Know your country

The book featuring towns and villages should spark many an animated discussion on galleries throughout the nation. Some may agree with the author’s account of the past histories of, for example, Port-of-Spain or Plymouth, others may have heard very different accounts of what took place in great-grandfather’s or great-great-grandfather’s, or even great-great-great-grand mama’s time.

It was, perhaps, unfortunate that in dipping in to this book I chose to read about (as it is spelt in the book) Guayaguare first. I had no quarrel with the early history of the village but it was quaint, to say the least, to read, in the last two paragraphs that, (and I quote) “nothing could bring back those productive days of the 1930s and 1940s, nor a great oil boom in the Navet, Guayaguare field in 1966.

“But whatever the future, it is well to remember that it was Guayaguare which ensured the prosperous Trinidad of the oil rich years, and which made us stand out in the Caribbean and in the world.”

To be fair to the author, copyright for this work is dated 1988. Nevertheless the publication date on the title page is 2001. Surely that chapter alone (if none of the others) should have been revised to take account of the gas fields fuelling Point Lisas?

Moving on to First in Trinidad it was unfortunate for the author that when given this book for review, I was deep in research on the Chinese community. First I read the author’s note (and again, I quote the first sentence):

“This book tells of the very first occasion that certain significant events took place in Trinidad.” I turned back a couple of pages to consult the list of contents expecting, in view of my researches, to see a listing of the first Chinese arrival in 1806.

Somewhat to my surprise, considering the title of this book, there was the “First Permanent Settlement in Tobago” — which might, or might not have been the Courlanders in Plymouth, one couldn’t be sure.

Again, to my surprise, I learned the “First Time Trinidad Received Settlers” was with the arrival of French Creoles — and there was I, thinking that, though few, the Spanish were living here already when the French arrived.

Somewhat later I noted a chapter headed “The Arrival of the East Indians” — but nowhere the least hint of the arrival of the Chinese, or the first local Governor General (Sir Solomon Hochoy, for readers with short memories) or, for that matter, the first president of the Republic.

Ah well, maybe I’m picking nits. Even so, such nits do give one pause for thought before accepting all the information in these books as gospel. And with that small note of caution I leave Newsday readers to get their own copies of First in Trinidad (and Tobago) and The Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago from Nigel Khan Bookseller, Price Plaza, Ellerslie Plaza, Gulf City, and The Falls Westmall.