...and being regaled, Again, about my Mother's Family Land Heritage...new details, new information.
I come from a bilingual house; my grandfather, who is from up the islands, no one sure which one, but surely they are: Montserrat my aunt just said; and another aunt said Grenada;' I know Grenada/St. Vincent. But what i also know...is that "the up the islands" is not a chain for nothing, so when somebody from Grenada, chances are they from St. Vincent or Bequia too, and can be from Montserrat before that...and what is one of my names: Montserrat Maven, even before I learned of this...the soul knows what the brain doesn't.
but my Up the Islands Grandfather, was from a family with land, his father, Pappy had an estate in St. Joseph called AlGarub; Dada (Felix) married a Venezuelan Spanish woman, who was also from a St. Joseph estate, Wamal, that my Aunt said was a commune, and they all purchased goods in bulk and shared to all and workers. And that estate was a mountain estate that they gained access to on donkeys with panniers, the two sided baskets to bring back produce and what forest found...
From my mother's side alone, both grandparents come from land. And I sit and listen in amazement and ask, how they came by this land and heard that the government of the time, put the call out for people to come to populate this outpost and the incentive was land. so first thing, all who think and want to talk now about ridding and decrying the up the island people...from who you think you come from. who you think you is?
and then i ask, how did we lose this land, some of it in fragments still in our hands, but abandoned, and I hear about lack of paper and entitlement, deed and registration...
and it is amazing for even in my family there are those who vehemently deny that we can be from anywhere else than Trinidad, or from Africa, meanwhile, the family looking Chinese, Cocopayol and are Indian and native... we do not know who we are. we never spoke our story;' and family never knew because oft times, they left family from elsewhere, so they only know what they see.
but the point of all this is to learn how much land we come from. and now, in 2011, nothing. scrambling. and when I ask my Aunt and Mom, what was the mindset that allowed family to abandon lands to go run taxi, to take a work after "education" they respond, "we were not socialized to understand the wealth in land" that land just represented hard work, and once education was achieved, it was abandoned; and all i hear is entrenched, early and historical disownership, disenfranchisement that astounds.
\
I always knew we had one estate. I did not know we had two. So we as a people, the brown people know long and well how to disempower and impoverish ourselves.
in the talk, my aunt uses the description of us living "plantation economy" and how there was no money just living on trust, and there was no commercialism...(her language)...it paints a clear picture...of how globalization was always in train; it tells a story of how we were rich once to be fooled into thinking richness was something else; it is complex it is deep. it is amazing to me. captures me. and is the tool of the oppressor...what you don't have is always what is better...
and this is just one side of the family. my mother's. today i am to go south to gallivant to different households of my father's family, the Huggins...new people i am to know...can;t wait to hear their stories. though i know little enough to know...it is the same: settlement, land'; this time, that time. the companies...
but i started to tell you, I come from a bilingual country household. my grandparents, my black creole grandfather Felix Baptiste, married to my Cocopayol Venezuelan grandmother, Maria Bastaldo spoke Creole and Spanish in their house and homes before modern day. and made children that look like black Chinese...And only off the plantation, lost themselves, language and land in education
2. Get a publisher/printer to continue my 2011 Economic Plans
3. Develop t-shirt from ArtPost Venetian Violet Art Image
http://www.facebook.com/ta
in time for Carnival Sales
4. Conclude all Contract Negotiations for Employment (patching together a life; a little bit from every corner--just to eat, utilities and gas) and Productivity:
i. Eleazar Noel /ELE Training and Development
ii. Louison's Et Al. and Toto
5. Find a Production Partner, Creative Genius with whom to implement all my fab ideas
---what are you doing for February?
I love these questions...for the first time ever in my life...i have the opportunity to craft/refine and be mindful of my goals., week by week. month by month. Thanks!!!