led by Ben Dupuy, a dynamic communist revolutionary who died in April 2023. She was part of a progressive student movement called Ideas, helped found the Association of Haitian Workers (ATH) and then in 1983 joined the weekly Haïti Progrès, where she spent hundreds of hours typing articles on a giant and noisy typesetting machine, working closely with Dupuy and the French teacher Jeanie Loubet, whose sharp and elegant writing defines the political motto of “Journal which offers an alternative”. She also did numerous voiceovers in the award-winning 1983 film, Bitter Caneproduced by some of his comradesHaiti Progress.
Over the next four decades, Maude worked primarily in Brooklyn, New York, with occasional stays in Haiti, where she produced the weekly newspaper.
During this time, she suffered many trials and losses. In 1995, Jeanie Loubet and the former political prisoner Jacques Magloire left Haiti Progress. In 2006 and 2007, several editors ofHaiti Progress leave the newspaper to launch another weekly, Haiti Liberty. In 2012, Maude and her life companion and soul mate, Georges Honorat, broke politically with Dupuy, expelling him fromHaiti Progress and the National People’s Party (PPN). A year later, in 2013, a gunman on a motorcycle shot and killed Honorat outside his home in Port-au-Prince, in what was likely a political assassination, but still unsolved. A year later, in 2014, Harry Numa, another former PPN leader and dear friend, drowned after his car fell into a river in Jérémie at night.
Despite these setbacks, Maude persevered, producing the journal with writers in the United States and Haiti.
However, by the end of 2023, years of incessant smoking caught up with her, even though she quit smoking almost ten years ago. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, which later spread to his brain.
Fluent in four languages, a lover of mystery novels and a talented activity organizer, Maude’s bubbly but thoughtful personality combines with her competence and perseverance to make her an extraordinary leader, despite her modest and reserved ways. Above all, his unwavering commitment and sacrifices in favor of radical social change allowed him to become one of the giant political actors of his generation.
In a press release dated January 30, Haiti Progress wrote that: “ A dedicated and loving woman, she was the heart, support and balance of the entire team. Showing great optimism, she never gave up and brought strength and dynamism to all those around her. ».
The obituary produced by her family states that Maude’s sister-in-law interviewed her in 2009. Maude described her journey as ” years of intellectual learning, but there is the real experience of living them as much as possible, because it all comes down to: to each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs. »
She leaves to mourn her brother Myrthon (Milton) and her sister Marie France (Francia), her sister-in-law Nadine, as well as numerous nephews, nieces, great-nieces and great-nephews.
A visitation and service will be held on Friday, February 2, 2024 from 10 a.m. at the funeral home. Frank R. Bell, 536 Sterling Place in Brooklyn, NY 11238. Tel. 718-399-2500.
In Haiti, a memorial will take place the same day at the hotel Galata Inn57 Rue Capois at 10 a.m.
