Tribute to Yolande Mangones
I had the honor of telling my mother's immigration story to my daughter's 6th grade class. As I was talking, it struck me that we don't have her remarkable life written down, so I am dedicating this blog to her. My mother, Yolande Mangones, was born in Au Cayes, Haiti in 1943 to a colonel in the army named Corneille Mangones. Yolande's mother, Anaria Beacejour, was a Cuban-African who migrated to Haiti as a child with her parents. Corneille and Anaria were never married, nor did they ever live together. Anaira had nine pregnancies, with four children that survived passed childbirth. Yolande, along with her sister Solange, were raised in their father's house and cared for by their nanny, stepmother, along with various maids, cooks, maintence workers, and drivers. Corneille could afford higher education, so Mom was trained as a Registered Nurse, as were many educated Haitian women at that time. While in nursing school, she met my dad Jean Guichon. They married a...