Written by Beulah Garcia
When Columbus sighted Trinidad on July 31, 1498, there were several groups of indigenous people living on the island. These people occupied areas between Cocorite on the outskirts of Port of Spain and Balandra on the East Coast. They hunted and fished, and Arima, in the foothills of the Northern Range, with a rich soil green, lush forests and an abundant water supply, provided the ideal environment for one of their settlements.
Not much is written about the Arima group of Amerindians between 1498 and the mid-eighteenth century. However, Borde1 writes that sometime between 1756 and 1758 Capuchin Aragon priests of Santa Maria came to Trinidad and founded six missions. The Arima mission was one of them.
Missions served the dual purpose of bringing the Amerindians under the control of the Spanish and into the fold of the Roman Catholic Church. Each mission, therefore, had a church which was the focal point of community life. The Arima mission site was where the Arima Girls' Roman Catholic School now stands2 and the Church was almost in the same spot as the present one. The village was laid out in a traditional manner around a large square. With the Church on one side and Indian houses on the other3. At first, the Church was a mud and palm-thatched building, but according to folk memory, an event occurred which caused it to be renovated.
It is reported that three male Caribs, hunting in the woods, in an area today known as Pinto Road, sighted a mysterious young woman. The vision was later accepted as the manifested spirit of St Rose of Lima. St Rose was the first canonised saint of the Americas, who was born in Arima, but taken as a child to live in South America.
This event moved the Indians to build a more substantial structure in her honour. The traditional belief is that men and women carried gravel and stone from the rivers to the mission to build their new church4. In 1786 Padre Reyes Bravo, appointed Corregidor, changed the name of the mission to Santa Rosa de Arima.
The population of the mission was 626 in 1786, but in 1789 it was increased with the removal of the Nepuyo Indians from the 'encomiendas' of Tacarigua, Caura and Arouca. This resettling was done to clear land for the French immigrants who had arrived in Trinidad under the Cedula of Population.
Laws of residential segregation governed the missions in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. For administrative purposes the two populations remained distinct5, but by the late 18th century the Caribs of Arima as other Trinidad missions, began to experience a dilution with the Spanish settlers. Eventually, some of them adopted Spanish first and last names and some traditional Carib foods acquired variations in which the Spanish influence was obvious. Sometimes those foods acquired Spanish names as well.
When the British captured Trinidad in 1797, one of the conditions of the capitulation was that the traditions and lifestyle of the people were not tampered with. All of the early British Governors were reported to have been receptive to the needs of the Carib community and came in person to the annual celebrations in honour of Santa Rosa de Lima which took place on the town every August.
The Santa Rosa festival is one of two Catholic-Amerindian festivals that are still celebrated. The meeting of Spanish Christianity and local Amerindian culture gave rise to both La Divina Pastora in the South and Santa Rosa in the North, among the Caribs of Arima6. In the early days, after the mission was renamed Santa Rosa de Arima it is generally held that the feast was celebrated with a novena of prayers and a Mass conducted in a small, thatched roof chapel7, but gradually it came to be celebrated with more pomp and splendour.
The procession became longer and the church was gaily decorated. It was usually hung with the produce of harvest. For weeks before the actual festival day, the Caribs would be summoned together and preparations made. A young King and Queen would be selected to assist the Titular Queen in the celebrations.
Borde intimates that the rebirth of Forrestero cocoa cultivation coincides with the arrival in Trinidad of the Capuchin missionaries8.
The new cocoa plant adapted itself well to the soil and climate of the country, taking hold by 1775. It is safe to assume that cocoa plantations were established in Arima around this time as well. Newson records that in 1776 the Crown granted lands to French Catholics, the first of many concessions aimed at encouraging immigration.
The soil of Arima, with its promise of profitability from cocoa attracted some of these French Catholics as well as other French immigrants who arrived under Cedula. Some Venezuelan peons settled there also and the early 1800s saw Arima developing into an agricultural society based chiefly on cocoa.
Today, many streets and family names attest to this mixture of cultures. The include, Sanchez, Lopez, Sorzano, Farfan, De Gannes and Quesnel.
It was members of these families, who lived in and around the town and owned developing estates there, who petitioned Queen Victoria for local government. No doubt prompted by their desire for some degree of self-government and a chance to separate themselves from the Ward to which the town had given its name9. The chose to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 by 'pleading' that she commemorate her reign by declaring Arima a Royal Borough in her honour.
By Royal Proclamation on the 1st August 1888, Arima was granted the Royal Charter, signed by Queen Victoria and Henry Fowler, Colonel Secretary. The interim Mayor was Harris Harrigan. Town Clerk was Peter de Granade Gibbs and Raphael Vignale was Commissioner. The first elected Mayor was Charles Pamphille Lopez, who served from 1888 to 1891.
Beulah Garcia
In the Beginning
Arima Borough Corporation Jubilee Publication 2012
References
1 | Borde, Pierre Justave Louis. The History of the Island of Trinidad Under Spanish Government, Paris: 1982. First Pub. 1882. p. 133 |
2 | Newson, Linda. Aboriginal and Spanish Colonial Trinidad: a study in Culture Contact. London; Academic Press, 1976 |
3 | Newson, p180 |
4 | Interview: Correspondent A. Elma Reyes, The Caribs of Arima-Unpublished material of the Arima Historical Society, 1988 |
5 | Newson, p. 180 |
6 | Harricharan, John T. The Catholic Church in Trinidad, 1498-1852. Trinidad: imprint Caribbean Limited, 1981, p.31 |
7 | Harricharan |
8 | Borde. p. 133 |
9 | Fraser, L.M. History of Trinidad. 2 Vols. London: Frank Cass, 1991-96. Ward Union of Arima included the Ward of Arima, Guanapo, Turure, Manzanilla and Upper Caroni |
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