Towns and Villages-Arima pt 3

By MICHAEL ANTHONY

From 1881, we move to 1888 and Arima was never prouder than in this year, for on the first day of August 1888, it was granted the status of a Royal Borough. It was the first and only town in the Colonies that Queen Victoria had so honoured.

Towards the end of the century Arima gained added importance as a hub of communication when the railway, which had stopped there in 1876 now stuck out to the then new settlement of Sangre Grande. The year was 1898. Then was it that Arima became an even more bustling mart; a great warehouse for the cocoa of East Trinidad, especially from the Sangre Grande region. Yet when cocoa prices fell dramatically in the 1920s Arima did not fall with them, and the calypsonian could still sing:

Arima tonight Sangre Grande tomorrow night.

Arima remained a busy agricultural market-place, and a great hub of communication. The age of motor omnibuses and motor lorries had come in, and Arima was not to stand aside. The Arima Bus Company enlivened the busy road between Sangre Grande and Port of Spain.

A slump in the Trinidad economy in the 1930s must have taken some glint from the glitter, but when the American forces came to Trinidad in 1941 a bright, giddy prosperity seized this north central town. The Americans immediately built a military base in the El Mamo-Comuto area, just south of Arima, and workers crowding into Arima as a result, saw its population reach nearly 10,000 by the end of the war in 1945. The American soldiers themselves brought chaos to the town and a crisis to its moral fibre.

Although Arima's population suffered a fall after the war naturally, for the closure of the base was bound to see an outward trek - Arima picked up again and continued to grow. The census of 1960, for instance, showed a population of 10,939. This figure increased to 11,636 by 1970, and in 1980 it was 15,294. (Of course it must be borne in mind that the boundaries of the old Mission of Arima had been extended considerably by now.)

In the 1960s the transformation of the pattern of Arima's economy from one based on agriculture to one based on industry became evident with the establishment of factories especially along the O'Meara Road, and the development of housing estates on the outskirts of the town. The decade of the 1970s marked a further emphasis in this direction resulting in a number of new factories in the industrial area of Arima, and in the appearance of such housing estates as Malabar and Santa Rosa Heights.

Prominent Arima people who had emerged out of the war years were making a big impact on Trinidad. Among these people, some of whom have remained ever-green up to this moment, the end of the 1980s, are Aldwyn Roberts, better known as the calypsonian Lord Kitchener; and Holly Betaudier. Distinguished Arimians of the past who have contributed to the political life of this country are, Charles Phillipe Lopez, the first Mayor; F.E.M. Hosein, and C.A. Thomasos - the last two contributing to the artistic life of the country as well - and several others. The list of old prominent families is much too long to include here, but names like Betaudier, Guiseppi, and de Gannes always come to mind.

Today, Arima is a far cry from the sleepy mission village that the Capuchins founded in 1557, that Chacon enlarged with new-comers, that Sorzano laid out, that Woodford made merry in, that Cazabon painted, and that the Government connected by railway. Its prosperity, which depended on cocoa in years past, now gains momentum without the cocoa fields. It has even forgotten its dazzling false prosperity of the war years.

And yet there are anchors and memories which hold it to its past. The church of Santa Rosa de Lima still stands on the original site, and the old Santa Rosa feast is still celebrated, although with much less pomp than in former years. But that feast day is still an "Amerindian" day, and on such occasions descendants of the Carib people still march in full regalia.

On occasions a new Carib Queen is crowned, as was the case with Justa Werges in 1988.

The Santa Rosa race meeting, traditionally held in August, and which emerged as part of the "Carib" celebrations is still an Arima highlight, but the old Santa Rosa race-track, close to the old market, was in 1962 removed to a spot well outside the town proper.

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