Chattanoogan Keplet Harrigan honors his Haitian heritage while fully embracing American culture

By Mason Edwards, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Staff photo by Abby White / Keplet Harrigan on the bus outside Adelle's Crêperie

Keplet Harrigan still laughs, 30 years later, when he remembers his first day of college in the U.S. as an international student from Haiti. Like a scene from a movie, he recalls that he and several others watched an American student eat an entire pizza and drink a liter of Coke while waiting in a dormitory lobby.

"He did not offer even a single piece to anybody; he just ate it all," Harrigan says with a laugh. "That's my first interaction. I thought, 'Are Americans really that selfish?'"

He realized, with time, that was not true, but for a then-19-year-old who was raised among Haitian culture, adjusting to life in the United States was not always smooth sailing.

Harrigan grew up in a small village in northwestern Haiti called Jean-Rabel, and while he's lost some memories to time, he remembers how they used to play soccer until late in the night, barefoot. He shared a two-bedroom house with five brothers, with the bedrooms divided by a veil. The family kitchen was outside. His dad, a farmer who raised goats and pigs, passed away when Harrigan was 8 or 9, so he doesn't have many memories of him.

In 1982, the family moved to the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince. "Mostly, that's where everybody goes after elementary school in Haiti," he says, adding that "after high school, you basically have to leave the country if you want to attend college."

Compared to other island nations in the Caribbean, Harrigan says political instability, military coups and a lack of foreign investment have slowed Haiti's progress. "It's still primitive; there's no power supply and domestic water in houses," he says. "We just tried to survive."

By age 19, Harrigan knew he wanted to keep learning, and while some people he graduated with moved to France for college, he wanted to attend college in America. It wasn't a goal, he says, but a desire – and one he had to weave his way into. His first stop was school in Jamaica, where he practiced his English and studied engineering, although he learned that wasn't the right fit.

When looking at colleges in the U.S., he followed in the footsteps of his brother who attended Tennessee Temple University, a now-closed Christian private school, where he experienced his pizza-related culture shock. But he also had to adjust to the colder weather. "I was miserable, as I came from a hot climate," Harrigan says, admitting that he's grown accustomed to it by now. "The first time I saw snow was the big storm in 1993. I didn't even know if we still had class until I called the school."

After graduating from Tennessee Temple University, Harrigan spent some time working various jobs in Chattanooga. He later pursued a Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Adventist University, further establishing his roots in the city.

"I've had a variety of roles over the years, from retail to banking, but I eventually found my way into the insurance industry," he says.

Now working in Chattanooga's insurance sector, Harrigan enjoys connecting with people and meeting their needs. "I'm someone who likes meeting new people," he says. "It's all about helping others and building relationships."

Today, Harrigan dreams in English, practices his French (the academic language of Haiti) with friends and is in the process of volunteering with Bridge Refugee Services to help translate Haitian Creole, which is the language most ordinary Haitians speak.

Though he doesn't feel particularly connected to the now-younger Haitian community in Chattanooga, he finds the U.S. much more welcoming than other places he has lived, like Jamaica.

Harrigan used to keep up with his roots with other local Haitian transplants his age through playing soccer and eating traditional food, like rice, peas and chicken, but most of them relocated to Florida. "There still are some Haitians here, but there's an age difference between us," he says. "I have thought about moving [to Florida] before, but it's becoming clear that Chattanooga is my home."

For newcomers to America, he advises trying to adjust to the way of life here as quickly as possible. "Try to adapt to the new culture, because you cannot bring your culture here and try to make it fit," Harrigan says. "The sooner you learn the American culture, the better off you will be."

Ironically, he admits that many of his current American friends have influenced him to be more health-conscious. It would seem, therefore, that America's pizza and burger habit is not the part of our culture that Harrigan most strongly identifies with.

"I admit, I don't have an exciting story to tell," he says. For now, he's just trying to "live for the Lord and to stay healthy."

Staff photo by Abby White / Keplet Harrigan