The youngest Fouchard
Claudinette Fouchard was born in Port-au-Prince on 3 February 1938, the youngest of two children in the family of the historian Jean Fouchard. She received a thorough education in Paris and completed her studies at Georgetown University in Washington.
A polyglot fluent in Creole, French, English, Spanish, German and Italian, she traveled widely — to France, the United States, Greece, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Puerto Rico among others. She was passionate about music and played the piano with skill and dexterity.
Cali, 1960
For the international competition to elect the World Sugar Queen, held alongside the festival in Cali, Colombia, countries across the Americas and beyond were invited to send contestants. Haiti’s president at the time, François Duvalier, selected Claudinette Fouchard to represent the country.
She opened the presentation ball on the arm of the Governor of Cali, before competitors as remarkable for their knowledge as for their beauty: Martha Cortés of Cuba, Janette Kayes of the United States, Lorène Perrin of the Hawaiian Islands, Maria Munoz of Puerto Rico, Irma Gonzales of Panama, Iole Brizolla of Brazil and Pilar Gaillardo Extrada of Ecuador, alongside delegations from Florida, Louisiana and the Dominican Republic.
The eighteen-member jury deliberated at length before choosing her from among thirty young women. She won the title, and made the Haitian nation proud through her intelligence, her simplicity and above all her modesty.
Why the museum tells her story
The competition was meant to put her in the international spotlight. What it actually revealed was a set of unexpected talents — an artistic contribution that went well past the sash.
Claudinette Fouchard remains largely unknown to Haitian youth. Young women in particular, who have never heard the story of this extraordinary artist, would find in her a model worth keeping.
