Philippe Hyppolite

Storyteller

Philippe Hyppolite is the Director for Human Resources for the Town of Danvers and is from Haiti.

Transcript

SHILPA: Thank you for joining me today! Can you start by telling me your name and a little bit about your connection to Danvers and how long you have been here?

PHILIPPE: Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm Philippe Hyppolite. I am the HR Director for the town of Danvers. I've been working in Danvers—coincidentally, tomorrow will be 3 years.

SHILPA: What's your story of coming to America friends? Can you share a little bit about what that journey was like?

PHILIPPE: Do you want the "Coming to America" Eddie Murphy version or my version? 

SHILPA: Your version.

PHILIPPE: My version? All right. From from as much as I can remember, I think the first time I visited the United States, I was probably—I wasn't two years old. But what ultimately made me move to this country was a coup-de-tat in Haiti. And my father was very much involved in politics and was part of the party who suffered the coup-de-tat. And based on that—that's what brought me here, I want to say, back in '93 or '94.

SHILPA: In 1991, the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristede in Haiti was overthrown in a coup. It was about two years later that Philippe and his family returned to the United States.

PHILIPPE: But at the same time, as soon as things were restored back in Haiti, I did move back to Haiti in '96. And I spent maybe another three years in Haiti before moving back again in 2000 so that I can finish my high school and basically get an American education.

SHILPA: And you said you were two when you moved here? 

PHILIPPE: Two when I first visited. When I moved here for the first time in '93, I want to say was about—because I was about eight or nine.

SHILPA: How aware were you of what was happening in Haiti at the time at your age?

PHILIPPE: I mean, I knew there were uprisings, there were things that—I knew it wasn't safe. But how much aware I was when it comes to how that affected my family? I really wasn't, but I knew there were things going on outside. I knew it wasn't that safe at certain periods. But to give you a little insight, so my family had to leave our family home, and I can't remember how often, but we were going to other people's houses to sleep, and to me, I thought it was just sleepover or vacation. It wasn't until after I realized how much, how many, how often we were going to different homes, leaving Port-au-Prince to go mostly to where my dad's from in northwest of the country. 

SHILPA: So you were 8 or 9 when—

PHILIPPE: No, when I moved here. Yeah.

SHILPA: What was that like when you first arrived here? You probably don't remember much of that time when you first visited. But when you came back, what surprised you the most? Who was there to help you?

PHILIPPE: Mostly my dad's family. I think when they decided to make that move finally because of everything, so we ended up in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. It was mostly my dad's family. So he had a lot of sisters and brothers who were living—well, no, mostly sisters that were living in the area and cousins and what not. I think for the first eight months I stayed at my aunt's, the whole family stayed at my aunt's, and even though she had her own family. We made it work, I guess. I know, from speaking to my aunt recently about it, I know how much of—not an issue, but at times, how much of a burden we were to her. But somehow we made it work. So it was the six of us with the five of them in a three bedroom home. Yeah, it was a lot. It was a lot. They made it work.

SHILPA: And how do you think this migration story of yours has has changed you or shaped you as a person?

PHILIPPE: It made me take advantage of all the opportunities that came to me. While living in Haiti, my dad was—not that he was very connected—but my dad worked originally for Oxfam. So he worked around the country, so I was able to visit, unlike a lot of—I'm not going to say privileged Haitians—but that had a little bit of an opportunity, I was able to visit most of the country. Understanding how people live was always something that interested me. Being able to visit so many different places in Haiti, being able to get to know the culture, the different culture, the different environment, the beauty of the country—that really helped me a lot. 

And when I came here, the other thing was, I was able to kind of do the same thing, trying to take advantage of the most positive as I could to make the best for myself. So I took it as an opportunity to learn the language. And at the time—I don't want to say believe it or not—but believe it or not, the school system in Haiti was much more advanced. So by the time—I think I came here in the third grade or something. What they were doing in the third grade, besides the language barrier that I had, like when it came to math, social studies and stuff, I was ahead of my class. I was a kid who couldn't speak the language, but I excelled in a bunch of different areas besides the language. That helped me a lot. 

So now I speak four languages fluently. I can get by with my Spanish. So I speak English, French, Creole, Portuguese, intermediate Spanish.

SHILPA: And can you share a story about something you are proud of in this community where you work in Danvers?

PHILIPPE: It's hard to say, but because there's been a lot of changes since I've been here. And they're not necessarily always positive. But one thing that I can say I'm proud of, or that I was able to witness, not that—because I can't say I had any hand in it—the election of Dr. D to the Select Board. I remember—even though I had nothing to do with it—when I went to the [Town Hall] Toomey room to see it, I was very emotional. That meant a lot to me. I know there's still a lot of work to be done. 

And being that it's municipal government in the first place, it's hard to change things. But it's little by little, especially in this environment, it's little by little. Being able to see some of the—at least in HR—some of the things that I've been working on and seeing some fruits of it. If I start counting how much barriers I have to deal with on the daily, we'd be here forever. So, when I see a little progress, whether it's something that I work on, and I see that it's actually being implemented, it gives me some hope that things can change. 

SHILPA: You were referring to the swearing-in of Dr. Dutrochet [Djoko]. Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self newly arriving in this country?

PHILIPPE: And I think—it's not only me, I know there's a lot of, I guess, I don't know what the title, not the title, but yeah, I don't know what the title would be for—I'm not a first generation American, but a migrant. And I know a lot immigrant kids suffered the same thing. But it's not [to] get upset when you had to translate everything for your parents. Because that in its own, oh my God, it was heavy, it was hard because I had to sit there and and listen to people being condescending to my mom, not react, and then taking the time to to explain to her what they're trying to say, and I know sometimes she's she felt the tone, but even then, she wouldn't react. And when she saw me reacting, she would tell me, "Be patient, be patient, be patient. We're the ones who are in need, so don't react, don't be negative. It will pass." I would tell my younger self, "Be patient. Listen to your mom. And it'll pass. Things will get better." I think that.

SHILPA: Is there anything else that you would like to share about your story that I haven't asked you or that wasn't a part of these questions?

PHILIPPE: So one thing I'll share is that in my professional life, I was also a diplomat. I was a diplomat for the Haitian government. And I guess for me, there's two paths I could have chosen. So one would've been not to go, not be a diplomat and spend about eight years out of the country after I graduated—the path that I actually took. So I graduated in HR, I knew I wanted to be in HR. By me leaving and pursuing another career before coming back in HR, I feel that it kind of held me back from where I could have been, maybe five/ten years ago. At the same time, the amount of knowledge and experience that I got from the from that position, from that career path, I wouldn't change it for the world. There's the good and the bad in each thing. But at the same way, I probably could've been HR director faster than the time I became HR director now, but at the same time, the vast amount of experience, the culture, everything that I learned during the 10 years I was in diplomacy, I would not change that for the world.

SHILPA: That's a great story. And I know I said that was the last question, but one more thing I want to ask you about something that you love, a sport that you love: soccer. And you had the opportunity to share that love of soccer recently in the town. Would you like to tell us about that? 

PHILIPPE: Are you talking about with the rec kids? Was that last year? I feel like it's it's been a while now. With the Haitians that move into Danvers, the Recreation Department organized a little soccer day for them, and I was able to take part and actually play with them. And it's amazing how—so a lot of the kids, they were either in Brazil or in Chile. It was amazing to hear how they were communicating with each other. There were little factions of whoever spoke Portuguese and whoever spoke Spanish, and you can tell there was that competition. 

They didn't know that I that I could understand both. While they're playing, they're saying to each other, "Oh, this guy doesn't know what he's doing, pass the ball here, we can outrun him!" and everything. I'm like, "Oh, okay." And I'm listening to them; so they don't know that I can understand them. Everything that they're saying that they're gonna try to do, I intercept them before they do it. They're like, "What's going on? How is he doing this?" But I mean, I guess, with my soccer IQ being better than theirs as well that helped, but the fact that they're speaking out loud, saying what they're gonna do, and I'm intercepting them before they do it, they couldn't understand. And so I waited until the game was over to start speaking to them in either Portuguese or Spanish. And they're like, "Oh, so that's what you were doing!" 

The kids enjoyed that, and if there was something that I can participate in doing again, it would definitely be something like this. I had fun; they had fun. And like I said, I'd do it again anytime. 

SHILPA: Thank you for sharing that story.

PHILIPPE: Thank you. I appreciate your time.