Land and the Significance of the Big Row:

Berta Gonzalez

     Throughout the novel, Mona frequently references the “big row” of 1958, the fight between Da-Da and Kello in which Da-Da almost choked Kello to death before Pappy intervened. Despite being very young at the time of the row, Mona experiences the big row as a monumental event in her family history; she recounts how, “The year I did not get my camera was also the year of the big row. Everything changed after the big row. Everything” (Espinet 16). The big row also occurred shortly after the death of Da-Da’s mother, Mammy. Throughout the novel, Mona progressively reveals information about this fight and the reasons behind it. The big row originally started as a disagreement between Da-Da and Muddie over the land; Da-Da wanted to sell the land and property in Manahambre Road and move to the promising city of San Fernando (23). However, the argument escalated and Kello interfered when Da-Da became violent with Muddie, culminating in an aggressive brawl between Kello and Da-Da. Many intersecting elements of the novel contribute to the significance of the big row to Mona’s family, including the attempted silencing of a portion of their family’s history, the lack of maternal influence, and the prevalence of patriarchy in relation to the land. 

     As a first point, the connection Mona makes between the big row and her not receiving a camera for Christmas is meaningful; by not having a camera to accurately record events, the exact occurrences are blurred by the passage of time and left to be portrayed through the hazy lens of memory. This is yet another way in which the history of Mona’s family is silenced and suppressed. However, Mona counters this by retelling the significance of the big row and illustrating how this fight was an unforgettable and enduring incident and turning point in her family’s history. 

     Additionally, it is also telling that Mammy, Mona’s paternal grandmother, had passed away shortly before the big row. The loss of Mammy’s support caused Da-Da a great deal of stress, leading him to feel pressured to sell the land. He later admitted to Kello that, “The old lady was dead already and the old man couldn’t do much. It was up to me. Everything was up to me” (150). Here, Da-Da inadvertently admits the impact of Mammy’s power and influence in the family; because she was gone, all the responsibility shifted to his shoulders. However, instead of preserving her influence, Da-Da believed that, “They had their foot in the past and I was in the modern world “ (150). This statement reveals Da-Da’s belief in progress and modernization. Da-Da wanted his family to be a part of the urban, modern, Indian middle class. The house the family had on Manhambre road, which lacked electricity, prevented them from being a part of an urban middle class in the future. Doing this was ultimately a step away from the family’s agricultural past. However, because of Da-Da’s decision, a part of the family’s history, particularly the maternal significance, was being eradicated.  

     Furthermore, because Mammy’s authority was missing, the debate over the land became solely a patriarchal matter. Land has traditionally been linked with economic wealth and stability; because Da-Da seized the power to sell the land, he was exerting his own masculine ascendency and fulfilling the role of a provider-- wanting to do what was best for the family. However, when Kello intervened, the big row transformed into an altercation between the two male heads of the household to see whose power outweighed the other. Although Da-Da sold the land, he regretted doing so. Da-Da later told Kello that, “...those two old people knew that they had to keep the land. I knew it too-- I always knew that...I thought I was doing the right thing” (150). In the end, although Da-Da succeeded in selling the land, it was Kello’s decision to buy it back that overshadowed Da-Da’s past mistake, imprinting his authority in the family’s history. 

     In essence, the big row represented a historic turning point in Mona’s familial history.  The importance that Mona’s family attributes to land reflects the great significance land held for Indo-Trinidadians.  Indentured workers were promised land as part of their contract and depended on land ownership for their livelihood. However, Espinet notes, many Indo-Trinidadians lost their land because of debt and the absence of Indo-Trinidadian lawyers and officials to assist them in protecting against unfair lending practices (Espinet,“Talk to Panama Silver, Asian Gold”). Mona’s family nearly lost the land because of deceit and only retained it through the Pappy’s extremely hard work and the kindness of an Afro-Trinidadian lawyer.  Da-Da’s desire to become a lawyer may well reflect not only a desire to move up financially and socially, but also to acquire the skills to protect the community and its land. Ultimately, the selling of the land was both symbolic and significant in that it represented a direct connection to their ancestry. By selling it, they were tangibly dismissing a meaningful portion of their history in Trinidad. By buying back the land, they not only reclaimed a meaningful part of their family’s roots, but also reclaimed their identity as Trinidadians. 

Works Cited: 

Espinet, Ramabai.  “Talk to Panama Silver, Asian Gold course.”  Online video clip. Youtube.                     Youtube, 22 Oct. 2013. Amherst College. Web. 1 Jan. 2014. <http://youtu.be/sXd1quDfGL4>

Source

Kala Pani:

Berta Gonzalez

     Kala Pani refers to the “the black waters that lie between India and the Caribbean” (Espinet 4). The term is very widely used by the Indo-Trinidadian community since its emergence. In The Swinging Bridge, it is introduced within the first two pages to describe the incredible journey that Gainder, Mona’s great-grandmother, experienced. According to Mona, Gainder left for the new world in 1879 aboard the ship, The Artist, with the promise of working as an indentured laborer in Trinidad. The crossing of the kala pani, however, unveils a long and complex maternal history for Mona. 

     On one hand, many of the women that crossed the kala pani were widows, pariahs in Hindu culture who were subject to continuous social reproach. Those who crossed the kala pani were, “associated with contamination and cultural defilement as it led to the dispersal of tradition, family, class, and caste classifications, and to the general loss of a ‘purified’ Hindu essence” (Mehta 24). Because Hindu widows, such as Gainder, were already outcasts in India, the kala pani voyage offered them a chance for them to achieve social mobility and to redefine their identity outside of the caste system. Once in Trinidad, many were still subject to condemnation and treated as “backward, unrefined, and lacking in moral integrity” (29). Scholar Brinda Mehta uses the term kala pani as a defining term for Indo-Caribbean women’s literature, one which defined their struggle and resilience. However, scholar Lomarsh Roopnarine also supports Mehta’s claim by stating that, “For the indentured Indians leaving their homeland, kala pani symbolized caste violation, cultural and geographical rupture, and homelessness, as well as suffering and isolation on the sea voyage and the Caribbean plantations” (Roopnarine 50). Even though the term had such negative definitions linked to it, it nonetheless offered an opportunity for women that were previously restrained within the caste system to gain social mobility abroad.

            In addition, this voyage also cleared the path for a women’s history to be unveiled and unsilenced. The silencing of women’s hardships and sexual violence along with their systematic cultural oppression was widespread in both India and Trinidad. For example, Mona narrates that she “wondered how much of her grandmother’s life has been conducted in secrecy while she struggled to hold the pieces  that she had lost” (Espinet 275). Indian women, such as Gainder, stood in the shadows of national history, but their bold decision to cross the kala pani left a lineage of fragmented history that deserved to be mended and voiced. Mona, then, recognizes that “the songs were my bounty, swinging open a doorway into another world, returning across the kala pani to the India the girl Gainder had left, alone” (293). By deciphering Gainder’s songs, Mona concurrently unearths and reconciles the schisms of her maternal history. Only after unveiling the significance of Gainder’s defiant songs was Mona truly able to grasp the significance of her heritage, crossing the “swinging bridge” that connected her past to her present. 

Works Cited:

Mehta, Brinda J. "Engendering History: A Poetics of the Kala Pani in Ramabai Espinet's The                    Swinging Bridge." Small Axe. 10.3 (2006): 19-36. Print.

Roopnarine, Lomarsh. "The Indian Sea Voyage between India and the Caribbean during the                       Second Half of the Nineteenth Century." The Journal of Caribbean History 44.1 (2010):                48-VIII, 48-VIII.

Cultural Hybridity in Kello's Funeral:

Dayna Clark and Berta Gonzalez

      Part Three of the novel is entitled, “Caroni Dub.” The term Caroni is derived from the Caroni River and region   river in Trinidad that Mona references, and dub refers to the addition of a new, mixed sound effect. However, when these two very different terms are brought together, they take on a different spin and provide the foundation of a new identity for Mona. In the novel, Mona expresses that, “I am part of this city I live in, and right now I want no other place. Like any other migrant navigating new terrain, I bring my own beat to the land around me…any new beat is like that: parts of it at war with itself until the separate parts recognize the point of fusion and merge seamlessly…A dub rhythm, the Caroni Dub” (Espinet 305). The combined term is itself a hybrid word Mona creates to represent the mixture of different identities. This term is Mona’s way of invoking an inclusive national culture that involves the often-divided Afro and Indo-Caribbean traditions. It ultimately symbolizes Mona ultimately accepting her Indian, Trinidadian, and Creolized roots, while adding to it a new, modernized perspective.

            One can see this hybridity of identities in Chapter 15, where the deep-rooted intertwining of the Trinidadian, Hindu, Haitian, and Canadian cultures are seen through Kello’s funeral. When Mona said a final goodbye prayer for Kello, she stated, ‘May your journey out be safe, may your feet be warm and dry as you walk from this place to another...’ (Espinet 212). From this parting, we can see how Mona interjects the traditional Hindu, Christian Presbyterian, and Vodou belief that the soul is immortal. Mona’s parting words are one example of how she stays grounded in the commonalities of the beliefs of Trinidad's disparate ethnic communities and weaves them together into one shared practice. Moreover, Mona’s belief in immortality parallels Mona’s exploration of her maternal ancestry, where she discovers portions of history from Mama, Gainder, and her other family members, refusing to let them “die” in the shady oblivion of the past. Mona, hence, perpetuates and validates this aspect of immortality through her research and recollection of her family’s past. By carrying out Kello’s plea of revisiting the island and buying back the family's land, she not only preserves Kello’s intentions, but also awakens her family’s suppressed history and gives voices to their nearly-forgotten lives. Therefore, the forgotten lives of Mona’s ancestors are, in a sense, truly “dead”, until she resurrects them through her research and writing, thereby granting them the immortality that is endemic in Hindu, Christian, and Vodou traditions.

     Additionally, in this chapter Mona mentions that Kello’s funeral was, “A real Baron Samedi send-off” (Espinet 214). Baron Samedi is one of the Haitian Vodou spirits, or Loa. Baron Samedi is also known as the Loa of the dead; his sacred objects include rum, black coffee, bread, and cigars (McGee). When Muddie suggested banning alcohol in Kello’s funeral, Mona insisted that she “would not let Kello go without a real old-time send-off--rum, cheese and biscuits, black coffee, card playing, and ole talk,” all of which are sacred Baron Samedi objects (Espinet 214). The inclusion of these Haitian beliefs in Kello’s funeral provides further evidence of the dense intermixing of Mona’s heritage.  

     Since Kello’s funeral was in Canada, one can see the Canadian aspects of the funeral when Mona refers to “hymn singing and Canadian Mission piety” (214). Mona also mentions how her father chose the hymn they all sang, ‘Shall We Gather at the River’ (214). From these details, the traditional Canadian Christian elements are also present during Kello’s funeral. 

     Lastly, the Trinidadian qualities of Mona’s heritage are seen when Bella, Mona’s relative, suggested a “real all-night wake” with a “cuatro” and “some ole time kaiso” (215). The “cuatro” mentioned in this chapter is the guitar-like instrument with four strings that is widely found in Trinidad, commonly used to play folk music. The “kaiso” that Bella suggested refers to a popular genre of music found in Trinidad, which inspired the renown genre, calypso. Kaiso was brought to Trinidad by the slaves coming from West Africa; therefore, not only is the Trinidadian aspect apparent, but so is the African influence. 

            In essence, the Caroni River forges the Indo-Trinidadian with the Afro-Trinidadian, symbolizing the deep hybridity in Mona and her family’s culture and history. The Caroni Dub that Mona and her family create allow them to connect and fuse the different identities into one.  Through Kello’s funeral, the reader can see how Mona and her family celebrated Kello’s life with their eclectic and colorful backgrounds, infusing the ceremony with a feeling of appreciation for their roots.

Works Cited:

Cumpiano, William. “A Short History of the Puerto Rican Cuatro and its Music.” The Cuatro                   Project. The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project Inc., n.d. Web. 14 April 2014.< http://www.cuatro-pr.org/node/83>

McGee, Adam M. "Haitian Vodou and Voodoo: Imagined Religion and Popular Culture." Studies           in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 41.2 (2012): 231-56.

Mahabir,  Joy A. I.. Critical perspectives on Indo-Caribbean women's literature.  New York:                     Routledge, 2013. Print

Murrell, Samuel. “Trinidadian and Tobagonian Americans.” Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural                       America. Ed. Jeffrey Lehman. Vol. 3. 2nd Ed. Detroit: Gale,  2000. 1,782-1,794. Gale                Virtual Reference Library. Web. 13 April 2014. 

Eric Williams

Alex Graham and Christine Csencsitz

      Eric Williams, known as “De Doctah,” in The Swinging Bridge, was the first and long-time prime minister of an independent Trinidad and Tobago  and served  for nearly two decades, from 1962 to1981. He founded the People’s National Movement in 1956 and led his country to independence soon after. Williams was educated at elite universities such as Queen’s Royal College in Port of Spain and the University of Oxford, receiving a B.A. in 1932 and a PH.D. in 1938, with studies in history and political science (“Eric Williams”). By rallying behind the saying, “Massa day done,” Eric Williams won most of his support from Afro-Trinidadians and calypsonians.  At the same time, Williams garnered  support from some whites, and Indo-Trinidadians such as Da-Da. Williams claimed his use of “Massa” was not just referring to whites but rather that it, “represented a class of persons, an orientation that transcended phenotype or ethnicity” (Palmer 24). He strongly urged the followers of the PNM to embrace “all races and colors from all walks of life” and in the same speech promised no special privileges would be given to any specific class, race, color, or national origin (Palmer 24). By giving Trinidadians a sense of national stability through independence, and by rallying behind an idea of equality for all races, Williams won the 1962 election by a landslide.

        In the year 1963 Mona recalls being consumed by the idea of “Massa day done” saying, “…we could come into our own. Coming into our own meant celebrating our own culture and not some washed-out white people song and dance sent from England” (Espinet (Kindle Location 911-913)). To Mona and many other Indo-Trinidadians, Eric Williams and the PNM gave them a sense of promise and excitement that Trinidad would finally be relinquished from English cultural influence. In The Swinging Bridge Da-Da was offered a job by De Doctah on the Legislative Council where he was promised honors, recognition, and wealth. This offer was complicated by Williams’ political moves that tended to work against Indo-Caribbean individuals; despite De Doctah’s rhetoric, the People’s National Movement became a primarily Afro-Trinidadian party. Da-Da refused the lucrative job offer saying, “He couldn’t advance himself at the expense of his own people” (Espinet (Kindle Location 963)). Although De Doctah promised him power and influence, Da-Da saw himself as, “an Indian man and a Trinidadian, neither cancelling out the other, a natural inheritor of the Creole culture he loved,” and therefore could not align himself with such a corrupt party (Espinet (Kindle Locations 965-966)). The problem for Da-Da that arose was De Doctah’s partisan display of power was mostly for the benefit of the black population and thus had, “destroyed any vision of oneness and equality” (Espinet (Kindle Location 978)). Instead of joining the country together De Doctah had done exactly the opposite in Mona’s opinion. The contradiction of what De Doctah told Trinidadians and what he actually did when in office was too much of a contradiction for many Indo-Trinidadians to bear. Being faced with extreme racism in Trinidad after the false promise of all races being equal and having equal opportunities to advance themselves under the PNM, Mona’s family decided to migrate to Canada in hopes for a better life.

References:

“Eric Williams”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2014  <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/644344/Eric-Williams>.

Palmer, Colin A.. Eric Williams & the making of the modern Caribbean. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Print.

The New Curriculum:

Chelsi Mullen and Berta Gonzalez

      In Chapter 13, Mona and her friends were hanging out in a café and discussing their high school assignments. Mona’s boyfriend, Bree, and their friends, Kemal and Susie, discussed the switch in schools to the “new curriculum” (Espinet 194). They mentioned how instead of the GCE (General Certificate of Education) examinations that were previously administered in school, the students would be learning based on a new curriculum that started after the independence of Trinidad in 1962. The GCE exams were given to the students in Trinidad, but their scores were marked in England at Cambridge University and compared to the scores of the students there. Moreover, Mona announced that, “…every year there was a story of how a student from a country like ours had topped the whole field, whipping the English at their own game” (194). This expression demonstrates the pride and confidence they had in their previous educational system.

     Alternatively, the “new curriculum” would expand the English- and European-oriented educational programs, in order to focus on local writers and voices from their own country. Mona, however, fears the loss of her favorite modern poets, such as T.S. Eliot and Yeats. Mona indicated that, “The other big program was the change in curriculum, which would be local too; we would learn about slavery, our own history and geography, and the names of our own flora and fauna” (194). The question of the new curriculum marked an important event in Mona’s life because it was when she had her first and last major fight with Bree regarding the change. Both Bree and Mona’s stance on the new curriculum represented the national controversy regarding the change at the time. On one hand, Bree wanted their studies to focus on local Trinidad and trusted the word of their Prime Minister, Eric Williams. Williams was particularly committed to the “intellectual decolonization of the Caribbean region” (Palmer, 35). Because of this, he attempted to add in courses that would represent the particular history and culture of the Caribbean in order to “assert their cultural autonomy” (33). Mona, however, did not think this was a good idea and refused to give up her more universal studies, questioning William’s decisions. Although the previous curriculum featured content that was fundamental to England and less relevant to Trinidad, Mona still believed that the new curriculum was “limited.” They may have felt this way because she and her family had not yet accepted Williams’ reforms, in part, because they associated them with Afro-Trinidadian culture and history and did not feel included (Espinet 195). In essence, although the old curriculum could give Mona a more global perspective, the issue with the new curriculum was ultimately and instance in which the country was divided by ethnicity and racial prejudices.

Work Cited:

Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The Ministry of Education, n.d.  Web. 21                Dec. 2014.<http://www.moe.gov.tt/student_exam_gce.html>

Palmer, Colin A. Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean. Chapel Hill:                              University of North Carolina Press, 2006. Web. 21 Dec. 2014.<https://books.google.com/books?id=2DInewLUvCkC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=eric+williams%27s+new+curriculum+in+trinidad&source=bl&ots=Z4w31WAZ2a&sig=8XVT12v9PZ_f6PXG_4dKK7Br1oI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=C0qXVJm_EYe-ggT4oYGIDQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=eric%20williams's%20new%20curriculum%20in%20trinidad&f=false

Ties to the Past: The Significance of Majie the Pig:

Chelsea Mullen and Berta Gonzalez

In Chapter 14, Mona has a conversation with Kello at his sick bed when she recalls her decision to omit Cecile Fatiman from the script of the film she was working on. Cecile Fatiman, a Vodou Priestess at the time of the Haitian Revolution, lead a historic ceremony in Bois Caiman to empower those in the resistance movement. In this ceremony, she is said to have sacrificed a black pig, which helped the Haitians overcome the French army. This, however, reminded Mona of her own pet pig that she had when she was young and living at the house on Manahambre Road. Coincidentally, her pig, who she named Majie, was also black like the one in Fatiman’s ritual and was murdered by her family to eat for a Christmas dinner (Espinet, 202).

            On one hand, the killing of Majie is also significant because it serves as a direct connection to the mass Creole pig slaughter that was detrimental to Haitian farmers. When Mona goes to see Carene’s film in Montreal, she laments the absence of Cecile Fatiman from Carene’s film. Cecile Fatiman’s absence from Carene’s film reminds Mona of the mass pig slaughter in Haiti that occurred in the early 1980s. Because the Creole black pigs that most poor peasant farmers owned were diagnosed with African Swine Fever, the U.S. and other international organizations spent roughly $23 million to slaughter almost 1 million Creole pigs. (Snow, “Why Haiti is Poor”). Although these pigs were central to many of the farmer’s households, being the main source of money and food.  Haitian peasants were paid only $40 for their adult pigs, $20 for younger pigs, and $5 for piglets (Cody, “To Snuff Out Swine Fever, Haiti Slaughters all its Pigs: Peasants Paid to Cash in 4-Footed 'Bank Accounts’”). The farmers’ pigs were then replaced with a smaller, more delicate breed from the US. The annihilation of the Haitian Creole pigs reminds Mona of the omission of women’s history, particularly Cecile Fatiman’s. She conveys that, “The loss of the Creole pig was vital to the story of these brave women of Haiti, ebony against the dirty white of the Montreal snowscape…” (242). Here, Mona emphasizes how the black Haitian pigs were historically tied to Cecile Fatiman and the ritual she performed in Bois Caiman, where she sacrificed a black pig. By eradicating the black Creole pigs,  the United States  not only impoverished countless Haitian family, but they also erased  a key part of Haiti’s history, particularly women’s history. The bringing of new, more delicate pigs from the US is also a parallel to how colonial hierarchies were detrimental to the natives of Haiti. Once more, hardiness and resistance were overpowered by an idyllic, more modernized standard. The bringing in of the new pigs, which needed special feed and medications, is another manifestation of the destructive influence of the external world on the island of Haiti.

       Moreover, Majie the pig is also significant to the story because she represents a solid piece of Mona’s past that she can recall and cling to. It is a connection to her heritage and the land that she grew up on. It also marks a change in Mona’s past and symbolizes a period in her life when their situation was less turbulent. Mona felt a strong attachment to her pet Majie, but her family sacrificed the pig for a Christmas dinner, leaving an inconsolable loss for Mona. Her Uncle Sweetie even gave her a “replacement pig, a cute pink and white creature from a new litter in his experimental pen…These pigs had concrete troughs, with separate compartments for feed and water. They ate only imported feed” (Espinet, 202). Mona, in her recollection, compares the little white pig to their “local slop-eating pigs” which were much taller and heartier. She says that Majie had even eaten “pawpaws” and “zabocas” from the trees in the yard, further connecting Majie to the land of Trinidad and Mona’s past (202).This white pig, however, was put into the pen with the remaining black ones, where it was savagely attacked and killed. 

            The black pig that was originally sacrificed, like in Fatiman’s ritual, held potential. It was hearty and suitable to feed a family for a Christmas dinner. In contrast, the other pig, which Mona “refused to touch,” was frail and privileged in comparison to the other pigs. In the end, both pigs encountered the same fate. Figuratively, Mona’s love of the black pig mirrors the love she feels for Trinidad and its blend of history. Because the Haitian Revolution played such a critical role in Caribbean history as a symbol of power and liberation, Mona feels connected to Fatiman and the story of the black pig in the same way that she felt connected to Majie. Her family, however, killed Majie remorselessly. This parallels how the family left Trinidad for Canada and compromised much of their history and traditions in the process, “killing” a part of their past. Furthermore, the pig that Fatiman sacrificed had the potential to begin the first and only successful slave revolt in history. Similarly, Majie’s sacrifice marked a turning point in Mona’s life, giving her the strength and presence to begin a revolution of her own and incite others to do the same. For example, with her Dirty Skirts Club and teenage rebellion, Mona pushes the boundaries of her limits and questions the patriarchal system that she feels is restraining her. Even as she recalls Majie, she formulates a new rebellion: that against oblivion and the fragmentation of her past to voice the silenced and missing pieces of her family’s history. 

Work Cited:

Edward, Cody. “To Snuff Out Swine Fever, Haiti Slaughters all its Pigs: Peasants Paid to Cash in            4-Footed 'Bank Accounts'." The Washington Post (1974-Current file): A10. 1983. Web.                        20 Dec. 2014.

Kanaganayakam, Chelva. Closing the Circle. Vancouver: Pacific Affairs. The University of                      British Columbia, 2006.

North, James. “Why Haiti is Poor.” Mondoweiss, 2010. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.<http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/why-haiti-is-poor-ii>

Silvia, Adam,ed. Island Luminous. Digital Library of the Caribbean, 2010. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.  <http://dloc.com/exhibits/islandluminous>

Storey, William B. "The Avocado in Trinidad and Tobago." California Avocado Society 1968                   Yearbook 52: 148-152. http://avocadosource.com/CAS_Yearbooks/CAS_52_1968/CAS_1968_PG_148-152.pdf. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.

AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago:

Laurin Lavan and Berta Gonzalez

     The problem of HIV/AIDS is one of the most pressing issues facing the Caribbean, particularly Trinidad and Tobago. As Lyndon Gill stated, “Trinidad...was the earliest epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean’s anglophone world...” (Gill 278). Trinidad and Tobago is ranked as the second most affected region in the world with HIV/AIDS, with a 2.4% of their entire population in 2001 living with the disease (Manning 6). In “HIV/AIDS- The Urgency of the Task Ahead from the Perspective of Trinidad and Tobago,” Patrick Manning asserts that one of the main causes for this phenomenon is the lack of education and the widespread ignorance on the pandemic. He asserts that, “There exists but little choice other than for us to mobilize the widest educational constituency needed by this country...in order to relieve ourselves of this viral yoke HIV/AIDS” (9). The lack of resources in schools, colleges, and other educational facilities contribute to the continuation of the epidemic and its place as a taboo subject in Trinidadian culture. However, with the launching of programs such as the National HIV/ AIDS Strategic Plan (NSP) in March 2004, the National AIDS Coordination Committee, and the Tobago HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee (THACC), Trinidad and Tobago is attempting to improve the overall response to the epidemic. 

     In The Swinging Bridge, Espinet sheds light on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the struggles that those with the disease face through the character of Kello. In a newspaper, Mona reads the headline, “TRINIDAD RANKS THIRD IN AIDS CAPITALS OF THE WORLD” (Espinet 124). Because she resides in Canada when she reads this headline, her concern for the disease and for Kello is linked to the concern she has for the prevalence of the disease in both Trinidad and the Trinidadian community in Canada. Not only did Kello physically battle the disease, but he was also faced with the challenge of suppressing his illness because it was “something not talked about in our [their] family” (124). Here, Espinet illustrates how the widespread silence on the epidemic begins in the family sphere. Although Kello contracts the disease in Canada, Espinet makes the point that HIV/AIDS is a taboo subject in both Trinidad and the Trinidadian community abroad because the only people who know about Kello’s disease are Matthew, Bess, and Mona. The rest of the family, which constitutes of an older generation, is more likely to misunderstand or judge Kello. Additionally, by including the suppression of HIV/AIDS, Espinet also addresses the social taboo of homosexuality and how it is also highly stigmatized in Trinidadian culture.  

            Espinet’s novel attempts to provide a solution to this issue by shedding light on the epidemic. By disclosing the inner struggles of those afflicted with the disease instead of contributing to the vicious cycle of silence, Espinet counteracts and effectively responds the social taboo of HIV/AIDS. 

Works Cited: 

Gill, Lyndon K. "Chatting Back an Epidemic: Caribbean Gay Men, HIV/AIDS, and the Uses of Erotic Subjectivity." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 18.2-3 (2012): 277-95.

Franklin, Martin G. "Data Issues in Trinidad and Tobago’s Response to HIV/AIDS." Social and Economic Studies 55.4 (2006): 133-64.

Laptiste, Christine, Vyjanti Beharry, and Patricia Edwards-Wescott. "A Review of the Response to HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago: 1983-2010." SAHARA J : journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance / SAHARA , Human Sciences Research Council 10.2 (2013): 72-82.

Manning, Patrick. "HIV/AIDS – the Urgency of the Task Ahead from the Perspective of Trinidad and Tobago." Caribbean Quarterly 50.1 (2004): 5-10.

Carnival and J'ouvert:

Rachael Schaaf and Berta Gonzalez

     Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago is one of the grandest and most colorful festivities of the year, where people from the myriad cultures and backgrounds in the islands unite to celebrate their diversity. Every year more than 100,000 people gather in Trinidad’s capital, Port of Spain, to commemorate the coming of Carnival (Waithe and Worrel, 41). This nationally celebrated, two-day pre-Lenten festival consists of Calypso music, steel bands, and a parade of flamboyantly-costumed participants (“Mama Di Is Mas”). Carnival’s history can be traced to the 1700s, when the elite white upper class held parties and balls in the time period between Christmas and Lent. Because Africans and slaves were excluded from these aristocratic parties, they sought the opportunity to celebrate their own way, using their particular rituals and traditions. In these private slave celebrations, they would dress up in costumes to mock their masters. However, in 1838 all slaves were granted emancipation, and they were finally able to participate in J’ouvert to celebrate their freedom and culture openly (Juneja, 89). For this reason, many scholars, such as Renu Juneja, believe that Carnival’s history is one of “protest and resistance” (91). Other scholars, such as Samantha Noel, agree with this notion. For example, she explains the concept of the “jamette” in Carnival, “a poor black woman who defied the standards of propriety and retaliated against her dehumanizing position in society” (Noel, 60). Noel states that, “the jamette’s insistent use of the unguarded public sphere of the streets for rebelliously contesting tenets of proper behavior laid the foundation for a new creative direction in costuming and masquerading” in the Carnival festival (61). Another example of Carnival characters that represent the rebellious history of Trinidad include the Blue Devils. Blue Devils are “among the most vibrant and energetic traditional characters in the Carnival of Trinidad” (“Trinidad Blue Devils”). The traditional mas devils usually begin their appearance in the early hours of J’ouvert morning, the part of modern carnival that most explicitly incorporates this history of resistance because it consists of the older, less commercialized and more oppositional mas bands such as the blue devils. The jamette and blue devils serve as examples which explain how the greater history of Carnival is one of defiance, particularly by those who were systematically marginalized in society.

            Similarly, Carnival carries great importance to Mona and her family. The intrinsic notion of rebellion that Carnival exemplifies is embodied by Mona and her family through their endurance in another country and culture. However, Kello’s form of resistance differs from the rest of Mona’s family. Mona recounts how, “J’ouvert was the real start of Carnival, breaking open the Monday morning while it was still dark, turning upside down the order of the world we knew” (Espinet 98). She further describes it as a “wonderful temporariness, a reckless space without boundaries” (99). While Carnival is a unifying celebration that attempts to eradicate the space that exists between cultures, such as Afro-Trinidadians and Indo-Trinidadians, J’ouvert in Mona’s family was also indicative of the distance between Kello and Da-Da. Mona narrates that, “Kello used to accompany us, but after the big row everything changed. In fact, he began to hate J’ouvert” (99). Kello’s dislike of J’ouvert in contrast to Da-Da’s love of the celebration symbolizes the lacuna between the different forms of resistance. Da-Da and Mona alike attempt to preserve and uphold the tradition of Carnival, while Kello shows aversion to it and is willing to leave it behind. Much like Noel and Juneja’s perception of Carnival as a day that symbolizes resistance and rebellion, Kello rebels against the Trinidadian tradition. Although he does not celebrate Carnival, he carries within him the spirit of rebellion that is intrinsic to the national holiday. Moreover, Carnival, was not only prevalent in Trinidad, but also in Toronto, which demonstrates the encompassing range of influence this unifying festival accomplished. Mona writes that she was surprised to find “the extent to which Toronto had become almost a Caribbean city in North America…West Indian accents everywhere...” (103-104). The fact that the Carnival tradition was able to thrive in Toronto emphasizes he strength, endurance, and survival of a culture and its ability to persist, even in foreign lands. The immigrant community’s ability to transform a predominantly white Canadian community into an eclectic melting-pot of distinct backgrounds is an indication of the hope and connection immigrants felt with their homelands, regardless of the distance or circumstances. This thriving of Carnival and the Trinidadian culture abroad further supports the argument of Carnival’s history as one of endurance. In this case, Kello represents the immigrants who were willing to overlook their heritage in order to adapt to a new country. However, Kello unwittingly carried the spirit of defiance by exhibiting strength and endurance in another culture. The ability to adapt to a new country, such as Canada, and overcome nostalgia is also a manifestation of resilience. On the other hand, Mona, Babsie, and Da-Da represent the immigrants who carried and transmitted the flavor and essence of their traditions abroad, a blunt expression of their persistence. 

Works Cited:

 “J’Ouvert.” Itz Caribbean. n.p. n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014. <http://www.itzcaribbean.com/carnival/jouvert/>

Juneja, Renu. “The Trinidad Carnival: Ritual, Performance, Spectacle, and Symbol.” Journal of                 Popular Culture. 21.4 (1988): 87-99.

 “Mama Dis Is Mas.” Nalis. National Information System Authority, 2014. Web. 21 Dec.                                    2014.<http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Research/SubjectGuide/Carnival/tabid/105/Default.aspx>

Noel, Samantha A. "De Jamette in we: Redefining Performance in Contemporary Trinidad                        Carnival." Small Axe 14.1 (2010): 60-78.

“Trinidad Blue Devils.” Diablos Festivos. Devils of America, 2011. Web. 2 Jan. 2014.<http://www.diablosfestivos.org/diablos/index.php/diablosprofiles/bluedevils/>

Waithe, Desmond, and Frank C. Worrell. "The Development of the Steel Band in Trinidad and                 Tobago." Juniata Voices 3 (2003): 41.