EAST INDIANS

ARRIVALS
The first group of East Indians had arrived in the West Indies in 1838 as indentured
servants, to fill a gap in the labor force created when the freed slaves left the
plantations after the abolition of slavery. Indentured workers were encouraged to
come to the Caribbean to work, under a signed contract, for about five years; after
which time they were free to return to India, or remain in the Caribbean as laborers
on their own terms.
STATISTICS
Statistics show that between 1844 and 1917, over 41,000 East Indians were
indentured to work in British colonies in the Caribbean. The East Indians that came
to Belize again in the 1880s were from Jamaica, and were brought mainly to work on
the sugar estates established by rich Americans who had settled in the Toledo
District after fleeing the Civil War in the United States. Some East Indians, who had
previously been employed in Guatemala planting coffee, also settled in Toledo at
that time. Interestingly enough, by the turn of the Twentieth Century, some East
Indians had also settled in Calcutta and San Antonio in the Corozal District in
northern Belize. They lived on their own farms cultivating a variety of fruits and
vegetables for sale.
WHERE THEY LIVE?
Today, they live mostly in secluded communities in the Toledo District in places like
Forest Home and Mafredi; in the Corozal District with place-names like San Antonio,
Carolina, and Calcutta; and in Belize City they are more diversified, although areas
like Queen Charlotte Town still exist today.
JOBS
Within the past two decades, there have been recent Hindu immigrants to Belize,
engaged mostly in the merchandizing sector. Many of the young East Indians
working in their stores today were brought as indentured workers; and instead of
returning to India, they have set up their own places of business from the savings
on their wages.
FOOD
The East Indians in the Toledo District were good at planting and growing sugar
cane and rice, and today are still cultivating rice for marketing. Their food is unique,
aromatic, and traditional, employing the use of flavorings like tacari which is made
from yellow ginger or curry powder. Cohune cabbage and dahl roti are used as
festival foods.
CLOTHES
The recent female immigrants wear traditional Indian clothes, but generally their
customs and dress have become westernized. The Indian language is all but
unknown to the descendants of the early immigrants.
DANCE
Their own native dance, the who-se-mi-se is only performed on special occasions.
CREOLES
The Creole of Belize share a common ancestry, they are the offspring of African
slaves imported to work the logging camps and European adventurers. Most of the
slaves came from West African (between the present countries of Senegal and
Angola) by way of Jamaica. Many of the Europeans came from Scotland and North
Britain. While the majority of the Creole population claims a slave/European
ancestry, East indians, Mestizos, Asians and Garinagu have all intermarried with
Creoles and have adapted the Creole culture.
LANGUAGE

The word "Creole" comes from the Portuguese "criar" meaning "to raise a child born
into a family". As the Portuguese expanded their empire into Brazil, the word
mutated to "crioulo" with a meaning of African slaves born into the New World.
Eventually the meaning included Europeans born into the New World. Today, the
word defines the language and tradition of the African-European community.
Belizean Creoles have created the word "kriol" to mean the language of the Creoles.
In addition to Standard English, Creoles in Belize speak the "Kriol" language,
considered by some as a completely distinct language evolved from but no longer a
dialect of English.
TRADITION
Creole traditions in Belize are a collection of cultural aspects from many other
ethnic groups. For example, their proficiency at dory (small wooded canoes) building
was inherited from the Miskito Indians; their love of Cricket and sports comes from
the English; and the Anancy stories brought with the slaves from Africa.
FOOD
The food has been adopted from other ethnic groups. From the Mestizos come
chimole, escabeche and panadas. From Africa comes bambam and dukunu. The
Creoles love coconut milk and use it to prepare the staple rice and beans, fish stew
and Creole bread.
Even after the abolition of slavery, the Creoles continued to work the logging
camps. Today, this tendency is reflected in the location of the and the coast.

The Belizean Creole, are the descendant of the slaves brought by the first British settlers.
MENNONITE
ARRIVALS
About 3,000 Mennonites finally relocated to Belize in 1959 along the River Hondo in
search of a life free of religious persecution
RELIGION
The Mennonites hold fast to their culture and strict beliefs while continuing to assist
the commerce, carpentry, engineering, and agriculture industries of Belize.
TRADITION
They also freely practice their own form of local government and run their own
schools, banks, and businesses.
The Mennonites originally established communities in large uninhabited tracts of
land in the districts of Corozal, Orange Walk, Cayo, and Toledo.
The Mennonites have turned sections of rural Belize into neat, highly productive
farmland and dairies.
CHINESE
ARRIVALS
In 1865, 480 Chinese immigrants were brought to British Honduras as indentured
laborers in the ship The Light of the Ages. They went to work in the timber camps,
but after one year about 100 of them deserted to the Santa Cruz Maya in Quintana
Roo due to the cruel and unjust treatment by the estate manager. Chinese have
been migrating constantly, and the second largest batch came just before the
outbreak of World War II, when they traveled to the United States from where they
gradually trickled southward by land to Mexico and Central America.

Most Chinese came from the Kwangtung Province of Southern China. Controlling
most of the economy, they became dominant in the grocery, restaurant, fast food,
and lottery trades. In recent years, many Taiwanese have made their homes and
established businesses in Belize as part of the Economic Citizenship Program that
was being offered by the Belizean government.
The majority of Chinese are concentrated in the Belize District where almost one
thousand ply their various occupations. Comprising only 0.7 percent of Belizes
population, they are distributed in all the other districts.
LANGUAGE
Chinese speak their own dialects depending on which region in China they come
from. In Belize, there are at least four different dialects spoken. It is found that some
Chinese have Spanish names like Quinto; names like this were adopted during their
time spent in Mexico or Guatemala. A common misconception is that the names of
Chinese shops are family names, when rather they are slogans that translate into
hopeful business ventures. For example, Hop Sing means: Lets get together and
make a success of it.
FOOD
Chinese who live along the road and in the countryside where the land is arable
grow crops like rice, corn, soybean, fruits and ornamental plants. Having developed
unique styles of cooking, the daily activity that gives the Chinese most joy is eating.
Those who restrain themselves from eating certain foods do so because of religion
which restricts some from eating pork, beef, or no meat at all. Fresh vegetables,
including Chinese pumpkin, cabbage, bitter lemon and turnip are popular. Potato,
cassava, and beans are not eaten, while noodles are much consumed.
FESTIVAL
The most important festival for the Chinese is the Lunar New Year, which falls on the
first day of the first lunar month usually between late January and late February.
Lion dances, accompanied by cymbals, drums, gongs, and firecrackers are a
common sight during these festivities.
RELIGION
To the majority of Chinese, religion is a mixture of all the various Chinese
philosophies. The older generation, especially the women, continue to practice an
abbreviated from of ancestor worship and Buddhism, while most of their children
born in Belize have adopted Catholicism consequent upon their Catholic education.
MOPAN MAYA
The Mopan Maya originally inhabited parts of central Belize and the Peten in
Guatemala. Some were converted to Catholicism by the Spanish while others
resisted. Many were struck by white man diseases such as small pox and all were
driven out of Belize by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1886, the modern Mopan began migrating back to Southern Belize from the
village of San Luis in the southern Peten, Guatemala escaping forced labor and
taxation and searching for a place with fertile soils and clean rivers. These Mopan
first settled near present day Pueblo Viejo, and eventually founded the modern
village of San Antonio in the Toledo District, which continues to be the largest
Mopan settlement in Southern Belize.
KEKCHI

The Kekchi Maya are originally from the Verapaz region of Guatemala. They
migrated to Belize in the late 1800's after losing their land and freedom to German
coffee growers.
The Kekchi settled in the lowland areas along rivers and streams, forming small
isolated villages throughout Toledo. Because of their isolation, the Kekchi have
become the most self reliant ethnic group in Belize. They are also peaceful people
known for their cooperative practices in farming and cultural development.
While over 30 distinctly Kekchi communities exist in Toledo, over the years the
Kekchi Maya have mixed with the Mopan communities. The largest village of Kekchi
Maya is San Pedro Columbia.
FOOD
The mainstay of the Kekchi and Mopan diet is corn and beans. A wide range of fruits
(bananas, citrus and mangoes) and vegetables are grown in the family milpas. Wild
game such as iguana, wild pig, deer and gibnut supplement meat from a number of
domestic animals such as chickens, turkeys, and pigs.
Morning and evening meals usually consist of corn or flour tortillas, and eggs or
beans with coffee
Preparation of corn known as "poch" is made by leaving the massa(corn mush) to
ferment. The massa is then placed in a large waha leaf(a large, flat leaf), boiled like
a tamale and eaten with a soup made from chicken or pork.
A traditional midday meal,"Caldo", is made of local chicken and broth with fresh
tortillas. Cacao are dried, roasted, ground and used to prepared hot or cold, sweet
or unsweetened, drink resembling a richly chocolate-flavored coffee.
GARIFUNA
The Garinagu are recent arrivals to Belize, settling the southern coast of Belize in
the early 19th century. The epic story of the Garinagu begins in the early 1600's on
the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.
According to tradition, the first Garifuna arrived in then British Honduras on
November 19th, 1802. This day is now a national holiday in Belize celebrated with
drums, dancing and pageantry.
Today, there is one town in Toledo - Punta Gorda - that is considered a Garifuna
town, and two Garifuna villages - Barranco (the oldest Garifuna settlement in Belize)
and tiny Punta Negra.
Religion
While many Garinagu are professed Catholics, they have retained numerous
traditions and rituals from their Afro-Caribbean heritage. The Garinagu retain their
powerful spiritual connection with past generations of any family group through a
ritual called "Dugu". A Spiritual leader called a "Buyei" or shaman presides over
family members, who travel from all over the world to gather at the dugu meeting
place called a "temple".
Colors
The traditional Garifuna colors are yellow, black, and white. Women often wear long
dresses sewn from checkered material along with colored head pieces. Bright colors,
distorted perspective and historical themes dominate the work of the many talented
Garinagu painters. Hand made drums of cedar and mahogany, stretched with deer
skin, continually pound the African beat in most Garifuna villages. Garifuna crafts
include traditional cloth dolls, coconut leaf baskets and maracas made of calabash
gourds.
Food
Traditional Garifuna foods are based on coconut milk, garlic, basil, and black pepper.
Banana and plantain are grated, mashed, boiled or baked. Fish boiled in coconut

milk, called serre, served with mashed plantain called hudut, is a deliciously rich
meal.
Mestizo
Northern Belize is home to the largest Mestizo population in Belize. The term
"Mestizo" refers to individuals of mixed Spanish and Yucatan Mayan descent. Mestizo

refers to the mixture of Spanish and Maya.

Their primary language is Spanish.
They resemble Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula more than any Belizean region.
The first large Mestizo migration to Belize occurred in 1848 shortly after the Caste
War broke out in Yucatan, Mexico in 1840, and persisted as late as 1874.
The Mestizo communities still retain many cultural and social practices from the
Yucatan and Guatemala.
The appointed headman, or Alcalde, of the village settled most conflicts in the past,
although in recent years, elected councils and courts have replaced this traditional
system.
Religion

Grounded in superstitions of the past, Mestizo traditional dances usually celebrate the feasts of
Catholic patron saints. It is believed that by honoring the saints with prayers and food offerings
during nine consecutive days (novena) culminating in a public procession , a Catholic mass and
much eating , drinking , merrymaking and dancing , evil spirits and negative influences are cast
out of the village homes , and health , prosperity and good fortune are invariably invoked.
Farming
Most mestizos practice subsistence farming.
Food

Names like tamales, garnaches, tacos, empanadas, bollos, chirmole, and relleno just to name a
few, are well known in most households and comprise a major part of our family of fast-foods.
Festivals
Festivals and holidays punctuate the small-town routine of the Mestizo village. The
religious celebrations of the Mestizo communities of northern Belize are
concentrated around Easter, although revelry during Christmas and Good Friday
rival most holiday cheer throughout the world.
Most mestizo and Maya villages also have an annual fiesta in honor of the town's
patron saint. The simplicity of the Mestizo village attracts curious urbanites longing
for tranquility and serenity.