Date: Sun, 05 Jul 1998 14:19:41 -0400
From: "Fragano S.J. Ledgister" <f.ledgis-AT-morehead-st.edu>
Subject: Re: Naipaul, Trinidad and "extinction"


SteelQueen-AT-aol.com wrote:
> 
> I'm not too sure which Trinidad you are talking about w/ places called
> California.  Do you mean Trinidad, of Trinidad and Tobago?  No California
> there.  There's San Fernando, and San Juan, and La Brea, which reflect the
> Spanish colonizing moment of the island's history.  Then there is Pointe-a-
> Pierre (French--of when I have no idea).  And then there are the names of the
> Caribs and Arawaks we love because they just roll off the tongue, such as
> Guayaguayare, and the names of the reptiles such as mapapie--are the ones that
> come readily to mind.  And, we don't regard these evidences of the presence of
> our early ancestors to be remnants or relics of a forgotten past.
> 
> Myrna Nurse,
> Temple U
> 

The Trinidad I mean is the one eight miles from the Venezuelan coast.
The one with all
the place names you mention and a few that you don't.

California is a village near Couva. Some Trinidadians are more likely to
have heard of
it than of the American state (when I was first on the island years ago
I interviewed a former minister who, hearing me say 'California', since
that is where I lived at the time, asked 'California in Couva?').  The
name, I have read, derives from the Carib word 'caliponam' meaning
'cassava-eaters'.

It is, today, populated by East Indians (very solid UNC country), so it
probably isn't surprising you haven't heard of it.

French names such as 'Pointe-a-Pierre' and 'Point Fortin' (not to
mention 'Los Irois'...
and don't let me mamma know) are the result of the settlement of the
island by
planters and slaves from the French Antilles in the last decade and a
half of
Spanish rule.  This was the result of an effort by Spain to provide the
colony with
a loyal, conservative Catholic 'settler' population.


-- 

________________________________________________
f.ledgis-AT-msuacad.morehead-st.edu
Dawn over the dark sea brings on the sun;
She leans across the hilltop.  See: the light!
________________________________________________


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