Bound by Loss: Remembering the Caribbean Lives Lost on 9/11

NEW YORK — As the sun sets on September 11, 2026, marking a quarter-century since the World Trade Center towers fell, the evening reflection carries profound weight for the Caribbean diaspora. Beyond the global statistics, more than 110 Caribbean-born nationals died that morning—immigrants who had left their home islands to build lives, families, and careers in New York City. 

The tragedy reached across the entire archipelago. The Consulate General of Jamaica recorded 22 victims, including financial professionals, security officers, and service workers. Three foreign-born Haitians are officially memorialized at Ground Zero alongside food-service administrator Maxima Jean-Pierre, while dozens more hailing from Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Puerto Rico went to work on a clear Tuesday morning and never returned home.  

The Caribbean connection also extends deep into the decades of healing that followed. In 2006, Port-au-Prince native Dr. Gérard Breton conducted the landmark autopsy of NYPD Detective James Zadroga. By proving that toxic Ground Zero dust caused the officer’s fatal lung disease, the Haitian-born forensic pathologist established the first medical link between site exposure and responder illnesses—paving the way for the historic federal James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.  

Twenty-five years later, as light beams rise into the night sky over Lower Manhattan, the names etched into the 9/11 Memorial confirm a quiet truth: the story of September 11 is inextricably linked to the Caribbean diaspora—bound by shared grief and an enduring legacy of resilience