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A village rich with history
In 1887 Toco was described thus by J H Collens:“Toco and Matura have been recently constructed a separate ward union, with a resident warden and magistrate (Mr J A Redhead). Before this, Matura was...
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History of Laventille
The negative stigmas which haunt the Laventille community today do a disservice to the generations gone before since they eclipse a proud identity. La Ventille or La Ventilla (the window) is so called...
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From religious pilgrimage to black magic
The Eastern Main Road was an asset to Laventille. It passed right at its feet and allowed easy access in an easterly or westerly direction. Such was the traffic that in 1846, a tollgate was erected...
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THE BALANCE OF TRADE
Trinidad had always been a hub of trade. Even in Pre-Columbian times, hardy and decorative Barrancoid pottery made in Erin and Palo Seco could be found by archaeologists in middens far from these...
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Hotels of Port-of-Spain
Trinidad has never been a tourist haven. Even in the 19th century, all that attracted visitors here was the Pitch Lake. Port-of-Spain, however, was a crossroads of commerce and thus business travellers...
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Going bananas for plantain
To every bred in the bone Trini, a banana is a fig regardless of variety—Gros Michel, Lacatan or the diminutive Chiquito. These and their close relative, the plantain, were once quite important, not...
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Paying homage to Siparee-ke-mai
In the 1850s, Siparia was a sleepy little village lost in the high woods with a population of a few dozen people of mixed Amerindian and African descent. There were no public buildings since it fell...
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Multi-ethnic population the real wealth
The 1920s saw Siparia expand as a commercial centre, especially with the steep rise in the price of cocoa which still occupied considerable acreages around Siparia. By this time, most of the old...
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President’s House
One of the greatly depressing symbols of our fall and decline as a nation is that to date we cannot repair the official home of the President of the Republic of T&T whose roof caved in and remains...
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The Fire Walkers
On the lands of the old Peru estate (later known as St James), and in what was later to become Boissiere Village, Maraval, a number of Tamils from Kerala, in India, settled after indentureship in the...
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The Chinese Trinidadians...the second wave
Many decades after the failure of the 1806 project to introduce Chinese hired labour to Trinidad, the ship Australia set sail for the West Indies, arriving in Port-of-Spain on March 4, 1853. Four...
View ArticleGold, diamonds and Flanders cars
In 1884, T&T was a very different place from what it is today. Sugar prices, which were an economic mainstay, were plummeting and cocoa was king. Agitation and unrest among the Indian population...
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The Borough Power Station, San Fernando
In 1895, Port-of-Spain was illuminated with electricity by the Trinidad Electric Company under the directorship of Edgar Tripp. This was not extended to San Fernando, which remained with darkness well...
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The Cocorite Leprosarium —Part I
Few people are aware that within the great dystopia that is the Ministry of Health, there is a small department known as the Hansen’s Disease Control Unit which is dedicated to monitoring the presence...
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Molokai of the Caribbean
On December 29, 1921, acting Governor of T&T, T A V Best, proclaimed Chapter 8 of Ordinance 42 before the Legislative Council in the Red House. The idyllic holiday homes and simple farmer-fisherman...
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The life of a leper
In 1927, Archbishop John Pius Dowling arrived at the newly-commissioned leprosarium on Chacachacare to bless and consecrate the chapel and convent of the Dominican Sisters. It was not altogether a...
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The End of it all
By the 1930s, hope had dawned somewhat for the lepers of Chacachacare. New treatments were being used in an attempt to force their disease into remission, but the painful injections of the chemicals...
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Trinidad coffee: highly aromatic and delectable
Coffee may have been first cultivated by the early Spanish settlers who in the 17th century planted cacao in the fertile Maracas Valley of the Northern Range. Coffee, like cocoa, grew well in the cool...
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War and whale oil
To most of us, Gaspar Grande or Gasparee Island is a quiet place occupied seasonally by holiday homeowners or renters. This minute limestone rock just off the northwestern peninsula is far richer in...
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Island days and a war
In the latter half of the 19th century, Gaspar Grande or Gasparee Island was in a slump. Aside from a small settlement of fishermen at the defunct whaling station at Pointe Baleine, there was little or...
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