At eighty-six, Jeannot Jean-Baptiste leans against his BMW in a quiet Miami driveway, the metallic shine doubling as proof and testimony. He remembers the years when this was the car he drove only for others—chauffeuring wealthy Haitians during the Duvalier pere period, playing the role of discretion and service. Now the same car model sits in his hands as his own declaration: mwen rive.
Jeannot’s life bends across borders. He speaks about his time in the Bahamas, the hustling, the long shadow of Haitian migration. He explains, without flinching, how prostitution followed those crossings too—an uncomfortable truth tied to survival, to desperation, to the moral ambiguities that travel with people who are pushed into motion.
His story is a study in economic ascent, mobility, and the memories migrants carry. The car is not the point—it is the symbol. What Jeannot shows is how far he has come, and what he had to witness along the way.
