Author’s Profile and Contact Information
Dominican-American author Alan Cambeira says, “I write in order to speak, to defend, and to expel personal experiences. I also write to touch other human beings in this simple gesture of becoming
a spiritual brother in the complicity of sharing worlds. For me, writing is an effective form of fighting
Against the injustices, the abuses and the inhumanity that exist in the world. Therefore, I began writing at the precise moment that I realized that my personal relationship with the written word is an extremely powerful, preciously vital and very basic element of communication. Otherwise, I would have picked up a gun --- !” Cambeira’s first published book was a non-fiction work written in Spanish, La fobia antihaitiana en la cultura dominicana (1987).
Alan Cambeira was born in the municipality of Samaná, República Dominicana. With his family,
he abandoned the half-island to escape the nefarious State-sponsored anti-Haitian/anti-black genocide campaigns orchestrated by “El Jefe” [The Chief] – dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. A documented 30,000 – 40,000 Haitian, Domínico-Haitian, and Afro-Dominican men, women and children were massacred during Trujillo’s horrific ethnic cleansing scheme referred to as “El Corte” [“The Cutting”] by Dominicans and as “Koup Kouto” [“Blow of the knife”] by Haitians. The family immigrated to Barbados before settling later in Philadelphia (PA). Cambeira holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish and Latin, a Master’s in Latin American and Caribbean Literatures, and the Doctorate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He currently lives in República Dominicana and the U.S., continuing to write, lecture, and teach in order to foster greater awareness of and appreciation for Caribbean culture and the African presence in Latin American culture.